See my recent travel feature (bit.ly/new-orleans-travel-nh) for my take on that heritage.

The country’s most creative chefs are drawn to New Orleans, so unusual dishes and great restaurant dining abound. Mardi Gras, the annual carnival, has begun, with boundless revelry day into night, punctuated by parades that continue until Feb. 13. That is Fat Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent and the march toward Easter on March 31.

A highlight of my recent visit was a morning spent at the New Orleans School of Cooking, where lore and legends of the past were incorporated into classic recipes. Family-owned since 1980, the school offers classes in several teaching kitchens with a staff of 15 chefs. It was founded by Joe Cahn, who developed classes with Paul Prudhomme, the chef associated with the city’s Commander’s Palace and who put Cajun food on the map.

Spice mixes created by Cahn are available at nosoc.com, as well as from the retail culinary shop adjoining the school at 524 St. Louis St., at the edge of the French Quarter.

Among the ingredients available there is filé a powdered mixture of young sassafras leaves used to thicken and flavor gumbo and other typical dishes. To me, it’s a floral scent a bit like Juicy Fruit gum but with an earthy flavor similar to that of thyme and savory. Its use in New Orleans cooking came from the North American Indians. You will probably need to buy it online for authentic gumbo. At the school, filé was passed to those around the table for sprinkling on their bowls of gumbo.

Chef Cindy Miller told us that many dishes are prepared “au pif,” French slang for cooking by smell. (It’s pronounced “oh peef,”) An experienced cook employs the nose to determine if onions are caramelizing or burning, if sliced nuts browning in the oven are on the verge of burning, if it’s too late to save the bacon or if the oil is too hot for adding garlic.

“Au pif” well blended with patience is another key ingredient.

Although many of us have banned lard from our kitchens, it’s the preferred fat for creating a roux. A roux must be browned with constant stirring over heat before the vegetables are added to it for a proper gumbo. It takes a lot of stirring and some time to make a perfect roux —– the basis for gumbo.

Gumbo was a dish brought from Africa, and the word is derived from the West African “ki ngombo” for “okra.” West Africans used okra as a thickener in their version of the dish.

Pecans ripen in November in the South, and that’s the best time to make pralines, she said. They keep nicely for a few weeks when sealed in an airtight tin and make a great gift. Humidity is the enemy of making pralines, so making them on a cool and dry winter day is ideal.

Recipes

Jambalaya

(Makes 12 servings)

Ingredients

¼ cup oil

1-½ pounds smoked sausage, sliced

4 cups onions diced

2 cups celery, diced

2 cups green bell peppers,diced

1 Tablespoon garlic, minced

1-½ pounds shrimp, shelled and deveined

5 cups stock

3 heaping Tablespoons Joe’s Stuff seasoning

4 cups long grain rice

2 cups green onions, sliced

Instructions

In a large pot over medium heat add oil and brown sausage.

Avoid stirring to allow the sausage to stick and brown in the pan.

Remove the sausage, leaving drippings in the pan.

Saute onions, celery, garlic and green bell pepper in drippings to tenderness desired.

Return sausage to pan then add the shrimp.

Add stock and Joe’s Stuff seasoning and bring to a boil. Add rice, stir together and return to boil.

Stir again and remove pot from heat and cover. Let rest for 25 minutes.

Remove cover and quickly turn rice from top to bottom completely.Add green onions and serve.

Gumbo

(Makes 5 to 6 servings)

Ingredients

¼ pound lard

¼ cup flour

½ cup andouille sausage, sliced

1 cup onions, diced

½ cup celery, diced

¼ cup green pepper, diced

1 Tablespoon garlic, minced

1 cup chicken cut up or deboned

4 cups chicken stock

1 Tablespoon dried sliced garlic

Joe’s Stuff seasoning, to taste

½ cup green onions, sliced

Filé

Instructions

In a small skillet over medium heat, melt lard and and flour a little at a time, stirring constantly to make a roux.

Once nicely browned, stir in half the onions, celery and green bell pepper.

In a large pot, cook sausage over medium-high heat, allowing it to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once browned on both sides, add chicken and continue to cook.

Remove from the pot.

Add the remaining onions, celery and green bell peppers to the pot and saute.

Add garlic and cook until vegetables reach desired tenderness.

Return chicken and sausage to the pot.

Deglaze the pot with stock, scraping the bottom to remove anything stuck.

Add remaining stock and bring to a boil.

Once the stock comes to a boil, slowly add the roux to the pot.

Whisk constantly to incorporate the roux completely.

Once the roux is incorporated, allow the stock to return to a boil.

Reduce heat to simmer and cook for an hour or more.

Add Joe’s Stuff and sliced garlic to taste.

Continue to simmer until you can’t wait any longer.

Serve gumbo over rice or without rice and accompanied by French bread.

Place filé on the table for individuals to add to their gumbo if they wish. one-fourth to one-half teaspoon per serving is recommended.

Pralines

(Makes up to 50 servings)

Ingredients

1-½ cups granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar, packed

½ cup milk

1-½ cup pecans (See below to roast them)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, mixing to achieve a “soft ball” stage. (A soft ball stage is reached when the mixture is 238 to 240 degrees and a small bit added to a cup of cold water forms into a soft ball.)

Remove from heat.

