This book is shot through with ways to make things flavorful. These flavors are combined with the strong, bold taste of Andouille or hot smoked sausage. This recipe, handed down through one of Wells' maternal grandmothers, is more engaging, but hardly more complicated than Miss Grace's Chicken, and using cooked chicken is an excellent way to use up leftovers. The dish begins with the sausage and then the celery, onion, bell pepper combination. Spices, including garlic, hot sauce and allspice are added along with tomatoes and allowed to simmer until a thick sauce is formed.
Rice is added, and then the cooked chicken goes in for a highly flavored one-pot meal.
Creole Okra is a recipe that Wells' mother, Arnelle, wrote down after her mother and sisters moved from Opelousas, Louisiana to Texas. This dish begins with cut okra fried simply in oil until browned. Then garlic, tomatoes and spices are added along with chicken stock to boost the flavors. There is the real secret to the flavor of this dish - parts of a chicken usually thrown away but added here so that their broth is the flavor agent for this dish. To her credit, making a roux, the browned fat-flour mixture that is the base of gumbos, etouffees and other dishes, seems very simple.