I miss Lawrence's humor.  

If he were here to today, he'd tell you this:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-YyRVHDvM

Today was Lawrence's birthday.  And in memory of him I made cornbread - because the funniest thing to me he said was the time I sent out a cornbread recipe, and he immediately replied back with: "You don't know shit about cornbread!" and included his idea of the best cornbread recipe.. If ever I publish a cookbook the title will be the same.  


So today I made a different kind of cornbread.  I have long been interested corn and cornbread recipes. 

I particularly like the  "spoonbreads" - see KOLE RECIPES  https://sites.google.com/site/koleconnection/cornbread-recipes

So today I made a regular cornbread recipe with 2 cups cottage cheese and 2 cups whole kernel corn.  I seasoned it with taco seasoning and Louisiana Hot Sauce.  What I really wanted was seedless jalapenos, but I did not have any.   The men (Tommy, Kevin, Gabe, Kole) went crazy over it.  

So here's to my crazy, old, cajun brother on his birthday.

Mollie 

If you knew Lawrence, you knew about his love of music.  No money was spared on equipment to improve the sound of his music.

He and I had something in common: we both liked a wide variety of music, but we especially liked the blues. Etta James "I'd Rather Go Blind", "Sugar on the Floor", Muddy Waters "You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had", and B B King "The Thrill is Gone" - the good melancholy stuff.

I used to make Lawrence music CD's -- he wrote me that some of them made him cry.

One of his favorite songs was "In The Arms of An Angel" by Sara McLachlan - file attached. 

The story about Lawrence, Grandma DeBellevue and the song Jole Blon goes, I recall, something like this.   As I previously stated, he spent a great deal of time at Grandma DeBellevue's when he was 3 ?? years of age and needless to say he was the apple of her eye.   She had a Hand Crank Victrola (Record Player) that you had to wind up the spring so it would power the turntable. In addition it had a Dry Battery Pack that would amplify the sound.   Anyhow she taught Lawrence to sing Jole Blon by himself  listening to the words on the record.   She dressed him up fit to kill with his little hat and and took him along on one of her numerous shopping trips to the infamous White House Department Store in Beaumont and put him up on the sales counter and let Lawrence sing Jole Blon for all the sales ladies.   Needless to say it was a great hit for all concerned, especially Grandma DeBellevue.   

Larry and I became instant friends when he was sent to Dallas to interview me for the regional manager's job in Dallas for Gulf Telephone. He set out to intimidate me from the outset by grabbing my neck tie and yanking on it while he talked loud asking about my qualifications, my 278 lbs did not match him but I quietly asked him if he wanted to turn my damn tie loose or go thru life with one hand, he roared at this and from that moment on we were hell on wheels in the company together.

I never met any one as gutsy and audacious as Larry was .He was by far the best sales closer I have ever met and a generous heart as big as Texas.

About 3 years ago I drove down from Dallas to New Orleans and spent the night with him, he cooked us a big dinner for about five and we stayed up half the night reliving the wild times we had enjoyed together over the years. The next day we went to a seafood restaurant and had a ball eating a mountain of food. I offered to drive him to Atlanta VA hosp to get his tumer removed and he would not do it. Sadly this is the last time I saw him but we kept in touch by phone and e-mail and then he stopped replying to my calls and e-mails and now this.

Steve, I never had a better friend and I know that he is somewhere converting all to coonass livin! There aren't any more like him!

One time during rice harvest, I was driving a tractor pulling a rice cart.  My tractor died while trying to cross a levee, so we hooked a chain from my tractor axle to Lawrence's tractor.  I told him to ease up because there was slack in the chain.  Typical of Lawrence, he took off in high gear, and when the slack was out of the chain it ripped the axle completely away from the tractor with one wheel ending up to the right and one to the left.  The front end of my tractor just dropped to the ground.  Lawrence looked back, and you can imagine what he said.

Another time we were using a power wagon with gent poles to move barrels on the farm.  Lawrence was driving and attempted to cross a levee, but couldn't get the power wagon to move.  After a few minutes of these attempts, I looked up and noticed that the top 5 feet of the gent pole frame was bent in an L shape.  The hook on the cable was hooked to the bumper, and apparently Lawrence had somehow put the winch into gear which was bending the gent pole and frame.  Another well-deserved dressing down from Mr. Kole.

We were building fence along a shell road on the farm, and using a trailer pulled behind a Fordson tractor to accomplish that.  We decided to go for a joy ride with me in the trailer and Lawrence driving the tractor.  It was possible for the driver to put his feet on the steering rods and steer the tractor.  I still picture Lawrence with his hands behind his head, laughing and hollering at me to "watch this."  We were moving at a fast clip down the road when the tractor suddenly decided it wanted to attack the fence.  So we destroyed at least 50 feet of fence before Lawrence could gain control.

On one occasion, Mr. Kole sent us to Smith Point to pick up some shucked oysters from an oyster fisherman.  We did as told, picking up 7 or 8 gallons of oysters, but on the way home started eating oysters from one of the gallon jars.  We ate so many that we knew the missing oysters would be noticed.  So, not wanting to get in trouble agian and being quick on the draw, we decided to eat the entire gallon of raw oysters and tell Mr. Kole that we picked up one less gallon than we actually did.  This scheme worked great until we both got very sick that night.  I could not look a raw oyster in the eye for at least a year after that episode.

