Celebrating the universal language-food! Based on the 2010 and 2011 presentations of Meanwhile, Back at Café Du Monde . . ., these 67 foodie monologues invoke your own special comfort-foods, recalling tasty memories of life, love, family, and friends to warm your heart, feed your soul, and make you pause to savor the sweetness of life! "Marking the 150th Anniversary of Café Du Monde, the southern cookbook of Peggy Sweeney-McDonald is a humorous and heartfelt compilation of personal food essays accompanied by tasty recipes and candid photographs." - Southern Seasons Magazine " With the Super Bowl being held in New Orleans on Feb 3rd, there is no better time to pick up a copy of this book and sink back into these amusing tales . Then, cook up a few of these Louisiana recipes and see what memories they help you create. " - Texas Home and Living Magazine "The stories in Meanwhile Back at Café Du Monde on the surface are amusing and uplifting, but they contain so much more depth. They explain a society that uses food for much more than simply eating. Americans use food for comfort, hope, escape and symbolism." - Okra Magazine "A Louisiana native turns a conversation into a popular, standup play and now a new book with some amazing recipes." - Chili Pepper Magazine "We eat, drink, and tell the tales of our lives, our loves, our hopes, and our dreams. Sweeney McDonald has hit on the fabulous idea of putting that experience between the covers of a beautiful, glossy coffee table book. Actually, it feels weird to call it a coffee table book. It's certainly visually sumptuous--courtesy of photographer Troy--but we rarely read coffee table books. We just think of them more as decorative objects d'art--and this is a book that deserves to be read" - Sam Bernstein, West Hollywood News Celebrating the Universal Language-Food-and How Our Lives Revolve Around the Satisfaction of It! On May 16, 2010, Meanwhile, Back At Café Du Monde . . . premiered at the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, with fifteen foodies sharing their life stories about food. The show continued to be produced at restaurants and venues throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and California with hundreds of people sharing their endearing stories with a common thread of food. The events were a little bit of theatre, a lot about cuisine, and a true celebration of how food is so very important in our lives and our culture. This volume includes sixty-seven of the "Louisiana" stories presented at the Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Los Angeles, and San Francisco shows in 2010 and 2011. For those who haven't ever been to Café Du Monde, it is simply a metaphor for your own special comfort food place that invokes tasty memories of life, love, family, and friends . . . memories to warm your heart, feed your soul, and make you pause to savor the sweetness of life! As Café Du Monde celebrates its 150th anniversary, we are delighted to include a foreword by Karen Benrud of the Café Du Monde family along with their history and vintage pictures. Peggy Sweeney-McDonald, creator of Meanwhile, Back At Café Du Monde . . ., grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As president of Superstar Events-LA, she produces unique red carpet, non-profit, and corporate events. Sweeney-McDonald is a graduate of Louisiana State University and was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She worked in film, theatre, and commercials as an actress for more than twenty-five years and is actively developing southern film projects. Sweeney-McDonald and her husband reside in Los Angeles, California. Troy Kleinpeter grew up on a farm in Grosse Tete, Louisiana. He is a partner in Kleinpeter Photography, one of the premiere photography studios in the Baton Rouge area known for its beautiful family portraits. He has been the official photographer for Meanwhile, Back At Café Du Monde . . . since the first show at the Myrtles Plantation and has photographed hundreds of the headliners, emcees, audiences, and countless pictures at Café Du Monde! Kleinpeter and his family live in Prairieville, Louisiana. A portion of the book's proceeds will be donated to Liberty's Kitchen a nonprofit based in New Orleans. "No matter where I live and no matter what happens in my life, I always end up at Café Du Monde. You know what you are ordering, those little pillows of decadence. You know how it will taste, delicious. You know you are having a great time, and for a brief hour, you are totally in the moment--taking life one beignet at a time." - from the introduction by Peggy Sweeney-McDonald "Good people, good food, good stories. This book is Louisiana!" -Jeffrey Marx, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Season of Life "Tasty, amazing stories about our favorite subject-food!" -Alden and Emeril Lagasse "I'm laughing, I'm hungry, I'm happy-when is the next edition?" - Lally Brennan, co-proprietor of Commander's Palace and co-author of In the Land of Cocktails "It was a blast to particip