Story and Recipes by Marcelle Bienvenu | Food Photography by John O’Hagan | Food Styling by Kathleen Kanen | Styling by Maghan Armstrong
As a woman of a certain age, I can well remember the food of my childhood.
My mother, who canned vegetables from her garden—tomatoes, okra, corn, and beans—was now excited to be able to find these items at the grocery store. No more hours spent picking, shucking, chopping, and sterilizing jars and lids for her canning ritual.
She was happy as a clam when she brought home her first set of TV trays for evenings watching snowy television shows. One Friday, she passed out fish sticks and boxed mac and cheese. After one taste, my father quietly but sternly said, “No more of this.”
After all, Papa fished in the Atchafalaya Spillway and brought home plenty of freshwater bream, sac-a-lait, and catfish. On his weekend trips to Vermilion Bay, he caught redfish, speckled trout, and flounder and always brought home shrimp and crabs fresh from the salty water.
When I thought about what recipes I wanted to share with you, reader, I brought out two boxes of my mother’s recipes that miraculously made it through a house fire. I remember (and not so fondly) that gelatin molds were quite popular, especially when she and my father entertained. Just about everyone in south Louisiana had this recipe for shrimp mold (also referred to as shrimp glacé) in the 1960s, and believe it or not, it’s making a comeback.
