The Big Boys

When most people think of New Orleans' restaurants they think of the ones serving the traditional French cuisine. They r all located n the French Quarter: Galito's (pronounced gal-e-twas -the grand dame of all NO restaurants) est n 1905, Arnold's (pronounced R-no's) est n 1918, Court of Two Sisters (known mainly for their Jazz brunch) location est n 1886, and the new kid on the block, Brennen's Steak House est n 1946. Each of these restaurants have stayed n business for many years bc they are so traditional. It's what the public wants. Most NOLA residents prefer Galito's or Arnold's. All of these restaurants have all five $ in the travel books beside their names. They r very expensive BUT you can still get a quality meal that exudes traditional NO cuisine.

Then u have the "newbie" Chefs of NO- Emeril Lagasse who owns NOLA's and Delmonicos, Paul Prudhomme who owns K-Paul's and invented blacked-everything and John Besh who owns August and Luke's. Most of these restaurants r way past their prime and run on name alone n my opinion. They all have 3-4 dollar signs behind their names and i can almost guarantee u will feel like you've been taken advantage of after ur meal. The wait to get n and the cost r just not worth the meal.

The only chef who has been around for a while n this "newby" category is the innovative Susan Spicer of Bayona and Mondo fame. She keeps re-inventing herself and all of her ingredients r fresh. Her legacy could eventually turn into that of one of the old places n town.

...but now have you ever had someone ask you "Gosh, you don't know about _______?" and you, being the "expert" n this field, has to reply honestly, "Nope-never heard of it!" Well this is what happened to me when Sista told me about Irene's. It's in the French Quarter a few blocks off of Jackson Square. I was so grateful when our friends, Bert and Karen invited us for this weekend and wanted to go there. You see, they knew about it also...as did numerous other people that I spoke with! I was so grateful to b getting this monkey off my back!

A line forms early at the small old front door of this place...like 4:30 early. They only take a limited amt of reservations so if u want one you have to call ahead a week n advance. Irene's is an Italian food restaurant although no one will tell you that bc it is definitely not traditional Italian.

I started w the mussels - Bubba explained to the waiter, Dan that I traditionally like a white wine, butter sauce w the mussels but Dan suggested that we not upset the chef. I really didn't want to make enemies before the meal got started so I agreed to the marinara sauce. We all took turns dipping our bread into it after I had finished w the mussels. We wanted to drink it!! It was amazing!! Karen and Bubba had the almond- crusted soft-shelled crab that was "the best" Bubba had ever tasted. Bert had the incredible breaded oysters!

Our entrees were just as flawless- Bubba got the special -veal chop w blue cheese polenta and grilled artichokes. Karen had the most succulent lamb chops that I've tasted n a while- served w a Demi glaze. Bert and I had the duck- again, a perfect meal which made Bubba almost jealous...and he doesn't eat duck! It had a rosemary brine w sweetened chopped pecans and sweet potatoes!

Dessert was Creole cream cheese cake, flour-less chocolate cake and one of the best bread puddings I've ever tasted!

Try Irene's!!- she's running w the big boys in town!!!

Drago's

After Katrina hit N.O. the locals were scrambling for basic necessities. The owners of Drago's stayed around and fed folks non gratis rt out of their parking lot! Bubba's grandmother lived rt down the street and benefitted from their generosity! Every time we come back, we always make a point of coming to Drago's n appreciation for all that they did for the community!

....they also make the most incredible grilled oysters that you've ever tasted. Even if you hate oysters you would love these!!

Southern Comfort after 34 Years!

Last night Bubba and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary. He surprised me with a visit to the River Road Plantations. There are still numerous homes along the Mississippi River just west of New Orleans despite Katrina's wrath! They have stood for hundreds of years preserving southern historical Traditions.
We spent the night in one of the refurbished guest cabins at Oak Alley Plantation; one of the premier plantation homes on River Road.
Even better was his choice of restaurants for the evening. We ate at Nottoway Plantation!
We started w the Chrystal Buere Blanche Shrimp and Tasso. That's just a fancy way of saying that they reduced some hot sauce and put a little butter and cream in it! We then had a most amazing soup. It really should've been a dip -w a little more body we could've eaten it with some toast points! It was a Crab and Brie Soup that I'm going to try to duplicate as soon as I get home!! Unbelievable!! Sista you would LOVE this!! My next favorite dish was the Fried Green Tomatoes w a Remoulade Sauce. The Remoulade had lots of horseradish and chunks of jumbo lump crabmeat! We also had the stuffed Crawfish balls with Fennel and Fontina cheese. Yum! It was a memorable evening!!

Glenda's Creole Kitchen- Beaux Bridge, La.

