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!!
Continue reading “Natchitoches Meat Pies”



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.
New Orleans BBQ Shrimp does not have BBQ sauce or anything related to BBQ. In fact, no one is sure how the name came about. What is sure, the original BBQ Shrimp was developed at
We travel the US in our RV and are always looking for local spots to visit. Breakfast out is one of our favorites and we thought we had found the perfect spot. Did our research, read reviews and headed to La Pines Cafe. Arrived to a crowded parking lot, another good sign. Walked in and found the seating more than we expected and were told to sit anywhere, another good sign. We had hardly warmed our chairs when the server brought menus and took our coffee order, another good sign. Coffee arrived bold and hot, another good sign. At this point we are thinking we are really going to like this place. Placed our order and enjoyed our coffee.
While traveling we are not always able to buy fresh fish and we had been fresh fish deprived for a while. Heading back to south Mississippi, we knew fresh fish was waiting. Laurie enjoys fish en papillote and had not had it for some time. John’s creative juices started flowing and below is the result.
There are numerous, too many to count, of chicken pasta salad recipes. Why another one? We saw the basics of this recipe on Facebook and decided to make it our own. We gave ours a Mediterranean flair with a kick of Cajun and wow, it worked!
Leaving church Sunday, as usual John was lobbying for donuts. Laurie was shaking her head fervently as we walked to the truck. The truck just so happened to be parked near