announcement party

palmetto garden club

palmetto garden club

 the larger wedding receptions took us to the downtown monroe area to ouachita grand plaza and aubrey hall.  beautiful historic buildings with lots of character.  if you know me well, you know that i am a real scaredy cat!  one day i went to the grand plaza venue which was once an old school.  part of the building is now a nursing home that is connected to the plaza.  i went to the nursing home office to get the key to the plaza building so i could check out the kitchen and its equipment.  the secretary explained that she could not accompany me to look at it because she had to answer the phone and could not leave her desk.  i should have known when she then asked me, “will you be okay going by yourself?’  “sure, i’ll be fine,” i answered.  so off i went down the hall past several of the residents doors, down another hall and into the plaza.  from what i could see with a little sunlight, it was beautiful!  so off to the basement to check out the kitchen.  the slow elevator doors opened into a completely dark, barely visible basement.  i could not find a light switch in the place.  i was opening doors to even darker rooms.  i did not know how scared i was at the time until i exited the plaza and got back into the nursing home wing.  as i walked down the hall, a motion-controlled christmas decoration on one of the residents doors sounded off and sent me running down the hall, out the door, across the street, back in my car where i immediately locked my doors and sat there for a while before bursting into laughter!

mitch and i are tweaking our catering jobs and strengthening up on staff.  i have finally resolved that no catering job will ever come out the same, and all venues, clients, and guests are unique. we have learned alot about service and execution, and i now have some hired help in serving the foods to the guests.  last week’s wedding reception we had four extra hands on deck to keep things running smoothly.  they looked great in their white shirts and black pants.  and as we all know college kids need money!  they did a great job.  mitch and i had four employees who served the crawfish bisque, shrimp and grits, and po-boys to the guests, while we kept the food coming to them.  hunter brown was the “po-boy” man serving roast beef poboys on ”imported” bread from a bakery in houma, la, along with the traditional dressings of lettuce, tomato, and pickles.  thanks to this client, the anitpasta table was stunning because she had her dad build a platform to give different heights to display the marinated cheeses, olives, artichokes, etc on.  the tables were draped in beautiful sheer fabrics and had stunning displays of flowers with hanging candles and crystals.  i wish i had pictures, but i never have time to take them.  i may have to start hiring my own photographer to photograph our foods for my website.  this last job was especially challenging because we had no use of a kitchen and no running water.  all of the food was prepared at the restaurant and transported to the building up to the third floor and placed in hot boxes with trays and sterno.

this week, my contractor, BRACO returned to add on some rails on the front and back steps and an ADA compliant ramp for wheelchair accessibility.   after that, we should be close to opening this place for lunch!  there is no set date yet, but trust me i’m ready to serve y’all some good lunches!

my first saints game

my first saints game was a treat from mitch’s mother.  it was her birthday and she wanted to celebrate it together at a saints game.  all of the family: mark, annette, alan, dodie, mitch and i had a blast together in new orleans for the weekend.  we sat on the second row on the 40 yardline!  it was amazing and i will never forget it.  who dat?  since then i have read both sean payton’s book and drew brees’s book, which i highly reccommend to y’all.

front dining area

front door

counter with register and display coolers

side dining room

my office- a place to meet with clients and discuss food!

just a few of my hundreds of cookbooks made the move

supplies

for the first several weeks it was hard to leave it and lock up at night, even after cooking for hours.  i am going to embarass myself a little here and share with y’all that some of the first mornings when i arrived at the restaurant and turned on all the lights- i started telling the place and appliances “good morning.”  i even pat on my mixer some mornings.  i guess you can’t be too surprised at that since i have already personified my old and new cuisinarts on this blog!  i only shared this with mitch last night.  his reached out and hugged me while laughing- i feel sure he thinks i’m crazy.  the worst part of it- is that i can’t quit doing it every morning.  maybe when i hire some help- i will be too embarrassed to talk to my stove in front of them.  but probably not!!  here are my new friends:

"good morning stove"

hood from norred fire systems

ice maker and storage

double convection oven

dishwasher, mixer, etc.

biggest three compartment sink i could find!