Stir constantly until the mixture becomes creamy and cloudy. Pecans should stay suspended in the mixture.

Spoon out spoonfuls on buttered parchment paper or waxed paper. When using waxed paper be sure to buffer with newspaper underneath, as hot wax will transfer to what’s underneath.

Let cool.

To roast pecans before mixing, bake them on a sheet pan at 275 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned and fragrant.

Cool.

May be stored in an airtight container for two weeks.

— Recipes courtesy of New Orleans School of Cooking

New Orleans School of Cooking

Where: 524 St Louis St.

Info: NOSOC.com

Classes: Available starting at about $40; Reservations are required.

Other stories from this trip: bit.ly/miss-river-cruise-nh, bit.ly/cruise-recipes-nh and bit.ly/hot-choc-24-nh.

Its jambalaya, gumbo, pralines and bread pudding all are dishes closely connected to the Crescent City, and we wanted to find out why. The Sazerac is the city’s official drink.

Our demonstration class at the New Orleans School of Cooking set the tone with those recipes and showcased techniques and ingredients that helped us understand the differences between Cajun and Creole dishes. Not surprisingly, those differences are related to the people who settled New Orleans. They tell its story in tastes, better than words.

Driven from Nova Scotia by the English in the 1800s, many of the French-speaking Arcadians settled in the bayous around New Orleans and adapted their lifestyles to the area, becoming Cajun in the process. Their food is spicier than Creole specialties and contains more pork and crawfish. Creole people often are racially mixed, tracing their ancestry to Spain, France, Africa or the Caribbean. Their food is more likely to include tomatoes, shrimp, oysters and crab among its ingredients.

The New Orleans School of Cooking, 524 St. Louis St., is set in a renovated 1800s molasses warehouse in the heart of the French Quarter. It’s been operated by the same family since 1980 — a time when cooking schools were not as popular as they are now.

Cindy Miller, one of 15 chefs conducting the classes, suggested that the foolproof praline recipe she’d be sharing would be ideal as a Christmas gift for folks back home. Hers is a Creole recipe adapted with pecans from the sugar-coated almonds used as a digestive aid in the 1600s, but she said everyone seems to have their own versions. Humidity is the enemy of this sweet confection, so the dry winter days in our area are an advantage when making pralines.

The school’s general store is jam-packed with foods, tools, cookware and gift baskets to take home.

We learned that filé is a powder of dried young sassafras leaves used for flavor and thickening in gumbo and that the mirepoix basic of French cooking has become the “holy trinity” in New Orleans-speak, substituting finely chopped green peppers for the carrots of the French, sauteeing it with chopped onions, celery and black pepper. Cooking styles and ingredients often have morphed from their French, Spanish and African origins into something uniquely New Orleans.

The same changes took place in the development of the Sazerac, which began with a pharmacist who made bitters in the early 1800s and has become the official drink of New Orleans. Its story is told at the three-story Sazerac House, at Canal and Magazine streets, on the edge of the French Quarter.

Visitors there can sample, sip and explore their way through the stories, legends and spirits that have helped make the Quarter what it is today.

The cocktail’s 1600 origins in France began with ingredients that included cognac and absinthe, which was outlawed for many years because of its alleged hallucinatory properties. Rye became the substitute when cognac became unavailable, and the anise-flavored liqueur Herbsaint was created to fill in for absinthe.

Since 2007, when the prohibition of absinthe ended, several brands of the high-alcohol spirit are produced and the original Sazerac can be found.

The bitters created by the pharmacist Antoine Peychaud still carry his name and are available in the first-floor gift shop. A third-floor Sazerac House exhibit lets visitors see — and taste — how spices, citrus, nuts and botanicals contribute flavors and fragrances to the creation of bitters. Tastes of Sazerac also are part of the tour, which is free and available only to those 21 and older.

Speakeasies flourished in the French Quarter during Prohibition and cocktail parties moved into private homes, cementing the city’s cocktail culture. Residents tried to fight the law by getting spirits classified as food.

“Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on only food and water,” said W.C.. Fields. That quote is framed and hung on a wall at Sazerac House.

The easy culture of drinking was underscored in the 1960s, when go-cups became a staple in New Orleans, allowing drinks to be ordered to-go in plastic cups so those imbibing could walk around while drinking.

Public drinking is a fact of life during Mardi Gras, which began on Jan. 6 and culminates with the beginning of Lent on Feb. 13 — Fat Tuesday.

Just as a teenage Joan of Arc led the French army to victory in 1429, the young heroine led New Orleans into carnival season on Jan. 6 – her birthday. Annually, parade-goers can expect all the costumed knights, medieval monks and fanfare of a Renaissance festival on foot. Highlights of the procession include a blessing of her sword at Joan’s golden statue at Place de France on Decatur Street.

Travelers’ checks

Get planning information for a visit to New Orleans at neworleans.com.

The New Orleans School of Cooking offers a wide variety of classes. Two-hour demonstration classes, such as the one I joined, are offered at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and include recipes and plenty of tastes. They start at $40, and reservations are needed. Visit NOSOC.com.

Get some recipes from our class soon in an upcoming story.

The three-floor Sazerac House, at the corner of Canal and Magazine streets, is at the edge of the French Quarter. Tours are free for those 21 and older, but reservations must be made at Sazerachouse.com.

