This hike is 2.5 hours from New Orleans has 8 waterfalls!

If you live in Louisiana and even somewhat enjoy hiking for fun, then you’ve likely heard of a spot not too far from Baton Rouge in Mississippi where lots of waterfalls can be discovered. Upon further investigation though, you’ll find that the exact location gets a bit confusing. Where exactly are these and what are they called? The answer is Clarke Creek and the best place to download the route is via AllTrails whether on the website or App. It gets confusing because people call them Tunica Falls. There are hikes in St. Francisville called “Tunica” this and that in Louisiana, but those are different, and they don’t have waterfalls (to my knowledge). So if you want to see these falls search for “Clarke Creek”.

When I say waterfalls, I mean up to 8 of them! We did a 3.7 mile hike and saw four of the waterfalls. Here are my top five things that people don’t tell you about these hikes that you should know.

1.   Pretty sure the water flows year-round because it’s rainwater rather than snow melt. This feature is pretty badass because waterfalls and their flow elsewhere are hit or miss.

2.   There are a variety of ways to approach this hike. If you want a pretty easy version you can see two of the falls.

3.   This would be a great activity even in the hot summer months. We did this hike in early September during a heat wave and enjoyed it thoroughly. The key is to start early. We arrived at the trailhead at 6:30am and left around 10:30am. The whole route was pretty shaded.

4.   Trail is not well marked. Since there are so many different ways to do this trail, I recommend going with someone that has the All Trails Pro app.

5.    I personally would never do this hike right after a big storm or in a heavy rain. I don’t like to get my boots too wet or muddy and this trail would definitely be a mud pit in the rain.

As always when you hike, stay hydrated and bring extra water. I had a 1L bladder pack and drank about half.

The parts of the trail that actually lead to most of the waterfalls is not really a trail it’s a creek with big boulders. So the majority of the waterfalls are accessible with moderate hiking rather than easy. 

Here's the route that we took in red:

Here are some photos to give you an idea of what's in store. 

Have You Heard the News???

We are opening a brewery! 

Read all about it in these fine articles and connect @courtyardbrew for the latest.

Jan 14 2013 Nora's Beer Blog

Favorite Quote: 

"I fell in love with their "Baby IPA," a session IPA."

Mar 5 2013 The Gambit

 Favorite Quote: 

"When San Diego transplant Scott Wood met Louisiana native Lindsay Hellwig in New Orleans, not only did they begin a family, but also a craft beer partnership called The Courtyard Brewery that would merge West Coast craft beer sensibilities with the rich culture of Louisiana and New Orleans."

 Sept 10 2013 The Gambit 

 Favorite Quote:
"Can you boil water and cool it? Yes. Can you clean up after yourself? Yes. Can you wait a week or a couple weeks? Yes. OK, then brew beer."

 Oct 21 2013 Uptown Messenger

 Favorite Quote:

“It’s similar to going to a winery,” Leblanc said. “It’s not about the consumption of beer; it’s about tasting beer.”

 Oct 23 2013 Curbed

 

Favorite Quote: 

"the Coliseum Square Association is cool with The Courtyard Brewery setting up shop in an Erato Street warehouse"

Oct 25 2013 The Times Picayune

Favorite Quote:

"The nano brewery model lets Courtyard be nimble. Because they will make small batches, they can change the recipes frequently."

Oct 30 2013 City Business 

Favorite Quote:

"self distribution laws, which are in place in 16 states, would foster growth of microbreweries and brewpubs by allowing them to sell directly to bars and retailers. 'It gives the smaller guy more exposure,' Coco said. 'No one brewery is going to dominate in the city. We should be a city with several operations and tremendous variety.'"

  

Kingcake Monsoon

 I'm a fan of kingcake season and have been to enough kingcake parties to be ready to host my own. So three weeks before Mardi Gras we threw a kingcake bake-off/tasting in our courtyard. I've been so busy lately that this was the only window of opportunity that I could find to host such an event and knew that it would be a hit to host before the Krewe de Vieux parade began to role. Because of this tight schedule, I had no choice but to keep the scheduled date despite the weather forecast warning of a 50% chance of thunderstorm.

Needless to say we had a downpour, but everyone had a good laugh while we moved 20 kingcakes under cover. The rain only lasted about 30 minutes so we continued on to eat, drink and parade.

These are the categories that were judged:

Best Gourmet Kingcake  

– flavors other than cream cheese, strawberry, and apple  

Best Traditional Kingcake  

– plain/cinnamon, cream cheese, strawberry or apple 

Best Homemade Creation  

– king of cakes….anything goes 

Most Creative Costume 

– get out your glue gun

Our neighbor, Angela, won two categories 

(Best Gourmet and Best Homemade) 

with her Bacon Maple Kingcake.