Just a little east of Lafayette, La. north of I-10, down some rough, puddle-filled roads we drove all the time wondering if this would b worth our efforts. One glance at the map should have given us a premonition. The restaurant was down and around Bayou Teche, through sugar cane fields and past a feed store and some very old wooden homes.
All I knew was what Bubba had told me about the place. It's claim to fame: a feature on Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" (Travel Channel) and another on the cooking channel- G. Garvin's "Road Trip". Glowing recommendations, both.
I'll have to admit that it took some guts to turn into the parking lot. But ur talking to a woman who's ridden more than 150,000 motorcycle miles so here's what we found: two of the nicest folks running the restaurant that u ask for w some of the best food we've had n a long time!
Katlin and Kacy, Glenda's daughters run the place (along w their little brother!) the food was perfectly spiced and everything is homemade! Including the sausage! I had a braised turkey wing over rice. The sides for today were white beans and sausage and the most incredible braised white cabbage (it had to have been cooked for hours!)
The next time your headed east down I-10 around mealtime be bold!!

Jean's Lemon Cookies

My mom LOVES lemons! As a child she would sprinkle a little salt on top of a wedge and eat it straight; rind and all! I developed this recipe for her. It's great during the summer months when the blueberries are sweet and inexpensive. The cookies make a great presentation for teas or baby/wedding showers. And to make everyone's life easier, the filling and the dough can be made a day or two ahead of time!

Jean's Lemon Cookies

2 cups butter, softened

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

4 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

The juice and zest of 3 lemons

For filling:

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup sugar

2 T. butter

The juice and zest of 3 lemons

1 tsp. cornstarch

Make filling by placing all of the filling ingredients in a small bowl. Place the bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. Whisk until all ingredients are incorporated and begin to thicken. (The mixture will thicken even more after it's been refrigerated so it needs to just coat the bottom of your spoon.) Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.

For the cookies: Cream butter and gradually add the powdered sugar. Stir in the lemon juice and zest and incorporate. In another bowl sift the flour with the salt.

Combine the butter mixture with the flour mixture and shape into a cylinder. Wrap in cellophane and refrigerate for at least 30 min.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and slice to a 1/4" thickness. Place cookies on cookie sheets and bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes or until browned just around the edges. Cool on a wire cooling rack until room temperature.

Spoon filling on top of each cookie. Place blueberries on top of the curd and sprinkle more powdered sugar on top. 



Steak and Potatoes

Steak and French Fries - quite possibly the most perfect meal...for Bubba anyway! He loves cooking this and with the addition of our outdoor kitchen it has become not only possible, but a weekly event! The steaks were chuck-eye (a very cheap cut, but worth it!) They have Kosher salt and cracked black pepper on them. My dad (Papa) introduced them to me years ago. Papa would marinate them in soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne. Either way they are delicious!



Our crop!



Fried Banana Peppers

Bubba also surprised me by frying the last of our banana peppers tonight. We planted half a dozen banana pepper plants this past spring and had great fun finding different ways to cook them! Our favorite is just to dip them in an egg wash (for 6 peppers use 2 eggs and 1/2 c. milk) and then in a flour,  cornmeal, salt, pepper and cayenne mix. We fry them at 425 degree corn oil. They are wonderful!


Papa and Baby Evan



New Recipes!

I have just added 3 new Healthy Recipes!

T.V.P. and Lentils
Taya's Saffron Chicken with Coconut and Plantains
Curried-Herbed Turkey Breasts

I had the honor of having our friend David Oliphant bring his lovely wife, Taya to my cooking class on Thursday. They mentioned that they were looking for some new saffron recipes so I was able to develop this one for them. It's healthy- it uses coconut oil AND saffron!...and it tastes terrific!! Let me know what you think, guys!

I have also added an incredible Orange Chicken and Gruyere Turnover to the "In a Hurry?" page.

Have fun with these and let me know if you have any comments or questions!

Devil's Food Cookies

When I was growning up my twin sister and I used to spend summers with our grandparents. My maternal grandmother, Mimi who had twins boys later in life used to make the most delicious Devil's Food cake on the planet for my uncles. I've really tried to recreate that cake but the closest I've come to that delicious stickiness is with these Devil's Food Cookies...they're amazingly! Here's to you Uncle Stevie!!! Enjoy!!

1/2 cup shortening



Uncle Stevie with his beautiful wife and of course, Foxy Lady.

1 cup sugar                                                                

2 eggs, beaten

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla extract

~21 large marshmallows

For glaze:

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1/4 cup milk

2 T. butter

For cookies: Mix the shortening and sugar in one bowl; thoroughly combine. Add the eggs and blend. In another bowl mix the flour, soda, salt and cocoa. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and stir until just blended. Wrap in Saran Wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 min. Take the dough out and roll into small balls (~1" in diameter). Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 7 min. Pull the cookies out of the oven and place the halved pieces of marshmallow on top of each one. Put back into the oven and bake for another 2 min. Allow the cookies to cool on a cookie sheet for 2 min then on a cooling rack for 10 more minutes.

Meanwhile melt the chocolate morsels on top of a double boiler; add the milk and butter and stir until the butter is melted and the ingredients are combined. Spoon the chocolate onto the tops of each cookie and allow to harden before serving.