See other stories from this trip at bit.ly/miss-river-cruise-nh, bit.ly/cruise-recipes-nh and bit.ly/hot-choc-24-nh.

The participating businesses, all members of The Valley Wine Group, are Grand River Cellars, Debonne Vineyards, Cask 307, South River Vineyard, Black Door Tavern and Red Eagle Distillery. The cost for the Trail treats is $7 at each stop. The event runs every day from noon to 5 p.m.

The businesses are open seven days per week — except for Cask 307 Winery, which is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays — allowing for patrons to visit on days they’re not so crowded. The destinations are no more than 10 minutes apart from one another.

Pick up your Trail Card at the first stop and turn it in by Feb. 9 to enter a drawing for the getaway. Each place has also developed at least one featured Winter Warmer drink that will be available for purchase.

Each winery offers two wine samples, while mini-cocktails are served at the Black Door Tavern and Red Eagle Distillery, which are next door to each other.

Here’s what you can expect:

Grand River Cellars Winery and Restaurant

Where: 5750 S. Madison Road, Madison

Info: 440-298-9838; grandrivercellars.com

Featured food: Homemade Chicken Pot Pie Casserole

Featured Sangria: Winter Cranberry Sangria

Featured Cocktail: Snowflake Cocktail

Debonne Vineyards

Where: 7840 Doty Road, Madison

Info: 440-466-3485; debonne.com

Featured food: Cabbage Roll

Featured Sangria: Winter Rouge Sangria

Featured Cocktail: Mulled Blackberry Toddy

Cask 307

Where: 7259 Warner Road (Route 307), Madison

Info: 440-307-9586; cask307.com

Featured food: Homestyle Mac N Cheese

Featured Cocktail: Winter Margarita

South River Vineyard

Where: 6062 S. River Road, Geneva Township

Info: 440-466-6676; southrivervineyard.com

Featured food: Chocolate Chip Fudge Brownie

Red Eagle Distillery

Where: 6202 S. River Road. Geneva Township

Info: 440-466-6604; redeaglespirits.com

Featured food: Bourbon braised Swedish Meatballs

Included mini-cocktail: Apple Cider Punch

Featured Cocktail: Peppermint Cream Cocktail

Black Door Tavern

Where: 6202 S. River Road, Geneva Township

Info: 440-466-6604; blackdoortavern.com

Featured food: Sweet Potato Bourbon Bisque with Toasted Marshmallow

Included mini-cocktail: Cranberry Mule

Featured cocktail: Blood Orange Gin & Tonic

One of the most tempting offerings is at Coppia in Chester Township, where chefs Talia Trovato and Hedy Pastran will have a 12-course tasting menu paired with wines. See coppiarestaurant.com to see the menu and learn for yourself if they’re filled for Sunday night.

But consider, instead, spending the evening at home with a small group of friends and celebrating with a festive hot chocolate bar. The suggestion and its recipe comes from Regina Charboneau, the culinary ambassador for American Queen Voyages. I made her acquaintance on a recent Lower Mississippi River cruise between New Orleans and Memphis when the cruise line debuted a collaboration with “America’s Test Kitchen” to develop dishes framed around the foods in river towns served by the cruise line. (Read those stories at bit.ly/miss-river-cruise-nh and bit.ly/cruise-recipes-nh.)

On that cruise, I received a giant 1,270-page cookbook, “America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2024,” where I discovered the show’s “Shopping Guide” at the end. Not only did it include knives, pans and kitchen devices but ingredients such as recommendations for brands of cocoa powder and dark chocolate. Both are key ingredients in making Regina’s Chocolate Sauce, a mainstay in creating the excellent hot chocolate for the exquisite Hot Chocolate Bar.

As any good cook knows, the quality of the ingredients used translates into the best version of any dish — and hot chocolate is no exception. “America’s Test Kitchen” recommends Droste cocoa and Ghirardelli 60% baking bar chocolate as ideal for a cocoa powder and a chocolate bar. Valrhona and Callebaut would also be good dark chocolate bar candidates to chop up for making Regina’s Chocolate Sauce.

AllRecipes.com suggests Hershey’s Cocoa as a more widely available cocoa powder. In shopping for the best chocolate bar brands, choose one with 70 percent cocoa. Reading the labels pays off.

First, make Regina’s Chocolate Sauce, which will keep well in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Charboneau, I learned on my cruise, makes a priority of joining the party, so many of her recipes, like this one, can be prepared in advance. A few minutes before serving, the cold chocolate sauce comes out of the refrigerator to be added to the milk and cream that’s been slowly heated in a pan on the stove.

Ladle the hot chocolate into glasses, some of which will have a shot of rum or another alcohol in the bottom. For the festive hot chocolate bar, guests finish off their drink with the garnishes offered in pretty dishes. Be sure to include whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

No party hats needed.

Regina’s Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream

2/3 cup water

3 cups sugar

Pinch of kosher salt

1 1/4 cups cocoa powder

1 cup finely chopped high quality dark chocolate

Instructions

Place pan over medium heat.

Add the cream, water, sugar, pinch of salt and sifted cocoa powder, whisking the whole time. Do not leave the mixture unattended — it boils over very quickly.

Add the chopped chocolate and whisk until melted.

Pour into a container and cool in the fridge without a lid. It will be runny when hot but should become thick once cooled.

To make the Hot Chocolate (serves 8):

Mix 1/1/2 quarts milk with 2 cups heavy cream in pan, stirring over low heat.

Stir in 1-½ cups Regina’s Chocolate Sauce and continue heating until hot.

Ladle into cups or pretty glasses.

Top with one or more of the garnishes.

Garnishes:

Set up in pretty bowls with spoons:

Whipped Cream

Shaved Chocolate

Marshmallows

Crushed Peppermint

White Chocolate Chips

Orange Zest or Candied Orange

Caramel Sauce

Chocolate-Covered Espresso Beans

Sprinkles

For over-21 hot chocolate:

Have individual shots in shot glasses

These are all great in hot chocolate: Kahlua, Rumcha!a, Baileys, Bourbon, Rum.

— Courtesy of Regina Charboneau, American Queen Voyages

And hours until 9 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays give an added bonus of lights against the darkness. That includes the first day of winter, Dec. 21, when our hemisphere has its greatest tilt away from the sun. Although it is the longest night of the year, it marks the time when days become longer as daylight returns in time’s march toward spring.

Visitors are welcomed at the “Frost” entry by fluffy overhead clouds and the 30-foot-tall, moss-covered “Christmas Tree“ to which bromeliads and hundreds of handmade flowers are affixed. It took horticulturist Summer Tolan more than 60 hours to install.

When I asked about where to check my coat, I was told to keep it because part of the “Frost” exhibit is outdoors.

To the left, visitors enter a tunnel of poinsettias, created from more than 4,000 living white and dyed purple-shaded plants interspersed with real-looking artificial ones. It’s a delightful place to linger.

It was a bright and sunny December day, so I welcomed stepping outside.

Ornaments are hung on the trees around Geiss Terrace, and another tunnel laced with twinkle lights leads further into the gardens, which also are beautifully lit.

Returning to the building, I was greeted by decorated live trees, their piney fragrance filling the hallways and rooms. Area garden clubs have done them, and the work those clubs have put in is obvious. Many of the trees are ornamented with dried hydrangeas, dried onion relatives such as allium flowers and other delicate shapes.

There didn’t seem to be a contest among the more than 40 decorated live trees, but I would have given high honors to the Lyndhurst Garden Club for its effort, “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.”

I was eager to check out the gingerbread house competition, so I skipped the Madagascar and Costa Rica glasshouses for another time. But after my visit, I learned that several Red Bishop Weaver birds have been released in the Madagascar biome, and I later wished I hadn’t been in such a hurry to see the gingerbread houses, which have a 17-year history at the Botanical Garden’s winter show.

More than 100 creations fill a room, and some of the gingerbread prize winners also are displayed in the lobby, where children, especially, have a hard time keeping their hands to themselves.

The “Gingerbread Windmill” created by JoAnn Vanlunterer had a first-place blue ribbon next to it.

Although everything in a gingerbread house is edible, it’s unlikely any of them are eaten, tempting though it may be.

While it may be a stretch to connect many botanicals to the rest of the “Frost” exhibit, signs among the gingerbread houses tell about the plants making them possible. For instance, the “glue” holding gingerbread houses together is made from the juices of the sugar cane plant boiled to become molasses, sugar syrup or caramel, while marshmallows, which now are made with gelatin, originally were derived from the boiled roots of a swampy plant called the marsh mallow. And ginger, which had medicinal and preservative uses long ago in tropical Asia, became popular for gingerbread houses in Germany with the creation of “Hansel and Gretel” stories. Its roots, or rhizomes, now are found on supermarket produce counters everywhere.

My favorite gingerbread house was a dollhouse-like creation best viewed from both the back and the front. Wafers were used to create the staircase and bed with candy canes, pretzels and marshmallows making the furniture.

‘Frost’

Where: Cleveland Botanical Garden, 11030 East Blvd.

When: Through Dec. 31 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. December 24 and December 31; closed Mondays, including Christmas Day.

Admission: Nonmembers — $23 adult, $16 child on weekdays and $26/$18 on weekends; members — $10/$7 on weekdays and $12/$9 on weekends; groups of four to nine get $10 off at checkout using code FROST4.

Info: holdenfg.org/cleveland-botanical-garden or 216-721-1600.

The introduction of new dishes resulting from a collaboration between American Queen Voyages’ Regina Charboneau, the cruise line’s culinary ambassador, and America’s Test Kitchen was the occasion for the cruise between New Orleans and Memphis and I was invited along.

(See that story at bit.ly/miss-river-cruise-nh.)

Charboneau, one of this country’s best-regarded Southern chefs, came to the cruise line from several San Francisco-area restaurants she owned. At other restaurants in Alaska and in the South, she had created dishes that resulted in her being dubbed “America’s Biscuit Queen” by none other than The New York Times. Her recipes and techniques are unconventional but they’re delicious — and they work.

Her famous biscuits, for instance, are made to be baked frozen as they’re pulled from the freezer. And when food writers aboard the cruise were invited to her home kitchen in Natchez, she showed us a way to make omelets for a party by half-cooking them, then stashing six or more of them in a pan in the ‘fridge for finishing in a hot oven just before serving.

On the other hand, Boston-based America’s Test Kitchen, which produces a popular TV show of the same name, tests ingredients, techniques and even pans and knives to the nth degree. So the collaboration for the American Queen recipes is a study in contrasts.

But the results are nothing short of spectacular.

“Our recipes all are tested five times,” said Bridget Lancaster, co-host and editorial director for “America’s Test Kitchen.”

They work in a 53,000-square-foot test kitchen in Boston’s seaport district.

“We also have recipe testers who work at home,” she said.

More than 40,000 home cooks of all skill levels test recipes before they appear in ATK magazine, websites, books or on the PBS television shows. Interested in being a tester for ATK recipes? Visit bit.ly/atk-hometesters.

The new dishes aboard my cruise reflected ingredients and techniques from river towns served by American Queen Voyages on the Upper and Lower Mississippi and the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, as well as in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska’s Inside Passage.

Charboneau and Lancaster joined our dinners to answer questions.

The Louisiana-Style Cornbread Stuffing shared today can be used stuffed into a rolled turkey breast, quail, Cornish game hen or pork chops. It also can be baked as a side dish. It uses andouille sausage as a tribute to the many French-speaking settlers in towns along the Lower Mississippi.

Caraway Pork Chops paired with a savory Bacon-Mustard Potato Salad honor the German settlers from Upper Mississippi towns, while Soy-Glazed Salmon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Bok Choy showcases ingredients found along the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest while also celebrating its Chinese history.

Rib-Eye Steak with Bacon-Bourbon Compote and Mashed Potatoes pay tribute to the Ohio River’s rich Bourbon history, and the bacon jam is an unexpected savory-sweet steak topping.

Duck Leg Confit with its Bourbon-Blackberry Glaze takes inspiration from those dwelling along the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, the versatile topping adding a touch of sweetness to the dish.

“My favorite is the Fisherman’s Pie,” said Charboneau In a follow-up phone call after it had been served on subsequent cruises. “Everyone who tastes it seems to love it. With its golden-crusted mashed potato topping, it’s an elegant comfort food.”

She’s added lobster to the recipe of cod, shrimp and salmon that pays homage to the ingredients of the Pacific Northwest, where American Queen Voyages cruises Alaska’s Inside Passage.

“It also holds up well on a buffet.”

Get more information on American Queen Voyages at AQVoyages.com.

Recipe

Louisiana-Style Cornbread Dressing

(Serves 10 to 12)

Ingredients

For the cornbread:

1-½ cups all-purpose flour

1-½ cups cornmeal

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1-¾ cups whole milk

3 large eggs

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter plus 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

12 ounces andouille sausage

2 onions, chopped

2 green bell peppers stemmed, seeded and chopped

2 celery ribs, chopped

4 slices bacon, cut into quarter-inch pieces

1 tablespoon Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning (get it online)

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup whole milk

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

¾ cup chopped fresh parsley

½ teaspoon pepper

Instructions

For the cornbread:

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 425 degrees,

Spray a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with vegetable oil spray.

Whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.

Whisk milk, eggs and melted butter together in a second bowl.

Whisk milk mixture into flour mixture until just combined.

Transfer the batter to the prepared dish.

Bake only until cornbread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

For the dressing:

While the cornbread bakes, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add andouille, bell peppers, celery and bacon to the skillet and cook until vegetables are softened, about 8 minutes.

Add Creole seasoning and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Transfer the sausage mixture to a large bowl.

Turn out hot cornbread onto a rimmed baking sheet and break into small pieces with two forks. (Cooled crumbled cornbread can be transferred to zipper-lock bags and stored at room temperature for up to 24 hours.)

Transfer crumbled cornbread to bowl with sausage mixture.

Add broth, milk, eggs and parsley and stir to combine.

Transfer the dressing to the now-empty dish and spread into even layer (do not pack down).

Using the side of a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, create ridges about a half-inch apart on top of the dressing.

Brush the top of the dressing with the remaining 4 tablespoons of melted butter.

Bake until browned and crisp on top and heated through, about 35 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.

To make ahead:

After making ridges on top, cool the dressing completely if using hot cornbread.

Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours or wrap in an additional layer of foil and freeze for up to one month.

To serve:

Thaw overnight in the refrigerator if frozen.

Brush the top with melted butter and bake for about 45 minutes, covering with foil for the final 10 minutes if the top begins to get too dark.

— Courtesy of American Queen Voyages

Built in 1995 and carrying more than 400 passengers, the American Queen is a replica of the long-gone original paddlewheelers, but its details are very authentic-looking. Paintings of those older boats in ports such as Louisville, Pittsburgh, Mackinac Island and Cleveland are in public spaces throughout the ship.

My sold-out voyage was framed around food, celebrating the collaboration between “America’s Test Kitchen” with Regina Charboneau, American Queen Voyages culinary ambassador, to bring flavors of the six rivers sailed by the cruise line to dining venues.

“We delved into the culinary history of North America’s riverside communities to bring travelers a taste of the past and present, with recipes celebrating the diverse flavors of the various regions,” said Bridget Lancaster, co-host of “America’s Test Kitchen” and its editorial director.

The two women led daily cooking demonstrations in the ship’s palatial two-story Grand Saloon.

The collaborative dishes introduced on the ship’s menu included those from towns along the Upper and Lower Mississippi; the Pacific Northwest; the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers; and Alaska’s Inside Passage. Get recipes, learn more about the American Test Kitchen and American Queen Voyages and discover the women’s kitchen techniques in an upcoming story.

A drought in many of the 31 states that provide water to keep the Mississippi River flowing meant delays for our cruise as the river silted up and needed dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The many barges carrying freight backed up behind us as tinny notes from the steam calliope’s keyboard entertained those of us at the River Grill, perched on Deck 5 above the bright red paddlewheel carrying across the water to the barges. A reward of the delay was two nights spent in Natchez, where its sister ship the American Countess also was docked. Although it appears as a smaller version of the Queen from the outside, its interior is more like a modern hotel.

Natchez is home for Charboneau when she’s not aboard American Queen ships.

There’s not much to see along this part of the river because riverbank views are blocked by tall concrete levees built to prevent flooding and keep the river within its banks. This is rural cotton and sugar cane country, so settlements, which are further ashore, are few and far between. When the ship stopped so passengers could go ashore in St. Francisville and Natchez, it was secured to the levee and shoreside trees. Golf carts met passengers at the gangway to deliver them to buses for shore excursions.

An excursion with Cajun Pride Swamp Tours was my choice when we left the bus at the included Nottaway Mansion tour for an hour’s drive through sugar cane fields and through a meandering bayou absorbing overflows when rivers flood and change their course.

Upon arrival at the privately owned swamp, we boarded a flat-bottomed boat so our Cajun captain could share the lore of his people, who migrated to French-speaking Louisiana when they were expelled from Nova Scotia by the British in 1755. At first, his Cajun accent was difficult to understand, but our ears soon became accustomed to its musical French cadence, and we learned how “Acadian” in Canada became “Cajun” in Louisiana.

On cold days like this one, alligators customarily bury themselves in the mud, so our expectations to see them were low. But the reptiles are accustomed to being fed from the tour boats, and our captain lured them out with marshmallows. Raccoons competing for marshmallows from shore crept from the woods to steal them from the gators until the large reptiles crawled ashore to get their fill. We held our collective breaths fearing for the plump and furry raccoons.

“Alligators are territorial,” our guide told us, adding that hunting them is strictly regulated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He said many of those in the Cajun community live off the bounty of the bayous, valuing alligators as a valuable source of income for their meat and to make leather belts. But hunting license tags are issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service according to the number of alligators and the size of the area where they live. Fines are steep for those who violate the rules.

Later, on the bus trip back to the ship, another guide pointed out what appeared to be houseboats anchored beneath the highway, seeming suspended over the black bayou water. Basic and simple, they’re the year-round homes of the superstitious Cajuns and sport mirrors on their front doors to keep the devil away. Many believe in ghosts and apply their superstitions to their lives — such as believing the ends of a bread loaf should not be eaten or they’d never make ends meet.

It was Halloween, so ghost stories and other scary legends were shared.

That night, back aboard the ship, the Monster’s Ball, a gala Halloween party, drew costumed guests for a night of live-music revelry. Although the average age of passengers was likely in the 70s, many dancers recalled their rock ’n’ roll roots with lively moves and nimble footwork.

The American Queen, like other cruise line riverboats, structures shore time so passengers can join in seasonal celebrations ashore.

Lovely Natchez, although being shelled by a Union ironclad from the river, largely escaped damage during the Civil War. Historic structures are well-maintained, and the 14,000-person town goes all-out for Christmas with competitions among its garden clubs. Christmas markets are a seasonal treat where American Queen passengers buy sweet and savory foods to take back to the ship and quality handcrafts to bring home as gifts.

Travelers’ checks

To learn more about cruising the Mississippi and other rivers with American Queen Voyages, visit AQVoyages.com, call 888-749-5280 or contact your travel agent.

A life-sized and snow-covered Nativity outside the Historic Kirtland Visitor Center, 7800 Kirtland-Chardon Road, lets visitors know they’re at the right place.

This is the 20th year the annual Christmas season display has been organized by volunteers for Historic Kirtland, who have set up the many figures of the wise men, animals, Joseph and Mary around the manger holding the baby Jesus. They’re on two floors of the Visitor Center, central to the 1832 village restored and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A sign inside tells the story of how the tradition of Nativities, also called creches, was begun in 1223 in Italy when St. Francis of Assisi wanted to emphasize the humble origins of Jesus with a re-enactment of his birth in Bethlehem. Artists began to carve nativities, and the tradition came to this country in 1774 when Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was settled.

Before being paused for the pandemic, the annual exhibit attracted upwards of 10,000 visitors to Kirtland during the holidays. This year organizers hope to see 5,000 people. It’s free and open to all from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 7 p.m. Sundays through New Year’s Eve, when it will close at 5 p.m. Cookies and hot chocolate will be offered to visitors on Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m.

Scott Barrick, Historic Kirtland site leader with his wife, Shauna, showed us some of the exhibit’s highlights while pointing out many of his favorites.

New directors of Historic Kirtland, Scott and Shauna Barrick excited to help tell its story

Following him into the Observation Room, where windows reveal split-rail fences framing snowy views of historic 1830s buildings, we see a special Christmas tree in a corner.

“This tree, with its handmade ornaments, is here in memory of Louise Novak,” he says, showing us ornaments crafted from dried orange and apple slices, tiny birds’ nests and greenery tucked into eggshells used as baskets.

