Monday, March 1, 2010

I love me some zydeco...

The declaration: I love Louisiana. Many years ago my husband and I visited Lake Charles, LA during Christmas for the first time. The lights on the big antebellum homes around the lake are dressed like Carnaval performers - all lights and sparkles. But better than that is the food. We discovered Paw Paw's Restaurant and fell immediately in love. Imagine our distress when Paw Paw died and no one wanted to take it over. The wildlife is amazing, the refuges are particularly wonderful, especially Sabine. I saw my first shrike and glossy ibis there. It's chilling to walk down a sidewalk with alligator slides on both sides. Ducks from the north are plentiful there during the winter. Red-winged blackbirds leave Illinois in late fall and arrive at Sabine in huge numbers. The Sabine website tells you all about this National Wildlife Refuge. The downside of Louisiana is the garbage in every canal along every road. We laughingly call it the styrofoam state. It's heartbreaking to see a great egret in breeding feathers standing on an old sofa in a canal surrounded by discarded bait containers and broken coolers. Everywhere you look there's trash. I can only image the fishing line that's laying around. Tragic. While in LA I learned to love Cajun music, especially Zydeco. I keep a cd in my cd player in the car all the time. It's also a great housecleaning cd - nothing gets me moving like the Creole Farmer's Stomp by the Creole Zydeco Farmers. I love listening to music from other cultures, but I have to admit, I'm really fond of Zydeco.

Things I wonder: Why do I always have all the ingredients for a dinner recipe except one?

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