Growing Up Cajun

Explore the Cajun traditions of the Walker family, creators of the Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning company. Through family stories, Cajun lore, and some of the most prized recipes in Louisiana, this collection is sure to leave you feeling a little Cajun yourself.

An untamed region teeming with snakes, alligators, and snapping turtles, with sausage and cracklins sold at every gas station, Cajun Country is a world unto itself. The heart of this area—the Acadiana region of Louisiana—is a tough land that funnels its spirit into the local cuisine. You can’t find more delicious, rustic, and satisfying country cooking than the dirty rice, spicy sausage, and fresh crawfish that this area is known for. It takes a homegrown guide to show us around the back roads of this particularly unique region, and in Real Cajun, James Beard Award–winning chef Donald Link shares his own rough-and-tumble stories of living, cooking, and eating in Cajun Country. Link takes us on an expedition to the swamps and smokehouses and the music festivals, funerals, and holiday celebrations, but, more important, reveals the fish fries, étouffées, and pots of Granny’s seafood gumbo that always accompany them. The food now famous at Link’s New Orleans–based restaurants, Cochon and Herbsaint, has roots in the family dishes and traditions that he shares in this book. You’ll find recipes for Seafood Gumbo, Smothered Pork Roast over Rice, Baked Oysters with Herbsaint Hollandaise, Louisiana Crawfish Boudin, quick and easy Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits with Fig-Ginger Preserves, Bourbon-Soaked Bread Pudding with White and Dark Chocolate, and Blueberry Ice Cream made with fresh summer berries. Link throws in a few lagniappes to give you an idea of life in the bayou, such as strategies for a great trip to Jazz Fest, a what-not-to-do instructional on catching turtles, and all you ever (or never) wanted to know about boudin sausage. Colorful personal essays enrich every recipe and introduce his grandfather and friends as they fish, shrimp, hunt, and dance. From the backyards where crawfish boils reign as the greatest of outdoor events to the white tablecloths of Link’s famed restaurants, Real Cajun takes you on a rollicking and inspiring tour of this wild part of America and shares the soulful recipes that capture its irrepressible spirit.

Bienvenu to the quintessential Cajun country cookbook. Dubbed the "Queen of Cajun Cooking," Chef Marcelle Bienvenu provides recipes for every season in this well deserved reimagining of the classic Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make A Roux?. Praised by The New York Times as "...having what might be the best-named cookbook in America," Marcelle honors the authentic cuisine and culture of South Louisiana. The lovingly curated family recipes, accumulated over decades, appear alongside hilarious stories of life on the bayou. Featuring a new layout including photographs of recipes, tablescapes, and more by Randy Krause Schmidt set in the Spanish moss-laden Bayou Têche, Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make A Roux? will inspire enthusiasts of Cajun and Creole cuisine with Marcelle's enduring passion for great food and storytelling.

THE INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Brittany Williams lost more than 125 pounds using her Instant Pot® and making all her meals from scratch. Now she shares 125 quick, easy, and tasty whole food recipes that can help you reach your weight loss goals, too! Brittany Williams had struggled with her weight all her life. She grew up eating the standard American staples—fast, frozen, fried, and processed—and hit a peak weight of 260 pounds. When her 4-year-old daughter’s autoimmune disease was alleviated by a low-sugar, dairy-free, grain-free, whole-food-based diet, Brittany realized she owed her own body the same kind of healing. So on January 1, 2017, she vowed to make every meal for a year from scratch, aided by her Instant Pot®. She discovered that the versatility, speed, and ease of the electric pressure cooker made creating wholesome, tasty, family-satisfying meals a breeze, usually taking under thirty minutes. Not only did the family thrive over the course of the year, Brittany lost an astonishing 125 pounds, all documented on her Instant Loss blog. Illustrated with gorgeous photography, Instant Loss Cookbook shares 125 recipes and the meal plan that Brittany used for her own weight loss, 75% of which are recipes for the Instant Pot® or other multicooker. These recipes are whole food-based with a spotlight on veggies, mostly dairy and grain-free, and use ingredients that you can find at any grocery store. The clearest guide to navigating your Instant Pot® or other multicooker that you’ll find, Instant Loss Cookbook makes healthy eating convenient—and that’s the key to sustainable weight loss.

Describes aspects of contemporary life such as special traditions, religious beliefs, music, foods, ways of talking, and languages found among the people of Cajun country in Louisiana.

During the '50s and into the '60s, Gulfport's booming downtown was unmatched in the state, while its vibrant waterfront nightlife kept the coast rocking long after other small towns were fast asleep. Those who lived in Gulfport during that golden age have warm memories of high school bonfires on the beach, submarine races at the Rock Pile and parties at the Fiesta. After a day splashing in the Gulf, there were Wheel Burgers at Spiders, ice cream cones at Stone's, cold beers at Elsie's and snowballs at the Pop Corn King. This nostalgic look at boomer-era Gulfport is the surest way to step on back to the glory years.

Named a Best New Cookbook of Spring 2020 by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, NPR’s The Splendid Table, Eater, Epicurious, and more “Sometimes you find a restaurant cookbook that pulls you out of your cooking rut without frustrating you with miles long ingredient lists and tricky techniques. Mosquito Supper Club is one such book. . . . In a quarantine pinch, boxed broth, frozen shrimp, rice, beans, and spices will go far when cooking from this book.” —Epicurious, The 10 Restaurant Cookbooks to Buy Now “Martin shares the history, traditions, and customs surrounding Cajun cuisine and offers a tantalizing slew of classic dishes.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review For anyone who loves Cajun food or is interested in American cooking or wants to discover a distinct and engaging new female voice—or just wants to make the very best duck gumbo, shrimp jambalaya, she-crab soup, crawfish étouffée, smothered chicken, fried okra, oyster bisque, and sweet potato pie—comes Mosquito Supper Club. Named after her restaurant in New Orleans, chef Melissa M. Martin’s debut cookbook shares her inspired and reverent interpretations of the traditional Cajun recipes she grew up eating on the Louisiana bayou, with a generous helping of stories about her community and its cooking. Every hour, Louisiana loses a football field’s worth of land to the Gulf of Mexico. Too soon, Martin’s hometown of Chauvin will be gone, along with the way of life it sustained. Before it disappears, Martin wants to document and share the recipes, ingredients, and customs of the Cajun people. Illustrated throughout with dazzling color photographs of food and place, the book is divided into chapters by ingredient—from shrimp and oysters to poultry, rice, and sugarcane. Each begins with an essay explaining the ingredient and its context, including traditions like putting up blackberries each February, shrimping every August, and the many ways to make an authentic Cajun gumbo. Martin is a gifted cook who brings a female perspective to a world we’ve only heard about from men. The stories she tells come straight from her own life, and yet in this age of climate change and erasure of local cultures, they feel universal, moving, and urgent.

A 176-page hardcover book describing what life was like growing up in south Louisiana in the 1930s, '40s, '50s and '60s. Some 20 authors help paint the picture: eating Sunday dinner at grandma's, hearing Cajun French spoken in the home, working on the farm before school, attending fais do dos and boucheries, chewing sugarcane, etc. Illustrated with photos, drawings, and maps.