I apologize in advance:  this is the last post you’ll read from me for a few months.  WHY?!  Let me tell you why!

Jackson Square, French Quarter, NEW ORLEANS!

WELLLLL…I finally went on a trip to the South!  Woo!  By trip I mean, ROAD trip.  We drove. We darn did it.  Every single mile of that 22 hour-long journey.  And it was so worth it.  The food was fantastic, the culture was awesome, and the people were the best ever.

*Really this post is just a “let-me-catch-you-up” kind of post and an “I might have a surprise for you” post, so please read on 🙂 I’m just going to plop some pictures down here and take you on the fast track to hear (or read, I suppose) all the details of this exciting trip.  GUMBO.  I had my first bowl of authentic Southern gumbo at a little cafe in Natchez, MS.  It was like they took a scoop of river water and added okra, sausage, shrimp, and a few spices.  And it was delightful. 🙂 While I was in Natchez getting my fill of soul food and Civil War history, my hunka-hunka burnin’ love got to go out and fish in the Gulf of Mexico with his great uncle and cousin.  THIS was the highlight of his trip, I’m almost certain of it 😉Next exciting thing: NEW ORLEANS!  We spent an entire day in New Orleans, LA.   Beautiful artwork adorns the fences along Jackson Square, part of the French Quarter in New Orleans. As you walk around, live Jazz music surrounds you almost everywhere you walk.  It’s invigorating!  We bonked around in the French Market for a little bit.  It was essentially a big farmers market-meets-flea market where the locals bring anything and everything to sell to the tourists.  Here we tried out some alligator-on-a-stick!  We stopped by Preservation Hall, of course. We had to.  There’s just way too much history to pass that up.  It was built in the ’60s to help preserve traditional New Orleans Jazz.   Then on our way home, we stopped and got ourselves a proper Po’ Boy Sandwich. I got a catfish po’ boy.  Oh my golly.  So much yum.  I soaked mine in Louisiana hot sauce.  New Orleans does food right.  Ever since my guy was a kid, he has looked forward to doing this every time he went to see his grandpa.  What is it?  Boiled peanuts.  I didn’t know that peanuts could be boiled, did you?  Peanuts that come straight out of the ground are considered “green”.  Generally, they are roasted and salted and that is how we get them.  Not in the South 🙂   This is a very large tree that has been in Joey’s family for a long time. There’s something very special in this picture…look closely 😉   Something very exciting happened under this tree right before this picture was taken…. He popped the question!  I’M GETTING MARRIED!

So, that’s the scoop.  I am getting married in July, so for now my brain is drowning in wedding things.  I promise I will be back with new recipes before you know it.  I promise!  Keep in touch!