HungryC

I really can't speak to the hospitality job market, but anyone considering LA should be prepared for the general lack of services (like public transit, affordable healthcare, functional government). While cost of living can seem lower than a larger city, wages & benefits are correspondingly lower than you might expect. And thanks to that sucky public transit, you'll need a car unless you live near your job and/or don't plan to explore the surrounding area (know that car insurance rates in Orleans parish are among the highest in an expensive-to-insure state). Try contacting the Louisiana Restaurant Association, which might be able to help you with networking. Aside from all the negatives, you'll find a vibrant food culture in south Louisiana, where (almost) everyone considers him/herself an expert, loves to talk about food, loves to eat, and isn't afraid of anything fried.

A lengthy marinade won't do much for bone-in chicken....in fact, I don't marinate many foods for more than an hour or two. If you're not getting the flavor you seek, try layering it on. Marinate for a short time, pat dry, then use a spice rub (dry or paste), tucking some of it underneath the skin. Or, if you're hell-bent to get flavor inside that chicken, try a Cajun Injector...a big hypodermic needle used to stick various flavors directly into poultry flesh. My favorite chicken marinade is a vietnamese-style ga nuong: 1/4 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1 T fish sauce, 1 T fresh lime juice, and 2 T oil, mixed with a couple pounds boneless thighs and rested for just 30 minutes. Grill or broil. This delivers maximum flavor with minimum effort & time...

I dunno: the negotiations (and legal actions) were rather prolonged. With a reported $11 million price tag, it would be a pretty expensive stunt (as the media is reporting he's a majority stakeholder).

WWL is reporting that Galatoire's will change hands: http://www.wwltv.com/news/Galatoires-restaurant-changing-hands-as-part-of-multi-million-dollar-purchase-78869437.html

Caramelized onions might help. One possible tip: boil a ham hock in water, and use the cooking liquid but not the hock itself. If you need it to be completely fat-free, chill the stock overnight and skim. Or if you don't want pork, try making a broth from smoked turkey wings. In the same vein, Goya's "Sazon" flavoring powder might give the greens some oomph, as would other dried bouillion products (without adding protein or fat). On the other hand, if you can have tiny amounts of meat in your greens, get your hands on some tasso (or even turkey tasso). Even a piece the size of your thumb cooked into 8-10 servings will provide lots of flavor. My favorite tasso (pork or turkey) comes from the Best Stop Supermarketin Scott, LA.

The words "charred" and "blistered" appearing together don't make me think of a delicious dish, but rather a fiery kitchen accident.

There's nothing fast or trick about Artisan Breads. On the contrary: virtually all of the recipes require a 24-hour cold ferment, with the added bonus of a longer window of viability (so you can bake up to 4 days after the initial ferment). One huge bonus, for me, is a much more useful wild yeast sourdough cultivation process, employing pineapple juice. After several years of trying and failing to cultivate a wild yeast starter, I've succeeded, thanks to the pineapple juice solution. The [100% whole wheat pain a l'ancienne worked like a charm, as did ]the buttery crackers. Pics below.

Shrimp, crab, and eggplant dressing wins my vote.

C'mon, tomatoes and gelatin are a lovely combination (but I'm not talking about fake-fruit-flavored stuff). A cool tomato aspic on a hot summer day is a fine thing--I once had a stunning green tomato aspic with blackberry sauce, and a bloody mary aspic can be a fun brunch starter. Gelatin, like all other foods, seems to wax & wane in popularity. Jello's low cost, awful synthetic fruit flavors & sheer ubiquity have devalued a perfectly nice foodstuff.

From the consumer's perspective, a huge cup of super-rich drinking chocolate isn't appealing. It's usually so rich that it must be sipped slowly, and it will quickly cool/congeal if you drink it too slowly. I can't imagine getting through a 12 or 16 oz cup! Better to offer a smaller size, more modestly priced; then the customer can buy other things, too.

My favorite wooden spoons, spatulas, and ladles are from The Spoon Mill. Spoon Mill offers a nice selection of left-handed implements!

Crescent Sausage & Pie will be a vendor at this Sunday's PoBoy Preservation Fest...see other vendors here.

Another factor to consider: what temp was the meat when you put it into the oven? Some cooks allow it an hour or two on the counter at cool room temp to take the chill off. If your short ribs were very, very cold or even still partially frozen, it could dramatically extend cooking time (since you're cooking at such a low temp).

