patti

Patti, I did find pounding the paste better than using the food processor (I started in the latter and moved to the former). Also, the lemon grass. I ended up using 4 pieces because by the time I removed the tough leaves and got to that tender center, there wasn't much of it. In lieu of the mortar and pestal, I spice grinder or microplaning some of this stuff might be a good idea. Also, fresh galangal is really fibrous, I can't think of a reason not to used dried. ← Snowangel, I'd like to make this dish today or tomorrow, but I don't have a proper mortar and pestle (only a small wooden set and a small marble set that we used to use for meds for our son). How important is it for this dish? And how important is the kind of mortar and pestle? If I shop for one to use TODAY, it would have to come from Linens 'N Things, or Bed, Bath and Beyond, or a specialty kitchen store, which will probably have something overpriced. I've seen some online at Asian cooking/shopping sites, too. Would you soldier on without one for today and wait to buy a particular one, or would you go out and get what's available today? Any advice welcomed.

I have sliced it both ways. The thinner, crispier bits are definitely the tastiest. For some reason, I can't avoid getting some fluffy pieces at the tip of the florets. I'll work on that for the next time.

This one looks really good, snowangel. It's definitely going on the short list of things to try soon. Thanks for posting the pics and your process.

Wow, what a nice variety of beautiful looking food. Thanks for showing them off!

Great demo of cornbread making, andiesenji. It never even occurred to me that cooking from scratch might mean milling your own corn. I feel all Betty Crocker-ish when I don't use Jiffy. Now I see I'm only Sandra Lee!

I'm not throwing stones. I've only used one of the recipes in the book so far, and while it was a delicious success, I can't tell you what good the parchment paper did. The lid to my Le Creuset pot seems heavy enough and fit closely enough that I didn't really understand how the parchment actually benefitted me or the pork shoulder I was braising. I've braised for years, however, I am new to Le Creuset AND to Molly Stevens, so I bow to the experience of others. As far as the cut of beef roast to choose, I often choose a rump roast, mostly because it's what my mother always cooked. I like sirloin tip, also, but my husband prefers the rump roast.

Wow, that is a comprehensive barstool site! Good thing I'm not in the market, because I'd never be able to make a decision with all of those choices. What's your color scheme going to be, Varmint?

Varmint and fifi, here's a nice selection of counter and/or bar stools.

Are you kidding me?!?! Seriously, this is fun, but it's a buttload of work. I'd rather not keep going after this weekend, thankyouverymuch. When I talked to Stewart this morning I vented briefly about how much work this is on top of an unusually busy week. But I also told him I'm going to move on from this job eventually and back towards writing and teaching more, and eventually there will be a 3-year-old kid and no energy to cook for my family. And then I'm gonna come back and read this blog and wonder how in the world I managed to feed 34 girls every day. It's pretty amazing when I step back and think about it. ← Hehe. Yes, I was kidding, of course. I have no idea how you have the energy to do ANYTHING after the hard work you put in every day. Not only that, but you seem to be providing them with food service above and beyond what is expected. I'm admiring you from afar.

Thanks for adding the pictures, but even without them, your commentary is fascinating. Could you blog forever, please?

halloweencat, I've roasted a pan of cauliflower for as long as an hour, so don't feel alone. We're all after a good tasting result!

Mine seems to vary from head to head. I cooked some today for 45 minutes at 400. I like lots of browned bits and was very satisfied. Any time I've made it and didn't wait for it to brown enough, I was less than happy with the result.

I went to a party years ago (before I learned how to say NO to friends) and I bought my first pizza stone. I loved it until the day it died (my husband broke it). Now pizza stones are commonly seen in retail stores, but at the time, they were not.

With some of your excess budget, perhaps you can have some live crawfish shipped in for a crawfish boil. Mmm, crawfish. Heck, since there's plenty of extra budget, have one of the south Louisiana caterers who provide on site service come to you and boil them, too (or Mayhaw Man).

I'm amazed that for your first time to make gumbo, you even made the sausage to go with it! It looks perfectly delicious. How much sausage do you make in one batch? Congrats on a great looking finished product!

Andie, I bet you've got the best outfitted kitchen ever, bar none. I love reading about what you have and how and where you store things and how you use your kitchen tools. You rock!

