The tradition continues — with your family recipes

Barbecuing is a tradition at many family picnics celebrating the 4th of July. Sunday’s Family Day at Our Savior’s Church in Broussard brought an annual competition which was won this year by John Olivier — no stranger to winning cooking competitions. The past six years he has won a least one first place in The Daily Iberian Cajun Creole Cookoff. He plans to enter again.

His biggest competition was last year’s winner who Olivier said won by only one point, it flipped this year.

“My family comes first so I cook for them and then the competition,” Eddie Borel said.

His mother likes the Jack Miller straight out of the bottle but the rest of the family likes Kraft so he splits the sauce during the final stages of cooking. Borel’s dad taught him to barbecue when he was only 9 years old. Great to know someone can beat Olivier, even if it was last year.

Cookoff and Cookbook Waiting

As in years past, recipes are slow coming in for the annual cookbook and cookoff sponsored again this year by Cypress Bayou Casino • Hotel. This is a reminder — it’s time to get your recipes into The Daily Iberian.

Some submissions have come through the website, others have been hand written and dropped off at the office. Regardless of your preference, we need to get recipes before we can have a competition or a cookbook. Deadline for entries is July 21. Email techelife.editor@daily-iberian.com

The tradition of the culinary annual publication started in 1951. Back then it was known as Cajun•Creole Cookery and was instituted to commemorate the annual Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival and Fair. The editor in 1956, the first edition in the Teche Life archives, wasFrances Andrews Vernon. She won awards with her publications on the national level before moving into the Teche Area with her husband, Dr. E.H. Vernon. Then state newspaper competitions recognized her contributions.

At that time, many of the stories centered on the happenings of the festival and encouraged — naturally — cooking with sugar. In recent years The Daily Iberian has published both a sugar cane festival supplement and the cookbook so readers could go directly to the great recipes submitted by area cooks.

As a Reminder

Some of the regular cooks submitting recipes have asked about the categories for submissions. Although there are minor changes, the traditional eight categories are basically the same: Appetizers, Soups/Gumbos, Salads, Seafood Entrees, Meat & Fowl Entrees, Vegetables, Starches, which includes rice, bean and potato dishes, and desserts. There will be no separate category for Rice/Jambalaya. If you prefer to list the dish as an entree, make a note on the form, otherwise it will be grouped with starches.

Also, if you are submitting for the competition, remember the recipes must be original. Although you may be inspired by something previously published, for the competition the dish must be your creation. That doesn’t mean you can’t submit a favorite family recipe for the cookbook, not for competition. In fact, having family recipes in a published cookbook is a great way to keep them together instead of on all those pieces of paper.

Search the drawers and locate your old family recipes especially those popular in your ancestral line. If there is a story to tell, we’d like to hear it and it might make for interesting reading in the cookbook.

My Favorite Things

Submitting a recipe does not mean you have to enter the competition. A little different this year, a panel of selected judges will taste the dishes prepared by local cooks and pros if they want to vy for the coveted Award Plate in a blind taste test against homemakers. Anyone can win. We’ve seen in years past, the difference is in the tasters, not the cooks or dishes.

What matters most is having a friendly competition and a night of fun. Winners are featured in the cookbook but without everyone submitting their favorite recipes, the pickings will be slim.

Today’s recipes are favorites including a treasure discovered last week while interviewing Trisha Yearwood. A neighbor made homemade Banana Pudding and so many recipes list instant pudding. Can’t wait to try it.