The Saturday morning Crescent City Farmers Market in New Orleans was bursting with activity as well as color. The flowers and vegetables would fill an artist palate with a rainbow of colors. We always try to walk a market to see the offerings and then decide what to purchase.
“Vieux To Do” is this weekend in the French Quarter in New Orleans, LA. This festival is three in one: Creole Tomato, Cajun Zydeco Music, and Seafood Festivals. To get ourselves ready to eat, drink, dance and thoroughly enjoy the heat we prepared a shrimp dish along with a creole tomato salad. We played Zydeco music, opened a favorite bottle of wine and Zydecoed as we cooked. Recipes posted on RV Cajun Cooking. Join us as we enjoy the bounty South Louisiana offers…
After cooking and practicing our Zydeco dancing in the kitchen – we are ready for the Vieux To Do. Join us at the NOLA Trifecta!
The power of water!
Watching the water from the Mississippi River flow through the Bonnet Carre Control Structure gave me a new meaning to the “power of water”. On the River side of the structure the water is calm yet coming out of the structure it looks like a fire hose on steroids.
Water seems to be incorporated into my recent adventures. After our trip to Houma and points south, Linda and I headed to New Orleans. Again we decided to use the less traveled roads and followed the old highway (Highway 61) into New Orleans; stopping along the way to see the sights. The highway passes through the Western Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area. The water gave us a serene and peaceful driving atmosphere.
Rabbits are everywhere! Where did they come from and what are they doing in the middle of a cosmopolitan area? We were in Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego, Louisiana across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. The rabbits were the first thing we noticed driving into the RV Park section. A Park Ranger told us the rabbits have few predators and lots of feeding ground. There was a fox in the area until Wildlife and Fisheries relocated him to the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. Every so often Coyotes will come through the park and get a few rabbits. We enjoyed watching the rabbits feed and play. In fact, we could get within four or five feet of the rabbits before they scampered off. At one point we counted 75 rabbits before we decided to stop counting. Continue reading
Two words describe the weekend – HOT & HUMID! Once you get past New Orleans in June, the Vieux TO DO Festival in the Vieux Carre is a favorite just behind The French Quarter Fest. Being hot is a way of life in the Big Easy and during the heat of summer we move slower and take a little longer especially outdoors and that includes festivals. This year the Vieux To Do Festival was the weekend of June 11th and is three festivals in one – Creole Tomato, Seafood, and Cajun Zydeco. Continue reading
LaPlace, LA – Water lilies, we hardly notice them in South Louisiana because they’re everywhere! But they were in full bloom this week as we returned from ‘The Big Easy’ via Hwy 61 instead of taking our usual I-10 route. At times the beautiful purple was so intense they looked surreal between New Orleans and Laplace just before the Bonnet Carre Spillway. They were in a small waterway which parallels the highway – another good reason to call ourselves Cajun from South Louisiana – if you just stop and look, LA is a beautiful state.
A little ways down the road from the wild flowers, as we rolled in to the city of LaPlace, is Jacob’s Smokehouse — been smoking since 1928 and is hailed as having world famous Andouille. We are always leery of “world famous” anything and at the same time curious. We stopped, we tried, we are fans. I don’t know about world famous; I do know the Andouille is delicious and some of the best we’ve had. Entering the smokehouse, the smell will tingle your senses and make your mouth water. Along with the Andouille there are many other types of smoked meats from sausage to chicken. Boudin and Cracklins are also available. I was not a fan of the Boudin, too much liver; John enjoyed it. He says Boudin is like gumbo – all different yet most is pretty good.