 It was a clear favorite!

Eve and I tied for best costume because 

she dressed as a kingcake baby, and I have one in my belly.

Courtyard Chili Cookoff

We haven't had a party at our apartment complex since July 4th for the crawfish boil. My husband and the neighbors decided the next event should be a chili and cornbread cookoff. It turned out to be a great idea. The French Quarter was very busy and the streets were filled with Alabama and LSU fans for the National Championship game. We were lucky enough to have friends willing to brave the crowds with their entries. We had eight total including a white chili, veggie chili, pork chili, steak chili and beef bouillon chili. The only thing that was missing was a seafood chili. My chili and cornbread came in second place. It had beans, plenty of peppers, ground meat and sausage. The cornbread came out really moist and flavorful, like a casserole. I got the recipe from my boss. It had corn, onions and jalapenos too. 

The winner was my husband for his steak chili. He used chilies imported from New Mexico because he's so fancy. He also won best cornbread by using his Grandmother's West Virginian recipe. Some of her secrets are whipped cream and honey. Amanda brought a veggie chili and won first place in the spicy category.

Lindsay’s Second Place Pepper Chili 

(aka My Bean Beef Sausage Chile Chili)

• 1.5 pounds ground beef chuck
• .75 pound Italian sausage
• 5 strips bacon
• 1 (15 ounce) can light kidney beans, drained
• 2 (15 ounce) cans chili beans in spicy sauce
• 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomatoes sauce
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 green chile peppers, seeded and chopped
• 3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped (from can)
• ½ packet taco seasoning
• 1/2 cup beer
• ½ cup salsa
• ½ tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp. Remove to paper towels. Cook crumbled beef and sausage in bacon drippings just until brown; drain. Stir taco seasoning into meat.
2. Pour meat into large crock pot. Add all chili beans, all tomatoes and tomato paste. Add the onion, celery, green and red bell peppers, chipotle peppers, chile peppers, crumbled bacon, and beer. Season with chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes, salsa, salt, and sugar. Stir to blend, then cover and cook on high for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. After 2 hours, taste, and adjust salt, pepper, and chili powder if necessary. Simmer on low as desired. If the chili is too watery. Cook without lid for an hour or two. The longer the chili simmers, the better it will taste. Remove from heat and refrigerate to serve the next day. Top with fresh parsley or cilantro and cheese as desired.

How to Make the Most of Crawfish Boil Leftovers

My boyfriend is from California, and being the ambitious soul that he is, he wanted to tackle a task that most life-long Louisiana residents don't even attempt. He threw a crawfish boil AND boiled everything HIMSELF. Daring - I know. If you follow only this blog and don't know me in real life, which is probably not the case, you may be thinking "BOYFRIEND? You never told us about a boyfriend." Well, I didn't because I didn't want to jinx, and I still don't. It's actually quite a magical story, but like I said, not going to jinx it. Let's just call him "some guy I know". Anyway, some guy I know threw a wildly successful crawfish boil. He had lots of friends there as did I.

 

Everyone enjoyed the Star-spangled Jello Shots, most claiming that they were the best ever. Hooray for a whipped cream center. Recipe Here

Everyone also enjoyed the music. The neighbors opened their windows, turned up their speakers and their computer to play a Pandora station. The station they played was based on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and surprisingly made for a very good party mix. If you haven’t heard of the website Pandora. Check it out at www.Pandora.com. Users type in a band that they like and the site creates a playlist of artists that have the same sound.

Back to the food...We boiled lots of veggies including onions, bell peppers, corn-on-the-cob,  artichoke, potatoes (red, white and blue), and garlic. 

Not wanting anyone to leave hungry, "some guy I know" ordered 100 lbs. of crawfish so we had lots to spare. Two of my friends sat there and peeled over two pounds with the agreement that I'd make something good with the leftovers. So I made crawfish enchiladas. This recipe is similar to the one that my family uses.

We had two big bowls of vegetables left over as well, and I wasn't about to let them go to waste because they had so much spicy flavor. I bought some shrimp and canned tomatoes and threw together a lovely spicy soup. Louisianans never throw anything edible away. We just add butter.

Lindsay's Leftover Crawfish Boil Shrimp Soup

Leftover Crawfish Boil Veggies:

 5-10 ears of Corn-on-the-Cob (decobbed)

1 or 2 Bell Peppers (chopped)

2 or 3 Onions (chopped)

5-10 Cloves of Garlic (chopped)

Fresh Veggies:

1 Onion (diced)

3 Ribs of Celery (diced)

4 Stalks of Green Onions (diced)

1 cans Diced Tomatoes

1 small can Tomato Sauce

1 Can Tomato Paste

2 cans Seafood Stock

Equal Part Flour 

Equal Part Oil or Butter

1. Make roux with Flour and Oil or Butter.
2. Saute fresh onions, celery, green onions in roux until soft.
3. Add tomato paste, stir.
4. Add crawfish boil veggies and seafood stock to bring to desired consistency. Simmer 30 minutes
5. Stir in shrimp and cook until shrimp cooked.