upper lighted storage cabinets

required fire suppression system to six burner gas stove and hood

for weeks now i have answered many questions about when i will open this place to the public.  i joked to my dad one day after being asked around town- that i wanted to wear a t-shirt that said “sometime soon.”  interest has been overwhelming and very encouraging.  sometime soon will be here soon.  as mentioned earlier i do have some big jobs this holiday season and am a little busy.  i have been catering to larger crowds of 200 – 300 people and as of now, i am still a one man show.  we passed the health department inspection with flying colors just this week, and as soon as i get things finalized with the fire marshall, we will be open for casserole and catering job sales.  clients are already calling in their orders for thanksgiving and christmas.  i have two display coolers- one a refrigerator and one a freezer.  the casseroles are stocked some unfrozen and some frozen.  we also plan to place an ad in the beacon about our opening and what will be available.

we plan to open for lunch sometime in january when catering jobs typically take a dip.  this will allow me to really focus on that new aspect of my business.  our plan is to serve a menu of soups, salads, sandwiches, casserole plate lunches, mixed in with some lunch specials.  there will be tables to eat in the restaurant or our guests may choose to carry out.  in addition, the restaurant will be available to rent for private parties.  my dad has collected some really beautiful antique tables and a glass case from an estate sale.  we also have gathered other beautiful tables from family members.  but we have no chairs!!  got to find some soon somewhere. 

i recently catered a pretty big announcement party.   it was a little tough to pull off with little chef out with a personal emergency and mitch and hunter in north dakota for an entire week hunting pheasants.  my mom stayed with francie and luke and my mother-in-law worked the party with me.  we served rosemary roasted pork tenderloin, oysters rockefeller dip, hot crabmeat dip, pickled shrimp, marinated tomatoes, and bamboo-skewered sweet potatoes with basil aioli.  my client was from lafayette and the only way to describe her is “dream client.”  she sent me an e-mail the next week that i will probably never delete from my inbox.  here is a part of it:

“you did such a wonderful job.  You have so much talent girl– especially your cool nerves of steel.  I appreciate everything you did and will mail the check in the am.”

i share this with you because- i don’t care who you are, how old you are, what services you provide- it is always nice to get positive feedback when you gave it your all.  we should all remember that when we do business with each other.

peace y'all

i am really looking forward to feeding y’all very, very soon!

cabinets in the kitchen

double wall oven cabinet

so where did we leave off?  i believe with a completely gutted kitchen ready for contractors to sheetrock and build cabinets.  that has been done, along with sub-flooring, some new ceilings, crown molding, baseboards, an attic ladder, and several new doors.  no painting could be done during this work, but there was plenty of prep work sanding and scraping to be done.  we are very grateful for some volunteers for this work.  grandparents kept our kids, cooked suppers for us, and helped scrape and sand old paint. some of my girlfriends gathered together one friday night and sanded and scraped baseboards and moldings with the help of a jug of frozen margaritas and music.  thank y’all . . .

main dining area

this week the exterior of the house is being painted.  despite a language barrier between my thick raville accent and my painter with a thick alto, la accent, we managed to get the colors right!!   i took a great deal of time researching what colors to paint this old 1900′s arts and crafts bungalow, and found selections dedicated to that era at sherwin williams.  all of the interior colors were selected from that era as well.  the whole process has really felt as if building a new home rather than remodeling an old home, because, we basically “redid” the inside of the house. 

exterior painting in progress

three or more colors- typical on bungalows

columns

today the kitchen and bathroom floors are being installed and tomorrow the fire system vent-a-hood will be installed.  i am staying out of the way and out of paint, cooking peacefully in my kitchen at home.  i’m going to miss this old place . . . 

bye y’all

caterer by day, kitchen gutter by night . . .

