Talkin' With Hal The Cajun Lady Accent

Tigs: Welcome to Tigs bits. We are pumped about this one and if your mouth isn't watering by the end of this conversation now we ain't got nothing for you. We're visiting with Miss Hal Lejeune, also known as Hal the Cajun Lady Accent on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. She has some amazing seasonings and her passion for cooking and vibrant personality makes her a must follow on social media.

She's fun. If you like to cook, she can walk you through that. She's taught me more than a thing or two just from watching her videos. And we seriously could not be more excited to have her on with us tonight. Let me bring in my buddy, my esteemed co host, Mr. Blossy, the one man posse. Where are you coming to us from tonight?

Man,

Blasi: I'm back here in props studios here, which is located inside of props brewery. Yeah, we have now created this is now that I told them they've got to stop brewing beer on the days that we record or if they do make sure they kind of get things out of the way because we have a show to do, you know, like

Tigs: that's right.

Yeah, it could get in the way, but

Blasi: no, it's awesome. They actually were in here brewing today. Earlier and you know, and this is where they do the brewing is the room that I'm in, they brew and then they transfer it over to these big vats that they have over here off to the side. So yeah, so cool, man. Just glad to be back here.

Thankful for the folks at props for allowing us to come in here and hang out and have fun. They

Tigs: always love props, appreciate them, but man, how pumped are you for this? This is so cool, man. This is so cool. Talking about this for, for a little bit of time. Um, Whenever I took a little gamble, I said, I'm going to send Hal an email.

I haven't, you know, let's, we want to talk to the people that we want to talk to that we find interesting. Those are the content creators that we are trying to go after and all that. And no one to me, I, like I said, I've learned so much from her videos and some of the things and, and we're going to learn a lot tonight.

I know that. Uh, so super, super jacked without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, welcome how the Cajun lady accent.

Hal: How y'all doing? How y'all doing? I'm so happy. I'm here too.

Tigs: We're going to pass a good time. We're going to pass a good time tonight. How We're

Hal: going to

Tigs: pass this through time. Even my North Louisiana accent can come through, and it will tonight. If there's ever been a contrast of the accents in Louisiana, this will be the show that you can watch.

Um, North Louisiana boy, South Louisiana girl ain't no doubt about it.

I can't use it. And just an

Blasi: Alabama boy just sliding in on the side.

Tigs: That's right. Go time. That's right. Get them out. Go Tigers. Go Trojans. Go Trojans. Fortunately, yeah, he's a Troy Trojans guy. So we're, we're, we're good over here with that. However, Jr, the handler who could be joining us, who knows, he may, may not.

We'll see. He's, he's busy. He's on the, he's on the road with Justin Moore right now. And then, uh, just, he's wide, wide open. So wait, but You never know with him. He may, he may slide in ever. No, he's the Alabama fan though. But with that said, he's a good Alabama fan. And, uh, he hasn't been, you know, he hasn't thrown it in, into my LSU face too, too much house.

So that's good. Always go. I'm

Hal: go tigers all

Tigs: the way. Hence the name tigs. Tigers. It's where it all kind of, my nickname came from that and all that. So yeah, definitely pro LSU, but they don't hate LSU. Well, I can't speak for Jr. I know Blasey doesn't hate LSU. We've had a lot of good, a lot

Blasi: of good times down there in Baton Rouge.

Like I think the last time I went there was 2017. That was a great trip.

Tigs: It was so fun. He loves to bring that one up. Anyhow, so yeah, Hal, we'll move on. I want to kind of, I kind of want to, I went through a process of this. I wanted to kind of go in order because I have so many thoughts, so many questions in my head.

I had to make an outline. So that it'll keep me in line and we can keep this moving and not just let my ADD squirrel Self go. So so I kind of just I wanted to start from the beginning how you're from Church Point, right? You're from

Okay, awesome. Tell us a little bit about your upbringing. So how did that obviously we know now we know you from tick tock and all of that and the social media person that you become. But how did that passion get started? I hear you talk about your mama a lot and all of that. So was it your home life growing up there?

How did that how did how did it begin?

Hal: Well, the passion for cooking, oh, my grandma and my great grandparents, both of my grandmas and my great grandparents always cooked. My great grandparents actually had a cafe. They, you know, they were old school. They grew all their food in the garden and brought it to the kitchen.

And as a, as a grandkid, a great grandkid, I was sitting on the side of the stove on the counter watching and helping. And so the love for cooking, I would, I would imagine started since I've been a kid.

Tigs: Yeah, it's what we do

Hal: and we're going to cook

Tigs: it to eat good food. That's a fact that is a, that is an absolute fact.

Well, that's something that you definitely in everything that you do, you bring that passion, you bring that energy and you just bring the know it. I'm just making that word up, but it is the know it that people have down here. You just know what to do with it. You know what, you know how to cook it, my neighbor,

Hal: but I just do what I do.

You know,

Tigs: that's right. My neighbor is, uh, from Crowley and she just whipped stuff up. and good lord, it's just the most amazing things. And she's just, you know, it's the same thing that you do when you whip it up for people, you know, and I'll say

Blasi: this though, how I've watched a lot of your videos and stuff and I don't know you personally, but what I can tell is the amount of, you know, to me growing up, I'm not, like I said, I grew up in Alabama.

And I grew up with my grandmother and my mother in the household and cooking and the love that goes into that food when they cook, you know what I mean? Like that, that's something that can't be like, you can't just create that, you know, and you got that special knack. I remember, I remember being a kid one time laying on my couch, my grandmother's in there cooking some fried chicken, like all kinds of other sides.

And I sat there smelling that chicken cooking and everything. And I remember thinking, I absolutely had this thought at like six, seven years old. I was like, man, life can't get any better than this. And ever since then, it's just like my passion for food and my love for food and what comes with it and the unity and bringing people together.

And I can tell that that's what you put across when you, you know, when, when you do what you do. So anyway, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm enjoying it. Can't wait to hear more about it here.

Tigs: Well,

Hal: now that you say that I'm going to tell you that, you know, Even as a grown adult right now, I can reminisce and think about to where I could even smell the foods that my grandparents would cook.

And that's crazy. I can be down in my living room and just thinking about what I'm going to cook next. And just think, man, I wish I could cook like this and I can just smell what my grandparents cooked. And that's just crazy. That's good memory. It's crazy.

Tigs: That's a great memory. That's the best memories.

I've got those too. It's great. That's exactly right. You just wish you could go back there and I'll get maybe that's what we do as we get older. We're trying to maybe recapture some of those core memories that we had when we were young just to kind of make you feel good inside. Maybe that's a little bit of something that we all do because I love to, you know, Obviously we wouldn't be talking about it.

All three of us love to cook. . I love to cook too. Cook a lot and uh

Blasi: oh, absolutely. I mean, even you, how, how you did that fried bologna video, you know what I mean? Simple as that is but you know how heartwarming that is. Yeah. Like, it's like, ah. I mean, it takes me back to the ketchup sandwich days when I'd get a piece of light bread that was a snack.

You know, it came in, I'm not starving. Just put some ketchup and a piece of light bread. Here you go. Not that it was great food, but the memories around that. Mm-Hmm. were just phenomenal, you know? So. That's

Tigs: awesome. I love that. I love that. What would you say? We're all on the same page here. For sure. What would you say, and we'll dive into your spices and rubs and all of that mixes and all that stuff here in a little bit, but what would you say right off the bat was your, is your favorite Cajun dish, uh, for lack of a better term, I guess you could say Cajun dish.

What was the favorite dish that you had growing up? What is something that brings That core memory back when you're sitting there. What what dish is that? You just oh That takes me right back. Rice and gravy. I've seen, you do. I have seen that passion on your videos with rice and gravy. So that totally makes sense.

I believe that.

Hal: Rice and gravy is the absolute, that's my death row meal. Death

Tigs: row meal, that's perfect. I love that. I love that. It's tough. It's tough to beat a rice and gravy, a good rice and gravy and, and watching you cook those, uh, they look so good. It's just, uh, I. I watched a lot of your stuff this afternoon, and it was terrible because I didn't have anything really good to eat without just making stuff.

And so I snacked on terrible stuff this afternoon. Just watching. So I was just getting so hungry. I've already pretty much seen all of your videos, but I was like, I need to go back and run back through it. I don't want to stay when I'm talking to talking to how And, uh, and, and caught, I did catch that definitely with the rice and gravy.

I went, okay, I think that may be her favorite. So I think that's what she entered the, uh, world food. That's

Blasi: exactly right. I tried to, and then it got flipped upside down on you a little bit, but I

Hal: didn't follow the directions, typical Cajun. We don't

Tigs: follow, I guarantee you. It was. Sound like freaking unbelievable though.