Jeffery was also involved in most of our shenanigans away from the farm.  Lawrence got the family station wagon one afterno0on and the three of us drove to the Hamshire area to visit the Thibodeaux girls.  While driving (at a fast speed) on the way home, I told Lawrence to "slow down because there is...."  I didn't finish my sentence because we hit the railroad track that I was warning him about.  Losing control of the station wagon, we went through someone's chicken yard with chickens, fence posts, and wire flying all over the place.  We ended up back on the road and exited the vehicle (I had to crawl through the back seat window because the door wouldn't open).  Water was draining from the radiator and the car was totaled.  I will always remember Lawrence's words: "got that son-of-a-bitch back on the road, didn't I."

On one occasion when we were about age 15 years, four or five of us guys were visiting the houses of ill repute on Crockett Street in Beaumont.  We didn't have the asking price of $5.00 between all of us, but we would go in and visit with the ladies of the evening until the madam chased us out.  At one house, Lawrence started beating on the walls as we ran down the stairs.  When we got out of the building he said "that will show them who's boss."

Four of us were in Lawrence's family station wagon at some establishment like a Dairy Queen in Beaumont .  Our vehicle was in the on-coming traffic lane when we were head-to-head with another vehicle.  Lawrence honked, but instead of backing up the thug driver got out and walked up to Lawrence's window.  Lawrence rolled his window  down and said "what the hell do you want?"  The thug pulled out a switchblade knife, stuck it at Lawrence's neck, and said "I want you to move this SOB."  Lawrence immediately rolled the window up, threw the car into reverse to back up, then burned rubber getting out of there.  After we left, Lawrence said "showed him, didn't we."

I could continue with more stories, but I think you get the idea that anyone in the presence of Lawrence was sure to have a great time.  May Christ hold Lawrence in the palm of His hand, and I look forward to more escapades with Lawrence in future years when we will be together again."

Lawrence was a very generous host - good at hospitality.  He had an open-door policy for his siblings in the 1970s - who showed up weekly (they were in college and poor) and would eat all his grub.

On July 4th he would invite us all over to his home in southwest Houston to barbeque and at dark we would watch the Country Club fireworks from his backyard at dark (the country club adjoined his property).

This pic is from July 4, 1977 and I was pregnant with my daughter Monica.  Peter, on the far left, was making me feel better by putting a basketball under his shirt :-) 

As you know by now, Lawrence could have had a good career as an Executive Chef in any good restaurant.  His palate was unparalled. He could have posted his cooking videos on You Tube, and they would have drawn more viewers than Justin Wilson.
In the Photo Gallery, I referred to his alter ego, "Mammy Mudbone", who was a good cook.  We have a Kole Family recipes site on Google, which features Mammy Mudbone and Lawrence's (Elteaka) recipes

See below: 

https://sites.google.com/site/koleconnection/

https://sites.google.com/site/koleconnection/mammy-mudbone-s-recipes

Lawrence was a staunch FreeThinker.  He was forever concerned about the perils of "corrupt thinking", as he called it. He eventually begin putting together writings he found significant (a few of the writings are his own).  You can find them here:

https://elteaka.wordpress.com/

When he asked me to help him setup the blog, I asked him why he wanted a blog?  He simply said: "The impetus for this blog is a desire to resist the evils of blind faith."

He chose the online name of "Elteaka", as it reflected his initials "L - T - K".

If you want to know how Lawrence thought and felt about this subject, read his blog. 

Elteaka also has some strong opinions about cooking and foods. Most of the recipes Lawrence sent me were XXXrated.

But I can share his list of Elteaka's "Cooking Rules":





- Pioneer Original is hands down better than Bisquick
- Hellmanns is the only Mayonnaise...Period!
- Steen's Pure Cane syrup...nothing else compares
- JIF Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter...the only peanut butter there is.
- Coffee should be served with real cream...nuf said
- Palm Sugar tastes best of all sugars (and it has a low glycemic index)
- Kansas City Masterpiece 'Original' BBQ Sauce is the winner
- No fish, no sausage, no ham & no smoke in my seafood gumbo...Period!
- File' is for garnishing your bowl at the table, not for putting in the pot - --
= Parsley always goes in last in the gumbo...right behind the green onions - -= =Tabasco in gumbo?...No No!....use cayenne
= King Oscar (double layer sardines in olive oil) only...Period!
= Fuji apples are the best
= Gray Goose for Vodka Bombay Blue Sapphire for Gin
= CENSORED  (as usual, tasteless Elteaka done went too far)

See "Mammy MudBone's" recipes at site below.  (Mammy Mudbone is Chelf Elteaka's alter ego)


https://sites.google.com/site/koleconnection/
 

One of the many things Lawrence could make me laugh about was his absolute love of food and cooking.  If anyone in the family dared to post a recipe without consulting him, he always had some commentary.  My favorite is his cornbread recipe.  I posted an email about my favorite cornbread recipe...and it was not long before I got back a reply -- the opening line being "you don't know shit about cornbread".  His recipe follows:


YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT CORNBREAD

by Elteaka  (the guy what gave Cajun a bad name)

You don't know shit about cornbread....

this is the way to build a surenuff cornbread.

1 cup corn meal
1/2  cup flour
tablespoon of baking powder
some salt
4 tablespoons splenda
2 eggs
milk...just the right amount..if you need to be told what that is, you don't need to be in the kitchen  

Mix it all up a paper or a flour sack or paper bag...

Now here is where the chef genus starts...

preheat your oven to 550
put your skillet on a top burner and turn the heat up high 
and when the skillet is real hot pour in some bacon drippings  immediately followed by the cornbread mixture...it's gonna sizzle
go straight into the oven with it all and reset the temp. to 400 degrees
in somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes your gonna have a light golden top cornbread... 
turn on the top broiler for a minute or so to get the top side real crustie like the bottom side is gonna be...

and now it's ready to eat