well, it’s been almost a month since my last post.  here is an update on the project.  it is definitely not a restaurant yet, so for now it will remain the 828 julia street project.  after an initial meeting with our contractor, Mitch and I started gutting the entire kitchen.  there was an immediate trip to wal-mart for respirators and crow bars.  we both still have day jobs- fortunately, so the work was done at night.  we began gutting the kitchen and revealed surprises here and there.  first of all there was an old brick chimney behind a hot water heater closet.  this being an old house, the walls were solid wood.  so we removed lots of wood piece by piece, and as we removed it lots of old insulation fell and had to constantly be swept up and bagged.  the house at that time still did not have central heat and air, so you can only imagine how miserable the heat was with the masks on.  as we removed some wood around the old windows, the weights fell to the floor.  we also gutted almost all of the existing cabinets and broom closet.  so what we have now is a “clean slate” or “tabla rasa” if you will in which to design this kitchen.  we also gutted the bathroom and found some interesting things there- the worst being that the floor was in horrible condition and also a supporting beam was broken.  have y’all ever seen that old movie with shelly long “the money pit?”  hmmmmm . . .  

mitch gutting bathroom

chimney in kitchen

kitchen

next, the central air and heat was put in. ahhhhhhhh.  that changed things a little.  it is actually a pretty fun place to work already because of the music system in place.  there are speakers in every room apparently because it used to be a dental office among other things.  granted the speakers are all connected to an old eight track player, but the tuner/receiver works.  now that i had a clean slate in my kitchen- equipment needed to be purchased so that we could design the room.  dad and i and francie and luke and snoozer went on a spree to west monroe and monroe.  we started out at trenton st. appliance and later went to j russell.  of course, i have been pricing equipment for months, so i had been comparing for awhile and pretty much knew what i wanted.  would you belive that i am most excited about my three compartment sink?  it is 7.5′ long and i swear you could bathe six babies in there at one time!  i even had a dream about that sink a couple of nights ago.  sick, i know.  it will all end soon after i have to wash dishes in it.  we also purchased my 6 burner gas oven, display refigerator and freezer, and hand sink there.  i got my ice maker used from trenton st.  my double convection wall oven, microwave,  and dishwasher from key millwork.  then the other half of my freezer and trim kit from sear’s.  the most expensive item in the kitchen is the hood which i purchased from norred fire systems.  i am going to try to make that my favorite thing in the kitchen, but it will be hard.

the 828 julia street project . . .

there are lots of codes to follow and that has been a learning process and hopefully we will get it right the “first time.”  but i bet that almost never happens!  i have tried to not alter the old characterstics of the house, but that has been almost impossible.  some of the old windows and doors that i fell in love with are leaving because of code.  my contractor always apologizes when he has to break that kind of news, but it needs to be done right.  for now it seems, that mitch and i are pretty much done with our nighttime constructions jobs.  my last job was removing one of the newer walls that was sheetrock.  hunter and i had a pretty large time karate chopping the wall.  he, motivated by teen angst and me motivated by how much money i’m spending.  ha.

am i cooking in the midst of all this?  you bet.  somebody’s got a note to pay and all new utility bills that i am not used to paying.  i have a catering job tommorrow and am still stocking the casseroles.  so come on by to 1111 cotton street which is now becoming a project due to neglect!! 

bye y’all.

kelsey, the guest of honor

the hor’ d oeuvres were served as the guests arrived and included; tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil skewers served with a balsamic vinegar and proscuitto-wrapped melon.  a huge jar of lemonade with fresh mint constantly had to be refilled, because everyone loved it.  as a last minute thought for this party, i recalled the tables at a restaurant in new orleans that i recently visited, domenica.  the tables were set with skinny long bread sticks in tall jars as the centerpieces.  i loved the idea because it was contemporary and fun and took care of the whole table decorating dilemma.  the girls loved them too!  some of them “smoked” them or played “sword fights” with them.  they must have liked them because there were none left.  after the hors d’ oeuvres, it was time to serve the main course, which included italian salad, manicotti with meat sauce, four-cheese baked penne.  this party consisted of lots of teenage girls with no boys, so these girls ate and got seconds.  it would be interesting to see if they would have eaten this much with males around!!  little chef and i were very proud that they actually ate and enjoyed themselves and were not worried about their girlish figures!  for dessert?  tiramisu made with lots of espresso, brandy, and marscopone cheese.

