highchef

Elmers 'of New Orleans' is not in New Orleans???? A week ago that would have struck me a lot differently. Today I'm glad of it. I am making stuffed artichokes in honer of Mosca's tonight. I think I'll pick a Neworleans dish for everynight..maybe slip some beinets in there this weekend. Corrinne Dunbars. Now that was a classy place. I don't know if they were still in business though. edit for spelling, as usual. and shrimp boats..not poboys, shrimp boats.

Elmers. I'm worried there won't be any chocolate bunnies. stupid, but I've never had an Easter without one. Moscas. The blue plate mayo people.

I've fed soccer teams for years, don't fool yourself. They eat just as much as football players. I do pasta, fruit salad, yeast rolls (frozen dough, thawed buttered on top and baked. they really like them) and choc. chip cookies. any kind of pasta with any sauce will do. It's the carbs. Chicken spaghetti, lasagna, mac and cheese with meat patties. These guys leave happy plates, just don't get too fancy.

I've heard about Hibernia and sad to say they are trying to operate with almost no employees in a shell of a building somewhere in B.R. The people I've talked to in B.R. have not had anything good to say about Ruth's. The bottom line is that Hibernia is ripe for a takeover and is probably on the short list for the major banks in the country. So is Whitney, although they are functioning great for the time being. What should have been a 5 minute run into Albertson's last night turned into an hour. I gave directions to an uptown evacuee, discovered our mutual friends, gave her phone #'s and generally welcomed her to the area. Then had a 20 minute conversation with a fellow UNO grad who was buying his 2nd bottle of wine for the evening to celebrate his friends finding an apt. and getting out of his. What a week. What a nightmare. Fill up your tank, fill up your pantry. You never know what tomorrow will bring. Cheers! btw, Albertson's put itself up for sale last week. If it's your store, you might want to monitor the situation.

The owner on Antoine's resturant has decided to stay with the resturant instead of following orders to evacuate N.O. . I understand how he feels about the place (I have had some great times there myself, a few Christmas parties that were a bit over the top, not food wise but character wise. This is after all New Orleans we are talking about.) I just saw that there is a levy breach, this is bad news for the quarter and the people who woulden't/couldn't get out. It got me thinking of the places I'd miss the most if the worst happens. I have a very short list. Cafe DuMonde, Mothers, Camilia Grill and Central grocery. These are sentimental to me. I'd miss other places, like the cathedral and the pentabla apts. (I actually used to stay in a loft there every once in a while with a friend.) I'd almost wish the Superdome would blow away though if it didn't have 10,000 people in it as I type. I'd miss those places, yes. But I would not be dumb enough to stay with them in this. What would you miss? Would you stay with your resturant? Why, what could you do to protect a building from 140 mph winds? I guess I'm just not sentimental enough.....

I did not know I was poor growing up, but went to high school stupid,and came back with an attituded. My first job was slinging burgers. Mom made the same damn thing, over and over. I didn't snap on it until I started withe the burger job. Every Sat. night, I'd come home and have fried burgers. And beans. I would think, shit...she's done this for years, and held down a job, you'd thinkl she'd get a frickin' recipe from someone. That is how I started cooking., I'd call from work to her work. Ask how she would cook a roast, or do a stew, or whatever I'd develed up. eventually we fed everyone well and she loved me for that. When I got married, the hardest thing I had to do was tell mom she simply had to start cooking again, at least for dad. The slumming part was where she cooked meat patties and pork and beans every single Saturday night that I lived under that roof.

This is true, but there is an open container law in Louisiana. However, in Cal. Parish, it only applys to the driver after 5 or 6 pm... I have an attorney friend who lives behind a police building and popped a tab in front of the guy, when he pulled him over as expected, the attorney told him exactly how the law was, and why, and how. No ticket. free education. But we do like our go cups..gee, they're better than beads!

fifi, you are my new hero.

actually she did not make this up, but got it from a friend. I'd love to taste it, but I'm not brave enough to make it. I have enough problems worrying about my weight as it is. I've been trying to talk my friends into trying this for years, just so I can stick a fork in it...to no avail. God, I love sweetened condensed milk! My sister says this is death by donut.

