Are almost ready ...
CrabAppleLane Tomato/Eggplant Garden - May 11, 2008
CrabAppleLane Tomatoes - May 11, 2008
Recently in Food Category
CrabAppleLane Tomato/Eggplant Garden - May 11, 2008
CrabAppleLane Tomatoes - May 11, 2008
The Remains of the Day - March 30, 2008
The Remains of the Day - March 30, 2008
With proper apologies to the fine book/movie of the same name, this is what's left of
39lbs crawfish
3lbs sausage
3lbs creamer potatoes
6 lemons halved
2 oranges quartered
2 limes halved
5 cloves garlic halved
6 yellow onions quartered
salt and Zatarains Crab Boil to taste
9 people, including yours truly, take full and happy responsibility for it. This was last night's dinner. I just pour the remnants into a pile out in the CrabAppleLane backyard. The insects and worms will eat their fill, the birds and other critters will pick at it, the sun will bleach & dry it out, and the lawn mower will chop it into little fertilizer bits. Nothing wasted.
I offer two from the CrabAppleLane yard on this overcast, somewhat dreary Sunday:
CrabAppleLane Rest Stop - February 24, 2008
Sign of spring - February 24, 2008
Quote of the Day
Michael, I have great affection for you and you live a very rich and interesting life, but you're a bag man not an attorney. If your intention was to have me committed you should have kept me in Wisconsin where the arrest report, the videotape, eyewitness reports of my inappropriate behavior would have had jurisdictional relevance. I have no criminal record in the state of New York, and the single determining criteria for involuntary commitment is danger. Is the defendant a danger to himself or to others. You think you got the horses for that? Well good luck and God bless, but I'll tell you this: the last place you want to see me is in court.
Arthur Edens, Michael Clayton
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Boring and contrived does not a good thriller make and the ordeal is certainly not helped by a George Clooney who seems to have mistaken weary for depth."
Had a delightful lunch yesterday with The Great White Shank at Liuzza’s. He describes it a little at his place. He’s absolutely correct about one thing. If your company has their meeting/conference/convention in New Orleans at one of the large chain hotels (Hilton, Sheraton, etc), they’re doing their people and themselves a disservice by offering them hotel food. That’s not to say that all hotel food is bad, it’s to say that there are far better places to eat in New Orleans, probably within walking distance and probably cheaper ... or, if you’re really pressed for time, need to cram as much into your convention as you can, and don’t want your people wandering off, why not have them stay at one of the local hotels that has better food. For instance, the Pontchartrain Hotel has some of the very best food in the city. New Orleans has some of the best cuisine in the entire world and it is just silly to come down here and not to take advantage of it.
It says here the Cleveland Cavaliers will surprise the Spurs and take the NBA Championship in 7 games.
91 days until football season ...
Quote of the Day
Interested to see that Starbucks plans to replace whole milk with 2 percent in its American and Canadian stores by the end of the year, though customers can still request whole milk if they wish. Hmmm. I know its good for me, and I know it'll save me 70 or 80 calories to have a 2 percent latte rather than a whole-milk latte, but let's be frank here. It's an outrage Starbucks didn't consult me before making this sea-change.
Peter King, Sports Illustrated
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "One of the driving forces behind social media is the notion that we trust each other more than we trust media/business. We're looking for good, reliable information. If the CVBs aren't providing it, we'll look elsewhere. We want to know what's good and what's bad. We want honest opinions."
Had lunch yesterday in Chalmette after riding around a while. The first two choices of restaurant were “Closed Mondays”. These “Closed Mondays” are becoming quite prevalent in the Greater New Orleans area, mainly at restaurants that are normally open on Sundays. It’s a curious development because Monday is the busiest day of the week for most of the business community. Business lunch is their, pardon the expression, bread and butter. The restaurants that are open Mondays do well on Mondays. In some cases, I suppose it’s a matter of staffing. I guess local Mom and Pop restaurants don’t have the staff or the management to run their business 7 days a week. It’s too bad. Anyway, if you find yourself in historic Chalmette (Chalmette Battlefield is where Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans), the Par 3 Restaurant serves pretty good food. My shrimp po-boy was excellent.
Quote of the Day
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it.
Andrew Jackson
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "The cover story is an instructional on building doghouse dormers."
Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant in New Orleans is an institution. Doesn't look like much, does it? I had eaten take-out food from there a few times but had never eaten inside and had never been to it. My boss had our whole department and a few others over there last night for his annual Christmas dinner. Sad to say, I still haven’t eaten there. I put the broiled stuffed flounder and baked macaroni and cheese in a box immediately. I’m still fighting the flu and I’m still prone to violent coughing fits that ... let’s just say it’s best not to have fresh food in my stomach. Patsy and I shared it when I got home and my instincts were correct. I was able to keep it down but it was touch and go. This is no reflection on the food. The food was great. The baked macaroni is fabulous. It’s my kind. There are two kinds of baked macaroni fans. People, like me, who like it hot and a little bit creamy and others, like Patsy, who like it slightly burnt and crusty on top. You have to settle that part of the macaroni and cheese equation BEFORE you go on to whether to add brown gravy or not.
For those who may be considering joining the blogging world and can't decide which software to use, it should be noted that Word Perfect accepts maccaroni with two c's or with one but Movable Type only accepts the one c version.
