Christmas lights and meat pies may not seem like a match. Yet in Natchitoches, LA, they go hand in hand. The only French settlement in north Louisiana has been home to a Christmas Light Tradition since 1927. Long before the Christmas Lights began, street vendors were hawking meat pies in the 1800s. Today there are no street vendors hawking meat pies, yet several restaurants offer meat pies on their menu.
Although Natchitoches did not invent meat pies, the city’s meat pie is the official meat pie of Louisiana. Below is an easy meat pie filling with refrigerator dough used for the crust. Generally one will not find sauce for Natchitoches Meat Pies. The sauce has been added to the recipe and adds an added depth to the meat pie. The meat pie filling is based on the Official Natchitoches Meat Pie Recipe.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
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Big plumb Jalapeno Peppers are hard to pass up. So when we saw these green treasures staring at us, in our basket they went. We were already planning what the stuffing would be and discussing how to cook them before we even left the market. These were grilled on our electric pit and they were very tasty, full of flavor.
Saturday was overcast but farmers market junkies are not deterred by weather, so we headed out to the farmers market in Ponca City OK. The market is held in the shadow of The Pioneer Woman Statue on one of the streets on the grounds. The market was small yet we always appreciate the line of vendors sharing their variety of vegetables and fruits. These fresh from the garden, picked the day before or the morning of the market, produce are what encourages us get up early on a Saturday morning and come away with freshness you could not find in a supermarket. 
Talking with farmers at various markets makes our food purchases a little more personal. Besides the freshness of local items we also get the personal touch of the farmers. Not often do we get to sit and chat with farmers. Recently we enjoyed a visit with farmers at a local farm stand, 
In our locavore quest for farmers markets, it is not often we take part in a tradition dating back three centuries. The Habitants de la Poste de Vincennes knew the importance of fresh locally grown food in the early 1700s. The farmers would gather at the market and sell their items. Today this tradition is continued at the Vincennes Historic Farmers Market in the Riverfront Pavilion. 
The morning dawned rainy and cool. Normally no problem, but we were headed to an outside farmers market. A little rain never stopped us before so we bundled up, put rain boots on and headed out. For a small town, East Jordan had a decent farmers market.