This was my mom's potato salad too, and she was from Boston as well! Must be a yankee thing. I think of this as the classic style, but if it's red potatoes and no mayo, then no eggs. btw, many people growing up during the depression in the rural south did not have eggs in their potato salads. The eggs were sold for extra income and to use them would have taken food off the table! John Folse I believe calls this version something like the 'widows potato salad'. I'd go look it up, but the damn book weighs a ton and I don't want to haul it upstairs. I'll check later. Makes sense though.

I have had 2 security issues come up this week. The first had to do with my debit card. The bank sent a new one with a letter saying there had been a breach, and that they didn't 'think' there was a problem, but were sending everyone a new debit card just in case. The breach had to do with hackers getting into a mortgage buyers database and the bank had sold our mortgage to them and somehow they could backtrack to our accounts. The second has to do with pay-pal. My son has an account but I made him quit using it after reading about a breach in citi-bank's accounts that had to do with pay-pal. Yesterday a package arrived from an e-bay vendor to my son. He's a 20 year old musician/student and got a 2 tiered party plate with gold trim sent to him, in his name, to his address. The look on his face said it all. I tracked the woman down on e-bay and e-mailed her to see how this was paid for but haven't heard back yet. I've also notified e-bay. I suspect somesort of pay-pal breach, but really have no idea. I did think it was a joke, but his friends wouldn't waste their beer money (7bucks for shipping) on something like that. That said, giving your card # over the phone is a pretty risky thing...around here, well they wouldn't even ask, but in places that do you have to be able to trust that their employees are trustworthy and arn't selling the information. My sister has had a problem with that in the past in New Orleans. I don't know what the answer to that is, except if the reservations are far enough in advance, you could mail a deposit. I'm not paranoid, but cautious. Especially now.

My kids have also rebelled against the cafeteria food. If we must make lunches every morning though, I insist that they get up with me and help. They've been in for a week now, and the meals have been modified to a large breakfast(carbs, bacon) basically an easy to put together snack/lunch of cheese, crackers, fruit and a sweet (vanilla wafers or bananna muffin type of thing). Then when they get home another fruit and off to practice. 2hours later they eat a LARGE DINNER, and basically anything they can get their hands on. Then we get up and do it all over again. I would pack them more for lunch, but this seems to 'top off' the large breakfast and gets them to 3pm. It's after the 2 hour soccer practice that they start feeling the hunger pains! They are eatin a lot of fruit.....this is a good thing.

My mother still has some of those, used as rugs on the floor. I have the modern version made of plastic sheets not recyled from bags. They wear great and clean easily. The old ones made by my Grandmother's generation out of wonderbread bags and others in countless patterns always intrigued me. Why has nobody mentioned Spam? I did. that's my 'cooked' version of slum-junk. I was very embarassed, but feel better with someone else admitting it! ←

The best cooks in s.w. LA. are, and always have been the creoles. The resturants are not always in the best part of town, but its where the 'old' families go, cause they're in the know. I feel sorry, sometimes, for the new money here....they really don't have a clue how to spend it. They think the casino's have the good stuff. That's ok, we like things simple and served up hot. That said, the better high end resturants here are run by Lebonese (sp).. truly good food, but not southern. About as close as they get is crab cakes. good ones though.

you're welcome. Do try that recipe, and don't sub for the spice mix (as one reviewer suggests).