You're Not Hungry

 

Sign from Etsy.

If you aren't hungry enough to eat grits, you aren't hungry.

When I was in college and lived alone, I lost weight by not keeping food in my apartment. I did keep grits around. I felt like if I wasn't hungry enough to eat grits, I wasn't hungry.

I was reminded of this when I came across this insightful blog that a guy created to list 1001 rules for his unborn son. I bet he's a chick magnet these days.

the blog - 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son See #402





 

Yelping in NOLA

When I lived in Dallas I started yelping. You know writing reviews for the website, Yelp.com. I wrote forty reviews within two months mostly about the lunch spots we were hitting because my boss took us out to eat everyday. Then, I got an email asking if I wanted to become Elite. Elite? Who me? But of course! I started getting invited to the Yelp parties, met other Yelpers and had a grand ol' time.

When I started to look for a job in New Orleans, I thought about Yelp and realized the Yelp community was under utilized there. With so much tourism in New Orleans, I thought Yelp really needed to tap into it. So I wrote a letter telling them to hire me as Community Manager. I sent the letter to the community managers in Dallas and Austin who then passed it on up the chain. Well, a year later I got an email from the Community Manager in Dallas saying that Yelp was coming to NOLA and hiring. Bummer. What a great job! Write reviews. Talk to and promote local businesses. Encourage community involvement. Throw parties with the company credit card!

Needless to say, I couldn't apply because I already have a full time job, but at least NOLA got some recognition and hey, at least I get to go to the parties. 

I'd like to think that some Yelp executive in San Francisco read the letter I wrote on 9/9/09 and decided to give New Orleans her spot light. Here is the letter...

 

photo of me at my last Yelp event in Dallas featured on the Yelp blog

Dear Yelp-Powers-That-Be,

I would like to introduce myself as “Yelp’s Ragin Cajun”. I am a down home country girl with “big city experience.” South Louisiana needs you, and I am just the person to lead you to there. Approximately 24.1 million tourists visit this state each year. We need all of their reviews PLUS a massive guerilla marketing campaign to get the locals involved! Let’s get these future Yelpers out of the FEMA trailers and connected
on Yelp!

Flocks of young, intelligent do-gooders have migrated to assist in a massive recovery effort that has been ongoing since 2005, and Louisiana wants to keep them here. My wheels were spinning on how I could help, and I crash landed on Yelp! I’ve watched Yelp in action over the past few years in Austin and Dallas, and I
think Yelp is just the “on and offline” community connection that south Louisiana needs.

Just to prove it.... Festival International de Louisiane is the largest free French speaking festival in the U.S.,
and no one has reviewed it yet! Not to mention that it totally ROCKS! Likewise, the sparkling new 55-million dollar Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge has been THE ultimate place to hobnob in Baton Rouge since 2005…again no reviews! Are you kidding me? Get me out there people! I’ll shout it from the rooftop terrace!

Why south Louisiana?

No. 1 - Food and Drinks are a top priority here.
The New Orleans Metro area has over 3,300 eating and drinking establishments and many don’t even have websites. The Nation’s Culinary Capital needs Yelpers to highlight the best of the best. Travelocity has ranked New Orleans as a “Top 10 Global Destination for Food Fanatics” and food fanatics love Yelp. It’s
match made in cyber heaven!

Yelpers are energized by reviewing hole-in-the-wall, off-the-beaten-path spots, and Louisiana is full of them. Cajun country thrives on small businesses like mom and pop boutique hotels, bed and breakfasts, diners,dive bars, and local retailers. Louisiana was ranked No. 5 for entrepreneurial activity by the 2008 State New Economy Index. Like flashers on Bourbon Street, new businesses need “exposure”. Come on Yelp, show us what you’re working with.

No. 2 – Tons of Young Professionals.
South Louisiana is home to over 130,000 students at 12 major universities and colleges, and three of those colleges usually hold the titles of “Top Party School”. This means that there are a ton of young professionals with degrees in partying just waiting to partner up with Yelp. TOGA, TOGA, TOGA! YELP, YELP, YELP!

While other states are seeing folks leave under high unemployment rates, Louisiana has now experienced the second consecutive year of population IN-migration, according to the US Census. IN-Migration = Yelp sensation! I want to flag down those moving trucks, welcome the newcomers, and point them to Yelp!