So yeah, no, let's talk, let's talk about that. So I know that. Just kind of the beginning. I know you won a golden ticket or something like that. Like you're in Willy Wonka and then how do you win the golden ticket? First of all, and then

Hal: first of all, I had no idea about the world food championship. I actually received a phone call from the owners of that sauce out of Louisiana.

Um, great people. I had never met them before. They had been following me, loved what I do on, on social medias and loves my personality. And. Said, um, I'm giving you a golden ticket to go and compete over there. And I literally said, excuse me. And I didn't say nothing. And they were like, are you there? And I'm like, no, y'all, y'all line.

I gotta go. I gotta go back to work. I almost hung up on him. As a matter of fact, we talked a little while and I did hang up on him. Then they called me back and they're like, how? And I'm fine at this point. I'm like, I don't understand what's going on. Like, I am so totally confused. You're like, no, we serious.

We want you to compete over there. And I'm freaking out like this. How does this happen to me? One week before that, I said, man, what I would give to be on the cooking channel. Okay. I love the cooking channel. What do I get to be on the cooking channel? And I tell them this and they like, this is better than the cooking channel.

It's the world food championship, biggest food competition in the world. And yeah, I went, so

Tigs: it was in, uh, it was in Dallas, right. Or Fort worth Dallas.

Hal: Yeah. And, and I entered as a, um, in the rice and noodle category, cause I was going to cook a rice and gravy and I entered my recipe as a rice and gravy.

And one, probably one week before, five days before we, we realized, uh, chef Johnny G calls me up. I was like, how, I think, I think we got this wrong. She was also in it as well. Uh, another inspiration to me. Um, she's like, I think we got this wrong. We need to redo your recipe. Um, something's, it's not going to work.

It's a rice and noodle category. You got to do a stir fry. I said, I don't want to do a stir fry. I want to do a rice and gravy. I said, well, fine. I'm gonna take my rice and gravy and make it a stir fry. And that's what I did. Yeah. I entered and made a crawfish etouffee. If I'd have known I'd have entered another category, the seafood category.

Tigs: Yeah,

Hal: it all happened for a reason. Um, and it was a learning process and you live and you learn. I live and I learn. And let me tell y'all, I had the best experience and I am so thankful that I went in, I know now what to do for next time. I did not come out, but I did. I had better than coming out the best experience that I could have ever gotten.

Yeah,

Tigs: I mean, that's awesome. You got to you think you'll get anoth you'll get to go back. Ho I

Hal: could, um, maybe not th I'll wait a couple of yea got so much going on, but give it another shot. Just year. I'd probably wait a

Tigs: listen to this. If you've I highly suggest you give to see what she does, espe She knows what the game is It's nice to know the rules of the game

Hal: So insane, it was absolutely wonderful I could almost cry thinking about it again.

Just, yeah, here's what happened is though.

Tigs: Yeah, for sure. It looked fun. I saw some of those videos of you recapping it. It looks stressful, very stressful. And, uh, you know, just riding a wave of, of, of stress to get it out. But I would imagine walking up with the plate that you had, you know, people are cheering in that line and they're, uh, that you had, You know, that had to be kind of like a surreal feeling of like, what in the hell am I, what is happening right now?

That's

Hal: exactly what was going on. It was so surreal that already I'm a nervous person and when I get excited, I, I mean, fast speed, that's 90 to nothing. And I took off with my, my plate. Um, and I, I mean, I literally take off after they all told me you have to go slow. And I was going fast and I had my sous chef on the side of me and she kept pulling me back, pulling me back.

She said, you have to go slow. I

Tigs: saw her hand on your back. Like, like she was kind of holding you back like a, like a caged animal. Hal was ready to go. Someone in the car that

Hal: was along the way was stopping me too. And I'm like, what's wrong, what's wrong? I'm trying to get there before my time runs out. And they're like, you are okay, slow down.

I just couldn't control myself.

Tigs: It's okay. You're excited. Hell, I would have been too, you know, I would have been too. So that's so fun. I loved it. I love that. I love that you got to go do that. It's uh, it's cool. You had your chef jacket on and everything to like just, I mean, it was, I'm one of those. I would love to go and I don't know if I don't know if I would last for longer than a day, but I would like to go to like a hell's kitchen deal or want it like a master chef kind of event and see what the hell I could do.

Now it would depend on what categories we had as to how screwed I would or would not be You know, but it would be fun to go just compete in something like that Any cooking competitions

Blasi: i'm sure it's not as big as the props brewery chili cook off that would be had back on the superbowl sunday

Tigs: I bet it's a really nice event.

Yeah, which I finished second place, you know next year Uh, you'll and we're gonna get to this but next year you will be using how's chili seasonings and that will take us to first place. So that'll push us over the top. It's awesome. Boom. There it is. There it is. So speaking of

Hal: food shows, I don't know if you're aware, but at the end of last year, I actually Got asked to compete on next level.

The next level boxes.

Tigs: Yes. I heard you mentioned that. And, uh, and I know I'm, I'm sounds like a major commitment, huh? You had to go away for like a month. Didn't you have to fly overseas or

Hal: something? I would have to fly overseas for, and I could have been away up to a month. And at the same time, they would have wanted me to go, which would have been the beginning of this year.

I had a trip planned. So, um, I could not cancel this big Disney trip. Um, that was prepared. Oh, yeah. Um,

Blasi: yeah Big time when you're when you're turning down stuff, you

Tigs: know me that

Hal: they would probably be reaching back out to me over the years So, well, that's

Tigs: good. Yeah, I bet they will they will and I mean, so, so the answer is definitely not a no, you will do it if you, if you've got some time and you can, and you're available, you know, I, I, you can't turn down a Disney trip, especially all the planning that goes into that.

And then, you know, like once you've made that commitment, cause I've been to Disney more than once. There really is no backing out unless you just eat it. You're going to, you know, like I can back out, but I'm going to eat everything that I've spent for this and all of that. They're in, there are no refunds with Disney.

So, you know, totally makes sense. Well, hopefully you'll, you'll get back on there and, and do that. And when the time's

Hal: right, I'll go to something. Uh, yeah, I have, I have faith and I have patience on waiting. It's nothing. I don't need to rush anything. So

Tigs: no, I love, I love that. That's kind of an approach that we've taken with our show too, is we're just going to get together.

We're going to press record and we're going to hang out and talk about the stuff that we like, that we're interested in and think things like that. Um, You know, I mean, if we, we want it to grow, we want it to do well, but we're not, we're not going to start doing crazy stuff just to get clicks, likes and views.

We're just going to be ourselves. I think that's the only, that's the main thing that you can do in any of this stuff. If you're presenting things over social media, you're having a show, you, you know, do whatever you, if you're not authentic and you're not yourself, then. People know that people know it quick.

Oh yeah. I read right through it. Pick up on it. But, uh, I wanted, I've got a question. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Blasi: no, no, no. I'm curious as we're sitting here and I'm looking at the name. How did you get that name? Like that's such an interesting

Hal: name, you know? Okay. So my nickname is Hal.

My brother could not say my real name since he's been a kid. Mind you, I'm 42 years old right now. And I have been called Hal since I've been. A freshman in high school from my teachers, principal, absolutely everyone. Um, that's what I'm known as. So, um, last year, I think, yeah, last year, 2022, the beginning of 2022, I decided to make TikTok.

But by the way, I hated TikTok. I never watched it before. I could not stand listening and seeing all these kids doing all these dances. They would never talk. It was just all this commotion everywhere we went. That's all I seen. I'm like. What is this? Like, this is not me. So I never got, I never downloaded the app.

I never did anything. And, um, my friend was like, just, just watch some of it. I'm like, no, I don't want to. Then, um, I ended up downloading the app and I started watching. She's like, they have cooking on there. You'd be interested in it. It's not that I don't like music. Cause I absolutely love music. I'm a retired DJ.

I absolutely love music, but I just didn't, I wasn't interested in seeing all this stuff they have cooking on there. I was like, well, let me download it and try to watch a little bit. Well, I said, whenever I was making a tick tock, it said that make your name. You can't change it right away. It lasts like 60 days or something before you could change your name.

So I was like, I got to make a name that. That i'm gonna be okay with you know, everybody's gonna see me So I just said well since i'm a cajun and everybody always says you got a bad accent. You got a flat accent Man, your accent is thick man. You're kajin. That's all I ever heard my whole entire life I'm, like, well, let me just name myself.

How the cajun lady accent. Okay, not even thinking nothing Okay, never even download this app to do the cooking videos just by the way. It was just to watch You Because, um, before I would download my cooking videos on, I wouldn't even download them when I would cook. I would get my Snapchat and just go over my part and say a few words and I put it on my Snapchat.

So only a few select people would see the hundred of my friends would see it. So there we go. I made how the Cajun lady accent on Tik TOK and on Facebook and on Instagram to follow afterwards. And, um, put one video. It kind of went crazy. I'm like, Whoa, put another one. It starts going crazy again. I'm like, wait, now I'm freaking out.