Around Christmas time, my husband and I did a little boudin taste testing. It was a spur of the moment thing, so there was boudin from only three different area shops. They included The Best Stop in Scott, Billeaud's in Broussard, and Comeaux's in Lafayette (Kaliste Saloom location). I was positive that the Best Stop boudin would win, and my husband's money was on Billeaud's, but surprisingly, we liked Comeaux's the best. The casing on the boudin at Best Stop was a little tough that day, and it made the eating while driving trick a little less manageable. While this seems like an odd complaint, I thought there could've been a bit more rice in the mix. Billeaud's and Comeaux's both had very tender casings, easy for either the bite-and-pull-the-innards-out method, or any method of attack. However, there was something about Comeaux's that hit the perfect combination of seasonings, spices, meat, and rice. Tres bon! I should add that on any given day, boudin from any of the three locations would be a treat. Luckily for me, this Comeaux's (there are two) is about 2 minutes from my house, while Best Stop and Billeaud's are equally out of the way in opposite directions. Last week I stopped at Poche's for the first time (my hairdresser stopped commuting to Lafayette and now cuts hair from her house, minutes from Poche's). I bought some of their andouille (for the freezer, haven't had any yet) and some alligator sausage as well as some crawfish boudin. I have to say, it's not the best crawfish boudin I've had (that honor goes to Legnon's in New Iberia). The crawfish were sparse and the link was a little too limp and moist. It didn't strike the perfect balance (she said after wolfing down several links). I wish I'd also picked up some of their regular boudin so I could compare to the others I've tasted. However, I'll have the opportunity to remedy that mistake next time I get my hair cut. I found this interesting little boudin review site today which visitors and locals might find interesting as well as helpful: BOUDIN REVIEWS

Patti, I think that the meat on rib chops will be a bad idea for a curry that's braised for a while. It's likely to get more, and not less, tough as you cook it. The braising class that's going on right now can give you the reasons for why that is. Ok, more in a sec. I'm jazzed! ← Chris, my thinking was that I could braise the lamb shanks and add the lamb chops near the end of cooking. So, maybe I'll freeze the lamb chops for now, and search a little further for other cuts. Lamb just isn't a hot commodity here. I found one shop with a leg of lamb for $36 and a crown roast of lamb for whatever price, but since I'm not sure my husband or son will even TASTE this lamb curry, those choices didn't make sense (whether appropriate for the dish, or not). Thanks for your help.

Thanks, Chris. I bought everything at Lowe's. I linked to a picture of an expandable step shelf in my post (couldn't find one at Lowe's online site), but maybe you didn't notice it: expandable wooden step shelf BTW, there are more shelves in my pantry, but I didn't want y'all to see ALL of the clutter. Wow, great idea, Bill!

Will it be a sinful thing to use lamb chops in my lamb curry? My choices were limited, although later I found one small package of lamb shanks at another meat market. Could I combine them in the same lamb curry? This will be new ground for me.

Since joining eGullet, I've made several tweaks that have really made a difference to me. First, I needed to utilize my space more efficiently because I bought many new spices and herbs and other ingredients that take up lots of space. I got rid of a few unecessary items and made a new spice cabinet. Inside the cabinet, I put an expandable step shelf, which is hidden under all the spices: I also put in a small turntable: The pantry door was being underused, so we put in two on-the-door units (um, ignore the laundry on the floor of the laundry room behind the open pantry door, please): There was some dead space on the wall of the pantry, so a unit similar to the two on the door was put in place: And on two of the big shelves inside the pantry, we added small chrome shelf expanders (you can't see the one on the top shelf as it's full of stuff): Inspired by the talk of metro shelving in DavetheCook's kitchen remodel thread, I added similar type shelving in the laundry room for some of my pots. This unit is fairly new and not as well organized as it could be. Looking at this picture allowed me to see that this needs more tweaking: EDIT: Ack! I should've hidden all the things on the shelves I don't want eGulleters to see!

I'm so happy you're blogging! I was disappointed when the biography forum was deleted because I was enjoying reading your thread about cooking for your girls. This is a nice bonus.

Thank you so much for offering us a glimpse into a window of your life in a fascinating city. Great pictures, interesting info, and a thoroughly enjoyable peek.

Someone's mention of rice krispies coated fried chicken in another thread reminded me of one of Mom's cooking disasters. She ordinarily made great crispy fried chicken, but decided to try a recipe calling for pancake batter as the coating. Ew. Pas bon! We couldn't even fake it to save her feelings.

I tried Tom Kha Gai again. We had some leftover boiled crawfish, so I peeled a few tails and added them to the soup. Does that change the name? Anyway, I used the same recipe that I used the first time, with a few tweaks. I used about twice as much fish sauce and lime juice as the recipe called for, and still added a bit more to my individual serving after tasting. Excellent! There's no butter or oil added to the recipe, so I'm guessing that's crawfish fat on the surface of the soup? Oh, duh. I guess it could be from the chicken pieces, although they were skinless, so I didn't figure they'd give up much fat.