My brother-in-law is kind of a pain in the rear.  I love him and I have a blast with him but he is impossible to buy a gift for.  He’ll return anything you give him.  Anything.  My family finally just gave up and started giving him gift cards.  There’s no excitement to giving him a gift, though.  He opens the envelope, looks at which store the gift card is to, and then says “thank you”.  We just watch him repeat the whole process two or three times.

The only gift I’ve found that (1) he can’t return and that (2) he actually likes is food.  Maybe you’ve got a guy like that in your life or maybe you just want to do something different for Father’s Day this year.  Either way we’ve got Cookies for Dad coming up the week of Father’s Day.

Cookies for Dad is the ultimate Father’s Day gift.  You bring your kids to the bakery; they shape the cookies themselves and decorate the box while we bake ‘em.  They package the cookies and take ‘em home.  We still haven’t had a dad complain and we’ve done this for years!

Sign up now…  the cookie classes fill up fast!  Class times here.

Vegetable oil, egg yolk, sugar, salt, buttermilk, spices, garlic, onion, vinegar, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, modified food starch, MSG, artificial flavors, disodium phosphate, sorbic acid, calcium disodium EDTA, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.

That’s the ingredient list for a certain ranch dressing that we used to serve.  You might find it hidden somewhere… like in a valley.  The first few ingredients aren’t bad at all.  It’s the second half of that list that bothered us a lot.  It gnawed at me because we found it pretty easy to make a from-scratch Honey Mustard dressing and we’ve always done our Balsamic Vinaigrette from scratch.  That ranch was a challenge, though.  Nothing we tried could even come close to the ranch dressing that everyone knows as Ranch Dressing. 

So, we gave up.  We couldn't do a great ranch and we wanted to get rid of all the junk in that dressing's trunk so we took ranch off of the menu and went with our Creamy Peppercorn dressing.  To say that it flopped would be like saying that it hasn’t been too long since UL Football played in a bowl game.

J.P. came to the rescue a few weeks ago and whipped one up for us (as an aside, we should have known the Yankee would get the Ranch Dressing right).  It’s great.  It’s got the right amount of tang while not sacrificing that velvety, creamy flavor you know and love if you dig ranch.

So the next time you have a salad with Ranch, eat well knowing that there’s only the first half of that ingredient list up there because we make it from scratch, only with ingredients you know how to say!

I don’t understand what it is with so many of you and blueberry muffins.  I like blueberries right out of a little canister or fresh from a local farm but that is where my love affair stops.  Not so with you.  I watch so many of your eyes as you look at our sweets and they stop like there is a magnetic attraction between the Lowfat Blueberry Muffins and your eyeballs.  (I feel that way about the Butter Pecan Muffin, personally!)  There is no question in your mind after you see those blueberry muffins.  They are what you are going to get.

Well, we’re waving our white flag and surrendering to you.  Our Lemon Blueberry Poppyseed Muffins & Coffeecakes are returning next week!

As I write Seth is in the back prepping the dry ingredients for this recipe.  The poppy seeds look great against the lighter colored flour and they add a lovely crunch to the coffeecake/muffin when you take a bite.  The lemon accents the sweet-yet-tart blueberries and brightens the entire thing.

Look for it Tuesday morning!

G. Harvest was a man who experienced more in one month than most men experience in one decade.  His adventures inspire the foods that we make.  Here’s the story behind our Honey Bunnies.

Hunting in South Louisiana is almost a Rite of Passage for a boy.  It’s his first step into a man’s boots.  I remember that evening around the campfire the night before my first hunt, sitting among the men for the first time without my mother to look after me.  I remember the heavy silence among the men as we walked out to the duck blind.  I vividly remember that goose flinching in mid-flight and falling to the ground in a crumpled, lifeless pile after I pulled the trigger for my first kill.  The men all cheered for me as I left the blind to get the goose out of the rice field. 

My stature didn’t change at all but my soul grew ten inches that morning.  No meal I had ever eaten before tasted as good as the stew with that goose.  I beamed with pride as my entire family thanked me for providing supper.  I hope that story helps you understand how important it was for me to join my brother, my nephew, and other family members on my nephew’s first rabbit hunt.

My nephew had invited his friend from a fatherless family.  Jeff was scrawny but tall.  At least his body was.  He hunched all the time, shoulders sloped, eyes almost always down.  You could tell he wasn’t comfortable around men but his mother had begged my brother to let Jeff join us.  The first day of the hunt everyone bagged a rabbit but Jeff.  The second day was the same but I noticed a shift in the way the other boys acted towards Jeff… they were starting to pick on him a little.  Then I noticed that he only ate cheese sandwiches for supper even though we had fried rabbit.