fresh mozzarella, basil, tomato skewers in basalmic vinegar

fresh melon and proscuitto

long skinny breadsticks made by little chef

next was my first party in the monroe garden district area.  it was a party honoring retirees from a bank board.  the clients were fun to work with and had some good ol’ rolling stones playing in the kitchen when i arrived.  the house was absolutely beautiful.  mitch worked the job with me and we rolled it out very smoothly.   we served andouille rice calas with a creole mustard sauce, pickled shrimp (the way my mama ev used to make), rosemary-garlic crusted beef tenderloin with rolls and homemade rosemary mayonnaise, fresh fruit with moonlight dip, smoked catfish pate, sundried tomato pesto torte, assorted cheeses, and rosemary cashews and cheese straws at the bar area.

the next party was a first for two reason, it was my first wedding reception as well as it was a destination job in gulf shores, al.  we literally packed up our kitchen sink and headed to the gulf.  i reviewed pictures of the kitchen that i would be working out of and had some idea of what i was going to be dealing with.  this reception was about 5 miles away from our condo at another location in orange beach, al.  the reception area had no kitchen except for a sink and a mini fridge.  we left here on a tuesday and the reception was friday night.  i had all of my recipes and menu planned out day by day.  lots of items were make ahead, but lots were not make ahead.  needless to say, the main work was thursday night and all day friday.  hunter and i shopped for our ingredients for four straight hours looking for the freshest produce, fruits, fish, and shrimp.  i had a three-page grocery list as we went into publix.  i got a cart and hunter got a cart.  i told him that he was the fruit and produce cart.  he and i had more fun tripping people out as we gathered these massive amounts of produce.  i was getting some things and he was across the produce sections while i called out what i needed him to get:  “hunter, i need 40 limes!”  “24 roma tomatoes” and on and on . . .  his buggy was filled to the brim with produce as we pulled up to the conveyor belt.  he decided to tell the clerk that he had a “huge giant blender at home” that he was mixing fruit and vegetable smoothies in.  after publix we headed to the seafood markets to find shrimp for the shrimp and grits and fish for the gulf coast ceviche.

my main sous chef, mitch had a knife accident about five bell peppers into prep time thursday night.  he really needed stitches, but hunter and i ran to wal-mart and bought him some liquid bandaid and glued him back together so we could get back to work.  hunter and i worked until midnight, got up around nine a.m. and then worked until after midnight again.  tired did not describe the way we felt, but we had a great time and it was a mother-son bonding experience that we will never forget.  and besides all of that we both got a beer huggie from the bride and groom that says “to have and to hold and to keep your beer cold.”   hmmmmm .  .  .

with all of that said, i have something big to tell y’all.   this week i bought a property on julia street that i am planning on moving all of my operations to.  in addition to my catering jobs and casserole sales, i will be serving lunch there monday through friday.  this week i have been meeting contractors and planning the restaurant.  needless to say there is alot of work to do and i will be needing all of your support.  mitch and i are very, very excited about this and have been talking about doing this very thing for quite some time.  i along with my dad have been looking at properties since january and this one makes the most sense to me and fits my personality.  i plan to display the artworks of some of my very talented friends and serve great food there.  i will try to keep you all updated.

bye y’all

old and new . . .

when i was little i used to sleep with piles of stuffed animals because i did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings.  i would start off with one or two and get into bed and then i would look across my room and see all of the other buddies on my window seat and one by one they got added to the bed with me.  well, things haven’t changed much and it seems francie has the same problem becuase you can’t even find her in her bed sometimes.  yesterday, i got a new 16 cup capacity cuisinart.  needless to say, i feel very badly for my old one that still works.  it has been loyal to me for about 15 years.  we’ve shared good times and bad times . . .  it has shredded pounds and pounds of cheese for me and little chef.  don’t get me wrong, i am bursting with excitement over this new machine and all of its glory.  the blade locks in so you don’t have to hold it with your finger, it has three bowls, the blades and discs all fit nicely into a storage box, the bowls have pouring spouts, the electric cord retracts, the buttons light up, it holds 16 cups versus 8 . . . .  i could go on and on.  i had similar feelings when i got a new santoku knife last year and stopped using my original chef’s knife.  mitch refuses to use the new one and picks on me about the betrayal.  seems he knows me too well!  it always starts with good intentions, like, “i will use the old cuisinart for this, and i’ll use the new one for that.”  then, slowly, the good intentions turn into excuses.  maybe i should just drape a tea towel over the old cusinart so it doesn’t have to witness its own abandonment . . .

