I love south Louisiana cooking and as I have chronicled before, my former mother-in-law Lily was one of the best Cajun-Creole cooks ever.  She and Harvey had eight children of their own, and Lily had several sisters and a younger brother.  Except for the three youngest daughter's, all of her children and all of her siblings lived within a ten mile radius.  It goes without saying that there is nothing more important to a person from south Louisiana than is their family, and anytime Gail and I made it back to Chalmette it was cause for celebration.

I grew up in north Louisiana.  The people there are just as friendly but they are more likely to serve coffee to their guests than whiskey.  Also you were more likely to get hash browns for breakfast instead of grits.  Harvey and Lily were teetotalers and drank no alcoholic beverages at all.  They also frowned on those that did.  Still, they were the only members of the family that felt that way.  Whenever Gail and I knocked on the door of an aunt, uncle or cousin, there was always a drink (as in alcoholic) waiting for us on the other side.

Everyone in the family was a great cook and everyone enjoyed drinking and eating.  It didn't seem to matter because there wasn't a single fat person in the entire family and, except for a particularly obnoxious ex-brother-in-law, I don't recall anyone ever drinking more alcohol than which they could cope with.  Unfortunately, I've never possessed either seemingly inbreed talent.

I've had to fight my waistline all my life.  Harvey must have noticed because one evening we were alone and he called me over to the kitchen table.  He was drinking Lily’s strong Cajun coffee and I joined him in a cup, waiting anxiously to hear the reason he wanted to talk to me.

"When I was a young man, I had a problem with my weight," he said.  I had to listen carefully because Harvey always spoke in a voice just low enough that you had to hang on his every word.  Perhaps that was his design.  "My doctor gave me a bit of advice.  He said Harvey, no matter how good the food tastes, only eat one helping.  And when you are finished always have desert, a little something sweet to tell your brain that the meal is over.  You might try it sometime.  It works."

So that was Harvey's diet tip.  Enjoy your food but don't have seconds, and always have desert.  His advice for eating works.  I only wish he were still alive to tell me how to fool my brain into thinking that I don't need just one more beer.

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