Everyone should have a cousin Steve. Stephen Rayford was my first mentor, the first person who chose me and took me under their wing. At ten years old, Steve schooled me in the game of football as we watched Super Bowl XII between the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos in the winter of 1978.… Read More Everyone Should Have A Cousin Steve
Want to start a food fight in Louisiana? Start talking about the “right” way to make potato salad. Somebody call Michael Buffer because hands might just get thrown before this conversation is over. We’ll get into a great starter recipe that my folks use and I’ll include some variations on this theme as we go along. Alright! Let’s… Read More Traditional Potato Salad
Benedict “Benny” Moliere was my parrain, or godfather, and one of my favorite people: a massively strong man who could work and drink with the best of them, he also had a quiet nature that bordered on shyness. According to my father, as Uncle Benny saw it, a chuck roast was just a “steak” and he’d cook one up… Read More Parrain’s Pot Roast
Confession: sometimes I dare myself to cook things just to see if I can do it good enough to not totally embarrass myself. Tonight I was thinking of my sweet sis-in-law, Sonya, and her delectable lace cookies, and I said “Hot damn, let’s do it!” My first try was hideous. FrankenCookie hideous. But not one… Read More Pecan Lace Cookies
I first tasted Salmon Croquettes during a visit to my maternal grandmother’s house one summer. She and my Aunt Patricia made croquettes and paired them with white rice for breakfast and I was hooked. It’s been one of my favorite dishes ever since. I consider it the kind of meal you eat whether you’re flat broke or… Read More Salmon Croquettes
Ruth Rayford was a fantastic cook and human being who also raised nine kids and always looked great doing it. I, by contrast, would have looked like a wet dishrag, cooking and yelling at kids all day long. Not Aunt Ruth. She was the kind of gorgeous that was cool, calm and collected, and she looked good in anything, anywhere. And… Read More My First Woman Crush
Nicole Moliere 