now, that's better . . .

there was a trip recently to thibodaux, louisiana to tour the nicholls campus.  our hunter has expressed an interest  in attending the john folse culinary program there.  so we loaded him up and went to take a look.  we toured the campus and listened to chef sheramie about the culinary tract there.  i was grinning from ear to ear and hanging on his every word, wishing i was eighteen again only to be able to experience it.  every now and again i would catch mitch looking at me and just shaking his head.  i don’t have any doubt that it is an excellent school and i believe that no one should leave the state of louisiana to learn how to cook for heaven’s sake.  that would be like leaving our sportsman’s paradise to go fishing.  the culinary school is the fastest growing major at the campus and is doubling its facilities.  i loved the size of the campus- not too big.  hunter seemed to really like it there too.  can’t get too much out of a teenager though . . .  i would love for him to go there, but it is a long way from home and i know that he shares that concern.  that boy can’t get too far from his own hunting and fishing holes and let’s face it- he is sort of a mama’s boy!!  he loves to cook with me and we’ve been having weekly lessons here at the house. like these oyster po-boys and last monday’s red beans and rice workshop.

chef hunter brown

best bakery bread from houma, la available at captain avery seafood

fried oysters

hunter's fried oyster po-boys dressed

easter ham bone red beans and rice kinda monday

well i turned thirty six this year.  crap.  on the good side- though.  i always use my birthday to bribe jesse home for a weekend from austin and come throw me a crawfish boil party.  he has gotten really really good at boiling crawfish to the point that he caters boils in austin for the texans.  i once interviewed him on his techniques over the phone and later typed it up.  it was a four page crawfish boil dissertation!!  he couldn’t believe that i actually typed it, until i handed him a copy while he was here.  at the end of it- there is a grocery list as well.  he was so impressed.  he threw my party at his house on bayou lafourche and he boiled four sacks of crawfish. there were none left . . .

birthday crawfish

hunter and jesse working the pot

reggie bush playing with the crawfish

bye y’all

the next morning i decided that i better get to the doctor.  he managed to place one big loose stitch in it and he debrided the area.  he wrapped it well and placed my arm in a splint to keep it very still.  the problem was that the cut was right where my wrist turns and bends, so it would be very hard to heal if not kept immobile for awhile.  immobile.  what?  i am not immobile and my right hand is definitely not immobile.  the next morning i moved my now immobile useless self to the kitchen table and tried to mentally prepare myself for the “changing of the dressing.”  mitch removed all of the armor and we both examined it.  i managed to look at it closely and take a picture with my iphone (which i will not share with you, i promise).  mitch began to wrap my hand back up and i started to feel faint.  i informed him that i was very faint and i tried to stop it and put my head down.  i woke up on the kitchen floor a couple minutes later.  mitch caught me and slid me onto the floor then he finished wrapping it.  fainting is something that my mama and i do and that is why we are not nurses or doctors! 

i will wrap up this drama with a few observations from the longest week and a half of my life.  not being able to cook for that long sent me into a quick frustrated depression, not knowing how long was unnerving, and i cannot imagine never being able to chop things.  i do feel lucky though-  i have been catering nearly three years now- using sharp knives daily- and this is my first injury aside from minor burns here and there.  i am still bandaged up, however, my scar would look alot better if i had followed the doctor’s orders- but immobile and still are not words in my vocabulary.  i did enjoy a couple of days of pain meds while falling in love with a teenage vampire named Edward.

and on an even happier note- WHO DAT??  here is the alter i made in the kitchen which we kept candles burning on the half shell 24 hours prior to the big game.  my hand hurt while i cheered and jumped around- but i couldn’t help it.  WOW.  i am still not over it.  when freeney and addai gave us some trouble- i broke out a little voodoo as well and it seemed to do the trick. so you can all thank me for dat!

the who dat alter

voodoo against freeney and addai

alligator faucet

 SNOW DAT????

where's charlie???

luke's first snow!

veal bones where art thou? part two of who knows?

