At a certain point in the writing process, Gumbo Tales was one of those literary food books with recipes. And then it wasn’t, and then it was, and then it wasn’t again. In the end, my editor and I agreed on wasn’t. She was happy because she thought the book was smarter without recipes (some literary food books are smarter with recipes; mine wasn’t one of them). I was happy because I am not a Louisiana cook at my core, and I wasn’t eager to sell myself as such. We opted for an extensive bibliography.

Even so, I was deep into recipe development when we made the final decision, which means that I have a cache of original recipes that relate to my stories. My offer: email or snailmail me a copy of your receipt for Gumbo Tales, and I will email or snailmail you back my recipes for Sazeracs, mirliton au gratin, gumbo z’herbes, crawfish bisque, pasta Milanese, shrimp and okra gumbo, turkey bone gumbo, stuffed artichokes, and Italian baked oysters.