LSU Press offers butterflies and German Coast recipes

It’s difficult to imagine a “German Coast” in Louisiana with parish names like St. Charles and St. John the Baptist, but the region upriver from New Orleans housed a settlement of German immigrants as far back as 1719. Several of my ancestors landed there, evolving from Friedrichs to Frederics in only a generation so it’s easy for people to imagine these areas as being strictly French.

Nancy Tregre Wilson, who owned and operated with her husband and parents Louisiana Gourmet Enterprises Inc., a food specialty business that produced the Mam Papaul’s brand of dinner and cake mixes, hails from the German Coast. She titles her new book, “Memere’s Country Creole Cookbook: Recipes and Memories from Louisiana’s German Coast.” Memere (I so wish I could add accents on this blog) relates to Tregre’s French and German great-grandmother, Nellie (pronounced Na’lee) Schexnayder Zeringue, all good German names. Inside are lots of recipes, from deer sausage and tomato mayonnaise sandwiches to crab cakes and alligator sauce piquante. Each recipe includes a remembrance as fascinating as the dish. I loved learning about blackbird jambalaya and Mississippi River shrimp.

Wilson’s other books include “Mam Papaul’s Country Creole Basket,” “Louisiana’s Italians, Food, and Folkways,” and “Lorraine Gendron: Louisiana Folk Artist.”

Also by LSU Press is Craig Marks’ “Butterflies of Louisiana: A Guide to Identification and Location.” This fat guidebook comes loaded with color photos and great detailed information, including host plants, sightings, seasons to find certain species and the author’s personal records. Marks also breaks down butterflies by parish and regions and cites specific places to find certain butterflies. It’s a fabulous comprehensive guide but because it’s specific to the state, readers won’t have to dig through pages of specimens that don’t pertain to our area.

Marks is a member of the Lepidopterist Society, the Southern Lepidopterist Society, and the North American Butterfly Association, and the author of many articles on butterflies.

For information on LSU Press books and to see what titles will be released next, visit https://lsupress.org/.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery. Chere also loves taking photos of butterflies in her Louisiana garden, and now she can identify them.