HungryC

I'm with slkinsey on the sauce difference, but I also miss that perfect crust cooked at near blast-furnace temperatures. A crust unsullied by sugar, excessive yeast, or other flavors...

I think canola oil stinks from the very moment the container is opened! I always detect "off" flavors in canola; it's awful for roux-making, starts smelling funny almost from the start. RE: prices of peanut oil...1 gallon of Lou-Ana peanut oil (made in lovely Opelousas, LA) at my local Sam's Club is $13.47, whereas a gallon of canola is $7.98. It's well worth the measly difference of $5.49. At Academy Sporting Goods, a gallon of peanut oil is less than $10. After Thanksgiving, the big 5-gallon containers go on sale for pretty cheap in my neck of the woods. If peanut oil breaks the bank, my fallback is soybean. You can keep the canola, at any price.

The sticky residue was polymerized oil, and it is indeed a pain (or nearly impossible) to scrub off. The ideal vessel for deep-frying on the stovetop is a pot called a "chicken fryer" (here's an example on Amazon). It's slightly wider than it is deep, around 5 or 6 quarts to allow for the fat to bubble up, and it always comes with a lid (in case you need to smother a grease fire, or if you want to keep the oil on the stovetop in said pot). Aluminum chicken fryers are pretty cheap ($40 or so), and many come with a lifting basket; worth buying, imho, even if you're frying just a few times a year. You won't feel compelled to scrub off the polymerized oil if it's on your frying pot. On to the oil: I would never, ever use canola for deep frying, as it very quickly develops an off-putting odor, esp at higher temps. My fryin' oil of choice is peanut. It's pretty stable, even at high temps. Some claim that a peanutty flavor can be detected, but I've never perceived it (in either the fresh oil, the fried foods, or the older, reused oil). Lard is a fine thing, but it is hard to find good lard unless you render it yourself. (or try this old trick: deep-fry a slice of bacon in your vegetable oil to get the delicious porky flavor without the saturated fat). A good vented exhaust hood is probably the most important part of home frying!

One suggestion: think about some unifying theme/flavor profile so that your spread makes sense, rather than seeming like a disjointed collection of donated goods.

You might like the Fat Hen Grill, on Vets in Kenner. It's operated by a former Emeril's sous chef. Personally, I'd go to Pho Bang, 8814 Veterans Blvd, for a big bowl of pho tai and a glass of cafe sua da (iced coffee with condensed milk), which is my idea of the perfect breakfastt; Pho Bang opens at 10 am. If you prefer pastry, try Chez Pierre (2211 Veterans Blvd) for croissants, pate chaud (pork meat pies), and similar bakery fare. It's barely three hours from NOLA to Natchez (depending on Baton Rouge traffic), so you might not be hungry until you hit Natchez itself. If you are meandering slowly up to Natchez, St. Francisville makes a nice stopping point--it's large enough to offer several restaurant options. (I can't speak for luncheon options, though.) Once you're north of St.F, US 61 is very rural. (Oh, there's a Sonic drive-in in Woodville, for a cherry limeade fix.)

Agree with the previous 2 posters: Cochon & Emeril's.

I'm partial to the white bread variation (2, I think) that incorporates DMS from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's sturdy, not too mushy, with a nice, even crumb and relatively little sugar.

Cooking a roux immediately sprang to mind as a task requiring patience and calm.

Check out Mary Land's Louisiana Cookery Search inside the book for "dove" around page 113 and you'll find quite a few recipes (dove sauce piquante, baked doves, doves in champagne, doves vin blanc, doves saute florentine, etc). Louisiana Cookery is an excellent source for all sorts of game recipes.

How about flavored vinegar instead of extract? While vanilla might be an odd choice, you could substitute fresh herbs. Or make vanilla sachets suitable for hanging in a closet or tucking inside folded sheets.

The smell is probably coming from the fridge...it seeped into the insulation, it permeates the coils, it lingers in the very plastic itself. Yes, the inside is clean, but did you remove any of the plastic interior panels? You would be surprised how much liquid finds its way behind those panels. Take a close look at the interior construction of the appliance; the seams may not be as watertight as you think. My Katrina'd fridge required major rehab, but it was salvaged....fast forward three years to Gustav, and the same fridge was almost done in by a single grape popsicle. The popsicle melted on the door's shelf, ran down and under the bottom panel of the freezer compartment. I had to dis-assemble the icemaker, take out the interior panels, and scrub like mad to remove the putrid, grapey ick. Today, every single thing in the freezer is in a rigid, watertight container--unless the whole damn appliance flips over, removing thawed stuff is as easy as tossing out the plastic tubs. Activated charcoal in a perforated container, cheap coffee grounds, and a bowl of apple cider vinegar can take the edge off of rotten smells.

