FistFullaRoux

Itchy rash all over her body, trouble breathing requiring a nebulizer, or sometimes hives. Rough stuff. It's systemic, at least. My nephew seems to be allergic to a lot of things too. Dairy in general, corn, peanuts, and so on. Is it just me or are more kids getting sicker with allergies these days? That does complicate shopping for food, when you can't just buy the milk on sale, because one requires lactose free or soy milk. And you don't get any extra help for that.

Names of people arrested in the sting fro New Orleans area (bottom of page) Seems to mostly be Vietnamese business people. It's stuff like this that can get ugly real quick around there. Between Chinese crawfish and the illegal seafood, legitimate businesses are feeling the squeeze.

Link to AP story Tryin to save a buck, I guess. No names listed yet. I'll keep looking to find out who is involved. Don't be surprised at the names, though.

Well, I certainly hope so. All in all, it's about a 5 gallon batch. But yes, normally for us it's a 'what do I do with these leftovers?' type of dish. =R= Regarding the leftovers, email me for my address.... OK, just kidding. Where did you order the andouille and tasso from?

I'm trying out my own suggestion right now. A 3 inch chunk of andouille, diced. A chicken breast I had in the freezer, diced. And a handful of plain ol button mushrooms in a pretty standard risotto. Actually more like a jambalaya now, but I digress. It does make the rice a pretty color...It's OK, but I don't know if I would try it again. It tastes good, but it doesn't POP. It may be my own prejudice though. Whenever I taste andouille, I'm expecting beans. This was a good experiment. The recipe is far from perfected, and maybe some tweaking could make it sing, but there are enough recipes for andouille. It's not like you have to figure out something new and exciting to do with it. It isn't garden variety stuff. Good luck with your experiments. It's good stuff.

You feeding Florida with that? That batch must feed about 40.The whole point of jambalaya is to make the rice taste like the meat. It's how the old Cajun catholic women used to feed 12 people on one rabbit. 6 pounds of meat in a jambalaya... I can almost hear my grandmother going off about it now. Edited to say - Never mind. I just read your food blog. You sure you have enough?

What Davethecook and Mayhaw Man said. Gumbos usually use andouille, but they are for all intents and purposes interchangable when used as a seasoning in beans, greens, or a similar use. Andouille is cheaper by weight than tasso is, though... And as a hint, I've found that you can mix an equal portion of good smoked sausage (which is far easier to find in most of the country) with andouille in nearly any dish. I personally find gumbo made with straight andouille to be a bit intense, but when cut with smoked pork or turkey sausage, the flavors balance nicely. Think of andouille as smoked sausage and tasso as ham hocks. That should guide you well in your travels.

Nicely stated. I concur.

Ding ding ding ding.... We have a winner.

As far as geeky strategies (I have not been able to do this yet, but it seems like a good idea to me)... I'd like to get one of the big (8x10) digital picture frames and load it with scans of recipes and pictures of tricky steps. It's hands free, and you can set it up to scroll through certain frames or hold one frame static. I'm not sure what the memory on these things is capable of, but it should handle 10 "pages" of 8x10 information. That should be plenty to make a full meal. I'd like to try this one, once I can spring for a frame that size. A smaller one might work, but I don't know how much text you could put on it. Or you could just print out the recipe and stick it on the fridge with magnets at eye level. That tends to be the way I do it now. Low tech, but it works.

I second Thundercloud. Not only do thay have dern tasty grub, but they have done more to support the Austin music scene than people know. They are extremely flexible with their scheduling, so practices and shows can be worked around. You gotta love that. I know many people who have worked there. There is (or was) a little taco stand walk up place just north of campus in Austin, I think on N Lamar near Ruby's. 59 cents for the best breakfast taco with fresh homemade pic de gallo you will ever have. And they serve breakfast all day. I used to work at the plasma center right there and it was often lunch for me. Plus the college students would get out of the donation chairs a little woozy and venture down there to refill the tanks for cheap. And while I'm in that neighborhood, you can't forget Dirty's. Just about the only place in Austin that cares enough about french fries to fry them twice, as God intended.

Beans. Make a big pot of black or navy bean soup, or the bean of your choice. Sautee your onions for the soup, then a minute or two before you start adding other ingredients, add the diced andouille, stir for a minute, then proceed with the rest of the recipe, watching out for the salt. Or find a good red beans and rice recipe (maybe I need to post one). I also julliene thin strips, grilled or quick pan fried, on a baguette with peppers and onions, maybe a little swiss or provolone. It's kind of like a Cajun cheese steak. Sort of. Be careful, sometimes the casing on those can be a little tough. You may want to peel it off first, then add the peels and ends to a pot of chicken or vegetable stock. But if you aren't a big meat eater, use it as seasoning for almost any starchy vegetable or greens. They can be carefully rendered out and used as a serious garnish for salads or anywhere that you would use cooked bacon. And as I am on a bit of a risotto kick right now, a small amount of andouille in a pot of rice would go a long way. Add mushrooms and you are set. I love andouille. Almost as I love tasso. And I love tasso almost as much as I love my wife....