“Louise was a longtime volunteer who each year created a tree decorated like those created by our ancestors,” he said. “She died three years ago, so this year her family members came together here to create this tree in her honor.”

Beautiful porcelain creches, including a valuable pastel Nativity from Spain’s Lladro, are here.

An elevator ride to the second floor takes us to a children’s room, where little ones can play while parents browse the exhibit. Children may touch and rearrange the figures in these Nativities, as well as pose among kid-sized figures for photos in a manger scene.

DeAnn Draper of Chardon, one of the many volunteers who worked to catalog and place the hundreds of individual Nativities, showed us a collection of Balthazar figures loaned by Lawrence Hill of Cleveland. They are arranged along a hallway leading to the main exhibition space. Balthazar, one of the wise men, was black and attired as an Arab. One figure is astride a camel.

Check throughout the exhibit for varied depictions of the gold, frankincense and myrrh brought by the wise men following a star to reach the Holy Family.

The wall along another side hall has paintings, postcards and old-time Christmas cards hanging for easy eye-level examination. Among them are small and colorful oil paintings of Nativity scenes from Peru.

Don’t miss the framed collection of 90 years of Christmas cards saved between 1906 and 2008 by Cleveland artist and designer Viktor Schreckengost. Many were created by his fellow artists and are signed with familiar names. This low-key and almost hidden-away part of the exhibit is near a small Nativity made from Legos and created by Brady, age 7.

The largest second-floor exhibit space holds a Nativity from Zanzibar crafted from soda cans sliced into strips and bent to form a baby in a manger surrounded by wise men, an alligator and a hippo instead of a donkey and lambs.

‘Behold, the Savior of the World’

What: 20th annual exhibit of Nativities.

Where: Historic Kirtland, 7800 Kirtland-Chardon Road.

When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 31, when it will close at 5 p.m.

Admission: Free with free parking.

Info: ChristmasinKirtland.com.

A very human scale to life in Paris in the late 1800s makes personal the just-opened exhibition “Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work and Impressionism” at the Cleveland Museum of Art. That’s when Edgar Degas and his fellow Impressionists began to reflect contemporary urban life of the city rather than the conservative pastoral landscapes and still lifes of the earlier era.

The ballerinas for which Degas is best known are nowhere to be seen in this exhibit, which instead portrays the mundane tasks of laundresses in 100 paintings, early photos and ephemera from Degas and his Impressionist colleagues.

Laundresses at work were the backdrop of urban Paris in the last decades of the 19th century. Their effort is clearly shown in this exhibit.

It’s the first time these works from 30 collections have been seen together.

In Degas’ “Woman Ironing,” the painting used by CMA to promote this exhibit, Degas painted the arms of his favorite model, Emma Dobigny, as an outline to evoke the repetitive motion of using a 7-pound hot iron to press out wrinkles from fresh washed laundry.

According to exhibition curator Britany Salsbury, CMA’s curator of prints and drawings, this early composition preoccupied Degas for decades and rarely left his studio. It’s the first time this painting, owned by Munich’s Neue Pinakothek art museum, has traveled to Cleveland.

Although Degas used models for much of his work, some paintings show an almost voyeuristic approach to subjects, which the artist described as “peeking through a keyhole” to make it appear they didn’t know they were being observed.

Laundresses hauling their washing, hanging it to dry and then ironing it were part of the everyday backdrop of Paris when Degas and other Impressionists captured them doing their work.

Most laundresses worked to wash laundry in the Seine River, which runs through Paris, paying for space to wash the clothing, tablecloths, curtains and sheets in bateaux-lavoir boats on the Seine. Considered ugly and unhygienic, the boats were moved down the river to the edge of the city, where laundresses had to haul their loads up and down steep steps, all while minding their small children, who could not be left behind. Coal stoves — a burn danger to mother and child — were used to heat the irons they used, and the air inside the boats was smoky and humid. The work was so difficult, dangerous and poorly paid that many of the women had to supplement their income with prostitution.

Cleveland Museum of Art visits ‘China’s Southern Paradise’ via myriad pieces

While fetching laundry from the homes of more prosperous customers, the laundresses needed to enter those homes unescorted — considered highly improper and part of the reason for their dodgy reputations as sex workers. Until Degas began portraying the strenuous work they did, laundresses often were considered to be flirtatious and have loose morals.

In “Women Ironing,” Degas depicted the experience of walking down a Paris street and peeking into a doorway. He contrasted the strenuous labor of one woman with the yawning of another woman who holds a bottle of wine. Wine was often used to pay laundresses to offset the unpleasantness of the work. The same model was apparently used for both figures, Salsbury pointed out.

The proximity of many of the artists’ studios to the places where laundresses lived and worked helped the artists realize and portray their complexity.

A receipt from a laundry near Degas’ studio is one of the pieces of ephemera in the “Laundress” show. The artist used early photographs, displayed throughout the exhibit, to study motion and learn how to portray it.

“Laundresses on the Banks of the Seine With a View of Notre Dame” is a photograph from 1900 showing a pair of laundresses on the banks of the Seine with distant landmarks of Paris in the background. Landscape imagery played an important role in early photography by evoking painting through blurred focus and dramatic contrast. Placement of the women, close to the viewer but far from the city’s distant landmarks, reflects their characterization as figures who were important but who fit awkwardly into contemporary urban life.