I pulled Jeff aside and took him for a walk.  I started the walk by telling him about the land we were on that had been passed down through my family for generations.  I told him stories about my brother and I that made both of us laugh.  Once I had helped Jeff relax a little –and gotten him away from the sound of the camp– I asked him why he hadn’t eaten the rabbit and then I realized what was happening as he told me the answer: he was a vegetarian.  Jeff hadn’t killed a rabbit over the last two days because he hadn’t pulled the trigger.  He refused to take a life and my nephew and his friends were picking on him for being different.

This hunting trip, instead of being a celebration of change and discovery of inner strength for Jeff, was turning into an experience that confirmed his worst suspicions about men.  I affirmed Jeff’s moral strength in holding to his convictions.  I told him that it is rare to find a young man that wouldn’t bow to peer pressure and that he was stronger than he thought.  I could tell my words were meaningful to him but I could also tell that it wasn’t enough… he needed to experience his strength.

I did what I do quite often when I’m thinking about something: I went into the kitchen and made bread.  I pondered how I could help Jeff on the last day of our hunt.  How could I show him his strength on a hunting trip if he wouldn’t hunt?  An idea came to me as I kneaded the dough.

The next morning we released the beagles and split into different groups.  I made sure I was with Jeff and a couple of other guys.  When no one was looking I snuck off into the tall grasses and dropped something out of my bag.  I walked slowly across the strip of cut grass that we shoot into, loudly announcing I was about to do it so no one shot at me.  Everyone other than Jeff lowered their guns… he didn’t even have his gun on his shoulder.  Everyone looked at me strangely when they saw that I was holding a rope and stringing it across the open patch of grass.

I looked at Jeff and told him, “Jeff, I want you to trust me.  Pick up that gun and put it on your shoulder.”

He looked a little confused but did what I said.

I told him, my voice growing louder and stronger as I spoke, “Jeff, I want you to shoot the next thing that jumps across this path.  Do you understand me?”

He nodded and I pulled hard on the rope.

A bunny I had shaped out of bread danced across the path and exploded into a hundred pieces in mid-air.  I looked back at Jeff.  Smoke danced out of the barrel of his shotgun.  His mouth was open in speechless amazement and a smile slowly grew.  Everyone laughed, yelled, and patted him on the back.

I attached another Honey Bunny to the rope, walked across the path again, and challenged the other boys to do what Jeff had just done.  None of them were fast enough to hit the target. 

I challenged Jeff to do it again and, once again, the bunny exploded into pieces.  This time Jeff laughed with joy.

On the walk back to the camp I noticed that Jeff didn’t slouch any more.

 --

Honey Bunnies are available every day through Holy Saturday.

Fragaria Ananassa is a plant that sends out shoots like crazy.  It likes to flower and produce fruit on those new shoots the second year they are alive, which makes maintaining the plant difficult work.  You have to kill back the original part of the plant in order to force those new shoots to grow and flourish.  The other option is to replant an entire field from seedlings every single year.  Either method of growth is a ton of work but the rewards are amazing: You and I can buy bucketfuls of Fragaria Ananassa right now… we call them strawberries.

In Louisiana we are at the peak of strawberry season (as evidenced by Abita & Heiner Brau’s strawberry beers) and J.P. & Michelle wanted to find a way to reward those farmers over in the Florida Parishes for their hard work.  As usual, when you get two rocket scientists on an idea something great comes out of it.  We’re doing our inaugural Strawberry Harvest Week next week. 

We’re currently tweaking a strawberry poundcake recipe just for the event.  It’ll be pink from the pureed strawberries we’re pulling right off of the flat, blending, and pouring into the batter.  The flavor is elegant, luscious, and richly strawberry.  It’ll only be available for this one week out of the year as an homage to our brothers and sisters to the East whose skinned is stained red from their work in the fields.

Look for the poundcake Tuesday, April 5^th through Saturday, April 9^th but beware: once you taste it you’ll have to get one!

This coming Wednesday is the last day to vote for 2011’s Baker For A Day (which will take place on April 17^th).  We’ve got some great charities that are applying to get thousands of dollars out of this event and, as always, we want you to help us decide who gets the money.

Here’s a little blurb on what each charity does…

Acadian Oaks Catholic Retreat Center
Their goal is to provide a high quality, attractive setting for Catholic retreats, programs, and events that are designed to help young people mature in their friendship with Christ, forge their Christian character, & grow in love for their Catholic faith.

Autism Society of Acadiana
The mission of Autism Society, Acadiana, Louisiana, is to support families of individuals with autism and to raise awareness about all aspects of living with, educating, and caring for a person on the autism spectrum.

Change Agent Network, Inc.
Eric Wowoh lived through the Liberian civil war and, in a refugee camp, was given a used computer.  It changed his life.  He started the Change Agent Network as a result which creates Christ-centered schools, a pay-it-forward planting program to help mothers feed their children, and life-skills programs to deal with social issues resulting from war.

Families Helping Families of Acadiana
Their mission is to assist & strengthen individuals with disabilities & their families through a coordinated network of resources, services, & supports.  These include information & referral, parent-peer mentoring, education liaison & transition support.

Family Missions Company
Family Missions Company works in unison with Catholic Bishops in reaching out to the world, serving the poorest of the poor, preaching the gospel, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the sick & elderly, and bringing justice to the oppressed.

Healing House
The mission of Healing House is to provide support & education for grieving children, their caregivers, & the Acadiana Community.  They provide grief support groups for children that have experienced the death of a parent or sibling.

Hope for Water
Hope for Water’s mission is to mobilize Christians to bring sustainable clean water solutions and the good news of Jesus Christ to those in need.  They are currently collecting donations to drill a new water well in Southern Sudan.

Maddie’s Footprints
They provide support to families experiencing miscarriage, stillbirth, or the loss of an infant.  They desire to use Baker for a Day proceeds to make baby caskets to donate to families.

St. Joseph’s Diner
St. Joseph’s Diner serves daily meals to the poor of Acadiana.  They serve lunch daily at the diner, host a bread pantry for low income seniors, and offer emergency food boxes to individuals in crisis.

Volunteer Instructors Teaching Adults
VITA is a non-profit, community-based literacy agency that provides instruction to adults in Acadiana who want to improve their reading, writing, speaking, and math skills.

Here’s all the legal mumbo-jumbo to keep cheaters and pumpkin eaters away:

• You have to vote in person by Wednesday, March 30^th.
• One vote per person.  Voters must be at least 13 years old.
• No photocopies accepted.
• Great Harvest will be the sole counter of ballots & will settle all disputes.

“Excuse me; do you know where Mardi Gras is?”

My family stopped in our tracks, looked confused for a couple of seconds, and then my dad pointed in the direction we were walking and said, “Over there.”

We chuckled as they walked off.

My family spent Mardi Gras in Waxahachie, Texas.  A couple of years ago a pub there decided to throw a Mardi Gras parade.  My parents said we had to go to it this year.  Let me tell you now that any city, town, village, hamlet, house, boat, barn, or carport in South Louisiana could put together a better parade than these Texans did.  But, we had fun.

And we’re going to make a float next year and show ‘em how it’s done.

When it comes to Mardi Gras we don’t exclude outsiders, right?  My family didn’t laugh at the people asking for the location of Tuesday.  We just chuckled at their innocent question, pointed them to the party, and then we partied with them.  Next year we’re going to give the entire town of Waxahachie a further education because we don’t care if they want to emulate our fun… in true South Louisiana fashion we would love it if they join our party and we would be honored if they decided to do it like we do it.

On the way home from that trip I thought about J.P. MacFadyen and St. Patrick’s Day.  What is it like for an Irish/Scottish American to see a big white tent with green beer (made from beer that isn’t even an Irish beer) on Ambassador Cafferey Parkway every St. Patrick’s Day?  What does he think of the fact that I automatically exclude myself from the festivities because I don’t have red hair or pasty white skin?

I got to walk a mile in his shoes in Texas during Mardi Gras and, much like my parents and I want to show people how we really do things for our cultural event, J.P. & Michelle want to show all of us in Acadiana how to properly let loose on St. Patrick's Day… and you don’t have to have red hair or pasty white skin to participate!

Start by marking off lunchtime on March 17^th on your calendars.  You’ll want to be in our parking lot.  We’ll have traditional Irish dancers (former members of Riverdance) performing as well as music from members of Celjun.  We’ll serve our Irish Soda Bread, Gouda Beer Bread, Irish Stew, and we'll have Shamrock cookies available for dessert.  Dancing starts at 1pm and goes until J.P. has a little too much liquid courage in him.

If you’ve got a kilt, feel free to wear it or just gawk at J.P. like most of us do... but make sure to wear green!

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commented on 14-Mar-2011 10:15 PM

Mardi Gras came to America in 1699 with the French explorer Iberville. Mardi Gras had been celebrated in Paris since the Middle Ages, where it was a major holiday. Iberville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico, from where he launched an expedition up the Mississippi River. On March 3 of 1699, Iberville had set up a camp on the west bank of the river about 60 miles south of where New Orleans is today. This was the day Mardi Gras was being celebrated in France. In honor of this important day, Iberville named the site Point du Mardi Gras.

http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm

Laissez les bon temps rouler avec les Acadiens et les danses Irlandais!