Another Cajun Cookbook? What's so different about this one? Well I've taken my fairly traditional Cajun (born & raised) family's favorite recipes and revisited them with two goals. My first goal was to define my style of cooking. It is rooted deep in the Cajun Bayou Country of Louisiana, and as a cooking style I have tried to strongly reflect two principles. "K. I. S. S." -- Keep it simple stupid. and Use good ingredients and just don't screw them up. With that in mind, I wanted a set of recipes that were authentic, primarily from scratch, tasted great, and could be easily prepared by the home cook in today's modern family's busy lifestyle. No unnecessary difficult steps, and no hard-to-find ingredients. Second goal, was as a parent and 'home' cook, I needed recipes that my family and friends enjoyed to eat. This goal allows me to add some variety to the cookbook. Many of the recipes stem from my culinary training, cooking in restaurants, and my own catering/personal chef business rewritten for the home cook. I hope that this cookbook can get today's busy family to begin cooking more at home, from scratch, instead of just going out for dinner. I believe these fairly simple recipes will prove that a simply prepared from scratch meal tastes better and is better for your family than eating at many of the restaurants around town, and ya'll can save the eating out for special occasions and go to a quality restaurant where you can truly enjoy the special treat. With all that in mind, each recipe in this cookbook has become a personal reflection of me, my skills, and the heart/love I put into preparing that food. The result is a cookbook that is not only my family and friend's favorite recipes, but are also the recipes that I hope will be many that you will want to refer back to when you simply want to put some great food on the table. Here's to eating good food and spending time with family and friends. Have fun cooking and enjoy