Heavenly Recipes

Story and Photos by Lawrence Chatagnier

Mom’s pineapple upside down cake

Theresa Leboeuf

Theresa Leboeuf, a native of New Orleans and resident of Houma, shares her mother’s recipe for pineapple upside down cake in this month’s Heavenly Recipes. Theresa is the receptionist at the Pastoral Center in Schriever where she has worked for the past month. Previously she was the receptionist at Catholic Charites Diocese of HoumaThibodaux where she worked for a year.

Theresa and her husband Glenn, who is a retired, have been living in Houma since May 2021. The Leboeufs are Katrina survivors. They lived in Slidell at the time of Hurricane Katrina and were displaced after the storm.

Theresa has the distinction of working in three dioceses in Louisiana: The Archdiocese of New Orleans, Diocese of Baton Rouge and now Houma-Thibodaux.

Theresa and her husband both enjoy cooking. The also enjoy cooking together. “I learned baking from my mom at an early age. I learned to cook from Glenn, especially Cajun cooking. I myself am not a Cajun. Glenn is from Montegut; he taught me how to cook Cajun food.”

They met at a Cajun dance at Tipitina’s in New Orleans. They have been married for 21 years.

Theresa has an interesting story concerning one of her cousins. “My cousin Steve Foley played football for Jesuit and Tulane. He also played professional football for the Denver Broncos. My mom was his godmother. He would always ask my mother to please bake the cake for him. When he was playing for Tulane, my mother baked a pineapple upside cake for him. He invited a football player friend over and the two of them brought a half gallon of milk, cut the cake in half, and ate the entire cake in one sitting.” a

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

1 box of a butter recipe yellow cake mix Butter, eggs and water, according to the cake mix 1/2 tbsp. butter, for the baking dish 3/4 cup dark brown sugar 1 10-oz. jar maraschino cherries, without stems 1 20-oz. can pineapple slices, in pineapple juice Pecan halves (about 2 dozen)

Directions:

Drain the cherries and pineapple slices (reserve the pineapple juice) and set aside.

Butter the bottom and sides of a glass 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly on the bottom and going up the sides of the dish as well. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the cake mix as directed, except, for the amount of water; use half water and half of the reserved pineapple juice.

Assemble the cake by laying four pineapple slices lengthwise down the center, with the two ends going up the side of the dish; put three more slices on each side of that row, also going up the side of the dish. Inside of each pineapple slice, put a cherry. Arrange the pecan halves around the pineapple rings (see photo).

Using a spatula, gently spoon the batter into the dish, without disturbing the pineapples, etc. Bake 3545 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let sit about 10 minutes. Place an aluminum foil covered tray on top of the baking dish and flip over the cake. Gently lift the baking dish, using oven mitts, as steam will rise from the cake. Let the cake cool before cutting. Enjoy!

When asked what her favorite food to cook is, Theresa’s answer was an easy one. “Soup in general is my favorite thing to cook. I love to cook with the John Folse cookbooks. I have about four or five of his cookbooks that I use.”

The Leboeufs are parishioners of St. Ann in Bourg, the church parish where they were married. “Father Cody Chatagnier is wonderful,” says Theresa. “His love of the Lord and knowledge of the faith is so wonderful.”

Theresa has a background in graphic design work. “I like graphics and printing. I enjoy designing pieces of artwork. I have done furniture refinishing and needlepoint. My dad was an interior decorator. He taught me how to paint. I also enjoy home restoration.”

Theresa says her parents were instrumental in forming her Catholic faith. “I am very grateful that my parents loved the church and their faith. They passed that along to us. That’s what got me through my teenage years. We lived two blocks away from the church, which was the center of community life. When I was a young girl, a boyfriend broke up with me and I thought, why was life worth living? My faith helped me through this difficult time, and I have been close to the Lord ever since.”

Theresa says she was very involved in faith formation through her adult years. “My faith has grown through the years with nurturing, adult formation classes, Bible study classes, etc. There is such joy in the faith. It doesn’t make life perfect; but you see the silver lining behind the clouds. My favorite saying is ‘Let nothing come between Jesus and you, and you will always find joy.’”

As the Leboeufs enter the golden years they have much to be thankful for. “Though I don’t have children of my own, I have two stepchildren and seven grandchildren that have brought me so much joy. The hardest part is that they don’t all live near here.” BC