Requests

Since this blog went online last week I've heard from many of my good friends and family who have all been extremely supportive and very helpful! Special thanks goes to my second daughter, Jessy. Had it not been for her this site would not exist! (She was triple-tasking as she taught me how to navigate and set up this blog...which shouldn't surprise me but it does!)

Thank you so much for all your time and kind words of encouragement!

Also, I wanted to let you know that I am working as hard as I can to get as many of your requests online as soon as possible. Please be patient with me this week. I promise there are many more "Healthy Recipes", Quick Chicken recipes, Cookies and much, much more to come!!

Every summer I am fortunate enough to teach a cooking class for the youth interns at our church. This year the theme is Cajun food and because Bubba and I are from New Orleans it's been very easy and even more fun for me!! I will be posting many of those recipes soon as well. 

Please don't hesitate to post questions or comments when necessary!

I'll leave you with a picture that my oldest daughter, Jenn just sent me...apparently Ainsley LOVED making those oatmeal cookies this weekend (a dream come true for me) and wanted to wear her mama's apron shopping!!

Endive with Blue Cheese and Candied Pecans

The outside rim of this platter has the endive with goat cheese (instead of blue cheese) and toffeed cashews (instead of the candied pecans) that were bought instead of hand made to save some time. There are also picked beets on this platter topped with Rondel Herb Cheese, decorated with the tip top of the beet that was cut off in order to stabilize them on the platter. The platter has always been a BIG HIT!!

3 heads of Endive, stem removed, separated and cleaned

4 oz. blue cheese (or any soft cheese)

1/2 lb. pecans

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

Make a simple syrup w/ the water and sugar by combining both ingredients in a heavy-bottomed small saucepan. Stir the sugar water until the sugar completely dissolves. Pour the pecans into the simple syrup and stir to coat completely. Pour the pecans out onto a jelly-roll pan that has a cooling rack on top. Cool completely.

Arrange the Endive leaves on a platter. Pinch off a little of the blue cheese and roll it together to form a small ball. Place the cheese on the whitest portion of the endive leaves. Top w/ a candied pecan.

*

Homemade Pasta is easy...especially if you have a pasta maker. My first was a hand crank like this:



Hand Crank Pasta Maker

 

Then I got an attachment to my Kitchen Aide which is much easier!
















Even if you just roll out the pasta with a rolling pin, fresh pasta is VERY rewarding!

Homemade Pasta

3 cups of flour

3 eggs, beaten

Form a well in the center of the flour. Pour the eggs into the well and slowly (with a fork) begin to pull the flour into the eggs. Continue grabbing the "wall" of flour into the eggs until all of the flour has been incorporated. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the dough becomes "elastic" (easy to stretch). Wrap the dough in some Saran Wrap and let it rest for at least 10 minutes or up to an hour.

Uncover the dough and divide into 8-10 balls. Flatten each ball and run it through the pasta maker twice on the lowest (widest) setting. Adjust the pasta maker to the next setting and run each disk through again. Continue running the disks through until the dough is completely stretched. (I usually stop at #5 because I like my pasta to have a bit of thickness.)

Heat a large pot (preferably a pasta pot) filled with water to boiling; add 2-3 T. sea salt. Add the pasta and cook until just softened. It doesn't take long. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried.

Drain and mix into the rest of the dish just before serving. This way the pasta will absorb some of the sauce from your dish!

*The dish shown at the top of this page is just some basic meatballs, mushrooms and a little beef broth that has been thickened with a cornstarch/water slurry.

Basil Goatcheese Cheescake

12 leaves of basil, minced

1 (15 oz) container Ricotta cheese, room temperature

1 (4 oz) container of plain, soft goat cheese, room temperature

16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 T. Kosher salt

½ tsp. black pepper, finely ground

1 small egg, scrambled

Mix all the cheeses together with a mixer. Add the seasonings, basil and egg and blend thoroughly. Pour into a 6” springform pan. Wrap the outside of the pan (not the top- only the sides and bottom) with heavy foil and then place into another 9” pan. Pour boiling water into the 9” pan and place into a 350 degree oven. Bake for ~45 to 1 hour or until the center still jiggles slightly (like Jell-O). Take the cheesecake out of the water bath and let it come down to room temperature. Place into the refrigerator to cool. Bring it back up to room temperature before serving.

I served this w/ an Arugula pesto:

1 large handful of Arugula

6 oz. pine nuts

Salt and pepper

½ cup (or more) olive oil

Blend together and pour into a squirt bottle to make decorative patterns on the cheesecake. Also good over roasted vegetables. 



Peanutbutter Cookies

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt                                                                          
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. light corn syrup
1 T. Milk

In one bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl mix sugar, shortening, peanut butter corn syrup and milk. Blend the dry and wet ingredients together; roll the dough into a cylinder shape, wrap in Saran Wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 min.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Slice the dough in 1/4" cuts and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool for 2 min on cookie sheet and then remove to cooling rack. Enjoy!