half of the veal stock that i needed

so, i recently had my hair done and instead of going for a pedicure as planned afterwards, i went and bought a large fish.  a huge red snapper.  i looked in the fish cabinet and he was like, “how you doin?”  and i said “you’re coming with me!”  the guy behind the counter was like, “you want the whole fish?” “yes, the whole thing!!”  so anyway, he and i came on back to rayville, where i rubbed him inside and out with kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper and placed him on a “rack” of thick orange slices and rosemary sprigs.  next, i poured white wine and fresh orange juice in the pan and sprinkled garlic, orange zest, kalamata olives all around him.  he baked and came out wonderful and delicious.  it really was a beautiful presentation.  my parents were over along with my sister and her girls.  aside from my roof leaking this night and some dog drama, it was a fun night for us.

"how you doin?"

red snapper

out of the oven

the same weekend that i brought home the snapper, jesse and a friend came into town from austin with two beautiful whole flounder and a gallon bag of freshly shucked oysters.  bite yourself.  i have been wanting to make a seafood stuffed flounder for quite some time and recently was given a copy of john besh’s new book with an awesome recipe for it.  the original recipe had crabmeat and shrimp, however, the freeze prevented shipments of crabmeat so i substituted crawfish tails.  the oysters were “rescued” so to speak before the recent hard freeze that we suffered through here in louisiana.  those unexpected oysters gave me an opportunity to make the oyster chowder that i learned from frank brigsten last year in nola.  this chowder is so awesome.  we also baked some of the oysters mosca style, and still had oysters on hand.

flounder stuffed with shrimp and crawfish

and last but not least, mitch and i got bored one night and tackled homeade chinese dumpling from scratch.  i found the recipe in last month’s fine cooking magazine.  it was a wonderful article with great pictures and step-by-step instructions.  i prepared the dough, while mitch made the shrimp and pork stuffing.  we had three kinds of sauce, one spicy, one for the kids, and a ginger sauce.  these were soooooo good and there were none left for sure.

napa cabbage

the dough made of only water and flour

stuffed with napa cabbage, pork and shrimp

very good

and i would be holding out on y’all if i didn’t tell you about how we watched the saints championship win.  we were returning from a trip to utah and watched the first half in the houston airport, jumped a plane to monroe, jumped out of the plane when it was tied 21-21, ran into the airport watched a little there and had to decide whether to hang there with strangers or speed home.  speed home.  heard interception at rayville exit and got home to watch the last two mintutes!!!!  WHO DAT SAY GONE BEAT DEM SAINTS? WHO DAT? WHO DAT?

here is mitch’s famous venison feta meatball sub . . .  got to love a man who comes home from church and eats this for lunch with his miller high life and watches football!!!

mitch's venison feta meatball sub and miller high life

 bye y’all.  WHO DAT?

crossing the mobile bridge was about the time the lsu/arkansas game began broadcasting in our cars.  we were in a hurry.  we arrived at the condo to find that jesse, maddie, and kelsey had beaten us there of course.   the condo was gorgeous.  the entire southern and western sides of the unit are practically all glass overlooking the beach and the bay in the back.  kinda hard to watch a game with all that scenery, but we did our best.  during commercial breaks we “checked out” the pad and commented on some of the decor and paintings.  the main subject was a giant golden buddha head in between the couches on an end table.  on goes the game, and things go south with lsu getting behind.  my superstitious brother thought that maybe the buddha should be put up or hidden, and that perhaps it was jinxing our tigers.  so behind the couch he went.  immediately the tigers began to do better, but we still lost.  we all hooted and hollered through to the end.  being the night “clean-up girl,” i returned the buddha to its rightful place.

first day on the beach .  . .  the weather was overcast and cool.  not cold, but cool.  so we headed down to the beach.  luke immediately “skinned the cat” and tossed his shirt aside and headed to the water, only to return shaking and shivering within minutes.  he was so confused because he had never been to the beach in the fall.  really none of us had.  everyone was reading a book.  dad devoured two greg iles and a grisham while we were there.  mitch was reading a greg iles and so was i.  while, mama finised her conroy book, south of broad.  we spent the morning out there and came up for lunch.  everyone had on their saints attire getting ready for the game against tampa.  mama and i went to publix to get the day’s groceries.  we returned and proceeded to put up our groceries and opened the pantry and well . . .