Let's not over-generalize: the cooking techniques of south Louisiana are quite variable. The traditions of your family, or your town, do not necessarily represent the traditions of other French-speaking folks in south LA. Pardon me for belaboring the point, but "Cajun" culture is not a monolithic ethnic concept. French speaking folks across south LA have an incredibly diverse set of influences, ranging from Irish, Italian, German, Isleno, Alsatian, Native American, Senegalese, Congolese, etc. What Donald Link's Cajun-German-upland-South family shares as its food traditions have (sometimes more than subtle) distinctions from heavily Native American folks in southern Terrebonne parish, or the French-speaking African-Americans from Arnaudville, or the (vestigal) Spanish settlements around Sorrento & Gonzales. The seafood-heavy gumbos of southern Lafourche, Terrebonne, and Jefferson parish are worlds apart from the hen & smoked sausage gumbos of Evangeline parish. Back to gumbo: how much fat cooks out toward the end is partly determined by the amount of fat in the sausage. If you continue to cook it, more fat will cook out of the sausage...the same is true if you're using skin-on chicken. I like to skim it off, but that's purely personal preference. Some folks like a slight sheen of oil on top. Beaucoup (non-fine-dining) restaurants in Louisiana will serve a bowl of gumbo with some oil floating on top, and it isn't considered inappropriate by (most) diners.

With all due respect to fooey, I can introduce you to many hundreds of home cooks in Acadiana who do indeed add the trinity to the hot roux (and were doing so long before anyone ever heard of Paul Prudhomme), who never make their gumbo in a three-day process, and who always season the chicken & brown it deeply before adding it to a chicken gumbo. [And I'd caution you about an unrefrigerated large pot of gumbo left out overnight; it can easily sour, and no amount of boiling will un-spoil it.] That's what I love about gumbo: it belongs to every cook who decides to make it. It's the ultimate in culinary creolization--every hand that stirs the pot adds something else.

Most places are NOT open on turkey day in New Orleans. A handful that typically do special holiday menus will book up very, very quickly. I'd call the Rib Room at the Omni; it's a comfy, congenial room with better-than-average hotel restaurant fare.

Since I got a Big Green Egg, I can braise, outdoors, in the hottest weather with no worries of heating the house. The BGE holds a set temp for hours and hours, with no attention from the cook. It also works well as a hearth oven...

Or the souvenir picture in the cardboard frame?

The "areas of the tongue" taste buds theory isn't scientifically accurate. Here's a link to a 2006 Nature article that debunks the old saw.

Pigeons are fairly tame; why not trap them instead of shooting? I've plucked my share of waterfowl, and removing shot from a bird is a pain (unless you don't mind biting down on pellets in your dinner). Save yourself the trouble and build a simple bird trap, baited with dog food. Yes, you'll have to wring their necks... ETA: here's an image of a homemade bird trap. This sitehas how-to instructions.

Some stands do stay open year-round. I'd imagine that Plum Street Snowballs will still be open in October. It's at the corner of Plum & Burdette Sts, just four blocks off of Carrollton Ave (accessible via streetcar). Beware the leaky pails.

Extra freezers in uncooled garage/shed space are common in hot-as-Hawaii south LA. Chest-type freezers are more energy efficient to operate, and they definitely maintain a freezing temp longer than an upright during a power loss (always a concern during hurricane season). In any case, fill up any empty space in your spare freezer with containers of water--the surplus ice adds cold mass & makes the whole system work more efficiently. A packed freezer, unopened, will stay below 40 degrees for 4-5 days without power. Stuff on the edges will defrost, but things buried in the middle will stay frozen. edited to add: my parents' spare freezer, outdoors in an unheated storage closet, is still going strong after 20 years. The exterior got rusty after year 10 or so from the humidity in the air, but a quick coat of krylon took care of that.

Why are we so focused on the time we spend in the kitchen, as though it's the sole measure of quality eating? So many factors affect this: growing up, my father or mother made breakfast damn near every day--bacon, toast, eggs, waffles, pancakes. Fast forward 30 or so years, and I choose, for health reasons, not to consume such a heavy meal for breakfast. It takes just a brief time to wash a piece of fruit, spoon out some yogurt, or grab a handful of nuts. Ergo, I spend far fewer hours in the kitchen. Food culture changes, and all of the changes aren't driven by food manufacturers, nor do they indicate the downfall of civilization. Back up a few generations in my lineage, and you'll find people (men & women)who didn't have time to spend in the kitchen, due to farm or work responsibilities. Food was cooked in large quantities (on woodstoves!), and eaten over several days....cold biscuits, cold baked sweet potatoes, leftover cornbread, a slice of pie: leftovers requiring no refrigeration were prized, and a sign of good household management. And even in the "good old" days, some people didn't cook--as is evidenced by the boarding house, where you received meals along with your housing.

I'm a fan: I keep sharp cheddar and pecorino on hand at all times (in the way some households are never without milk or eggs). I like it with honey (tames the salt), with bitter greens, or eaten straight, with some fruit on the side. I prefer it over parmesan, though I'm hard-pressed to describe why in words.

Coincidentally, I was at Hansen's just yesterday. Ashley said that she would close at after Labor Day this year. My chocolate mint sno-bliz was excellent--see it here.

Deep fried turkey: perhaps the pinnacle of deep-fry-itude.

I like the Cook's Garden, as well as Nichols Garden Nursery.