Embracing the heart of Cajun living

Y'all, I told myself this year I was NOT going to be up at midnight on Christmas Eve making a 12-step side dish with 20 ingredients.

Y'all, if you need a dip that'll make folks hover around the kitchen and not leave? This is it.

A lot of folks see "Cajun Alfredo" on a menu and think somebody made it up last year.

Mine uses Zatarain's boiled shrimp, cream cheese, and just enough Tabasco to make it Cajun.

folks gonna talk about you in the kitchen.

Baby, Nana don't do bland shrimp cocktail.

Baby, there are two kinds of people in Louisiana: those who put potato salad IN their gumbo, and those who ain’t been taught right yet.

Baby, this ain’t your hotel brunch Bloody Mary.

Baby, you can cook like Emeril, but if you walk into my kitchen asking for “boo-DEEN” or “rowks,”

If you grew up in Louisiana, you know food isn’t just food. It’s how we feed each other, how we celebrate, and how we take care of our own.

I’m Tina, Certified Aromatherapist since 2013. But at 6:30am, I’m just NanaTee with a box of Jiffy and a prayer.

1. BAMBOO BATH TRAYWhy it’s Cajun: Holds gumbo and sweet tea during a bath. Holds Pawpaw’s Louis L’Amour paperback.NanaTee’s Rule: If it can’t hold a bowl of shrimp & grits, it’s too dainty for Louisiana.Shop it: [link]

If your gumbo pot is missing that earthy, sweet, root-beer smell, you forgot the file.

Pawpaw planted 3 rows of sweet corn behind the house in Ponchatoula every May. By July, we were drowning in it. Corn on the cob. Corn salad. Corn fritters. But the only thing Mama made twice a week was Maque Choux. Pronounced “mock shoe.” Means “smothered corn” in Cajun French.

Baby, this recipe ain’t fancy. It ain’t healthy. It ain’t even homemade.

Baby, Nana used to be scared of beets. Not the taste – the STAINS.

Pronunciation First, Because I Know You Gonna Ask

The Ghost Who Still Eats at Frenier Landing: Julia's Table & The 3 Nanas Who Saw Her

Well baby, buckle up — Stop 3 of our Rougarou Road Trip is a place you done drove over a hundred times and maybe didn't know you were driving over ghosts.

If you done drove I-55 or Highway 51 near LaPlace, you looked out at it and thought "that's just shallow water."

Y'all, I thought I had seen all of Louisiana, but I had never heard of a real castle right here in North Louisiana until a friend told me about Layton Castle in Monroe.

Forget the zoo glass. At Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, you sit on a bumpy open-air wagon, a 16-foot giraffe sticks his 20-inch purple tongue into your cup and slobbers all over you — and you will laugh like a kid.

If you want sterile glass and a sign that says "Do Not Touch" — go somewhere else.

If you think Avery Island is just a bottle of TABASCO on your table, wait till you drive onto that salt dome.

Most plantations tell one story. Melrose tells three — and they all start with a free Black woman who built an empire on Cane River.

The Myrtles Plantation is just 30 minutes north of Baton Rouge on US-61 in St. Francisville, Louisiana — and it's been called one of America's most haunted homes for almost 100 years.

"Good Ole' Southern Cookin'" That Won't Break $20

If you grew up like me, boudin wasn’t just food.

Baby, you can cook like Emeril, but if you walk into my kitchen asking for “boo-DEEN” or “rowks,”

If you grew up in Louisiana, you know food isn’t just food. It’s how we feed each other, how we celebrate, and how we take care of our own.

I’m Tina, Certified Aromatherapist since 2013. But at 6:30am, I’m just NanaTee with a box of Jiffy and a prayer.

1. BAMBOO BATH TRAYWhy it’s Cajun: Holds gumbo and sweet tea during a bath. Holds Pawpaw’s Louis L’Amour paperback.NanaTee’s Rule: If it can’t hold a bowl of shrimp & grits, it’s too dainty for Louisiana.Shop it: [link]

If your gumbo pot is missing that earthy, sweet, root-beer smell, you forgot the file.

Pawpaw planted 3 rows of sweet corn behind the house in Ponchatoula every May. By July, we were drowning in it. Corn on the cob. Corn salad. Corn fritters. But the only thing Mama made twice a week was Maque Choux. Pronounced “mock shoe.” Means “smothered corn” in Cajun French.

Baby, this recipe ain’t fancy. It ain’t healthy. It ain’t even homemade.

Baby, Nana used to be scared of beets. Not the taste – the STAINS.