So I'm like, let me continue the videos. And I stopped for a little while. I said, I can't do this. And then everybody would reach out to me. Where are you? We want to see more videos. I'm like, this can't be true. He's got a big job and they kept on hounding me and messaging me. We like you. Where are you videos at?

Whatever. So I started putting more videos and. Never once intended for any of this to happen where I'm at today, a year and a half, almost two years later, never intended this, never expected it, man. That's quite understand. So thankfully I gave myself a name that I was okay with.

Tigs: Yeah. Well, that was smart.

I mean, it was smart to be like, you're kind of stuck. Let me, let me make a good decision here because you could have just gone with anything, you know, or let it pick. for you or whatever. Yeah, I could have put

Hal: out a crazy lady

Tigs: or something. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So no, that was, that was smart. And then it's easy to, you know, it's easy to say and to remember too.

And then it goes right along with, like, it all just connects. It's perfect. I think you, you nailed it.

Blasi: No, it worked out good. Hey, hey, and half. Like, like he said, it's TIGSBITS. So he started this by himself, got me to come on here once. This is a guest. And then myself came on and then our buddy Jr, who who's usually here.

We started doing it and we were thinking about changing the name because it's not just Tiggs because he's Tiggs and Then we kind of blew up with this DJ in Tampa. We'll talk about him later on but um The what's funny today? Fast forward It's such a funny name because it's Tiggs his nickname Tiggs and it's bit because he wanted to small little segments And that was it.

It was that simple

I got a tig's bit shirt on and this guy comes up to me. I've never seen him and his wife and they just start dying laughing. And they're like, I love that shirt. That's so good. And I was like, and I just laughed with them because that's what happens every time. And I was like, no, and finally I walked over there and I was like, you know, it's funny.

I was like, this was actually incidental. I was like, this is an accident completely. I was like, it's that, and I explained it and he's like, Oh really? I was like, yeah, but it kind of, every, as soon as you put a shirt on, you walk around, everybody giggles and laughs. So we'd like. I guess we're stuck with a name now.

It's like, we

Tigs: got to keep rolling. We can't change it. It's, uh, so people will misread the shirt. Obviously they get the T and the B's reversed and, um, it could create issues. So yeah, yeah. So we're going to roll with that. We have some ideas, some things we'll get there later, but my, my daughter, My daughter goes to LSU, uh, she's, she's a junior at LSU and, uh, she, she was wearing her TIGS bit shirt to class the other day and, and she, I didn't ask.

I, I, she just volunteered. She was like, I didn't get too many odd comments, dad. Just, you know, it was like, okay, well, thanks for wearing it. You know, I don't know if our demographic is necessarily the, the college kids, but Hey, they're smart if so. Uh, they would, they could learn something from us. What? I don't know, but they could learn something.

Learn how to be full of shit pretty much is what I think it is. Oh man. Well look, let's, um, let's kind of move on. I want, let's talk about, let's talk about the main course here. Let's dive into it. Uh, Hal, let's talk about your spices. You know, I see you have them, have all of them, uh, sitting right there with you.

That's not all of 'em, uh, . No, it isn't. And some of 'em, she says it is not all of them. Look before. Kind of before we jump into that, there's one thing that I, I definitely wanted to say. One of the things that I admire the most about you is your work ethic. I mean, there's no doubt you're pumping out videos pretty much on on the daily and they're not like videos that you took three weeks ago.

They're like something you did yesterday and then you put, you, you post it like your live poster. It seems that way. We'll get, we'll get to, we'll get to that. So, uh, but that is, that's the way that it looks. That's the perception is that, that how is, how do you have enough time in the day to To do what you're doing, you're working at Garrymont, you're selling pots and pans and hardware, you're selling and slinging seasoning all over the state of Louisiana and everywhere else, you're shipping it everywhere.

I mean, you may be in Manny, Louisiana, where I grew up originally from, I'm from Florine. We need to get your stuff in the flooring and P and K P and K and flooring. If you're listening to this, Belinda's, you're listening to this. We're putting Hal in there. I'm just telling you what we're doing. And if you need

Hal: to, because I traveled down to Toledo being quite often.

So y'all, there

Tigs: we go. That's exactly right. That's

Hal: exactly the new best stop. That's going to be opening up in Toledo.

Tigs: I'm pumped about that new best stop opening up, up there. It's been, we've needed that up there. We've needed a, you can't get boan in Sabine Parish. You know this. You've been up there. Wait, Sabine Parish, boudan, you can't get, how do, do you say Itan?

Boudan. We can't pronounce it that way. Look at Soudan. It's Udan Ang Boudin.

Hal: Yeah, you said Boudin. It's not Dan at the end. It's Udan Boan.

Tigs: Well, you can't get it in Sabine Parish, which is why we can't pronounce it. Okay. You couldn't get it. If you had it there, you might be able to pronounce it. And now, now, thanks to the fine folks at Bestop, we will, we will be having that up there.

So that's good. I'm happy to see it, see that finally, but you know, you can get some good hot tamales in Zawali How. I know you've been, yes, for sure. But anyhow, so let, let's talk about those seasons first. Uh, you know, what, what inspired them to, where did you kind of get the idea of we've moved on, I'm starting to get traction on social media.

People are paying attention. I'm cooking. How did you get to seasonings? Four

Hal: years ago, I actually was in the process of making a seasoning. For a cafe I was running and we ran into a few, uh, incidents with it of the manufacturer trying to make the seasoning for me. So I gave up on it. And by the way, it wouldn't have been labeled underneath me.

Anyhow, we labeled it underneath the cafe. So I moved on with it. So making a seasoning, um, it's been kind of in my mind for quite some time. And I'm going to tell you why, when I cook, I sit there and I put whatever seasonings I want to put in the pot. I just mix my stuff up rather than using a mixed seasoning.

Or if I did use a mixed seasoning, I used the one that didn't have a lot of salt. Cause I don't like all the salt in there. Right, right. Well, I started doing these videos. People started reaching out to me to use their stuff and I'm like, okay. And then I took a few and I'm like, I can't, I had to stop taking the people's seasonings because I already had in my mind that I'm making my own.

So, uh, and I didn't want to tell nobody because it was still in the making and I didn't want to release that. And then it got bad. Like people kept coming and bring me more and more. I'm like, look, I really cannot take it. I'm sorry. I had to eventually start telling people, nobody knows this yet, but I'm making my seasoning and it's going to be released soon.

So I'm sorry, right now I got to concentrate on what I'm doing. So I made it. I mean, why not? If I'm going to, if I'm going to do these cooking videos, when the people are asking for, they like them, they want them, I enjoy doing them. I want my own seasoning to go with it. Um, uh, and I always want to have something, uh, business running.

I'm a retired DJ of 15 to 20 years. I left that, I left that behind. Okay. So I needed something else to, to fill in, in the shoes, make me, make me work more. Basically I started in the kitchen and these are all my blends, my recipes, spent lots of money wasting in the kitchen, time, headache, frustration, till I got something that I like and hoping that the whole general public would like it as well.

And that's where we went with that. So I called up my local manufacturer, um, right down the road from me and rain, uh, parish foods. And I said, this is what I want, whatever, and make this happen. And we did, and it's going to be two years in October. I released it. So we a year and a half, almost a year and a half, and I have 17 products right now.

And that's not counting the doubles of them. Cause the one product I have it in three different sizes. So I'm not counting the duplicates of it like that basically. Well, 16 products. Cause yes, I have, you know, a bag of seafood bowl. Then I have it in the shakers, but yes, 16 products. And I'm fixing to release three more within the next two weeks.

Tigs: Oh, wow. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. We got a digs exclusive here, Al. If you want it, I'm ready. Drop it then. What are you, what you give it to him? Oh, well, I definitely will. I mean, yes, I definitely want the spices for sure. I want them for myself.

Hal: Yes. I'm I'm I'm about to tell y'all wait. I'll tell y'all this.

We're opening up a um a ball crawfish joint so it's gonna go with that. Oh,

Tigs: okay. I like it. I like that. I like that. Well, I, I think I know where I'm going to have to come and grab some content and check some stuff out. Oh, well, that's awesome. You know,

Blasi: this interstate out here on I 10 is wide open right now.

It lets me go left when I go

Tigs: up. Brother, you can be, you can, you can be in Church Point rain area within six hours from where you're at. Oh yeah, come to Church Point. Short six hours. Yep.

Blasi: Yeah, yeah. I looked, I looked at it on the map. I know exactly where it is there. So, yeah. I've been over there and hung out a little bit and part of the state and spent time in Pierre Part and down, even down in Morgan City and obviously in Baton Rouge.

So,

Hal: yeah. Speaking of Pierre Port and all of that area. Yep. Yep. So down there, that's where everybody thinks I'm from.

Tigs: That's what it sounds like. Yeah, I could see

Hal: that. I want to clear it up a little bit for everybody. I'm not from down the bayou. That's where my accent is from though. And I can't control that.