About today’s QOTD: The following disclaimer is on the Underworld:Evolution DVD preceding the start of the movie. It comes just after the standard Unauthorized Use and Copyright stuff. I think it was supposed to be placed elsewhere on the disk but that it was here made it a bit comical. If you don’t know, Underworld:Evolution is a thoroughly ridiculous film that is part action movie, part rock concert and the clincher; it’s about vampires and werewolves. On to the quote.
Quote of the Day
The following Interviews and Commentaries are for entertainment only. The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment or any of their respective affiliates or employees.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "I know The Boy and I have our problems right now, but I request he do one small, fairly insignificant thing to relieve some of the stress in my life. It's not big, it's not difficult, but apparently it's impossible to actually do."
Ran an errand yesterday on my lunch break to an area of New Orleans called Mid-City. It wasn’t just any area. It was the exact location I worked at for nearly 19 years and I know the surrounding area very well. That location is in new hands now and has been thriving both before and since Katrina. Hurricane Katrina’s flood waters devastated this area and many of the businesses haven’t re-opened yet and may never do so. I decided to try to find something to eat around there so I just drove down Carrollton Avenue towards the river. Ye Olde College Inn, Dad’s favorite, was still boarded up. Popeye’s was open but wrapped up with customers. Didn’t feel like chicken, anyway. Turned off of Carrollton and headed up South Claiborne. When I got near where the old Tulane Stadium used to be, I noticed Frostop was open. That’ll do.
Frostop is an old favorite of mine. They serve decent burgers and fries but the real treats are the draft root beer served in frosty mugs and the root beer floats, also served in frosty mugs. Quite famous for them when I was a kid. In fact, Frostop restaurants have a giant frosty mug of root beer on their roofs. The nostalgia link at Frostop’s website shows a New Orleans restaurant on St Charles Avenue with said frosty mug. I don’t remember ever seeing a Frostop on St Charles Ave but it could have been before my time or I could have simply forgotten it was there. This Claiborne Avenue Frostop’s mug was still on the pavement post-Katrina. Didn’t have time for the frosty mug yesterday but a to-go cup would have been just fine. Not to be. I was surprised and sorely disappointed to see that this restaurant doesn’t serve the draft root beer. Instead, they were serving Barqs from a carbonated drink dispenser. Barqs is decent root beer (Or is it?) but it wasn’t what I had in mind when I stopped. The burger was good, though.
I think I've used up my quota for 2006 for the words area, frosty, and mug.
Quote of the Day
Nothing tops it ... but the foam!
Frostop
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Indeed, my 20 mile trip from the office to my house, usually a 40 minute cruise, turned into a 2 hour crawl-a-thon. Here are some pictures that I snapped from the window of my car. The final picture is either defective or artsy, depending on your point of view. I like it, so its art."
It’s been nostalgia week for me in New Orleans. Yesterday, it was a muffuletta from Central Grocery. Today, it was a shrimp po-boy from Mark Twain’s Pizza Landing and a bubble gum sno-ball from Sal’s. I must have passed Mark Twain’s 100 times before I finally took a chance on it. It has a paper mache Mark Twain in the store window. The shrimp is sautéed, not fried, and that’s all I had time for today but it’s the pizza that makes the place. I eat pizza. Any kind of pizza placed in front of me is in danger but I never thought there was much difference between the big chains and the smaller specialty pizza places. I was wrong. Mark Twain’s Pizza Landing was the first gourmet pizza joint I started frequenting. I used to live AND work nearby. I do neither, now, and I miss them.
Sammy's Deli on Elysian Fields in New Orleans is now open for business again. It was and is a prominent member of my workplace lunch rotation. Their building is behind the trailer and looks like it took on about 6ft of water judging by the water line I saw. It looks like they'll be in the trailer for a few months. No jambalaya yet, though. They have some of the best jambalaya in New Orleans.
I got shrimp on my salad last night instead of chicken. I ordered chicken but it was too much trouble to go back and exchange it so I decided to go ahead and eat it. One of my favorite restaurants, WOW, has recently been not able to get an order right. They make the wrong thing or they leave things out. One of the items I ordered comes with a side. When I got home, no side. I check the orders for certain things before I leave but I suppose I have to open every container, every time now. If I didn’t like the food so much..............
The above paragraph leads me to this: As someone who has grown up in Louisiana and been around seafood my whole life, I must confess that I do not understand the fascination people have with jumbo shrimp. They tend to be undercooked when you get them these days. Nothing turns me off faster than undercooked shrimp. They also cost more and don’t taste as good as medium and smaller shrimp that are much easier to prepare. It has gotten to the point where I generally don’t order shrimp at a restaurant any more. That’s not to say that large shrimp can’t be done well but its more work and too many are opting not to do it. The best way to cook large shrimp is to boil them in your favorite crab boil and then serve them chilled in a shrimp remoulade or shrimp cocktail. Fried is OK, too, but only if they’re butterflied (Sliced down the back). Without butterflying, they’ll be overcooked on the outside or undercooked on the inside. The gist here is: Give me 15 smaller shrimp instead of 10 larger ones.
Added two blogs to the roll this morning. Yesterday’s and today’s BOTD. Today’s is rather famous.
Quote of the Day
What separates the rich from everybody else is their ability to hire people to deal with the day-to-day stuff of life, The rest of us can buy things, but they can buy services.
Pam Danziger, Unity Marketing
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Dentists are generally pretty smart and they have the highest suicide rate of any profession. In stark contrast, dogs are goofy and they always look happy. You almost never hear about a dog trying to shoot himself."
