New Orleans Beignets

Beignet (pronounced "ben-yay" in French) literally means "bump". Beignets were brought to Louisiana by the Acadians from Canada who arrived there from France. These were fried fritters, sometimes filled with fruit. Today, they are a pastry made from deep-fried dough like a doughnut only square and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar.

Shhhhhh! I'll share a little secret with you. Shhhhhh! You don't need beignet mix or make a dough from scratch to make beignets! All you need is a can of basic biscuits, nothing fancy just plain old generic biscuits.

You can leave them round, cut them to form squares or into rectangular "fingers" which are easier to eat. Using the leftover dough, form another square or finger biscuit; then deep fry them in hot oil. Remove from the oil and place on a plate covered with paper towels to absorb the excess oil, then sprinkle confectioner's sugar over them. That's it!!! Now you can have your own Cafe du Monde experience at home!

Serve them with ice cold milk or cafe au Lait (which is coffee with lots of milk in it). Community Coffee can be found in most grocery stores around the nation. The New Orleans Blend with Chickory is what is served at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. My favorite is the Cafe Special.

Turn on some New Orleans jazz, make some Cafe au Lait and Beignets, transport yourself back to New Orleans and have a nice relaxing breakfast! Enjoy and you're welcome!!!

Court of Two Sisters

One of my very favorite places to go in New Orleans is to the Jazz Brunch at the Court of Two Sisters. I always request, and wait for, a table on the patio. The food is divine, the atmosphere relaxing, the setting gorgeous and of course the music is live New Orleans Jazz!


The history behind this wonderful restaurant was two Creole sisters and the notions shop they owned on this site that gave The Court of Two Sisters its name. However, 613 Rue Royale has long played a significant role in the history of the French Quarter and old New Orleans.


Originally known as "Governor's Row", the 600 block of Rue Royale was home to five governors, two state Supreme Court Justices, a future Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a future President of the United States. It is not surprising, then, that the original resident was Sieur Etienne de Perier, royal governor of colonial Louisiana between 1726 and 1733. It has also been rumored that the outrageous Marquis de Vaudreuil, the colonial royal governor who transformed New Orleans from a marshland village into a "petit Paris", was once a resident of 613 Rue Royale.

The two sisters, Emma and Bertha Camors, born 1858 and 1860 respectively, belonged to a proud and aristocratic Creole family. Their "rabais", or notions, outfitted many of the city's finest women with formal gowns, lace and perfumes imported from Paris. Marriage, reversals of fortune, widowhood - nothing could separate the sisters. Indeed, as the New Orleans Times-Picayune was to report, the sisters died within two months of each other in the winter of 1944. United in death as in life, the sisters lie side by side at St. Louis Cemetery #3.


The best time to go is in the spring when the wisteria over the patio is in full, fragrant bloom and the weather is cool and pleasant.


While there, tour the entire building as it's an exquisite example of New Orleans French Quarter architecture.