Tigs: That's right.

Blasi: That's what I was thinking. Cause I spent like two days in pier park and some weird, I was chasing a camper. That's another story on another day, but I spent two days down there. When I heard you talking, I was like, man, that reminds me of that trip to pier park when I got down there. And it was so bizarre.

It was such a, like I'd entered into a different world.

Tigs: Country

Hal: about me. Whenever I get, whenever I do videos, I don't know why I'm loud. So I'm excited when I do my videos. So I started hollering in my camera and the more I'm loud, the more my old Cajun accent comes out is crazy. Exactly.

Tigs: And

Hal: I already talk loud.

Like in general, if you're going to stand in front of me and have a conversation, I'm loud. So, and I, I noticed the more that, that, that Cajun accent

Tigs: comes out. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I can't help it. It's like, as soon as I do the same thing and it's like, I'll test microphones setting up and stuff. And then I'll just sit here and I'm talking, I'll, I'll read something.

And then, then I go on and it's like, but anyway, so here, I just can't. Way hotter than

Blasi: that test. Way hotter

Tigs: than that test. Always. Always. Way hotter. So if you got it just right at the test, turn it down more. Cause it's good. You're going to come in hot. Yeah. You're getting way more excited. For sure.

Absolutely. That, that was one of the questions that I had for you was how long was your process of dialing those things in? Because I've had other friends of mine that have made seasonings, more barbecue rubs and stuff like that. Not really. Not really exactly everything that you have at the moment. Uh, I've got a feeling you may stop me and tell me that you have that coming to,

Hal: uh, I am working on several other products for about the last eight months that I'm just not happy enough with yet to release.

So stuff like that is in the making and I have a spaghetti and a chili. I have more dips in the making and stuff like that.

Tigs: So, yeah, I can't wait. Um, I was telling my wife she saw she saw one of your one of your clips that was talking about the spaghetti and the chili or just where you were you were restocking somewhere and you were showing it and and she's and she in fact she tonight she was like I still haven't made this dip.

I'm like well I have it now it's a prop for it. It's a prop for tonight. Huh? You

Hal: got that you got my dear?

Tigs: Yeah.

Hal: So I forgot to grab a pack of spaghetti. I was wanting to show y'all, but it comes in the same bag. My spaghetti and my chili bag too. I can maybe grab some spaghetti and chili in a second to show y'all.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tigs: Yeah. That'd be awesome. Um, but I want to, I want to try them. I haven't tried the dip and all. So let's dive into that. Let's start there. Let's start with this, with this awesome Cajun mild dry dip. What do you do with this? I mean, follow the instructions and. Yeah,

Hal: and I'm fixing to change the label to say Cajun spicy because obviously they got some kick to it This has my seafood ball in it It's not gonna make you stop eating it a lot of the older ladies tell me it makes them keep eating it They can't get enough It's got some heat, okay Ball in it and and you're on the directions on the bag you can put Cook crawfish tails or cook shrimp or crab meat.

It depends on what you want. I've had friends that actually make this dip and take it to the crawfish bowl and then they dip their crawfish and their potatoes and their corn. Ah, yeah. And I was like, that's not what it's made for. But I actually tried it and it was good. It was different. Yeah. So, um, and if you don't wanna add any of that, you don't have to, you know, keep it to a cheaper rate.

But it is just better with extra with all that. It has the flavor of the, of the seafood in here, whether you put it or not. And if it's too peppered, this is what I tell everybody, add more sour cream and mayo, make it go further.

Tigs: Dilute it a little bit. That makes, yeah, totally. That makes sense. I can't wait to try it.

Just have it. Since I picked it up. We haven't had a haven't had a chance to to try it yet But I have used the fire out of the cajun two step and the zydeco but the two step Yes, uh, I love the two step. I've absolutely freaking love it

Hal: It's been a good seller. Um cajun spicy two step is my spicy So my cajun waltz is my is my basic cajun seasoning.

It's all purpose Cajun spicy two step is the same thing Basic Cajun seasoning, but it has a lot more fire in it. It's going to make you two step. It's going to make you get up and dance.

Blasi: My

Hal: names and my seasonings kind of have music related. As I told you, I was a retired DJ, but I love music and I love our Cajun heritage and culture.

Yeah,

Tigs: that was one of the things that I was going to ask later was about music, because we obviously we talk a lot about music on on this show with J. R. and in his role as being a tour manager, uh, that totally makes sense. I was going to ask, how'd you get the names? Duh, I hadn't even put that together.

How sometimes canes get, things could just be right there in front of me. And I just look right on past it. Like, no, that's too easy. No, no, of course. That's what it is.

Hal: Occasional Waltz is a slow dance, right? It's like a jitterbug. I just didn't name it that because that name is coming soon. What's up,

Tigs: man?

Oh, there we go. Creole Zydeco. We're gonna

Blasi: do the Zydeco is on the way. You know, my Creole seasoning

Tigs: has a lot of different flavors. Yeah, I have the Creole. I have the Creole Zydeco as well. What is the difference in it and the Waltz and the Two Step? The Two Step being the hottest, the spiciest. Cajun

Hal: Waltz.

But what's the Two Step? Cajun spices, two step basic Cajun seasonings, just your red pepper, black pepper, you know, your paprika, your salt, your garlic. Creole, zydeco, this one has a lot of spices in it, and I'm not saying it's spicy, it has a lot of flavor in it. You know, you have your basil. Coming from a lot of

Tigs: directions.

Hal: A basil, oregano, thyme, a little bit of cinnamon. Yeah, herbs and things. With everything else included, different ratios on everything, so that's why it's called that. You know, Creole seasoning, Is known to have a lot of flavor in it. Yeah. I don't like oregano. It's not that it's not going to overpower you with oregano.

It just it has so many different flavors in there. You're gonna like it. I'm not Honestly, I mixed my creole with one of my cajuns together all the time. I don't like a lot of salt So mine are kind of kept lower to low sodium. Yes

Tigs: That's what I love about them is that they're not over they're not over salty at all their flavor.

They're full of flavor I've been using the, um, I've been putting the Creole Zydeco on chicken. Uh, I love, I cook chicken thighs probably, probably once a week. I have a pellet grill. I'll, I'll, uh, just grill them, turn it on and grill them. It's the easiest thing in the world. And they taste so good there cause they're chicken thighs.

But I'll marinate them with the Cajun zydeco and then I go over and give it a little brush of the two step I don't go too heavy handed because my son won't eat it It's too hot if I do it i'll marinate it all with the Cajun two step or uh, spicy two step It will it's too much for him So I kind of kind of balance it out a little bit to get a little bit of that kick But still have that's what it is.

You just explained it. I was trying to think It tastes kind of like another chicken rub that I use in a way, but it's because it has a lot more of oregano and different herbs in it. And basil and thyme. And keep in mind. Exactly. Exactly.

Hal: Those three are my all purpose seasonings. You can use it on absolutely everything.

And I'm going to tell y'all a few secrets. The Creole Zydeco is absolutely amazing on watermelon.

Tigs: On watermelon? Oh,

Hal: wow. I was thinking about that. Did you realize I had a Mexican Fiesta seasoning?

Tigs: I have. I wanted you to tell me a little bit about it because I haven't been able to, I haven't been able to try that yet.

So talk to us about

Hal: that. A few people are probably confused why a Cajun like me came out with all these Mexican products because I do have three. The Mexican Fiesta Seasoning, a Mexican Fiesta Dip and a Mexican Fiesta Cracker Mix. So if you read the back of this, it's in memory of my uncle. My stepmother is Hispanic and her and her family taught me how to cook, you know, the Mexican dishes that I do cook.

So, um, I asked them, Hey, tell me what will be y'all favorite mixtures of a seasoning. What do y'all use mostly when you cook? She told me, I made a blend, I actually shipped it off to Texas for her to try, because she lives in Texas, and make sure it was right. And this one's gonna be the one that has the most salt.

I have 170 milligrams salt, where my other ones have 120, 140. You know, you have to have a lot more salt in a Mexican dish. Yeah, yeah. This is why I did this because I like to cook my Mexican dishes as well. And I want to change the game up. I want it to be different than what you mean.

Tigs: Yeah, I love it. So,

Hal: um, that was lost at the, uh, Secor power incident a couple of years ago.

I don't know if y'all

Tigs: remember hearing about that. Yeah, man. Um, do, what do you, what dishes, what dishes do you make with that? What's your favorite things that you would make with that, with the, uh, the Fiesta seasoning?

Hal: So I like to do, um, like, let me see, I just did the, like, chicken tacos and Spanish rice, but whenever we do anything fajitas, anything, anything Mexican, you want to turn, you want to just bake a piece of chicken and you want it just to have a different taste because you're tired of the same old taste, just throw my Mexican seasoning on it.