No. 3 – Tourism
Yelp knows how to party, but you haven’t seen anything yet! We’ll stick the CEO’s on a Mardi Gras float and have them screaming for more. No seriously, you haven’t experienced life until you’ve ridden a float in a Mardi Gras parade. It doesn’t stop at Mardi Gras. There are 250+ festivals every year in this region. This opens up a huge opportunity for Yelpers to sample great food, music, and even stop on by a Yelp booth! What better way to advertise than by connecting with local and visiting Yelpers in a cultural laid back atmosphere. If I have any say in it, the Yelp events page will be fully stocked! Festivals, jazz, soul, blues, parades, oh my! We’ll prove that those that play together stay together.

Besides the fun, it’s a big business here. Tourism is a $5.5 billion industry in New Orleans, and there isn’t much competition for online resources in this tight-knit community. Word of mouth is how it works down here and once I start the Yelp craze, it’ll spread like a bonfire on the levee.

Why me?

No. 1 – I get around.
Together we could take over three cities, not just one. My peeps cover New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette. My passion for this region is contagious, so WATCH OUT! I once fell asleep in the gospel tent at Jazz Fest when I was FOUR. “Four year olds at Jazz Fest”, you ask? Yeah, that’s me. I know this region; I party with these people; and I am as sweet as pralines, but I put my game face on when it comes to business strategy.

No. 2 – Social Networking Butterfly, People Connector, Critic and Writer
Need to know who has the best gumbo? Holla! Where’s the party at? Right here! Friends come to me to find out what’s new, what’s good and what’s spicy! I am always up to try new places and share my experiences. I am a motivator, creator and writer on a mission to promote a sense of community through Yelp. Last year most of my friends had never heard of Yelp, but don’t worry, I told them all about you! I have hundreds of social and business friends on and off line and became Elite after just 3 months of Yelping.

No.3 – I am a Designer.
I am always looking to inspire. My background in design has proven my ability to develop brands, make clients happy, manage large projects, and makes me a hella good planner. I was once awarded the title “Always on Deadline.” I manage time, budgets and strategy, and I make it look goooooood! The small businesses of South Louisiana need you, and I’m just the spicy Cajun to get this party started! Laissez les bon temps roulez! (Cajun translation- Let the Good Times Roll)

SYOY,
Lindsay “lou” H.

lnzlou.yelp.com

Dance or Leave...

I like my new coworker/office mate. He makes me laugh. 

He bought me a card today. 

He knows me already.

Food = Love ya too (Dessert)

I finished off the Birthday Feast with cookies instead of birthday cake. Why? 

Last time, my dad and I were in NYC we fell in love with Levain Bakery cookies. They will change your life. Just check out the Yelp reviews. 600 people have taken time out of their lives to write reviews about how good these cookies are. So when I got home I did some research to find a copycat recipe and decided to try it out as a special treat for the birthday feast. It went well. It's hard to go wrong with Ghiradelli chocolate morsels, sugar, and cocoa. The verdict is that they were good, but they weren't Levain Bakery good. Oh well, I'm heading to NYC in November to bite into the gooey center of the holy grail of cookies. Until then these bad boys will have to do.

Fold Butter and Sugar

Fold Flour, Eggs, Cocoa, and Baking Powder

Blend Ghirardelli chocolate morsels by hand

Bake for 16 minutes

Enjoy!

Floating in ice cream, these cookies were superb, but to put ice cream on a real Levain Bakery cookie would be a sin.

Find the copycat recipe on My Baking Addiction.

Food = Love ya too (Main Course)

As you know in my post Food = Love, my dad cooked a birthday feast for me back in April. So to share the love, I did the same for him. For Father's Day, I whipped up my new specialty, chocolate waffles.

Today, we celebrated his and my step-mom's birthdays. I tried to make it as nice as they did for mine. Key word, tried. My shortcomings were a lack of homemade bread and a last minute run to the grocery for ice cream, but all in all everything tasted great.

Prepping takes the most time

Got these the first week of the oil spill. Breaks my heart that I may never get these beautiful Gulf Shrimp again.

Paprika, Cayenne and Salt... Sauteed in Butter and Olive Oil

Smoked Sausage, Yellow Onions, Green Onions, and Garlic

Finish off with tomatoes and shrimp stock

Grits with butter and white cheddar cheese

Plate and garnish with Parsley

Happy Family

I am a terribly slow cook so it took me all day, but the finished product was so good and so worth it. Everyone, including my dad, loved it. The recipe comes straight out of Emeril's new cookbook, Farm to Fork, which I won from NOLA-Eats! I'll follow up this post with dessert!