there's a buddha in the pantry . . .

yeah, apparently the saints needed that buddha out of there as well.  so mama and i proceeded to cook supper and were in and out of the pantry alot and got yelled out when we left the door open to the pantry exposing the buddha to the saints.   this night we boiled up a mess of shrimp and had some sushi that we got from publix.

night # 2

Who Dat Blackjack?

the next night was death by gumbo.  yes, uncle jesse came through baton rouge on his way and brought lots of good meats: stuffed quail, andouille sausage, tasso, and boudin.  he mostly created this gumbo without recipe but as a “take” off of john folse’s death by gumbo recipe from one of his giant books.  however, mama and i did most of the mise en place because he was still out golfing with mitch.  thankfully, jesse got there in time to take over becuase he definitely had his own ideas about how to make this gumbo.  it was his baby.  i guess because i cook so much, i don’t like to change some of my “ways” but he taught us all a little about gumbo that day.  it was insane good.  insane.  the quail were delicious.  it was a very rich, rustic gumbo that was given alot of love, along with alot of “bullshit” while he made it.  whatever he did- keep doing it!!  mitch and i made oysters ralph for appetizers which were awesome.

oysters ralph stage one

death by gumbo

in between all of these meals, i assure you that we all took daily walks and did other things besides eating!!  we just happen to be a family that loves to cook and be in the kitchen together.  oh, i forgot to tell y’all something!!  when mama dumped the oysters into that gumbo, we all heard a “tink” sound.  when later cleaning out the pot, she found this  . . .  

the pearl from houma, la

the next night was spring rolls and pad thai night.  jesse, laurie, hunter, and maddie prepared spring rolls, while renee and kelsey prepared pad thai.  mama and i sat at the bar and were spectators to the chaos!  we needed the night off.  it is no secret that my dad does not “do” thai, but he fell right in there with us this night and was just happy to be fed something!  everything was delicious. 

mise en place for pad thai

spring rolls

 the next day was thanksgiving, and we all knew that we would not be having turkey and dressing.  we woke up to the most beautiful day and none of us wanted to be in the kitchen, not even me.  we stayed on the beach for most of this day.  up and down the elevators families were rolling carts filled with casseroles in between their condos.  while all of us did exactly what we wanted to on thanksgiving - whether it be napping, reading, or laying on the beach drinking cold beer as laurie and i did.  while lounging,  i thought of all of the china, crystal, and silver that i would be hand washing at that very moment.  hmmmmm . . .  maybe we should do this thanksgiving at the beach thing every year!  i don’t think i have pictures of the food on thanksgiving night, but we had a delicious beef tenderloin, candied julienned sweet potatoes, and haricot verts, along with salad and bread and more baked oysters for appetizers.   we lingered at the table and asked questions from table topics (a  conversation starter game with questions like, “what was the worst gift you have ever given or been given?”)  ha.  my brother replied that once he was given “a box of suction cups to hang things on windows, but nothing to hang on them.”  hmmmm . . .  the rest of the meals were grouper, royal red shrimp, .  all very good.  here are some family pictures that we were able to capture before we left.  what a wonderful time with my family.

the "brown kids"

me and sister

all of us!!

 bye y’all!

 i recently drove my mom and dad to new orleans for a couple of days.  mama had board meetings and dad and i ate and shopped, but mostly ate.  on wednesday, dad and i dropped mama off on poydras close to her meeting and headed straight to drago’s for bud lights and oysters.  i love sitting at the bar at the grill and listening to newbies from up north who have to be coaxed into their oyster order.  what?  those oysters have them at hello!  and me, i always confuse the hell out of new orleanians- they know i am not from there- but certainly no where up north either, so they have to ask and always ask???   i need to wear an “i’m from rayville, la” t-shirt when i go down there.  my guy totally spoiled me with his gold tooth and charm- he kept giving us lagniappe and at one point discovered a small pearl formation and gave it to me.  when i loosely placed it in my purse, he came back with a small piece of foil so i wouldn’t mis-place it.  so i did.  i still have it.  i go to new orleans often, but not often with my dad.  so we toasted at this occasion and shared a great time.  and miles to go before i eat . . .  and miles to go before i eat . . . not!

