bavila

Ooooo... I really should start reading the fine print. Daughter's preschool is having an Earth Day celebration on Sunday, and the organizer asked for a volunteer to bake a cake. "Sure!" I said. Then I found out there would be about 60 people expected, and that there is a suggested globe design. I don't have any professional gear, so I'm just going to run with the idea of a 2-dimensional globe (or other motif, suggest away), and maybe cupcakes rather than one large or several 8-9" layer cakes. Ideas, please! What kind of batter would be "earthy" and preschool friendly? Any ideas for decorating? I'm thinking a leaf stencil, maybe?

I'm loving your kitchen so far. And your map made me laugh -- reminding me of my totally anal mother who, when helping me move out of my college apartment made a map of the Uhaul truck for what furniture should go where. In your case, the map totally makes sense -- how else would you design a kitchen, at least a kitchen that's actually functional. Can't wait to see the rest. Is the receiver going in the kitchen or speakers at least?

It's definitely spoonbread-y. I was pretty impressed with Zea's in Lafayette when I was there about a year ago. The greens were good too, as I recall. Chain food I can live with.

This sign cracks me up. "make your Lenten sacrifice of giving up meat by gorging on fish here"! I never felt like I was giving much up by feasting on crawfish on a Friday afternoon.

Ok, all you servers and FOTH staff out there, I have a gripe for you. When I come into your half-filled, not quite white-tablecloth establishment for lunch with my 4yo and 19mo, try to avoid taking 20 minutes to fill our drink order and then another 20 minutes to serve our pasta and sandwiches. It really tempts me to let my toddler run ramshod over the freestanding wooden screens you've set up around the bridal shower and other random 20-top whose order you took before getting us iced tea and juice. Can you tell I had a bad experience at lunch yesterday? Our waitress made one strategic error -- letting our drinks and food order wait until she'd taken orders from the 20-top. I blame management for letting us sit and stew. And I blame us for not seeking out the management to get our order in sooner. However. I DID NOT let my toddler run laps or bang on the fish tank. How about some appreciation for the parents who keep the kids under control despite the odds, eh?

So does anyone notice any difference in tolerance for kids in restaurants indifferent locations? Say US v Europe, left coast v right, inland v coastal towns? One of my interviewees is a restaurateur originally from Australia and well-travelled. He pointed out that families are at all types of restaurants in Europe, that the US restaurant market is much more divisive by age group. Is it just an artifact of marketing toward a particular demographic?

Bump again. I've been speaking to Annapolis restaurateurs for a story I'm doing on family dining, and ALL of them have said that patrons of all ages are welcome, and most claim not to have any horror stories involving rambunctious tots. I recognize that they may not want to have it in print that they don't want children in their establishments, but I wondered if the overall persona of a locale impacts how children are received in restaurants. Annapolis, preppy-heavy though it is, is still very casual (all that water seems to keep us calm). What say ye, eGulleters? And a belated thank you to chrisamirault for helping me find this thread.

I second the vote for the light Cabot cheddar cheese. Not too shabby.

Bayou Fete IV...coming May 2007.

Yay ducky! Congrats on reaping the rewards of all your hard work. I was wondering about you the other day, as I haven't been on eGullet much at all the last few months, and have been hiding from the WeightWatchers thread in great shame of my lack of portion-control. All this Korean food (here and DG's recent blog) makes me think I really need to do some hunting for Korean foods in my little town. All those gorgeous veggie dishes... PS I think our church (also UU) sells the same coffee. Isn't it yummy?

This was good incentive for me to add my first recipe to RecipeGullet. Click here. Let us know how it goes.

French Quarter Cheese Serves 10 as Hors d'oeuvre. This is a recipe I've used time and time again, which I found in Very Virginiathe cookbook of the Junior League of Hampton Roads. I add more garlic than the original though. oz cream cheese, softened garlic cloves, minced T grated onion c dark brown sugar tsp Wordestershire sauce tsp prepared mustard (I like Creole) c finely chopped pecans Combine cream cheese, garlic, and onion with a fork. Shape into a 6x1-inch disk, place on a serving plate, and refrigerate. Combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan, heating until butter melts. Cover chilled cheese with nut mixture. Wrap and chill. Serve at room temperature with crackers, bread or sturdy crudites. Keywords: Hors d'oeuvre, Easy ( RG1956 )

I just had a flashback that caused me to shudder. Once, after seeing a similar sandwich prepared on Happy Days (or Joanie Loves Chachi?), I pulled out two slice of squishy white bread, slathered one with Cool Whip, dotted that with M&Ms and pressed it all together. Amazing I didn't become diabetic on the spot! For my daughter (who gets an afternoon snack at preschool anyway) I try to stick to fruits and veggies, though she often favors a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.