Tigs: Yeah, that's what I was, that's kind of what I was thinking. It was like, well, you can put this on anything just to have a little different, see what happens. Pagans

Hal: like gumbo, Mexicans like menudo and caldo. Okay. I'm going to be doing some recipes with that at some point whenever can catch up. And that's where my Mexican season comes into effect.

I'll be using a lot of that in, in a menudo. And a cow, though, which is like, um, it's like a gumbo, but, but different obviously, you know, soup, vegetable soup, but a little different.

Tigs: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that'll be cool. That's awesome. Um, one of the questions that I had is how competitive is this spice game? Right now because I I saw you did a video with with the guy.

I can't remember his name I know he has a lot of followers on tiktok. I started following him today because of your video Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, he has lines of spices miss pat I I see that you use a lot of Other, for lack of a better term, competitors I guess they have. I know, and you know, that's cool.

I love that. I love that. I love that. I mean, I know, I thi I know, we know 'cause we live in Louisiana, that that's just kind of like part of the culture of how we are, you know, like we're not gonna bad mouth each other. It can, you're not the only person on you might be

Hal: wrong. They will be bad mouth. Okay.

Okay. I see it. I do see it. You do see it? I'm not gonna do it, but I see it. Rather, we're all just going to support and, um, the, the season in game is very much competition in Louisiana and definitely all of a sudden, like in the last year, just like, yeah, I feel like after I released the season and it just got way worse and probably in the last six months, but it's just like, um, everything else that's being released everywhere else, you know, there's competition on everything.

That's

Tigs: right. Absolutely. There's always competition. Everything, you know. That's right. Yes.

Hal: I do support some of, most of, um, my other competitors around me. Um, I support 'em and people freak out over that. They don't understand it, and it's maybe it's not for them to understand. If they don't understand. I, I know I, I'm doing what I, I I feel I need to do.

And, um, that's right.

Tigs: Yeah. And that's all that you can do. You know, you gotta do what you feel is. And I mean, I think it shines through. You can still like other people's stuff. There's, you know, I I've, the reason I ask a lot of these questions is I've dabbled with the thoughts of having a barbecue sauce because I'm more of a, I'm more of a barbecuer, you know, I like briskets and smoking meats and stuff like that.

That's kind of more, more of where, where I'm at. Um, but, but that was, that was really, I wanted to kind of just feel out how, you know, how you get to this point to make these, to start making all this stuff and just get to where you get, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's awesome. It's

Hal: addicting. Just to let y'all know, it's addicting.

It's bad. My mind constantly thinks about my next step, what I'm going to do now. Can I do this? Will I do it? Will it be worth it? I don't know. I don't care. I'm still gonna do it. We're gonna give it a try. If it ain't worth it We're gonna drop it

Tigs: that kind of leads me into some social media questions for you.

How I've kind of along those same lines of You built it you have so many videos, you know that we're able to see they're they're constantly coming out at least that are released What is your social media schedule like because I know on our end how just running a show You You know, we do this, we, we have our long form content and then we'll chop it up and, and put it out into little shorts and all that.

It's extremely, extremely, as you know, time consuming to do all of that stuff. I'm working a full time job. I sell insurance places, places, working a full time job. You're working a full time job as well. How is your schedule for, how do you get all of this stuff done on social media and work a full time job?

What

Hal: schedule? Y'all have schedule?

Tigs: Okay,

Hal: so, no, because I don't even know. I'm still trying to figure it out. So, you, you stated earlier that um, you felt like my videos were done and posted immediately. I wish it was like that. Almost, um, probably if I post 10 videos, maybe 5 of them are done that week.

That's what y'all don't realize the social media thing or maybe no y'all might realize that the social media thing ain't a hobby no more It ain't a game no more. It's a job

Tigs: It's a fact

Hal: My video and I do all my video and then I turn around when I have time And sit and edit it. I still have videos from eight months ago on my phone, way at the top of my camera roll that I haven't edited yet.

Tigs: And that makes me feel so good

Hal: because I'm like, Oh my God, now it's so long. Should I redo the whole video? Where do I store it? I don't even know what to do. It's a whole job. And if I have to reach out to somebody and have somebody do all my editing, I don't think I would even, it would work out because.

I would still be at him with I don't like it. I would still have to tell him what I want, you know Um, that's exactly right I I try i'm behind but I try and I try to get one video posted a day And if I would do more and probably go live more, I probably would have a bigger following. If I would do a cooking video every single day, I would have probably a larger following because that's what they want, my cooking videos and my food reviews.

Yeah, so is

Tigs: that what you've kind of found looking at your demographics? It's those videos that pop, you know, that you and you're going to get

Hal: the most hits on. When I just do some kind of crazy video, whether it's I did as a joke, a few weather videos, like not nothing planned or intended to. I did some crazy wet weather videos as the Cajun lady, whether Cuyon, whatever Cajun lady, I remember seeing these things to go.

I looked like a hot mess. I ran out in the rain, got soaking wet. My hair was a hot mess. The wind was blowing me everywhere. I posted this video and the videos went viral. I'm like, what in the shit, like, I do anything that acts crazy. When, when I act my crazy self, they like it when I cook and I do food reviews.

And now, now they're starting to interact whenever I post a video of where my products are. Cause now they want to tell me, well, it's not in my town. I want it in my town.

Tigs: That's that's where you want it. That's awesome. That's what you want to see to start, start to happen.

Hal: Formal public apology while everybody's watching and

Tigs: listening.

Here we go. Breaking

Hal: news, breaking news. Trust me. I have tried and tried and I keep trying. I will try my best to respond to everybody's comments and messages, but it is hard. It is just me. I do not have anybody hard to do any of this. But I do appreciate everybody's support. Continue love and support makes me keep going.

That

Tigs: is awesome. That is for sure. I don't know. It's crazy. You're doing all this. Yeah, I don't know how you were going to tell me

Blasi: that you had like somebody who's a friend of yours that does all the editing and you're doing this, you're focusing on this. That's crazy. You're doing everything. Kind of reminds

Tigs: me of this guy on the show, you know,

Hal: like if I, if I'm, if I don't have my camera stand and I need somebody to follow me around on video, I do have help, but most of the time I just pop it on a camera stand or.

Hold it in my hand.

Tigs: Yeah. You're nailing it though. I love it. I love, I think that's part of what, how, what, why people resonate with you, though, it's not overproduced. It's not like here I am trying to get right here and have this exact perfect angle and yeah, all this stuff. No, this is just what it is.

You're yourself. You,

Hal: and that's how I am with my meals, my cooking meals. I don't, I don't make sure that I have every single vegetable that's needed because let me tell you, you do not need all these vegetables. When you cook, you can get by with just onions. In your gravy, you can get Bob just onions in a meal and if you ain't got onions, it's okay, too Yeah, you ain't gonna die.

You're gonna still enjoy your

Tigs: food That's right People make way too big of a deal out of this stuff How you know like they get so precise that is one thing that I have loved about watching your cooking videos You're not getting precise. You're just, you're like, I don't measure. We don't measure. You know us Cajuns, we don't measure.

Like, yeah, well, no, I know that's the way that my grandma, yeah, my grandma was the same way. Now my mom knows she's a measurer. I'm, but me, I'm not. I don't measure. At

Blasi: all, you know. I'm measuring it in my brain, like if I'm doing it. Yeah, that's how I feel about

Tigs: it. Yeah, so

Hal: speaking of the measuring, I'll go ahead and let y'all know this can be exclusive.

I am working on a cookbook, but it's hard Because I don't measure

Tigs: and Yes, so it's very difficult. That's very difficult. So how are you breaking that down? Are you do you have like a scale? Like, do you just put it together? I'm going to put this much flour, whatever. And then you have to take that, put it on a scale so they can measure it.

Hal: I'm using measuring cups and when it comes down to the seasoning, that's where my cookbook will be different. You will not open up my cookbook and say, it's going to need a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon, a half, a half a spoon of red pepper. You're not going to see that. My measurements will be different.

It's going to be seasoned to taste. Season how you like, because that's, you cannot put seasoning because you may not have to handle the pepper that the next person on the side of you can handle. So that's right. That's extremely hard on anybody reading a cookbook. If I read cookbooks, I'm not going to go with half the recipes.

I see when it comes to seasoning. Cause they're too bland for me. I need more seasoning. You know what I'm saying?

Tigs: Exactly. That's

Hal: very true. It will not be a professional cookbook. It will definitely be a Cajun country cookbook.

Blasi: Oh man, I can't

Tigs: wait for that. I want to buy it sight unseen. I want it. I

Blasi: hope it comes out.

It's soon like two shakes of a lamb's tail, speaking of non measuring,

Tigs: right? Let's get that out quick.

Hal: I hope I can get it done before the end of the year, but I don't know the rate I'm going. It's not looking too good.

Tigs: Are you working? Yeah.

Blasi: I mean, I don't understand why you can't get it out by then. It's crazy.

