I read from the final chapter of my book. Spoiler alert: In this chapter we walk through the house at the Stone Motel, after a 30-year occupancy by the Ardoin family. You may wish to hold off on seeing this video until you’ve finished the book. Continue reading New Reading: Popeye’s in the Oven
In this reading from “Stone Motel,” we get to meet some pretty interesting (and entertaining) regular customers. Here’s where you can buy the book: University Press of Mississippi Amazon Independent Bookstores Barnes & Noble Continue reading New Video: Meet the Stone Motel “Regulars”
You may have heard by now that I’m in the midst of promoting my book, so I’ve been a bit negligent of my food-making blog entries. Well, today I’m rectifying that (if only temporarily) with the newest recipe: My Glorious Pink Grapefruit Cake! The inspiration for this cake comes from those lemon and lime cakes in the 1970s – the period I write about in … Continue reading Cakeover! Glorious Pink Grapefruit Cake
Y’all come quick, my little sweet potato nom-noms! Here’s the second reading from my book, “Stone Motel – Memoirs of a Cajun Boy.” Here’s where you can get the book: Independent Bookstores Barnes & Noble University Press of Mississippi Amazon C’est tout! M © All Rights Reserved Continue reading Y’all ready for another reading from Uncle Moe?
If you’re hanging out this Good Friday all alone or with your family in sequester, hopefully eating fried catfish and/or boiled crawfish to commemorate the day – then you’ll probably want to finish that first. BUT then, surely, you’ll be needing a nice nap-time story to help you doze off. Well, below is the first installment of a series of virtual readings I’ll be doing … Continue reading Gather ’round, y’all. Uncle Moe’s fixin’ to read from his book!
Late yesterday afternoon we got a delivery of three boxes from UPS. I assumed they were for a friend who has things shipped to us because where he lives is so remote, the delivery people can’t find him. So, being compliant with the Covid-19 recommendations for safety, I asked the delivery guy to just leave the boxes outside by the kitchen door. And that’s where … Continue reading It’s here!
In addition to finally taking care of a few long-neglected chores around the house, I’ve been using these unusual days of Staying-The-Hell-Home to better prepare myself for the upcoming release of my book, “Stone Motel – Memoirs of a Cajun Boy.” Here’s an update on the book launch: Books o’ Goshen! The publisher, University Press of Mississippi, tells me that, despite all the weirdness out … Continue reading You will be able to ‘check in’ at ‘The Stone’ in a matter of days.
I was a teenaged chambermaid. (The adult me wrote a book about it – and resisted the urge to name it just that.) I was part of a large family that ran a little motel in Eunice, Louisiana, from the late 1960s to the late-1990s. At one point or another, we were all chambermaids. I was also a lawn barber, who each week got clobbered … Continue reading I Was a Teenaged Chambermaid
Okay – so the grocery store shelves are skimpy or even empty, and now you’re gonna have to make do with things you (should already) have in your pantry. This is how we survive a plague (of virus, ignorance, overreaction, government ineptitude, and/or bad manners). The photo below shows the only things you’ll need to make a pretty decent knockoff of a proper cobbler. Preheat … Continue reading World Collapsing? Assemble (no actual baking skills required) a Pear Cobbler!
Like so many dishes in Louisiana (as in other food-obsessed cultures), classic recipes tend to vary from town to town, neighborhood to neighborhood, block to block, and kitchen to kitchen (and in my case, even within the same kitchen). Crawfish Étouffée (smothered crawfish) is a perfect example of this. And right now happens to be when all the little crawfish minding their own business in … Continue reading Smothered With Love: Crawfish Étouffée
Having grown up with lots of people always around, all the time (my parents had nine children) – in a food-crazy state like Louisiana, it seems there also always was a correlating abundance of sustenance at our house. Ten-gallon stock-pots filled with gumbo were the norm. We had a 16-cup rice-cooker going nonstop, it seemed, to keep up with the steady supply of rice we … Continue reading Simple & Satisfying: Sautéed Cabbage With Sausage
Mr. Dupre, who taught industrial arts at the junior high school, was carrying a stack of Tandy Leathercraft kits to his office. I wasn’t a student of his – I had already taken industrial arts at Central Elementary (aka: Charles Drew High School before desegregation came to Eunice). But the striking yellow and black boxes of the leathercraft kits had so grabbed my attention that … Continue reading Warm Leatherette
The book is scheduled for release around April 15. You can preorder it here: From the publisher: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Stone-Motel From Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Stone-Motel-Memoirs-Willie-Biography/dp/1496827724 From Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stone-motel-morris-ardoin/1134145898 From Indie Books https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781496827722 Continue reading Here’s the Book Jacket for “Stone Motel”
Everybody knows about gumbo. It’s the quintessential Louisiana dish. And for all kinds of good reasons. It’s served in homes and restaurants all over the Bayou State (and in many other states – which tend to muck it up with unorthodox methods so as not to scare away their loyal customers). Gumbo is what most often comes to mind when outsiders think of Louisiana food. … Continue reading Meatball Fricassee
Starting a new year is always a great time to focus on the basics. In this post, I zero in on the needlessly intimidating process of roux-making. For the next post, I will share my recipe for the very best dish on Planet Earth – using this roux – Spoiler: it’s not gumbo. Hurricane’s coming – better make a roux! Tomorrow’s Christmas – better make … Continue reading First, I made a roux.
(Parenthetically) Speaking 