30 lbs of crawfish will go far with non-Louisianians, especially if there's lots of other grub, which it sounds like there will be. If that's the only main, you could assume 3 lbs per non-Lousianian and 5 lbs per native.

Ok, native Louisianian here to say that even reading the word crayfish makes my ears ring. "Crawfish" please! Anyway... Not sure what you mean by "light"... I make something I call Bourbon St. cheese (you know, for my Yankee friends who think Bourbon St. represents New Orleans, and therefore Louisiana). Mix a block of softened cream cheese with some grated onion and garlic, shape into a disc and chill. In a saucepan, heat some butter, brown sugar, pecans, and mustard until butter melts. Pour over cream cheese disc and chill. Serve with bread, crackers, or crudites.

← This brings up an important point. Are you looking only at the Delmarva peninsula or Delaware, Maryland and Virginia?

Other than a list of local ingredients (seafood -- much of which is actually imported from the Gulf or southern Atlantic states, and certain veggies), Delmarva cuisine seems to me to have as much identity as the Mid-Atlantic region does in general, which is to say, not much at all. We do some things well (cream of crab soup, rockfish, etc.), but we are largely an amalgamation of other regions' influences -- maybe some cosmopolitan items in Baltimore and Washington, and bits of Southern/rural cuisine scattered throughout. Let us know what you find, cheesecurds. I'd love to know more.

My parents occasionally send me delicious pecans from home (Louisiana) which they usually pick themselves from a friend or relative's tree and my dad cracks and cleans by hand. I do not share these pecans with just anyone. A friend of mine from Texas who also gets pecans from home says that one must be "pecan-worthy" to partake in the good stuff. Everyone else gets Planters. This may seem extreme, but I absolutely do not tolerate this word (Yuck) at the dinnertime. It is an offense worthy of a time-out for my 4yo, who is learning to either say nothing and nudge the morsel to the side of her plate or say "I don't care for any, thank you." This thread is giving me a lot to mull over, as I've recently had a few weeks of not wanting to cook. I've been preoccupied with family illnesses and life changes and just haven't wanted to muster the energy for the planning, etc. But this week, I've picked up my spoon again, and it just feels right. I cook for all of us (hubby, daughter and son) on some level -- trying to incorporate preferences (mainly mine and husband's as daughter's are too limited and son's a toddler). I find my joy of cooking and care about quality ingredients to be downright subversive to mainstream culture. Those of us here, presumably, enjoy cooking or at least partaking of quality cooking. I don't know that there's anything particularly female about all that. Our culture has just bought into the processed food industry's schtick that cooking is boring and tedious and time consuming. It's sad that so many people choose to cheat themselves of a better quality of living that doesn't really cost more (and often costs less) than the alternative shoved down our throats by so much advertising. And as for division of labor in my home, I cook (hubby rarely cooks, mainly because I'm a control freak and know I can do it better) and hubby cleans up. I like it that way. He's a decent prep-cook and we are a fabulous team when entertaining.

DG, Thanks so much for all your research. Having all these zillion dishes is totally up my alley. It makes small plates or tapas in the States pale in comparison. Sheena, Thanks for the details on the soy crabs. Maybe when you're in the Chesapeake are you can give me a tutorial. Though I must say, I'm a little frightened about the texture.

Brooks, you rock. I still hope to share a meal with you when I'm home sometime. Lache pas la patate, cher.

Are the soy sauce crabs actually soft shells before they go into the marinade?

Hi Doddie, This is the first blog I've followed this year, as I only found them post-reorganization the other day. I love the market pics. Is that crawfish in the first pic on post 32? How do people prepare the tiny crabs (which I'm assuming are kin to our "hermit" crabs in the states, which, to my knowledge, no one eats)? Thanks!

Here's my guess...alcohol was involved. ← Naww...

That's about what I was thinking when I was watching "Babe" yesterday with my daughter. What a bargain. $20 to have those guys feed me? Wish I could be there...

FYI, I saw shad roe at the Cape St Claire Graul's this week. I want to say they were $11/pair or so, but don't quote me. Thanks for the tips on preparing them, DTBarton.