that night, the three of us made our way to gautreau’s.  this was coveted reservation that took a little while to get.  susan zemanick is the chef there and was one of food and wine’s top ten best new chefs not too long ago.  well, we agree with food and wine!  dad printed the menu online before we even got there, which i consider cheating, but i could not help taking a peek prior to dining there either.  as soon as i saw kale on the menu, i was so excited.  kale is huge right now in the culinary world and i have been wanting to experiment with it.  i ordered a kale salad with currants, pine nuts, and shaved parmesan.  it was delicious, as was everything else there.  we all three ordered fish dishes, halibut, snapper, and tuna.  i never want nor have room for dessert, but  mama ordered a lemon tartlett and dad ordered a sorbet trio.  shutup.  if you go- you have to get the lemon tartlett.  soooooooooooo good.  mama will forever talk about that thing.  out of the sorbets, the pineapple was the best.  that night i said to self- “take a breath, go to bed, walk two miles in the quarter in the morning and get ready to eat again.”  so i did that. and miles to go before i eat . . . 

the next day, thursday, was pretty much planned about by dad.  we were to meet carol cotton winn and john winn at john besh’s newest opening in the old roosevelt hotel, domenica.  but first a trip to the garden district bookstore to pick up our copies of besh’s new cookbook, my new orleans.  dad called ahead and had our copies pre-signed by the chef himself.  a perfect Christmas gift for me- but i got it early i guess.  our watches show that it is time for a bloody mary.  so off we go.

we are seated and wait for our friends while sipping our bloody mary’s.  dad is so excited to give john winn a signed copy of besh’s new book.  they used to be neighbors in slidell, so it will be a nice gesture.  john and carol join us.   the menu is total italy.  a little hard to figure out at first, but our waiter did a great job.  we order a charcuterie platter, tempura goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms, heirloom tomato soup, gnocchi in brown butter sauce, pizza, and on and on.  it was awesome.  the manager kerry came and sat with us and shared of her travels to parma, italy to learn this restaurant that is now “her baby.”  what a lucky dog.  then the chef, alon shaya came to our table and of course we had some photos made, you know dad!  we lingered over a long lunch which is a good thing to be able to do in such a busy world.  what’s time to a hog?  i notice a photgrapher shooting shots of the lunch crowd the whole time we are there.  right before we are about to leave – i see john besh stride across the floor.  yes.  after earlier, our waiter when asked told us we had a better chance of winning the lottery as to see john besh there that day.  well, of course, kerry sent him over to our table.  so here is our picture with him. very nice.

chef alon shaya

chef, john besh

and miles to go before i eat . . .

we went out to eat again that night at delmonico’s, which was very good.  of course, i was not hungry since the big lunch and in addition, my mind was on lafayette square and the live music i was missing- kermit ruffins. enough of all this eating.   i enjoyed all the meals, but a girl’s-gotta-do-what-a-girl’s gotta-do and i needed to go shopping. . . .

business boomed in october, enough to fund a little shopping at caire restaurant supply in new orleans.  cupcakes and individual cheesecakes rolled on out of here like nobody’s business. at the restaurant supply, i  purchased some great food storage containers and a new saucier pan.  i want to wrap up this new orleans trip, but i will fail if i don’t mention a little place we ate before we left the city . . .   bozo’s in metairie.  possibly the best chicken and sausage gumbo and raw oysters i’ve had.  i  loved the atmosphere.  a place where eighty and ninety-year-old couples come in and sit at “their tables” on “their day” and get “their waitress.”  i am going to strive to reach a “regular status” at one particular restaurant where when i am eighty or ninety- my waiter will automatically bring me my chilled beer glass and dozen oysters.  just maybe it will be my own place and i can go outside, re-enter and say, “bring me the regular.”

these speak for themselves . . . i guess

geaux saints!!

holiday pancakes on the griddle

fall supper

roasted cauliflower, butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and carrots

bye y’all.  BC