You don't have anything else going

Tigs: on. No, I know. Sitting around all day. This shouldn't be a problem, Hal. Get on this.

Blasi: I can't believe how much, you know, it's funny. You're describing all this and let's just go back to what you said earlier. This was 2022 and all the kind of just even started this thing, but 2024, you know what I mean?

Like, how did you, I mean, it's mind blowing. You've done this in this short amount of time, forget, I mean, 16 seasonings more to come. Like that's, that's mind blowing that you're, that you're this far, like along the way, like that's crazy. That's crazy commitment on, on your part. How much do you sleep? I bet you don't sleep more than four or five

Tigs: hours a

Blasi: night.

I

Hal: don't know why everybody keeps asking me that. Everybody wants to know when do I sleep. I don't know because when I'm sleeping, that's all I think about. I freaking dream about. What I'm going to make next, how I'm going to do this, what I'm going to do. And it's terrible. It's terrible. Y'all it's bad.

It's an addiction.

Tigs: No, it's not. That's I can tell. That's your passion. That's your, you're highly

Blasi: committed. You're like the Elon Musk of this whole Cajun cooking

Tigs: situation. You are. Taking it over. I love it. But it's that drive. Where did that work ethic really, where, where do you think that started? Did that start back when you were a kid and just kind

Hal: of.

It's from, it's, it's, it's in the blood because I've been told my whole entire life from a. Great aunts and, um, my aunt, um, that my great grandparents and my grandparents on, um, my father's side were absolutely workaholics. And, and that's some of the cooks too. Um, they just never stopped hard worker just, and I've been told that numerous times on that.

So it's definitely in the blood. Um, and, and it's, it's from my father's side. I got, I got, I gained everything from my father's side from, so, um,

Tigs: Well, that's a good attribute to have. . I mean, it's not a bad, yeah, it is not a bad thing to have at all, but it's, it's great. It, it shows that, that hard work that you're grinding, I mean, I, I, you're getting those cases of stuff in and then you're delivering them yourself, you know, to a lot of these places.

And that takes time, you know, Being a lot

Hal: more certain if I gave it to the distributor, but I did turn about five down and i'm currently um working with some to try to see who i'm going to deal with because I will have to get into the distributor because these Stores are coming at me from everywheres.

Tigs: And yeah, I mean, there's only one of you and you can only drive so many miles in a day Did I miss that? So

Blasi: you're you're shipping direct to all the You All the places that are selling it. Well, my distributor,

Hal: no, I don't have a distributor. I'm doing everything on my own. And if you go on my website, I think I'm in 30 something stores right now.

Not to mention, I didn't rush out to these stores, probably five, six, seven of these stores I got with and seen if they wanted my products over the last year and a half, if y'all only knew and understood it, I could be so much further than stores if I would get up and go, but I put my work, my everyday work first.

as a, this is just a side thing, a side gig. And, um, so I got to concentrate on work cause that's what brings in the bread. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. I delivered. If I give to a distributor, I will be foreign out. I've spoken with brookshires, Rouse's I'm trying to get into HEPs and my next step right now, um, brookshires probably wants me.

They, they saying, and so does Rouse's, but I need to be with a distributor. So y'all going to see me in the, in the near future and a lot more places. The reason why I'm not now is because I just don't want to let go of my product to anybody

Tigs: at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. It's your baby. You brought it up all this time and stuff that you've spent.

And you know, it's hard to just, here's, here's my baby. Go, you know, it doesn't matter about the money and all of that stuff. It's like, yeah, but you no longer get to control it. I don't know

Hal: where I get to control it and let y'all know where it's at. That's what freaks me out. Let everybody know where my products

Tigs: are.

And dude, I can totally, that would be, I could see, I can

Hal: see that I made, so I want to have control over. And I know once I jumped, I let it loose with a distributor. There's no more control.

Tigs: So. Right, like even if you, if you were to go with like a distributor, would you then be able to put it on Amazon or Walmart?

I can go on

Hal: Amazon now. I turned two people down. I don't want to go on Amazon at the moment because I have a website. Why would I need to go on Amazon? Yeah,

Tigs: they drive people to your website.

Hal: It's extremely cheap and fast. I ship out within a day.

Tigs: Yeah,

Hal: yeah. That's if I go to Amazon, I got more fees involved.

I'm not saying I'm not going to do it, but I am saying, I'm not going to be in Walmart. So everybody looking for me in Walmart, it's never going to happen. I'm sticking to the locals, the mom and pops, and not just locals. Cause I am in several other States. I want, I want the, the small mom and pop box stores.

I'm not, I'm going to stay away from the big box stores. Like Walmart is what I'm saying. Right. Right. I'll get into, you know, your grocery stores and stuff like that. This is awesome.

Tigs: Perfect. Perfect. That is awesome. Um, well, we're kind of, we're getting in nailing in on an hour. This has been an easy, like I told you, we get, I had a feeling that we would get to an hour and we'll, we're not, we're, we still got a little bit more to talk about.

We'll start to do more. So yeah, yeah. But we'll, we'll begin to, to wrap it up. Um, Blasey, did you, do you have any? Now what,

Blasi: you know, she said a while ago, like talking about how you're saying, like, this is what you're doing. This is where your passion, this is what you're growing. But then there's this other job.

Can you tell us a little bit about this? Like what you're, what, what pays the bills right now? Cause I know, I think I've been digging in on that a little bit and getting a little excited about two or three items on

Tigs: that website.

Hal: So, so I work at Gary Mott, hardware where we specialize in cookware because when I say hardware and nobody's interested, but when I say cookware and I'm talking about specialize in cookware.

You like to cook and you want some cookware, then you need to come down and visit us. And if you can't make it to RAINN, we got a website for you too. But I have literally have customers that drive, I've seen it all the time, 16 hours away, 6 hours away, 10 hours away, 12 here, 4 here, 3 here, they do it all the time.

We have a large selection of cookware and um, That's it. So I concentrate on that. I do all the, um, by the way, all the voicing and videos facing all that. You're going to see me as the voice and face of this business. You'll see plenty of videos out of there. Yeah. So not only do I run all my social medias, I run all their social medias too.

Tigs: So all over the place. Wow, holy cow. Well, I do. I, I follow them too on, on tick tock and watch, uh, watch those videos. One of the, one of the videos that I showed my wife, this Last night or Saturday was one with when you're showing off all the different sizes of the different pots, the Dutch ovens, all of that in the What is it?

McQueen. McQuare. McQuare

Hal: is the magnolite alternative.

Tigs: McQuare. Yeah. So any, first of all, what makes that kind of a pot so daggum good? Why are they so good? Cause they, I mean, I've got, I've got magnolites and I cook in them and I love them. But what is it about that? Why do they cook so

Hal: good? It's a, it's a thick aluminum pot.

That holds the heat well and spreads the heat evenly throughout the whole pot. Okay. And, um, mostly the problem with that right now is that Magna light was the big thing where we all grew up and our parents and our grandparents, so they discontinued, they got discontinued. And right now in everyday life, the big thing is.

Manalites, the fight over Manalites, you'll see people selling and buying Manalites all over eBay for six, 700 a pot. Well, I'm not paying that much for a pot. I have real Manalites, real Manalites too, yeah, but. Um, this McWare is my light alternative and I'm fine with that. If somebody wants to give me 600 for my Magna lights, well, then come on over because I'll

Tigs: come on.

Hal: I mean, I love my life, but for 600, I could buy me eight more pots. And I'll have a contradiction too, is I got a bunch of pots. I don't even use them often, but

Tigs: I bet you, I bet you've got a stack of pots. I mean, how would you

Hal: not have shells outside in my shop with pots? So, yes.

Tigs: How, uh, how long have you been working

Hal: there?

Um, I've been behind the scenes there for over 10 years and just really started going inside and full time, um, around the time that COVID hit, which is, you know, 2021 probably.

Tigs: Okay. Okay. So you, you said that you DJ'ed and, uh, what did you, what'd you dj? What were you, what'd you do? Oh,

Hal: we DJ bars, weddings, parties, everything.

That's okay.

Tigs: You did like DJ and DJ and weddings and all that kind of like party stuff, party DJ, DJ, DJ

Blasi: on demand. Yes.

Hal: I started DJing when I was, uh, in, in middle school, uh, out, out of. On a jam box, you know, I was always the one playing music at the little parties and in the vehicles in high school. And then after high school, just decided to start that bought some equipment.

I know it's crazy. It's a woman DJ, but they've got a lot of men. Um, I mean, we did it for a long time and it is fun and good, but I'm, I'm kind of glad COVID shut us down on the boards because that's when I decided to, you know, hang it up and start this new adventure, which is a lot more fun, like a lot more fun.

Yeah.

Tigs: Yeah, but now I think you probably have, you probably have more pressure because you're putting that self internal pressure on yourself just because every day is a new day and you want to just keep that sucker growing, you know, I'm We understand that. Blasey and I both understand that. Trying to grow the show a little bit.

