Growing Up Creole

Hi, I'm Marion Douglas CEO of Vermilion Pralines. I'm often asked about my Creole heritage and what it was like growing up. I was born in a little town in Lousiana called Opelusas a few miles from Baton Rouge. I

grew up in a small house with my two sisters and brother.

Back in those days much of my family experience was centered around preparing and enjoying food. Naturally this was before the time of microwave ovens and instant anything so, preparing and cooking food was a family event everyday.

Our house was always filled with the tantalizing scent of boiling crabs, frying fish, fresh baked biscuits in the morning and of course my favorite; PRALINES! Everyday my dad would bring home dinner and in our house the dinner was still among the living. For example we would get live cat fish, fill the tub with cold water and put the catfish in there until it was time to kill it and cook it. transporting that live catfish from the kitchen to the bath tub was the kids job.

After completing that task we would sneak back into the bathroom and catch the cat fish swimming around. The instant it saw us, it would stop and just stare at us causing everyone to scream and dash into the hall way. The live crabs were the most interesting though. My dad would have then in a thick bag and you could here the claws clicking in the bag. We knew that it wouldn't be long before them boys were gumbo.

Every once in while one would get out and scamper sideways across the kitchen floor, it's claws clicking and it's eyes moving rapidly from side to side. That always caused an uproar featuring my sisters jumping up and down on the kitchen chairs before it was finally caught and dropped back in the bag. The whole ritual was part of the dining experience in my house because practically everything that came into the house for dinner; was alive when it arrived making dinner at my house a constant adventure.

There was a huge pecan tree in our back yard so we use to go out there and just pick pecans up off the ground. You get pretty good at picking out the freshest pecans doing that. It was those pecans that my mother would use to make her famous praline candies and people would come from miles around to get them.

Today, of course much of that has changed. But the most important part remains the same. The family still gathers together over a good southern meal...gumbo, etoufee, and bread pudding. And people are still coming from miles around to wrap there taste buds around those delicious pralines.



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