Ah Gare-on-tee!

While I've forgotten the circumstances surrounding my first taste of Cajun food, I'm quite certain that my introduction to Cajun cooking can be exclusively traced to a little weekend cooking show on public television. Justin Wilson's lessons were very clear:

1. The foundation of Cajun cooking is green pepper, celery, onion, cayenne pepper, and Looozie-ana Hot Sauce.
2. All Cajuns wear string ties and use words like "wondermous."
3. Wine comes in one gallon glass jugs, and each recipe calls for about half the bottle.
   

If there is fame to be gained by being a fat Southern or Southern-inspired cook whose culinary dexterity is just as much a function of bonhomie and audience pandering as it is genuine technique and real cheffing, then Justin Wilson is clearly the original seed. OK, so maybe that's not fair to Emeril, who really is classically trained, but now he just yells and throws food to the delight of overweight hausfraus.

My point in all this is that I made jambalaya yesterday for the first time in years. I didn't put any wine in it, but it had andouille sausage, shrimp, the "trinity" of green pepper, onion, and celery, and plenty of good spice.

Hooo it was wondermous! Ah gare-on-tee! Alex liked it too.