Hal: I have notebooks written down in, um, what I need to cook. Um, I have notes in my phone with what I should cook. I have, it's, it's an ongoing thing. I have so much that I want to get out. I just wish that, that I had more time. That's, that's what's killing me right now at the time. Um, What I keep saying, I'll get caught up one day, but, um, in the meantime, I'm going to keep making, um, all this seasoning for y'all, all the cooking videos, and I have merch too, and that's all on my website and stuff.

So

Tigs: that's right. So how can everybody get to your website? How, what's your website?

Hal: My website is how the Cajun lady accent. com. I'm a. com. So it's not hard to find and it's how the Cajun lady accent, which is on all of my social medias as well. But, and, and if y'all not, if y'all confuse my, my, uh, seasoning.

Uh, name is It's cooking with how the Cajun lady accent. Yes, that's right. I made it a long name, but it is what it is.

Tigs: Well, I can tell you, it's good. This, I haven't been able to try everything. I will continue to, as I go by, uh, the Karchners in Kratz Springs is the, well, are there any places in Baton Rouge, number one, that have them for myself?

I just want to know. Budenshag

Hal: did have them. Um, but, uh, I don't know if he's, if he, he hasn't gone on a while. I don't know what they have left in there, but. Um, um, Bush, Louisiana, the Piggly Wiggly Express has it. If that's

Tigs: close to me, I

Hal: got

Tigs: it there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I saw that you had just recently got, got it there.

And I've, I picked, I picked mine up at Billy's in, in Lafayette.

Hal: So you mentioned that both of those places called me today to go restock. And Billy's does not have all my line. It just have three of my products. Um, Carchner's on the other hand, picked up all my line, their Lafayette store and their Scott store has all my lines.

Tigs: So, okay, perfect. That's good to know. That's good to know. I'll be stopping at Carchner's very soon to pick up the rest of the line so I can continue to try them and, and make some little. Little videos with them. Um, Blasey, do you have anything else while we're wrapping up? Well, you know,

Blasi: one of the things that uh, Hal, that we like to do on this show, we have a little segment on the show we like to call a little bit of controversy.

And so I want to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind, just a

Tigs: few questions. Nothing baiting or bad here, Hal, just no, no, fun little controversy. Want me to get a beer for this? Yeah, go get a beer. I mean, if you want to get a beer, absolutely. I'm still here. I think you should. Yeah. Okay. Alright. So, we're going to

Blasi: start with this.

So, when it comes to a roux, a jar roux, is that a yes or a no for you, like something you buy at damn yes

Hal: for me. And I ain't afraid to say it. It is, isn't it? I can make my own roux from scratch, and I do make my own roux from scratch. And even if I made my own root from scratch, sometimes I would jor it, but using jora root for me is a yes, I don't care what anybody says.

Tigs: Yeah.

Blasi: It's flour and it's oil and somebody sat there and stirred it way longer than I did and it's already done. Like, I agree with you. I used to do it myself and I'm, even though I'm an Alabama boy, I love to cook. I do a lot of Cajun cooking stuff. So. I agree with you. I'm glad

Tigs: to hear that. And

Hal: you can see that on my videos because I say to my videos every time I'm not afraid to say it and people will dog me and I don't care.

It is what it is.

Tigs: I don't like getting over and cooking a gumbo, making the roux, and then smelling like grease, oil, and flour. I don't like that smell. I don't, I, you know what I mean? You're still

Hal: gonna smell it whether you made it or not. Because when I used to, I still gotta stir in the pot to

Tigs: let it dissolve.

That's true. But it's not as bad, it's not as bad as when you've hovered over it for an hour, you know?

Blasi: It's 45 minutes of oil and flour, like, you know, I mean, like somebody else do that, but that's just

Tigs: such a great deal. It's like, I like

Hal: to do it. It doesn't bother me. But when you get home at five 30 and you got to start getting everything ready to cook by the time you can get everything ready.

That's six o'clock. You got to make a route at six 45. Then you got to cook the food. That food ain't cooked till seven 45, eight o'clock. Yeah. I'm like mama more. I want to eat at six 30. I don't want

Tigs: to eat a nun furniture. That's right.

Blasi: Oh, that's so good. Alright, so let me ask you this. Okra and gumbo. Yay or nay?

Hell

Tigs: yeah. Oh, hell yeah,

Hal: she said. I don't know why you wouldn't put it. So, so okra doesn't belong in my chicken and sausage basic gumbo, but I'll make an actual sausage, tassel, shrimp and okra gumbo. That's a yes, that's a definite yes. I won't use, I won't use cut up okra. I actually cut it up myself from being fresh and smothered down, then freeze it.

Then you'll see me taking a ziploc bag out from the freezer Of the okra I smothered down six eight months ago and putting that in my gumbo and that's a hell. Yes for me All

Tigs: right

Blasi: to time out. How do you how do you smother down gumbo? I mean, how do you smother down okra? Like I because i've grown

Hal: I did a video but I and I want y'all to find it But i'm gonna show i'm gonna tell y'all you just throw your okra in your pot Put you a little bit of vinegar. It helps knock the slime out. I do put this, I know this is your next question and nobody told me, but I know your next question is, is tomatoes in the gumbo probably, right?

Tigs: It's, it's, it's in there. It's part of that parlor. My okra,

Hal: my smothered okra. I drop a can of Rotel in there. So the only time you're going to catch me using tomatoes in my gumbo is if I made, uh, Okra sausage, tassel, shrimp gumbo. Cause I will have a little bit of Rotel from the, from the okra. So you just smother it down and you just keep stirring.

It's like, Oh, it's like Rue keeps stirring and stirring and stirring. And I'm a Cajun. I talk on my hands. Sorry.

Blasi: I got, I got Italian in the line and my hands fly all over the place. That's why I have to keep, actually have to sit here as we're talking and I have to keep them

Tigs: clasped. That's kind of what, that's why. That's why I'm like I am. Otherwise, I'm handsy too. I was doing it earlier,

Hal: but then you see, I kept seeing my fingers moving because I kept doing like this.

So I was

Tigs: like, I'm like Ricky Bobby. Yeah. I don't know what to, I don't know what to do with my hands right now. Oh, that's so good. All right. Let's take it

Blasi: off the rails a little

Tigs: bit here. So All right, how so do you think

Blasi: that there are aliens among

Hal: us? Most definitely and they're not eating good like us

Tigs: Yes, but they are here aren't they yes, I believe that

Hal: yes like us and they ain't drinking good beer like us and passing a good time

Blasi: Have you seen them have you seen them do you think you've seen like do you think you've like I know that's a

Hal: billion I didn't see him, but I mean, I i'm sure that you just know that they're among us.

Yeah, I mean there's We have a good god. So Our God is amazing. I'm pretty sure that he's got them to keep us in line.

Tigs: I like it. Nobody, like, nobody ever asked me that

Hal: question before, neither. But I, I, I mean that's just the truth. ,

Tigs: that's it. Part of, we, I agree with you. Yeah. We both agree. We do dabble a little in talking occasionally about UFOs, aliens and then maybe at a, a conspiracy here or there.

So one, one or two. One or two. Oh, for absolutely. No, there's no question in my mind. None. Yes.

Blasi: Yes. Um, all right. Actually, I thought I was gonna have one more, but I got two more. I gotta squeeze this one in. So if you could travel like time travel, it was available to you. You could go either. You can't do both to the past or you could go to the future.

Which one are you gonna go to?

Hal: Home. You might make me cry. I don't want to go back to the past because I miss a lot of family members that I just recently lost. Yeah, I definitely want to go to the past.

Tigs: That's a good question. That's a good question. Blasey. Really good question. Yeah. Yeah. I agree I

Hal: would love for my family members that that I recently lost.

I lost a lot of family members, my dad and stuff, my stepdad. I'd love for them to see what I've got going on.

Tigs: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I'm, I bet I, I bet you would. I'm with you. I would, I always want to go back to, and that's a selfless,

Blasi: that's a selfless answer too. Yeah. 'cause that takes back to what, you know, would make them smile and make

Hal: them Yeah.

That's, that's what I wanna go back there for, to pigeon with them and show them that I've never stopped working.

Tigs: Yeah. That'd be proud of you. There's no doubt about that. You know that for sure. Yes,

Blasi: absolutely they would. Um, alright, last one. This is one we always close out on. So there is this shock jock DJ nationally known like the biggest in history.

How do you feel about Bubba the Love

Hal: Sponge? Never heard of Bubba the Love Sponge in my life. I'm a I've never heard of that before.

Tigs: That's true. What? I was thinking that she was going to actually know because of the DJ and background. I

Blasi: thought that was a good flip of the coin when I heard the DJ thing.

