Food Friday Acadian Style

This week is the annual RootsTech conference. This conference is a big deal in the world of genealogy and has the largest attendance on site and via live streaming of any genealogy conference. (It's estimated that 30,000 people are in physical attendance at the conference this year).

One of the themes of the conference is the food history of your family, a topic well-known to Food.Family.Ephemera readers.

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

Now, while some people are fortunate and have their grandmother's recipe box or family cookbook collection, not everyone has those treasures. Community cookbooks fill that gap. They provide recipes from your family's neighborhood, church, school, and even membership groups.

Today's recipes come from French Arcadian Cook Book published by The Louisiana Arcadian Handicraft Museum from Jennings, Louisiana (1955). One of my favorite things is when there is something of the original owner in a cookbook. In this case there is a note about Cajuns and Creoles and their foods. This info might have been gathered from the cookbook or maybe from a visit to the museum that published the cookbook.

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

Have Jambalaya in your family's food history? Here's a few versions that you might want to consider in learning more about your family's recipe. And of course, make sure to document those family recipes and stories because they are an important part of your family history.

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega