Baby Love

I know... crazy.  A post, finally, out of nowhere and it's not even about food, but just look at my new baby!

We brought her home late last night from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  We are still working on a name.  Any suggestions?

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Every Day Indulgences

A recent discussion in the comments of Gourmet & Gourmand, on the high price of pine nuts, led me to thinking about what types of things I am willing to pay high prices for and what I am not.  Having a modest but not entirely restrictive budget allows me the luxury to make decisions like the following:

* order take-out once or twice a week from some perfectly acceptable but non-inspiring neighborhood restaurant with entrees in the $6-10 region OR cook modest meals at home/eat leftovers every night and have one night out every month or so at a really good restaurant with wine, dessert et al.  I am ashamed to say that, out of laziness, we usually choose the former when we really want to choose the the latter.

* buy the really good $6/lb pasta, local creamery milk, old-ish balsamico, imported San Marzano canned tomatoes here and there but stick with the cheap stuff the rest of the time OR get ingredients of middle of the road, good quality all the time but forego anything really special.

It requires planning, waiting and priorities, my food budget does.  I'm not complaining.  Not in the slightest way.  However, as someone who values high quality ingredients above most else, it does lead me to some interesting inner dialogues on what's worth buying and when.

There are some things that I never skimp on.  They are my every day indulgences and I know myself too well to go back to lesser things if I can help it.  I will just grumble, gripe and moan about it and lose whatever enjoyment I might have gotten from the inferior product simply due to my own bad attitude about it.  My list of must-have indulgences isn't long:

* Parmesan Reggiano.  I have to have the good stuff.  I have to.  I can eat $3 pasta sauce from a jar, but it has to have excellent Parm shavings on top.

* Chocolate.  I'm not going to say that I never eat a Snickers or a bag of M&M's (I totally do)  but I must have excellent chocolate in the house at all times.   French, Spanish, Austrian, Venezuelan, artisanal truffles or dark, dark bars with ridiculously high cocoa content...  mmmm.  For a mere $10 or so, I can have a small bit of the best chocolates in the world.  Since it is so good, I nibble it in tiny amounts and make it last, but when it's gone, I flounder.  Must have excellent chocolate!

* Meat.  Kid Cayenne has her squeamy nature and I just like really nice meat.  I buy the best quality we can afford, all the time.  It works because we only eat meat in smallish quantities and with just two of us, that doesn't add up to a lot.

It makes me happy that gorgeous, good quality ingredients are a luxury that I can attain (in moderation), as opposed to most beautifully made items like clothing, cars and fab furniture.  Eating good food makes me feel incredibly privileged and I never take it for granted.

What do you consistently splurge on?  What are your every day indulgences?

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Pączki: a Polish Fat Tuesday Treat

Happy Mardi Gras, everybody!

Despite the fact that I am both Polish and live in a city renowned for it's celebration of Fat Tuesday, I had never heard of pączki until some Northern and Midwestern living friends of mine in an online forum started discussing them a few years ago.  I realized instantly that I needed to have these!  I found some last year at one of the local supermarkets and they were like powdered jelly doughnuts.  Nice, but nothing special. Turns out, true pączki "are *not* large jelly doughnuts, but small, delicate, rose-petal or plum-preserve filled balls of goodness. Possibly Avocat-cream, but that's dangerous territory for a filling. The only possible addition is icing (again, a shimmer of semi-translucent sweetness, not big blobs of white icing) and maybe a few (3-4) tiny squares of candied orange peel.", says my Polish friend Anna, from Ann Arbor, MI.  Even more intriguing!  But where to get them?

My friend Melinda, from Seattle, had the same dilemma and solved it by making them herself. She also volunteered to guest blog them for us, so we could try them ourselves. You may remember her from previous guest posts about Fig Butter and Vegetarian Pigs In A Blanket (Cabbage Rolls).   Hooray Melinda!

.......................................................

Fat Tuesday always fills me with nostalgia and longing for home. Not because I'm from New Orleans and I'm excited about Mardi Gras, but because I'm from Michigan, and I'm excited about Paczki Day. Paczki (pronounced punch-key) are traditional Polish pastries, something akin to jelly doughnuts. In Michigan, you can find them with a wide variety of fillings, but they traditionally come with red plum jam inside - it's not too sweet, so the whole thing isn't overpowering.

A few weeks ago, I asked my Polish friend, Ania, whether she knew where to find paczki here in Seattle. Her answer was "no, but we should make some". I certainly couldn't turn that down, so I invited her and a few other folks over for the occasion. We found a recipe, and using Google Translate and some help from Ania and her mother, we were set to go.

After confirming that I did, in fact, have to separate 8 eggs, I did so. Can you spot the free-range organic one?

I followed the instructions in the recipe and let the dough rise for a couple of hours while we all hung out and drank beer. After that, I kneaded the dough, adding plenty of flour and completely forgetting to put in the butter. Oops. Then I rolled it out. It's a little darker than you might expect because I used whole wheat pastry flour, on account of being a dirty hippie:

We formed an assembly line. I cut out circles of dough using a glass, Kevin put teaspoonfuls of plum jam in them, and Ania made little dough-and-jam sandwiches and rolled them in her hands to seal the jam inside.

It made a lot of paczki. Or at least, it made more paczki than any of us felt that we had a right to eat.

We let the paczki rise again while we ate dinner. My husband was kind enough to make some spelt kasha with mushrooms so that we didn't also all die of paczki overload. It was a very good idea. After dinner, we made the glaze with powdered sugar, water, and bits of orange peel. We fried the paczki in a cast iron skillet, and that worked perfectly, because it was just the right depth. Here I am frying while Kevin glazes.

It was glorious.

I ate two.

I highly recommend this exercise. The only thing I would do differently is invite more people over, because we still have a bunch of paczki hanging around.

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Breakfasts of the Infirm

I am still fighting this stupid, no good, rotten old  rheumatoid arthritis, tooth and nail.  I have to take a number of meds in the morning with food, but they also make me feel sick and nauseated and like the last thing I want is food, lately.  This is not conducive to food blogging, I know.  Sorry.  I'd rather not blog at all than blog about being a sickly old whiner, but here I am, doing it anyway.

Latest meds make me not want my old breakfast standbys of eggs, croissants, toast with goat cheese and fruit.  I'm still doing yogurt with fruit and nuts or honey but it's wearing thin and I'm just about over it too.  Also, I am too tired to wait around on oatmeal or congee most days.  I need something fast and not very sweet or rich.  In other words, bland.  I need super easy (heating is ok but cooking is exhausting) and yeah, kind of bland.  No cereal, because milk has begun to taste a bit bitter.  Lots of things have started to taste bad.  Very annoying.

Need ideas.  Help?

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New Year, New Possibilties

Well, I'm a bit late on the Happy New Year Ra Ra! and the resolution this and holiday that train, but I hoped if I got it in before the week was over it might still be considered timely. I realize that by now everyone is well and truly tired of the holiday season and wants to move on to Mardi Gras and spring and new things. I do too, but I've got these cabbage and blackeyed pea photos on my phone and they are really nice things to eat at any time of year so I'm going to share.

On New Year's Day, I always try to do the traditional good luck thing but this year I was bored of Hoppin' John and braised cabbage, so I went a different route. Inspired by the cold bean side salad (usually served alongside pork rillette and various other dishes) at Tartine, I ad libbed a little black eyed pea salad with a red wine vinegar dressing. For the cabbage, I went with a chilled salad as well, using a NY Times recipe from a few years back for savoy cabbage slaw with applesauce vinaigrette and mustard seeds. They were both wonderful.  The bean salad is simple and delicious.  The slaw is so much better than you might think (and also makes surprisingly good leftovers).  I served them both with seared pork chops and it was a lovely meal.  Recipes, below.

I have to stop using my iPhone to take food photos. The white balance is terrible and my kitchen is nothing but yellow light at night. Sorry 'bout that, folks.

As for new year's resolutions, I'm going to keep it simple this year and rather than try to reform my hopeless ways, I am resolving to expand myself and do some things I've never done before, but think that by now I really should have. In some cases, it's unforgivable that I haven't yet. In 2011, I plan to:

Eat:

1. a muffaletta at Central Grocery - I've had them at lots of places in NOLA but never there, and really, what kind of muffaletta lover do I think I am if I haven't, right?.
2. turtle soup at Commander's Palace - When given the choice, I always go for new generation restaurants over the old traditionals, so I have a huge gap in my NOLA restaurant experiences. This seems to be a glaring one.
3. boiled crawfish at Hawk's in Rayne, La - Happily, my brother in law lives very close to it and we have plans for this spring.

Cook/Make:

1. Butter - I (oh so briefly) met Chef Daniel Patterson of Coi Restaurant in San Francisco several years ago (and had the pleasure of dining at Coi, which if you ever have the opportunity to do, DO!) and later watched him make butter in this fun video. Epiphany! Homemade butter! I've wanted to do it ever since, at least once, and now that I've gotten a stand mixer for Christmas, I intend to. Just look at it! All yellow and beautiful. Imagine lacing it with fleur de sel and spreading it on fresh bread with radishes. mmmm.... I'm not sure the reality can live up to my bucolic fantasy but we shall see.

2. Marshmallows - Another project that required a stand mixer to do, and one that I think I only need to try once or twice to appease the desire. The sticky clean up factor will probably prevent too many repeats, but I do want to sink my teeth into very fresh marshmallow. 2011!

3. Madeleines - Got the pan. Gonna make the treats. More than once. Need to put the pan to use and not let it collect dust in the back of the cupboard.

Do:

1. Learn to shuck oysters - This requires an leap of faith on my part. I am trusting that this year, my rheumatoid arthritis will be treated into remission and I will have the ability to bend and twist and bear weight with my right wrist again. Once I can, I plan to celebrate by learning to shuck and then eating a minimum of a dozen oysters on the half shell with champagne. It just seems right.

2. Plant some container herbs and tomatoes - This one borders on the "yeah right" type of resolution, since I say I'll do this every year and don't, but I might as well try again this year. Perhaps you can help me stick to it by reminding me when the time comes that I need to get those plants going.

3. Visit some of the River Road plantations - I never have. Might as well learn a bit more about the history of Southern Louisiana. I've always perceived the plantations as too tainted by the horror of slavery to make it enjoyable for me to visit for pleasure, but maybe by shutting the entire idea out, I am allowing myself to be ignorant. Maybe I could learn a thing or two. And eat a thing or two along the way.

That's that.

The recipes:

Black Eyed Pea Salad

1 lb frozen black eyed peas (precooked), thawed
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 small red onion, diced
2 TB fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
drizzled olive oil, to taste
red wine vinegar, to taste
salt and black pepper to taste

Mix gently and serve cold or room temperature.  That's it.  It's delightful.

Serves 6


Savoy Cabbage Slaw with Applesauce Vinaigrette & Mustard Seeds
Adapted from Jeremy Fox, Ubuntu, Napa, California


FOR THE VINAIGRETTE:

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon applesauce
1/3 cup olive oil

FOR THE SALAD:

4 cups savoy cabbage, sliced as thinly as possible (store was out of Savoy by the time I got there, so I used half green and half Napa)
1 large bunch red radishes
3 or 4 Granny Smith apples
1 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste.

1. Make vinaigrette: In a bowl, mix together mustard, salt, vinegar and applesauce. Slowly whisk in olive oil a little at a time until dressing emulsifies. Set aside.

2. Make salad: Put cabbage in a large bowl. Using the shredding blade of a food processor or a box grater, shred radishes until you have 1 cup. Add to bowl.

3. Core apples and shred in food processor or with box grater until you have 2 cups. Put shredded apple into a bowl filled with lemon juice and 2 cups water, to prevent apple from browning.

4. When ready to serve, gently squeeze water from apple, add to cabbage and toss slaw with vinaigrette. Add mustard seeds and toss again. Sprinkle walnuts on top of slaw. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves 6

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Christmas, 2010

Christmas dinner came out beautifully this year.  It was small, for just Kid Cayenne, myself and a friend.  I roasted my first duck.  I was terrified to do it, but it came out well and I'm over the trepidation hump so I think I can continue to hone the skill.  Other dishes included roasted red and golden beets with arugula and goat cheese, a nice baked mac and cheese and  roasted sweet and spicy pumpkin wedges.  We had milk chocolate and  salted caramel gelatos from La Divina for dessert.  All in all, quite lovely.

Amongst my Christmas gifts this year were these jewels:

ad hoc at home - Thomas Keller

Around My French Table - Dorie Greenspan

How To Cook Everything Vegetarian - Mark Bittman

The Art of Simple Food - Alice Waters

tart pan

madeleine pan

kitchen scale

a Kitchenaid stand mixer

1 of those beautiful iitalla EgO coffee cups I oohed over earlier this year.  *sigh*

Needless to say, I'm thrilled with the prospects.  I've hardly put my cookbook stack down since Christmas morning (and quite a hefty stack it is, since each book feels like it's about 45 pounds a piece, at least!)  I've inaugurated the mixer with a batch of tart dough which is currently chilling in the refrigerator and is destined to become a Meyer lemon tart this evening.

I'm looking forward to 2011 with great anticipation.  Rather than compile a list of resolutions for the new year, I'm just trying to think of new and interesting things I'd like to try that I haven't yet.  I'll get back to you with some of those.  Hope your holidays were warm and full of love and joy and your new year is brilliant!

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Hollygrove Market and Farm Home Delivery

I've been a fan of Hollygrove Market and Farm for some time now.  They are close to my house, have Tuesday afternoon pick up hours in addition to regular Saturday hours and always provide really lovely produce, eggs, milk and more.  Despite the fact that I have often picked up some goodies from Hollygrove Market, it has always been from the Lagniappe tables, never the box itself.

I'm about to change that.  Because they will bring it to my door.  Yeah I know and yes, I really am that lazy.

Hollygrove Market and Farm recently announced their Produce Box Home Delivery Program, whereby you can get your nice locally grown fruits and vegetables, yard eggs and even Smith's Creamery milk (which I adore like crazy and deserves an entire post of its own) all delivered to your doorstep on Saturdays.  They will deliver to all neighborhoods within the city limits of New Orleans (excluding New Orleans East) as well as limited service to Metairie.  Boxes must be paid for in advance and there is a $2.00 delivery fee.  Well worth it, I say.

Initially, the packages were produce box only, produce box with half gallon of milk and produce box with a dozen eggs.  I wanted produce with half dozen eggs and a half gallon of milk, so I emailed asking if that could possibly be an option.  Wonderfully, it became one.  Thanks, Bill!

I'm excited about spending time on Saturdays to review the box and plan a week's menu accordingly.  And yard eggs for breakfast!

Does anyone else go to Hollygrove Market?  What have you cooked from their offerings?  Also, anyone have any great recipes for mustard greens?

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Sickie Soup

I just concocted a makeshift sickie soup out of 2 cups water boiled with ginger, a bundle of soba noodles, 2 packs of instant miso soup mix, some chopped red onion and sriracha.  It is not my finest hour.  It looks as unappetizing as it tastes, which is just as unappetizing as it sounds, but I am sick and alone and I need a hot soup lunch that will help clear my sinuses and warm my insides.  This is all I could come up with without going to the store.

What do you eat when you have a cold?

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Chocolate Whiskey Cake

There is a food blog I follow, called Blank Palate and whose author has changed locations from Alabama to Spain, that has lovely, interesting recipes that intrigue me.  I enjoy the blog in general quite a bit, but there is one post, in particular, that haunted me for the longest time.  It was a recipe for Chocolate Whiskey Cake and I couldn't get it out of my mind.  I had to have it. 

I've made it twice now, each time for guests, and the response is always a vigorous "YES!"  Also, depending on the person's caffeine tolerance, it can elicit an occasional "You want me to paint the house now?!?"  Very dark, very dense, decadently chocolate-y but with sweetness tempered (and made more fascinating) by deeper layers of flavor (black pepper, cloves, coffee), it is now one of my favorite cakes.  Make it for people you like very much.


Dark Chocolate Whiskey Cake

3/4 cup plus 3 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup strongly brewed good coffee
1/2 cup whiskey
12 TB unsalted butter, cut into chunks about 1 inch wide
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 ts baking soda
3/4 ts salt
1/4 ts fresh ground black pepper
1/8 ts ground cloves
3 eggs
2 ts vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 325° F.  Butter a 9 or 10 inch cake pan (or spring form pan) and then dust the pan with 3 TB cocoa powder, knocking out the excess.

Heat the coffee, butter, and 1 cup of cocoa powder on low heat until the butter is melted. Whisk occasionally.  Add sugars and whisk slowly until sugars completely dissolve.  Transfer the mixture to a large bowl to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, black pepper, and cloves in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla.  Starting slowly, drizzle eggs into the cooled chocolate mixture and whisk them in to combine.  Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into your pan and bake until a wooden pick comes out mostly clean, about 1 hour and 5 minutes.  Mostly cool before eating.

After a day (should you have any left) keep it stored in the refrigerator, covered in plastic wrap.

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Swiss Chard and Tomatoes over Soft Polenta

I've been on a really big polenta kick ever since returning from Venice.  I can't get enough of it.  I've gone so far as to contemplate buying relatively expensive, very high maintenance freshly stone ground polenta from the internets.  I still might.  In the meantime, here is a little recipe that I made using Bob's Red Mill Polenta Corn Grits, available at your friendly neighborhood Whole Foods, and probably lots of other groceries as well.  Bob's are par-boiled, so the cook time is really short compared with true, long cooking polenta that takes an hour or more.  Start cooking your chard and tomatoes about 10-15 minutes into the polenta cooking process.

Polenta


3 c water
1 c polenta
1 t salt
2 TB butter or olive oil
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese


In a heavy bottomed pot, boil 3 cups of water.  Whisk in the polenta and salt.  Turn down the heat and stir constantly until the polenta is suspended in the water and no longer settles to the bottom of the pot.  Cook for 30 minutes at a bare simmer.  Stir frequently, being careful not to burn yourself if the polenta bubbles pop and splatter.  Add water if the polenta gets too thick.  You want the it to stay soft.


Stir in butter and Parmesan.  Taste and add more salt if needed. 

For the Chard and Tomatoes:

1-2 bunches swiss chard (1 bunch if you are cooking for two, 2 if you are serving 4)
1 TB extra virgin olive oil
1/4 ts crumbled red chili pepper flakes
2 large garlic cloves, sliced finely or minced
a handful of grape tomatoes, sliced lengthwise

Prepare chard by washing,  rinsing and drying thoroughly.  I dry mine after it's cut (in a salad spinner) but it can also be dried with towels while still in whole leaf form.   Pull or cut the leaves from the center rib.  Chop the ribs into slices and cut the leaves into ribbons, approximately 1 inch wide.

When your polenta is about half way through the cooking process, start cooking the chard.  In a heavy pan, heat the olive oil until it shimmers over medium heat.  Add garlic and saute until it just begins to be fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute.  Add the chili pepper and quickly stir.  Add chard ribs and saute gently until they begin to soften, about 2-3 minutes.  Add chard leaves and salt.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chard leaves begin to wilt and become tender.  Add a tablespoon of water if the pan begins to dry out at any point.  Add tomatoes and saute gently until they are warmed through but not breaking down.  Taste for seasoning and salt if desired.  If you have a good finishing salt like Fleur de Sel de Guérande, this is really nice place to use it.

Serve immediately by placing a large spoonful of soft polenta into a bowl and using the spoon to create a dip in the center.  Top with sauted chard and tomatoes.

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2010 Po-Boy Preservation Festival

I looove the Po Boy Fest.  I look forward to it each year, plotting out which po boys I want and never making it to the end of the list before I'm full and need to sit down.  This year was no different, except for one crucial thing. Apparently everyone else in the world decided to love it too, because Oh Mama, was it crowded.  I don't mean, really good festival crowded.  I mean, no room to breathe, let alone walk crowded.  Stuck in one particular human bottleneck, I started thinking rash thoughts about pushing and shoving and screaming, "Get OFF of me!!" just so I could have a tiny bit of space to take a breath.  I know the organizers spent a lot of time and effort in making the flow work better this year.  I think it was more the sheer volume of people.  I wonder how many attended...

Aaaanyway.  The po boys.  Kid Cayenne and I made it to the far end at Eagle Street so we could get to the Palace Cafe booth where I had the smoked duck po boy with citrus marmalade.

Kid Cayenne got the BLT po boy with Crystal hot sauce aioli.

The real highlight of our day though, was at the Blue Frog Chocolates tent, where we bough chocolate dipped Zapps Cajun Crawtaters.  Genius.  Mmmm.

I would love to do this for gifts at Christmas, but am concerned that they may have a very short shelf life in our humidity.  Do you think the chips part would go soggy within a day or so?  I might call Blue Frog and find out.

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Needed: Pointers on How To Properly Eat a Boiled Crab

I am completely inept at eating boiled crab.  I destroyed mine at Kenner Seafood today, and hardly got any of the meat out.  I did it wrong.  I may have also eaten some gills.  I need lessons.  Seriously.  Who'll give me pointers?

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Orecchiette with Broccoli, Tomatoes and Pine Nuts

This is an easy and lovely dish using one of my favorite pastas, the tiny orecchiette.  Shaped like (and named after) a "small ear", its delicately curved, disc-like shape is perfect for capturing tiny bits of deliciousness in every bite... hence the broccoli.  Cutting the broccoli florets into very small pieces ensures that they will nestle into the hollows in the pasta, along with the pine nuts and grape tomato halves, to delicious effect.

1/2 lb (8 oz) orecchiette pasta
boiling water
2 TB extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lb (a medium sized) broccoli crown
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 ts crumbled red chili pepper flakes
a large handful of grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
2 TB pine nuts
freshly shredded Parmesan to top
salt to taste

Here is how I time things so that they all finish simultaneously.

Start your pasta boiling water and when it is getting close to boiling (but not really there yet), begin to chop your garlic and broccoli.  Cut the broccoli a bit obsessively (and wastefully, to be honest).  You want only the florets, chopped to their smallest parts, discarding the stems and stalk.  Mince your garlic.

Add pasta to the boiling, salted water.  Cook for the amount of time dictated by the package (usually about 11 minutes).

Heat olive oil on medium high heat in a large skillet until it shimmers. Add garlic and red pepper flakes to the pan.  Cook for about 30 seconds and then add the broccoli.  Lightly salt.  Saute, stirring occasionally, for 5-6 minutes.  Let it rest at times, so that you get a bit of caramelization on the broccoli.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, lightly toast your pine nuts over medium low heat.  Toss them frequently, since they burn easily.  As soon as you see them begin to get a golden hue (after about 2 minutes or less), add them to the broccoli.

When broccoli is wilting and beginning to get a glossy, garlicky coating and the pasta only has a minute or two left on it, add the halved tomatoes to the broccoli skillet.  These should only cook for about 2 minutes, long enough to warm through but not really break down.  You want them to retain their shape.

Drain pasta and add to the broccoli pan.  Mix well.  Salt to taste.  Serve immediately, topped with shaved Parmesan.

Serves 2 with seconds or 4 with salad and bread.

* adapted from a recipe in the Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe Cookbook to have no pancetta but a ton of flavor anyway.

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Cane River Meat Pies

I recently had the pleasure of having lunch at Charlie's Seafood in Harahan (what a wonderful meal that was!) and it was there that I discovered Cane River Meat Pies.  Handmade by Janet J. Caldwell, they are served as appetizers but are also available for bulk purchase.  I bought a dozen pies (half meat pies, half seafood pies) to have for lunches. I'm still patting myself on the back for making that decision.  They are so fantastic.

Packed with care, they are pre-cooked and then frozen.  All it requires to restore them to their former glory is 20 minutes in a 350° oven, turning them a couple of times along the way.  What comes out is a crispy, stunningly delicious Natchitoches meat pie.  I've been eating them for lunch with a little salad tossed with the best Caesar dressing I know how to make.  Serve the meat pies with a smear of Creole mustard and hot pepper jelly and you elevate it to the sublime. 

For your own take-home meat pies, go down to Charlie's or email Mrs. Caldwell (who is just about as sweet as she can be, by the way).  You can buy a dozen for $40 or six for $20.  Perfect for parties and holiday gifts too, I'd bet.  Who wouldn't want a box of meat pies for Christmas??


Cane River Meat Pies
at Charlie's Seafood
8311 Jefferson Hwy
Harahan, LA 70123
(504) 737-3700 or
(504) 296-1061
canerivermeatpies@gmail.com

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Last Call for SnoBall

Saturday, October 30, is the last day of the 2011 Hansen's SnoBliz season.  The Halloween menu is fab.  Here is my (half-eaten) Corpse Bride: wedding cake snowball with strawberry sauce, whipped cream and posdered milk.  Ashley Hansen says that while the powdered milk is great for the Halloween Ick factor, it's also a traditional snowball topping in Costa Rica.  It took a bit of getting used to (a bite or two) but it's actually quite nice.  Almost makes you feel like you are eating dry cake batter mix from the box.  Strange but but not at all awful.

If I can get back by Saturday, I'm going to have the Murder On The Orient Express (cream of coffee with cardamom), now that the temperature is dropping.  Even though it's snow, I still think of cream of coffee as a cool weather flavor.  Can't help it.

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Fruits Of The Sea: Eating In Venice

I've been telling myself that I need to collect my thoughts before writing about the food in Venice, but now I'm running the risk that it will slip away so I had better begin.  We spent less than 48 hours in the city, getting to enjoy two dinners, two breakfasts and only one real lunch.  Oh, and two gelatos.  One would think that it would be easy enough to summarize such a short experience but not so.  Venice.  My God, it was stunning.  All of my senses were fully expanded and indulged.  I wanted to express it all here, but I realize now that I'll be lucky if I can just give you flash impressions.  This will be the first of several.

So!  Did you know that they have eensy, beensy shrimps there?  All (most?) of the seafood in Venice is small.  The lagoons surrounding Venice are teeming with seafood but it grows small, delicate and is intensely sweet.   One of the first things I was given to eat (as a little appetizer to an excellent dinner at Antiche Carampane) was a paper cone filled with tiny, fried shrimps (schie) with the shells still on.  Tiny as in only an inch or so long.  Shells were so delicate as to crunch ever so lightly along with the perfectly fried batter.  We ate them with our fingers, licking the salt away, while drinking prosecco and waiting on our meal to arrive.  We sat in a narrow alley, lined by centuries-old stone and brick buildings, several stories tall. The moon was nearly full and high in the sky.  Dinner took hours, despite the fact that we could only fit in three courses. Here, I had my first fritto misto, a platter of the freshest possible selection of seafoods of the day, along with small bits of vegetable like slivered eggplant, dipped in a very light batter and fried quickly and beautifully.  Delivered piping hot to the table, it was impossibly delicious.  More tiny shrimps, bits of squid and minuscule octopus, sardines, scallop, myriad bites of fishes and so much more.  Each was perfectly fresh, perfectly tender crisp, exquisite.  I think it's my new favorite thing to eat.  Pity that I'll maybe get to eat it only a few more times in my life unless I win the lotto and run away to Venice forevvvaaaaah.  

Also, mixed Venetian appetizers: stewed shrimp on polenta, mackerel in tomato sauce on polenta (remind me to tell you that the polenta in Venice is fine, like silk, and that I need to find better polenta here in the States because now, I am spoiled) and mantis shrimps.  Mantis shrimps are beautiful by the way.  I have no photos of them cooked but here are some from the fish market.

Another gorgeous dish was tagliolini with a delicate spider crab sauce.  All of this accompanied by a lovely bottle of Tocai.  I drank too much of it and can't even remember the dessert but I'm certain we had them and that they were excellent.

It's no wonder that the seafood is so divine in Venice.  Fishing and fish selling is taken very seriously and the fish markets are a wonderland.  We had time to visit the Rialto Fish Market on our last morning and I wandered the stalls of gorgeous (cheap!) fruits of the sea, marveling over them like some girls ogle diamonds.  I think I took more photos of raw fish than anything else.

Is it not beautiful?

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Eat, Eat!

Various lovely things eaten in the last few days in Berlin:

* Assorted Turkish appetizers
* Japanese noodle soup bowl with pork and dumplings and ginger tea
* Korean pancake with seafood and vegetables
* Sausages with pommes (french fries)
* Pasta with eggplant and olives at an Italian cafe
* Picnic out of the trunk of a car after mushroom picking in the woods: buttered rolls, liverwurst, goat cheese, salami, herb marinated black olives, sliced honeydew melon and lemonade.
* Parasol mushroom and potato pie with sausage.
* Sauteed mushrooms with duck breast and roasted potatoes
* Homemade elderberry pancakes (eierkuchen)
* Organic pistachio ice cream (eis)
* Assorted coffees, teas and small pastries (waffel, pear tart, chocolate dome, etc).

Fortunately, I am walking more than enough to make up for the calorie intake. 

Tomorrow, we go to Venice.  The pleasures that await!

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Mushroom Teaser

I picked these with my very own hands this morning in the German woods.  Do you know what kind they are?

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My First Turkish Food

My Berlin dining companion is vehemently, vehemently opposed to photographing food in restaurants.  Out of respect for her wishes, I will probably not get many opportunities to take pictures of what I'm eating.  I did get these two clandestine shots of our Turkish lunch today.  She was mortified (the second is blurry because I had to quick, STOPITNOW!).  Ah well...

I have never eaten Turkish food before so it was quite a treat.  We shared several appetizers which included a tomato and cucumber salad, a fantastic humus (liberally sprinkled with sesame seeds and a splash of chili oil), lamb meatballs in a tomato sauce and fried eggplant and peppers.  I wish I had paid better attention to what the bread was called.  It was delicious.

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In Which Your Heroine Goes on a Grand Adventure

Tomorrow morning, I am leaving for a trip to Berlin, Germany and will also be spending a couple of days in Venice, Italy.  It is impossible for me to adequately express how excited I am to be going to Venice.  Ever since I learned we'd be able to go, my insides won't stop bouncing. Venice!  I am THRILLED.  Beyond thrilled.  There may not be any other place on the planet that I have more longed to see.  I plan to drink in the texture, the shade and light, the water reflections, the air and the smell and bridges and stones and churches and espressos and wine and art like it's the only thing keeping me alive, then store it up in my mind like a camel stores water.  I plan to swallow it alive.  Well, as much as can be done in 2 days.

Anyone have any recommendations for goodies I should be on the look out for to bring home?  Italian chocolates?  German jams?

I'll do my best to report back on our culinary adventures.  We'll see how well that goes (dubious).  Wish me luck!

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