But there is something to be gained even from a short period of trying to live like another person. Just like you can have a $300 dinner and imagine yourself in Paris for a couple of hours, you can get one bag of basic groceries to last a couple of weeks and see what it's like to live for probably 20 percent of the US population. A far higher percentage if you are considering the world. And for most of the rest of the world, forget the groceries. You have to go out and find it on your own. Seafood is eaten at the seashore or near rivers because the people who lived there prior to the existence of refrigeration and mass transportation had it. It was there. But you had to go out and gather it, not buy it. Same thing with crawfish in Louisiana and eel in Japan. That's part of the reason that people go hunting and camping. To remember what it's like to have to fend for yourself without a corner market and 35 different kinds of takeout places. Now, going to the grocery store today is rife with bad judgement. Fat and salt is cheap. I know for a fact that a donut is cheaper than a can of tuna, requires no tools, and is easily obtained. Cheap food, when that's all that you exist on, is bad for you. Too much salt, too much processed sugar, and too many inferior ingredients, not enough nutrition. It's just calories. All of these things require tools, from can openers to pots, and that's assuming you have a stove. The tools to cook cost money. Most of us turn up our noses at a $5 pot from a grocery store. Probably 70% (my estimate) of the population have never seen the inside of a gourmet or kitchenware store (not counting WalMart). They wouldn't know a saucier if you hit them with it. It's a pot. Or a pan. And if you're lucky, a cookie sheet or two. I'm sorry if I seem a little testy on this subject. I was a half step away from homelessness on a number of occasions. And I never did qualify for food stamps. You have to know how to work the system to eat and have a roof over your head. I know what it means to make the decision between eating and keeping the heat on. I am grateful, especially this time of year for the good fortune I have been given, and having gone through the experience of not having it. I will never forget what that was like. Even though I am not living like Bill Gates, buying food is no longer the struggle it was, and it makes a huge difference in the way you look at life. And why I don't mind feeding other people.

Being from Louisiana, mine may be a little different... Gumbo - Chicken and smoked sausage with a medium dark roux (I'm really looking forward to this one this year. Sometimes oysters are added) Nutmeg Vanilla Pecans (especially pecan pie or candied pecans) Cranberry And has anyone notice the middle eastern influence in traditional christmas food? Large roasts, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, rasins, dates, figs, almonds, mulled drinks... It's almost like Morrocco. When you think of where this holiday originated, it makes perfect sense. I love when things work out like that. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

I have noticed the kerosene or fermented taste as well. There has to be another explanation. It may be the particular variety of carrot, as different ones are harvested throughout the year from different areas. If you are not using organic veggies, some pesticides and fertilizers can leave a petrochemical note. Carrots are aromatics and can contain certain oils and other chemicals which could very well go rancid, without showing mold or other characteristics in or on the carrot itself. Differences in climate and handling could start that reaction, too.

To preface, I baked bread professionally in retail and catering settings for 3 or 4 years, and do so at home now. I've tried a few things. I third The Bread Baker's Apprentice. That is the beauty of it. Bread recipes do not always work perfectly as written. No recipe does. You can have different yeast, Miami vs Denver climate differences, among others. You start with a basic recipe, then you refine it. The whole idea behind being an apprentice is to learn by doing. The first few may not come out quite right. But if you read the book, somewhere in there you will get the info you need to get it right down the road. It teaches you how to get what you are looking for. It's like the little old ladies that make bread every day. They know how to compensate for the differences in temperature, humidity, and seasonings. Plus it is a gorgeous book. If it's for someone who is really interested in learning bread, and not just how to make bread, it is a perfect choice. If you are looking for recipes, there are hundreds. The basics are in The Bread Baker's Apprentice or in How To Cook Everything.

And regarding cilantro, my mom, the wonderful Cajun cook that she is, came to Austin to visit my brother and I one Christmas. She went to the store to get the material needed for an honest to goodness real meal for her boys, and she accidentally picked up cilantro instead of parsley. She said it smelled like feet. She also says Pepsi tastes like dirt. I think black eye peas have a distinctivley putrid flavor. I smelled someone in the breakroom here at work warming up what smelled like a big plate of cabbage and ass today. To each his own, I guess.

I have a couple. Nutrasweet, as mentioned elsewhere here, has an aftertaste that lasts literally for hours. Diet drinks, candy made with it, anything gives me that sort of unpleasantly bitter/cloyingly sweet aftertaste that won't go away. Usually ends up giving me a headache. I also pick up fryer oil just before it starts to go bad, or if it has been heated too much. I don't think it's the type of oil so much, but if it gets overheated or has been used a couple of times too many, I can taste it. But then again, I am the guy who, if I hold a penny in my hand for more than a few seconds, I get a metallic taste in my mouth. A nickel or other coinage takes longer, but copper happens immediately. Yes, I have experimented with it. It works on the bottom of the foot too, but it takes a few minutes more. I can tell when something has been cooked in an unclad reactive pot as well.

