Hi there! We’re Marion and Vicky, a mother-daughter duo born and raised in New Orleans with a shared passion for brainstorming, cooking, and eating scrumptious food. Vicky has lived her entire life in the Big Easy and spends weekends on the Gulf Coast. Marion was also born and raised in New Orleans, and has recently moved on to Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and new baby. We stay connected here on this site doing what we’ve always done together — exploring and sharing recipes, cooking tips, and food lore inspired by the multi-cultural city we both love.
Marion tends to focus on more modern recipes that highlight fresh ingredients and come together with fewer steps (perfect for a working parent). Vicky likes to take her time and explore the classic and traditional recipes from the Cajun and Creole cultures, as well as those from other parts of the globes. Both of us look for ways to intensify flavors and streamline the cooking process.
You won’t just find Cajun and Creole recipes here – although you’ll see plenty of those! Contemporary New Orleans cuisine is influenced by a wide variety of immigrant populations that now call this city home, including Sicilian-Italian, Haitian, African-American, German, Central American and Vietnamese. Some of our best foods include combinations of traditional Creole dishes updated with fresh, modern twists from around the globe.
New Orleans is all about great food wherever it’s from, and we’re all about New Orleans!
Welcome to our NOLA food world!
About Marion
I grew up in a household (and city!) devoted to exceptional food. A love of good food & cooking is in my DNA. Growing up, my mom cooked madly, using every pot, pan and utensil in the house. I followed her wide-eyed around the kitchen helping wherever I could, but mostly getting in the way. Over the years, as I tasted more of the local foods & flavors of New Orleans, my love for cooking flourished.
While in college in Dallas, I loved to recipe-test and cook meals for my roommates, finding inspiration in the restaurants and recipes from home. It was there that I met my husband, Aaron. If you ask him, he’ll tell you that my cooking was probably the top reason he married me (just kidding, right?). Now living in Charlotte, NC, cooking in the evenings and on weekends, glass of wine in hand and Sonos playing, is the way I re-connect with my beloved hometown. For me, there’s no better medicine to relax and unwind after a hectic day of work in corporate retail than cooking up a good meal for my family.
While on maternity leave with my newborn son, I threw myself even more passionately into cooking and recipe development. One evening, after a phone call with Mom concerning her Creole Sicilian meatball recipe, I had an epiphany: why not create a food blog with Mom as my partner and share with friends, family and fellow foodies everywhere the recipes we both create and love?
Mom enthusiastically agreed and we were off and running!
If I’m not in the kitchen or working, you can find me hanging out with my husband and newborn son, Mac (and our first born Baya the Cavapoo), traveling home to New Orleans whenever I get the chance, or decorating our family home.
About Vicky
I never thought I’d see the day I’d be blogging, but here I am. Yay me! I like to call myself a recovering corporate attorney. I spent 30 years practicing law and let me tell you it didn’t leave time for much else. It’s been 10 years since I retired, and I haven’t looked back. I’ve swapped pantsuits for yoga leggings and a briefcase for a Le Creuset dutch oven, and cannot count the number of hours I’ve spent poring over recipe books and researching Cajun and Creole history.
My family has lived in Louisiana since the late 1700’s, and in New Orleans over 100 years. I’ve collected and tinkered with countless recipes over the years and dreamed of writing a cookbook to share the fruits of my labors with friends and family. Ten years ago, I actually started the project, collecting and writing down recipes and my thoughts and tips about them. Year after year, my family awaited the final product and every year I would postpone it — so many recipes, so little time! How can I possibly do justice to all the food I’ve come to know and love in this exasperating, bewitching, one-of-a-kind town?
When Marion approached me about joining her in a food blog, I leapt at the chance. What better way to spend more time with my daughter and in the process find a place to finally realize my dream of sharing my beloved recipes with fellow foodies?
When I’m not eating and drinking my way through New Orleans, you can find me at Wild Lotus yoga studio for my daily dose of zen, riding my horse at Cascade Stables in Audubon Park, making dinner for my eldest daughter, Victoria, and her fiancée, unwinding “on the dock of the bay” in Pass Christian, MS and dancing with my first grandson in Charlotte, NC. whenever I get the chance. Oh, and let’s not forget Lewis, my husband of over 30 years, who would rather eat pot roast, black-eyed peas and minute rice every day, but puts up with my shenanigans in the kitchen with humor and grace (most of the time, anyway).