Baton Rouge

Well, we weren’t on the highway but a few minutes towards Gonzales when it started raining cats and dogs. The sky turned a dark, dreary grey and the rain pummeled our windshield, definitely reducing our visibility. So I did what any smart college graduate would do-I called my mother over in Rockwall, Texas to see if she could check the weather for us online. (Thanks, Tam!). After getting the all clear, Racquel and I continued on our way to the Jambalaya Festival. Gonzales, Louisiana, the home of the festival, is just about 20 minutes away from Baton Rouge…so it didn’t take us too long to get there.

As we arrived in Gonzales, we had to resist the temptation to stop at the Outlet Malls…poor Racquel, she really wanted to stop. She did, however, pull into a parking lot where we asked for directions to the festival, and where we also had our first encounter with the friendly people of Gonzales. Instead of just giving us the “usual” directions, a local woman dropped what she was doing to lead us straight to the festival grounds. Again, southern hospitality is thriving here in Louisiana.

We KNEW when we got to the festival. The smoky smell of burning wood led our noses straight to the action. There, we saw almost 30 teams cookin’ up their own secret Jambalaya recipes. Large metal pots contained bubbling broth mixed with special seasonings and pork, chicken, and sausage. All the right ingredients to make anyone’s mouth water. We got to know Steve Broussard and how he developed his passion for making a southern favorite. Watch him and his brother, Mike, in our photo essay.

Jambalaya Festival from ken harper on Vimeo.

After Jumbalaya 101, it was time to see how Gonzales folks would respond to our “50 people, 1 question”. We heard a variety of answers and we’ll share them with you in July. The tables were turned, however, when a local publisher/writer snapped a photo of us beside our cameras. Mike Strong promised us that we’d be in the next issue of Ascension Magazine and we’re going to hold him to it!

Thanks to a lot of outgoing personalities, Racquel and I were able to complete our task in two shakes of a lamb’s tail (a southern sayin’ meaning “quickly”). We obviously couldn’t leave without some traditional fare. Racquel sampled some of that delicious jambalaya while I definitely went for the extra-long corn dog, slathered in mustard, a Texas-sized dill pickle, some tasty cotton candy and a tall lemonade to wash it all down. I’m obviously not embarrassed to show I can eat my weight in food. There were also some great southern rock bands playing, we’ll add some video of that too.

Overall, we had a great time out in Gonzalez, and we’re ready to call it a night. Goodnight!

-Courtnee