Pierre Auguste Renoir’s “Laundress and Her Child” portrays Aline Charigot, the wife of the artist, holding the couple’s young son, Pierre. After being abandoned as a child, she moved to Paris and worked as a laundress in a shop near the artist’s studio. The laundry being hung by her co-workers in the painting’s background alludes to her occupation before the changes in her life as a wife and mother. The painting is from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s own collection.

Salsbury said the downward perspective in “Hanging the Laundry out to Dry” suggests that artist Berthe Morisot was viewing the scene from a window or balcony. Black smoke from distant factories shows the industrialization that had begun in the Paris suburbs by the late 1800s as laundry workers hang their clean linens in the foreground. The viewpoint suggests the contrast between upper-middle-class women such as the artist and the workers she depicted.

‘Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work and Impressionism’

When: Through Jan. 14.

Where: Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd.

Tickets: $15 for adults; $12 for seniors, students and children ages 6 through 17; free for museum members and children 5 and under. A $25 combo ticket is available through Jan. 7 for this exhibit and “China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta.”

Info: clevelandart.org or 216-421-7350.

Mediums — those who claim to be in contact with those on the other side — have plenty of history in their favor.

Samhain — when the dead returned to earth — was observed by the ancient Celts and others living in what now is Ireland, France and England and by their Druid priests, who built bonfires and wore animal heads to ward off evil. In the 400 years that the Romans occupied the Celtic lands, their autumn festivals merged with Samhain and a time resembling Halloween emerged.

Paranormal activity has been studied by many firm believers of hauntings, and Ohio’s Mansfield area leads in ghostly experiences. They’ve been chronicled by Travel Channel’s “Ghost Hunters,” Discovery Channel’s “Ghost Stalkers” and “Ghost Adventures” along with shows on Netflix, History Channel, Hulu and National Geographic.

That’s especially true of the old Ohio State Reformatory, also known as the Mansfield Reformatory, which housed prisoners for nearly 100 years. This Halloween season it is home to the “Escape from Blood Prison” tour.

The 90-minute “Blood Prison” experience, which continues until Nov. 17, and the 90-minute after-dark tours frequently sell out.

According to publicists tasked with warning the timid, only the daring descend into the suffocating blackness of The Hole accompanied by the ear-splitting wail of the Warden’s Widow. Maniacal inmates and deformed guards fill the twisting turns of the world’s largest free-standing steel cell block. The Haunted Hospital, Blood Prison Chapel and Apocalyptic area were updated for this year with more Hollywood-like special effects.

Pay extra, if you dare, to give your permission to be touched by the scare actors.

The Gothic, castle-like prison was designed in 1896 by architect Levi Scofield, who also designed the Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument on Cleveland’s Public Square.

In the 94 years it was open, more than 200 people died at the Reformatory, including two guards killed during prison-escape efforts. Their stories — and their supposed prison hauntings since they died — have been incorporated into the tours. The horror is intense enough that many tours are limited to adults only.

The self-guided tour using an audio wand or digital audio guide is the only one considered family-friendly and open to children. Kids must be carefully supervised at all times because many areas of the prison are not safe for those under 42 inches tall. Strollers and wagons are not allowed.

The Reformatory was ordered closed by federal order in 1984 after prisoners brought a lawsuit against the state citing overcrowding and inhumane conditions. The closing was delayed until 1990, when a new prison, west of the Reformatory, was built and opened. In that time, tiny cells built to house two people often contained three prisoners.

The prison was used as the Shawshank State Prison location for the 1994 thriller “The Shawshank Redemption,” starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins and widely considered one of the best films ever made.

One of the most popular options is the four-and-a-half-hour Shawshank Bus Tour, which includes a 90-minute “Hollywood Meets History” walking tour to explore “Shawshank” sites and those used in other films. The tour includes the West Attic, stories of inmate punishment, the sub-basement, the “Jesus Room,” the guard tower if weather permits, and the inner workings of The Ohio State Reformatory.

Given on select weekends through fall, it’s limited to visitors 13 and older. Public ghost hunts, available only to those 18 and older, give visitors the opportunity to accompany paranormal investigators.Learn about the development of the electric chair and see the actual chair itself on select dates when ”Old Sparky: Electric Chair History and Ohio Executions” is given. That 90-minute session, beginning with a sit-down PowerPoint presentation, is followed by a guided walking tour to see Ohio’s electric chair.

Travelers’ checks

Detailed information for visiting the Mansfield Reformatory is at mrps.org.

Ask questions about paranormal investigations by email to Kathy Feketik at kathy@mrps.org.

“Escape from Blood Prison” takes place from 7 p.m. to midnight each Friday and Saturday and 7 to 10 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 29. It frequently sells out, so advance online tickets are required and can be booked at BloodPrison.com, including $35 General Pass Timed Ticketing or Ultra Lightning Pass, which reduces wait time. A Touch Pass adds intensity, allowing scare actors to touch attendees. Gates open at 6:45 p.m., and food trucks are on site. New this year, “Beyond the Scare” tours are being offered in daylight, letting visitors see behind the scenes of Blood Prison with the lights on. Those tickets are available between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily at MRPS.org. “Escape From Blood Prison” is not appropriate for anyone under age 10, and pre-teens may find it too frightening.