No. Offering a discount or a freebie shows that the staff and management know that you may not have completely enjoyed the experience, and they want to make sure that you know that they know (Know what I mean?). A freebie, in my opinion is a better marker than a coupon for a future visit, because it at least does not look like the manager is trying to get another check out of you. It's more along the lines of, "There was something wrong here, and we as an establishment don't feel comfortable charging you full price for something that we are not proud of. You are more important than the one guest check." That is the attitude that I like. Someone who takes care of their guests (never customers) and hold themselves to higher standards than a customer would. But I do recommend pulling a manager aside to compliment a staff member on doing a job better than they are supposed to. Management in a lot of places hear about the bad ones, but rarely to they get to pay an employee a compliment. It may mean a few extra bucks down the road too, so it's worth it. And Elyse, the place I was talking about is called Anthony's in Birmingham, Alabama. The best waitstaff, hands down, I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. Although I have noticed that staff in non-touristy places in the south tend to be nicer, as a general kind of rule. Panama City Beach might as well be Chicago, but a little Italian place in Birmingham can have the best waiter I have ever drawn.

Yeah, but we rent. I hate having to deal with the pinch faced old broad who runs the rental office. I think her last bowel movement was during the Nixon administration. She gets pissed off when somebody turns in their rent check early...

My wife did a good one last night. We have (had-read on) a cheapy pizza stone with the little wire rack you can use to lift it out and whatnot. I never move the thing since I grasp certain concepts better than she does.... Anyway, she fired up the oven, with the pizza stone inside (now that I've convinced her you can heat it up without anything on it). 20 minutes later, removed the stone from the oven, using the wire handled thing, which is barely stable enough for it to sit on a level surface. As she was lifting the stone, it slid. 400 degree ceramic bounced off of her stomach, minor burns on her, but it ruined the clothes she was wearing. Then lands on the oven door in a crash, breaking into 10 or so jagged chunks, each at 400 degrees, on a linoleum floor. Wife is freaking out, and barefoot, so she won't move, and the floor is melting under the broken pizza stone fragments. I finally manage to pick up the pieces and put them into the metal sink, so I can run water on them to cool them off enough to throw them away. So there we stood. Oven door still open, 10 little melted spots in the linoleum. Hyperventalating wife, and me in a pair of ruined oven mitts, wondering aloud about how to fix the floor. Moral of the story is, I will never (and neither will my wife) attempt to move a pizza stone when it is hot.

There was the amateur (or he may have had some training) chef who wound up in Baghdad sitting on security detail around one of Saddam's old palaces, which happened to have a large selection of game. One Humvee grill, one hole for coals, several cans of government issue orange juice, various spices picked up from somewhere, and one antelope later... The entire company was eating something besides MRE's for the first time in weeks. That is an alternative cooking method. Dig a hole and kill something. Let's eat!

These boards are full of rotten experiences with waitstaff or management at restaurants. When was the last time anyone actually pulled a manager over to compliment the waitstaff or other employees? When was the last time someone blew your mind by doing a more than adequate job? Someone who was so on top of things that you wanted for nothing, and truly felt like a guest, rather than a visitor or a customer. This is even rarer in chain restaurants, but I have had several excellent experiences with super waitstaff at chain steakhouses and the McFunsters joints. I make it a point to let management know that they have an asset in an employee. And I damn sure let them know if someone has screwed up big. I can let the little things slide, because life happens. But the major things, like getting the orders completely wrong or picking their nose while handling the silverware get my and the management's immediate discrete attention. If I need drink refills and am not being paid attention to (which is different that being seated in a slammed section), I've found that I only have to wander over to the water and iced tea pitchers or over to the bar to fill my glass once before someone is keeping a close eye on the fluid levels at the table. And if they are noticing that, they are getting everything else. My version of a gentle reminder. I think the coolest thing I have ever seen done as far as "beyond the call of duty" service was the night that my wife and I went to a little local rest (great southern Italian place, we had been several times before), and as we were seated we were told by the manager that the chef had a medical emergency and was at the hospital. The manager said he was only seating his reservations, and the "assistant chef" was filling orders for the night. That being said, the meal was comped up front, as it was not the regular chef doing the work. I didn't have a problem with an "assistant" cooking, if they knew what they were doing. As it turns out, the assistant was a fine chef, the meal was very good, and the bar tab was even halved. That, my friends, is the way to do business. We immediately made arrangements to come back on another night. Where we were met with excellent service and outstanding food once again. And have every time we walk in the door. The manager even remembers us from that night, and usually takes care of dessert or appetizers for us. This is a small local place where the most expensive entree is $27. And it is the way to do business, as far as I'm concerned. Turns out the assistant has now moved up to share duties and split hours with the head chef. They both do superb work. And we are now one of their regulars, and are treated like family. Service does matter.

Not sure if this counts as background music. It was only in the bathrooms. County Line BBQ in Austin, TX plays "Learn to Speak Texan" bits. ie; "Jaeatyet?" "Fixinta" etc. There are a few good ones there. And I once heard a Muzak version of Depeche Mode's People Are People in a Burger King.

...is sitting on the butter Is UNDER the butter