She might know who Bubba the love sponge is or she

Hal: might not. So, so being a DJ, um, I listened mostly to my Spotify playlist at work all day. And these people come in the store and say, man, what radio station that is? I want to put it on there. It's my own radio station. I make my own Spotify playlist and play it, and that's probably why I never heard of Bubba.

The love Sponge

Tigs: You know what?

Blasi: That, that in itself is great. The way she says it. I've never heard it

Tigs: said that way. I've never heard of that Bubba Love sponge. That's so good. That is great. Yeah, he's

Blasi: just a shock jock. He's crazy as hell. Like he, he's lived a.

Tigs: He

Blasi: is a very highly talented guy with a self destructive streak that you've never seen before.

Like it is, it's mind blowing. Like there'll be a giant documentary on him one day. He used to work with Howard Stern and stuff. He's a. But I love him to death. I follow him all the time, but I always ask that question. And I'd usually the response

Tigs: I get.

Hal: I can tell y'all what I'm going through. Hey, Siri, Google.

I'm going to find out.

Tigs: Hey,

Blasi: hang on. So now shut up. Hang on. That old saying like you better watch right now. It's, it's wild, right? He's, he's full of, he's

Tigs: full of controversy. He is definitely, um, he discovered us. The reason we asked. We're just chiming along, having fun, doing our show. And then we, we, we had a podcast about podcasts.

Like what's your favorite podcast? And so we're just going over what our favorite podcasts were. Blasey tells, tells me about Bubba, the love sponge and starts kind of going into that. I made a little short clip out of it, thought nothing else about it. You know, here's a piece of content from the show moving on.

Couple of days later, my dad has been going through some health issues and I was in the hospital. Blasey. Calls me, he's like, you're not going to believe this. Our show is on the radio right now in Tampa. And I went, wait, what? Our show is on the radio. How is that possible? Like, how is that? We're here. I'm not.

How? And so he had found it and was reading it on the air and going over it and all of that stuff. So the next thing you know, we've. I have a bunch of people that have started coming over and following us and stuff. Yeah. We ended up on the show.

Blasi: We ended up on the

Tigs: show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so that's good.

But it's such a great question to ask people and eventually people are gonna watch the show enough that when they come on, they know that we're gonna end That que the last questions always. What do you know about Bubba? The Love sponge.

Blasi: Hey, I love Bubba to death. And he, he, he's like, again, he's a, he, he's really a great guy.

He's got, but he's so like, uh. You know, he's got so many issues like where he like, you know, like I said, he's self destructive and he's, but he's so talented and he's such a good guy, but then he just turns around and just, but if it reminds you like how fickle and how like life is, and he is just like an example of that, like right there in front of you and he puts it on display every day, right there.

But now he's hey, you know what he's he's ramping up right now again I feel like he's he's gathered it all up a good and you know, like again, and he's bringing it back again So anyway, she's going like I have no idea

Tigs: You're gonna know you'll know within two hours You're gonna know who exactly who he is.

You'll be Wow. You're, oh my God.

Hal: You can ask me, because I'll be prepared for that one. I will be able to give you

Tigs: an answer for that. That's right. Yep. You've got, you've got my number. Shoot me a text whenever you're an email. Whenever you see me like, oh my God, you why'd y'all Tell me about this guy, .

Hal: It's funny because I like to listen to podcasts sometimes throughout the day when I'm, when I'm, I need that time, you know, when I just don't wanna hear music.

So I'll put podcasts on in my ear and, and I'm going to have to listen to y'all. I never even listened to y'all yet. Honestly. That's okay.

Tigs: This is the

Hal: first time I've seen Paul here of y'all and I can't wait to go follow y'all now. I mean, I follow you to watch y'all stuff and listen to it.

Tigs: Yeah, I do.

That's, uh, that's awesome. That's perfect. I wouldn't want to know either. I would have come into, I'm one of those, I think I would rather not know. I know what I'm gonna say and do is just gonna be like what I would say and do if we were, if I was there at your house and we were chilling, nothing would change.

So, yeah.

Hal: Yes, something would change. You'd be eating some good rice and gravy. Oh,

Tigs: that's a fact. Yes, a lot would

Blasi: change. Oh, you're dang right we would. You're dang right we would. That's exactly what we'd be doing. Bullhorns. Bullhorns. Bullhorns. Bullhorns. Sorry.

Tigs: I had to. This is what we do. It just comes off the rails a little bit.

Yeah, it's fun. What's your favorite podcast? What are some of your favorite podcasts that you listen to?

Hal: I like a lot of Motivation. Um, and believe it or not, I like Steve Harvey.

Tigs: Do you? Okay. I haven't checked out. I didn't know he had a podcast. I bet it's

Hal: good. Um, I don't even listen to his. He's actually into another podcast.

It's called Motivation Daily. It's amazing. It's something else. And he's like, he's always in there. Like, I don't know.

Tigs: I just, he has a lot of wise words for sure. Hey, he's awesome. I love Steve. Or I

Hal: like anything with motivation basically.

Tigs: Yeah. So music wise, what else, what all do you listen to? I listen to all

Hal: genres of music.

Um, I love Asian and zydeco country. I absolutely love classic rock as well. I love alternative. I love it all. I mean, classic country, I'm just the person that, you know, I even listen to Spanish music. I like it all.

Tigs: I mean, I would think as a DJ you would've to be pretty well versed, Este, Esteban in everything, you know, so you would, you, you would like everything.

I'm the same way too. Know

Hal: what mood I'm in tune, because if I'm in one of those moods or I just, you know, if I wanna be in a party mood, I, or a good mood, listen to. Some, some Zydeco and Cajun music, and it just gets your spirits going. And don't let it be in this nonstop pushing work mode. Put some classic rock and alternative on and.

You know, I even like R& B and all this other stuff, all this new stuff, so the hip hop, I like it all, so it just depends on what I'm doing.

Tigs: Well, happy 3. 11 day, Hal. I don't know if you It's 3. 11 day! Yes! 3. 11 too. We shoulda opened with this! Yes, we shoulda. It is. I've been celebrating it all day. I've been celebrating it since Saturday, actually.

I watched that YouTube video you sent, Brandon. Yeah, yeah, 311. Have you ever seen those, uh, tiny desk concerts on NPR, National Public Radio? It's on YouTube. Um, look them up. There's just about any superstar that you could think of has done one of these tiny desks. One of the most recent ones was Juvenile did a tiny desk concert.

No, that's, that's Mommy. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. You got to go watch that. And then, uh, but today, uh, they three juvenile was three 11 did a three 11 did a tiny desk and they came in full instruments. A lot of times they'll go a little more acoustic or whatever, whenever, because they are literally at a tiny desk.

Yeah. And they record with like one or two mics and They're, you know, it's not like a full on production, but 311 came in and they brought their full gear and did it in that tiny little space. So it was, it was awesome.

Hal: You could open up with some linear skinners, some juvenile, some boobs, anything like that

Tigs: next time.

Yes. Yes. I love that. I love it. I love that. Well, I think that, uh, that wraps us up with little bits of controversy. Um, man, how I just appreciate you coming on. I, we could talk all night. There's no doubt, but I know you, you got to get to bed at some point in time. Cause you got to get right back up. And so she's got a dream.

Blasi: She's got a dream about what she's doing on the new job. four or five seasonings. She's going to develop the next few

Tigs: days, you know, that's exactly right.

Blasi: And I got to get in there and I got to get in there and order that cage and cleaner and that dang, uh, swamp bucket. Like those two things are just so unique.

I got to get them. So yeah,

Tigs: we all, we all got, right. There's something that you, what is that, that you put in a pot of gumbo that, that keeps it, uh, from stuff from sticking. It's something that you've dropped in there. It's a pot minder.

Hal: It's not keeping it from pot minder, keeping it from ball and old way.

It's really for pasta. Stuff like that. Oh, okay.

Tigs: You see the bottom of the pot. Oh, just keeping that foam. Yeah. Okay.

Hal: It allows it to not

Tigs: ball over. Not. Okay. Kind of like when you put a wooden spoon over the top, but instead of having to put the wooden spoon over the top. Is it like a rock or something? It's a

Hal: stone.

It's a stone. You wash it, you let it dry, and you reuse

Tigs: it. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I saw that in one of your videos, and I've been wanting to. I saw it, and I saw it again today, and I almost forgot to ask you, where can you get that? Where can you buy

Hal: one of those? They're on our website. They're on our website.

Oh, okay. So I'll tell you what. At my howthekitchenladyaction. com. It's on there and it's also on garymardwhoreware. com. We have a website for that.

Tigs: Of course. I'm picking one of those things up. That would come

Hal: in very handy. You can find all those websites on my social medias.

Tigs: Awesome. Unbelievable. Well, Hal, I think we're going to end it here.

It has been, uh, it has been awesome. What a great visit. We got to do this again. I'm down for it and I appreciate you all having me here. Yes, thank you.

Hal: Thank y'all so much