My love for sugar started many years ago when sugarcane fields where my only view for miles, every morning, on the way to and from school. I grew up in the southern region of Louisiana in a small town called Bayou Goula. Here, sugar is king. The Mississippi river was the view from the front porch of my grandmother Susan's large plantation style house, where I spent most of my childhood and teen years. There were sugarcane fields and pecan trees all around us. I have vivid memories of going into the cane field with my cousins with huge machetes and cutting our own stalks of sugar for a sweet, juicy treat. Right in my grandmothers massive front yard stood several 50 foot pecan trees that produced so many pecans that we would fill up those little red chitterling buckets over and over to sell but also have enough to keep and use for our own delights like pecan candy, pecan pies, etc. Most of the time we would just crack them on the spot and eat them right from the shell.

Many of my family members worked at the nearby sugar mill, Cora Texas Manufacturing Co., which is the second largest sugar mill in Louisiana, so there was always some form of sugar in the house. Raw sugar, white sugar and molasses was plentiful.

I am more than sure the traditional Louisiana style praline was born out of the endless supply of sugar and pecans in this region.

Pecans are plentiful in the fall. I specifically remember always having pralines or pecan candy, as we called this treat, in the holiday season. To bite into this little confection, is to delight in the sweeter side of southern Louisiana history, experience a unique southern tradition and taste a bit of my soul.