Last spring, New Orleans joined a growing number of cities across the country experimenting with community supported outdoor refrigerators. New Orleans Community Fridges, which spearheaded the local effort, was inspired by similar efforts in New York City, Los Angeles…
It has been almost a year since our family took in Freak Show Fannie, a 13-month-old, 45-pound, shepherd/Border Collie mix who was tossed from a moving vehicle in New Iberia when she was…
Last Saturday night I was caught in a traffic jam on St. Charles Avenue. People were gawking from their car windows at the stunning house floats that crop up in greater numbers all over town each day and masked…
The late Julia Reed was as prolific a cook and entertainer as she was a writer. Throughout the pages of her numerous books, she often referred to the many treasures with which she surrounded herself: an antique Chippendale sofa…
Tomorrow evening the historic Dew Drop Jazz and Social Hall will be the site for a series of free live streamed music concerts to be presented virtually on the City of Mandeville’s and the Dew Drop’s Facebook pages. The…
We have all been ground down by the long haul of COVID-19. Some of us have suffered the incomparable grief of having lost loved ones to the disease, while others have, themselves, suffered from it. Most of us have…
Tired of your own cooking and looking for a change of pace? Longtime friends Alison Vega-Knoll and Chris Wilson recently pumped some excitement into the upscale grab-and-go and market scene with the opening of Larder (3005 Veterans Blvd., Metairie, lardergourmetmarket.com).…
As we do in my household every year at this time, this past weekend we dismantled Christmas, stowed it in the attic, and hauled out Mardi Gras. This year more than ever we will make our home look like…
Usually in bed by 10 p.m., this year I will stay up late on NYE. I want to witness the departure of 2020 and I expect to have plenty of company worldwide. As public gatherings to witness fireworks displays…
I have been relieved on late to note brisk traffic on Magazine Street, my neighborhood Main Street, as holiday shoppers and celebrants have been turning out to keep their business local. Currently the Magazine Street Merchants Association (MSMA) and…
On the day before Thanksgiving my daughter, Cecilia, called me freaking out because she saw someone tying a Christmas tree to the top of their SUV. “The hell,” she bellowed? "It’s kind of early for this. Can’t they wait…
C’est moi, the proverbial squeaky wheel again, here to implore of you, all of you, everyone, again, to please abandon Amazon, national chains and convenience-driven services. Choose instead to keep our local merchants such as those on Magazine Street,…
This is the first in a series of columns exploring some of New Orleans’ many women-owned businesses as we head into the zenith of the holiday shopping and entertaining season. I am here to implore of you, all of…
This past was a particularly crafty weekend. I spent it carving elaborate pumpkins with my niece and creating one of those monster-themed candy shoot things so we can issue candy to trick-or-treaters from a distance. That Halloween is on…
I have identified several large, centuries-old oak trees with ground sweeping boughs in public spaces in various small neighborhood parks around town in which to meet friends. It is always 10 to15 degrees cooler under such a tree and…
I was 27 when I bought my home near Magazine and Jefferson in Uptown's West Riverside neighborhood. That was 1996 and I still love it here. I never get bored. I have seen things change and, due to an…
Unlike the hours-long little teaser that dropped us into the mid 70s last weekend, a bonafide days-long cool front offering evening lows in the 60s and daily highs in the 70s has settled upon our weary, sweaty city. The…
Though an enthusiastic cook and appreciative of the slight reprieve from the summer temperatures, I remain unconvinced that Gumbo Weather is upon us. I am still avoiding heat belching ovens, roiling liquids in a hot pots, and, for the most…
The temperature seems to be giving us a little break, and there are some exciting things to celebrate on the culinary scene. Check it out. When she died last year at age 96, Chef Leah Chase, the embodiment of…
We missed the snow. In fact, we missed a breeze or even a drop in temperature this week as a great, big heave of Arctic air blasted down and took Denver from 93 degrees and hot (for them) to…
Long story short, I ended up in Greenville, Mississippi at the home of Frankie Keating for an extended stay after Katrina. She and her then recently departed husband, Bern, were a brilliant, elegant, worldly couple, who were still going…
A couple of weeks ago my suggestions for dining out – or at least acquiring food from somewhere other than your own kitchen – on the cheap were received with enough enthusiasm as to warrant additional exploration of the…
With potential atmospheric calamities threatening to enter the Gulf, record-breaking temperatures, nowhere to go and nothing to do, continuing record high unemployment, a barbaric election cycle, and COVID – a most unwelcome guest now bearing the stench of nearly…
Whether you have a hole in your pocket the size of 1. The job you used to have before COVID; 2. The federally enhanced unemployment check you used to get before the system went off of the rails; 3.…
I love to go tubing. A simple creature, plopping my butt in an inner tube then floating down a river with a group of friends while alternating between eating fried chicken and drinking beer (this is the only time…
I have enjoyed many fine meals at kin(sic), Hieu Than's diminutive yellow powerhouse of a restaurant overlooking a charmless drainage ditch in Gertown across from Xavier University. It is on my regular "route" around town and a tug of…
In some very exciting news for New Orleans the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience (NOWFE) has been nominated for "Best Wine Festival" by USA Today newspaper. As the final award recipient will be decided via people's choice, you…
Soooo, Saturday is my birthday. I was super excited about going to check out Big Freedia's new live cooking show in the Kitchen Garden at City Park tonight with my gal pal Jennifer. Every Thursday evening in July and…
My sister, Beth, has been going through a really rough time lately, dealing with even more uncertainty and upset than the rest of us while also dealing with the same uncertainty and upset the rest of us continue to…
I usually spend the Fourth of July at my brother's compound near the Louisiana/Mississippi border hanging out in the woods around a massive swimming pool, slurping frosty beverages and arguing politics while my sister-in-law's many siblings, their children and…
Perhaps the only child in Louisiana history to be born to a mother with absolutely no culinary skills at all, Jyl Benson began cooking in self-defense at the age of six. She is 13 years younger than her closest sibling so her parents were tired and paid little attention as she use the household kitchen as per personal laboratory, sometimes with disastrous outcomes. Her skills have improved greatly over the years and kitchen fires are a thing of the past.
She began her editorial career in 1990 with The Times Picayune and served as a regional reporter covering the southeastern United States for both The New York Times and Time magazine. She wrote "Galatoire's Cookbook: Recipes & Family History from the Time-Honored New Orleans Restaurant" (Random House 2005), as well as several cultural, historical and architectural guides to New Orleans. She served as editor-in-chief of Louisiana Cookin’ magazine from 2009 to 2011 and founded Louisiana Kitchen & Culture magazine in 2012. Sheis a dining columnist for St. Charles Avenue, Acadiana Profile and Louisiana Life magazines, a frequent contributor to New Orleans Magazine, and the author of "Fun Funky, Fabulous: New Orleans Casual Restaurant Recipes" (2015, Pelican Publishing) and "Louisiana's Tables" (2017, Savory House Press).
