Old favorites Elmo and Marie, Poo Poo and Stinky, and ole Doc Duplichan return for even more fun.

Inspirational short stories from the heart of a sun country.

My name is Jake Tama, and as the long-time captain of the Cajun Queen I invited a special group of river aficionados to share their river stories with me on the boat's final voyage. And here they are, young and old-and from all walks of life. These are people with a river history of their own, and they have been on many trips of the Cajun Queen. As they cruise, they each tell their favorite river tale-something that happened to them, personally. Something that affected their life-or their thinking. I'm a riverboat captain with many years experience piloting large craft up and down the rivers of the mid-west and south. Here I draw on the experience of other people who also are infatuated with the rivers as a way of life and an important part of the world's commerce

When most people think of Cajun cooking, they think of blackened redfish or, maybe, gumbo. When Terri Pischoff Wuerthner thinks of Cajun cooking, she thinks about Great-Grandfather Theodore's picnics on Lake Carenton, children gathering crawfish fresh from the bayou for supper, and Grandma Olympe's fricassee of beef, because Terri Pischoff Wuerthner is descended from an old Cajun family. Through a seamless blend of storytelling and recipes to live by, Wuerthner's In a Cajun Kitchen will remind people of the true flavors of Cajun cooking. When her ancestors settled in Louisiana around 1760, her family grew into a memorable clan that understood the pleasures of the table and the bounty of the Louisiana forests, fields, and waters. Wuerthner spices her gumbo with memories of Cajun community dances, wild-duck hunts, and parties at the family farm. From the Civil War to today, Wuerthner brings her California-born Cajun family together to cook and share jambalaya, crawfish étoufée, shrimp boil, and more, while they cook, laugh, eat, and carry on the legacy of Louis Noel Labauve, one of the first French settlers in Acadia in the 1600s. Along with the memories, In a Cajun Kitchen presents readers with a treasure trove of authentic Cajun recipes: roasted pork mufaletta sandwiches, creamy crab casserole, breakfast cornbread with sausage and apples, gumbo, shrimp fritters, black-eyed pea and andouille bake, coconut pralines, pecan pie, and much more. In a Cajun Kitchen is a great work of culinary history, destined to be an American cookbook classic that home cooks will cherish.

I have been working about 40 years gathering family stories and digging through libraries and computer archives tracking the history of my families ancestors. It’s the age old question of where did I come from. I was able to find some interesting tales about who our ancestors were, what they did, and how we ended up where we are.

Father Roy was born in Hamburg, Louisiana in August, 1929. He is the oldest of four sons and the only one who answered the call to become a Roman Catholic Priest. Father Roy and his family moved a few times and finally settled in New Roads, Louisiana where he attended school and then he entered the Archdiocesan Seminary system. Now retired from active ministry after fifty-eight years, his residence is the St. John Vianney Villa retirement community for priests in Marrero, Louisiana in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. After fifty-eight years of active ministry no one would blame Father Roy for just taking it easy, but that does not seem to be Father Roys way. He is as active today as when he was pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Parish. From teaching scripture classes, to ministering to the elderly, to visiting friends and family, to harvesting his little garden, to the list goes on and on Father Roy is anything but idle. Beginning with a mother tongue of Acadian French, Father Roy encountered and learned various languages in his study, formation, ministry and now retirement. One of those languages was the language of music and its many dialects. His appreciation of those many forms of music and language has been and is a constant presence and enhancement to Father Roys spirituality and prayer life. God gives everyone an abundance of gifts. It is our job to recognize those gifts and use them for the benefit all of Gods people.

A search for the sources and sounds of an often overlooked sister genre of Cajun and zydeco music

Taking a leap of faith is one thing, but learning to get up when you fall is a whole other story. After a summer spent with her Aunt Dee in tiny Elsbury, Louisiana, former Chicago princess Libby Gentry traded in her old life for a new one with the southern Casanova, Blaine Crabtree. But just when she thinks things are changing for the better, old girlfriends of Blaine's start coming back into the picture, and not a single one of them are friendly or bad on the eyes. Combine the worry of passing her first semester at St. Joseph Community College and sponsoring her tomboy cousin in cotillion and Libby can barely keep up. It's hard to learn to fly on paper wings. They're flimsy and can easily break. But if Libby can mend a broken heart, hopefully she can learn to fly.