If one uses panko crumbs as a binder, doesn't that mean that they are mixed in with other ingredients and therefore rendered not particularly crispy, which is their primary appeal? I always think of using them as a coating rather than a binder ... ← I add them as a binder because I find I can use less of them, than say, bread crumbs. I use them primarily for shrimp cakes that I then recoat in same and bake. this is the recipe I use for that, I guess it keeps things consistant in taste. I've adapted the recipe for my crab cakes (without the sweet potato) and I think it keeps them together with out adding a bready taste (is bready a word?). Anyway, it's a bit more expensive, but when you're dealing with highend items like shrimp and crabmeat it's worth it. jmho. btw, there is a recipe on the back of one brand (the market has switched brands, and the other brand name alludes me) that suggests it as a binder for hamburgers. I have used it in burgers but I flavor mine so much that it's probably a moot point. I may be delusional in my thinking but I think that they are milder, lighter and do the job without taking away from the primary flavors and mouth feel.

panko

beans 'n weenies. PB&J. If I'm cookin it...spam with butter on white bread. Iknow, I know.

I think that qualifies as death by cat and bowl and tongs. That's a winner! (don't be surprised if it's only 'playing dead'. My experience is that it's only truly dead when the head is off and that's not always the case as in my duck, Donald. Long, sad story.) edited for punctuation. please don't grade me.

What's Tues.Morning? ← It is a place similiar to Marshall's (but doesn't carry clothes..well, not very many, mostly high end kids/baby) stuff, Think Absorba cotton etc. Lots of rugs, lamps, china, cookware. Great place to pick up the occasional LeCreuset pot, lots of Emile Henry bakeware. It carries closeouts from highend places like Neimen's and Restoration hardware and the like. Lot's of seasonal stuff, right now it's stuffed with christmas stuff. If you can find one check it out, but there's probably something near you that serves the same function. It has a small gourmet food isle. I stay away from the mixes, and just go for the high quality oils, vinegars and rare find of chocolate. That was the only good chcolate find I've had there, but I keep checking cause you never know.

Late last year I found some Schokinag 28% white chocolate in, of all places, Tues.Morning. It was a steal @4.99/lb and I made some wonderful things with it..I am going to use my last lb. to try and make cinnamon chips because I can't find them and my son loves cinnamon scones. I also bought Schokinag cocoa powder for next to nothing and it beats the heck out of anything I've ever picked up in the grocery store. Used it for truffles. I don't know if any of this is available on a regular basis, but it's worth checking places like that for cut rate prices on gourmet items. I get grey salt there too, as well as some really decent extra virgin olive oils on occasion. Got a great basil flavored one a few weeks ago and used some to finish off a tomato soup. You may check Marshalls as well, and it goes without saying to check for expiration dates.

I have a germaphobic sister and a 100 year old house. When she came to visit last Christmas as she stepped over the threshold into the dining room there was the largest cockroach on the planet...just sitting there, in the DINING room where 15 of my nearest and dearest are about to have Christmas dinner. I thought "well that is an exceptionally brave roach..I guess it's so big it thinks it's BADDDD!" As my sister clutched her heart I leaned over to do the roach crunch dance and the damn thing didn't move. I realized it was, in fact, already dead. Bengel did the job again, but I'm sure because of it's superroach size it just took it a while longer. As I checked myself in midstep, I looked at her and asked her politely not to disturb it as "I leave it there as a warning to the others". After dinner, as I was rinsing dishes I caught sight of a mouse, silently eyeing the leftovers on the island. Damn...this was sure to condemn my home to the "filthy" catagory in my sisters mind, and be the last time the family gathered under MY rodent/roach infested roof. So I did what any normal, champagne addled woman would do. I burned a piece of bread under the broiler, ran everyone out of the house with the smoke, trapped the offender under a colander and threw the cat in the kitchen and shut the door. Sent hubby in a while later "to see if the smoke cleared" and clean up rat guts. Everyone had dessert and went home. I still wonder what I should have done, but thinking fast AND smart don't often coincide with me. Does killing mice with colander and cat qualify as murder by utensil? edited to add: I am owned by the Leroy Brown of cats.

I've had the same problem, I use them for baking and now they are gone. I have got to try and find some or figure out how to make them myself. Actually, I'm half-way there, and will post as soon as I find out if they'll do...

Thanks from mom's everywhere!!

I have corian and have yet to have it look like 'new', but it is still good looking. What the hell do I have to do to do to make it 'not marked'??