I tie it into bundles with kitchen string....tried using a chive once, but it disintegrated. I tie the other end of the string to the handle of the pot for easier removal.

Instinct is a wonderful thing, isn't it? Cooking improvisationally reminds us: things don't have to be structured, organized, analyzed, or optimized in order to be fundamentally delicious. Keep on keepin' on, and challenge yourself to be creative with the peanut butter, bread, and Honeycrisps...how about apple slices spread with peanut butter, with buttered toast & jam on the side?

I like to mix it with good ricotta, finely chopped spinach, and black pepper & bake it, topped with a little grated parmesan.

The sausages I had access to were not as good as ones from New Orleans, and that made a difference. I think I've almost always had the seafood versions with shrimp, crab and oysters. That'll be my next gumbo.

Yes, indeed, Rouse's Supermarket has tasty green onion sausage. Which reminds me that the humble green onion is one of Cajun/Creole cooking's less celebrated ingredients, and that Rouse's sells fresh hog casings in the meat department, encouraging our local home sausage making traditions. Anyway, back to the sausage: most fresh cajun sausages are seasoned with a dry, finely ground spice blend; the Rouse's version, to my taste buds, contains at least garlic, cayenne, black pepper, salt, and thyme (and probably other things). The chopped green onions are mixed with the seasoned pork just before the sausage is stuffed into the (natural) casings. Because of the fresh green onions, this sausage has a short shelf life and it doesn't freeze especially well. Mixed half & half with lean beef, it makes a killer hamburger. It's a nice base for dirty rice, too.

One small point on the last plans posted: would anyone ever consider placing a stove directly beneath double windows? Completely impractical, imho. Unless I'm misreading the plan's notation on windows.

Made a pot of okra-andouille-shrimp-oyster gumbo today, as my better half is feeling under the weather. At our house, gumbo functions as a cure-all slightly more effective than pho ga. Cooked the onions in the roux... Then I added the bell peppers, celery, & garlic...too bad you can't smell photos. Water, plus andouille & seasonings. After the veggies stop foaming, I added shrimp, boiled for a while, then slipped in the oysters, green onions, and a spritz of lemon juice for a quick 10-15 minute final simmering. Gumbo isn't very photogenic, but I was attempting to capture the okra & its little seedy bits...

There's no getting around grains, for me. Local meats, easy. Local produce (fruit, veggies). Heck, I can even get local sugar, rice, and citrus fruits. But no oats, barley, wheat....cereals just don't like the subtropics. So I'm a happy supporter of national & international trade on certain foodstuffs.

One more thing to think about: are you generally in the kitchen alone? So many new kitchens are enormous, and I always think "what a waste of space" as I'm usually pottering about by myself. If your house isn't large enough for a family of 8, don't set your heart on a kitchen for 8. Some of the nicest kitchens I've seen, both in look and function, have been simple galley-style arrangements. Check out the shot of Dorie Greenspan in her galley-style kitchen on the front page of her blog: it's tiny by suburban American standards, but oh how functional...http://www.doriegreenspan.com/ Looking at your plan, I'd be tempted to move the whole kitchen to the opposite wall, over where the fridge is now.

I am compelled to add that the "gator gumbo" is way-way-way too thick to pass as gumbo; it isn't supposed to lay over the rice as a separate layer. Gumbo is a liquid dish. In my stretch of the bayou, we'd call the pictured "gumbo" a stew, and if it is packed with tomatos and spice (as it appears to be), it's called a sauce piquante. And alligator sauce piquante is a noble and delicious dish; it's just not gumbo.

I'm envisioning the cheap-n-quick solution: a nice worktable/island on casters. You can push it up against the wall by the basement stair when not in use, and pull it out into the middle when you want to roll pie crust, etc. Get one with storage beneath to put your most used/favorite things. No contractor, no designer, no plans: you can take it with you when you move. It can function as a sideboard, extra table, prep space, etc.

Made butterflake rolls from the book this weekend; nice, solid, clearly written recipe, with well-photographed shaping instructions. The book focuses on manipulating time and temperature....larger-batch, multiple loaf recipes that ferment in the fridge for up to several days, allowing the baker greater flexibility than traditional yeast baking schedules. The recipes list ingredients by volume & weight, and a separate appendix lists the baker's percentage formulas for each recipe.