KING CAKE

OMG ! King Cake is so good! They are in season from January 6th to Mardi Gras.


 Wikipedia says: The "king cake" takes its name from the biblical three kings. Catholic tradition states that their journey to Bethlehem took twelve days (the Twelve Days of Christmas), and that they arrived to honor the Christ Child on Epiphany. The season for king cake extends from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Twelfth Night and Epiphany Day), through to Mardi Gras day. Some organizations or groups of friends may have "king cake parties" every week through the Carnival season.

Being in New Orleans we felt that it was our obligation to honor tradition and have a king cake in our kitchen (and tummies) at all times and we lived up to our obligation. Thus, many babies were accumulated. A king cake has a little plastic baby (Jesus) hidden inside. (I’m sure it used to be a bean.) Whoever gets the baby is queen or king of the party. Nowadays, the baby-getter is supposed to buy the cake for the next party. (Those bakery people ain’t no fools!) Cakes come plain or filled and can be found in all grocery stores or bakeries. I like the filled cream cheese or maybe praline. Yum!

When we were visiting my 94 year old mother-in-law, king cake came up. We mentioned the babies. She said "You want babies - I got babies" and proceeded to reach into her kitchen drawer and pull out a handful of babies. One can't just put babies in the trash so they end up "giving evidence".  Now we know what goes on in those senior residential facilities - sugar diabetes - pshaw!

Later, we heard from Julie, "Good Grief, how many king cakes did you eat? I'm even finding babies in the car!"

There are more babies around here-I just can't find them.

These colorful beauties played a large part in the five plus pounds I gained while in the Big (and I mean Big) Easy.

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Four states in three hours-this ain't Montana!

My old college roomie who grew up in New Orleans and was in New Orleans at the time, invited me to spend a couple of nights at her condo in Destin, Florida. She picked me up and off Thelma and Louise  went. The next hours were spent driving along the Gulf Coast through Biloxi, Mobile, and into Florida while we caught up with each other on the last 40 years. It was great.

What surprised me so much was the beautiful white sand. I've been to the Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean, UK (rocks) Ireland, Iberian, and Namibian coasts, but never have I seen such beautiful, white beaches. Destin has changed from a quiet fishing spot to a crowded (by Montana standards-but then everywhere is crowded, by Montana standards) resort area. There are many high-rise condos and hotels along the beach. Her place was so beautiful-on the ninth floor with amazing ocean views (complete with sunsets) all around. As we walked along the deserted beach, once again it was  WWPFAD (wonder what the po folks are doing).

Thanks, Roomie, for a wonderful 2 days.

As we used to sing in Girl Scouts;

Make new friends, but keep the old

One is silver and the other gold

The Lower Ninth Ward

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Hard to see, but the horizontal line is the new levee.

The old and the new

If walls could talk

Julie drove us to the Lower Ninth Ward which was devastated by Katrina. There were many vacant lots and a few new homes being built. Many were the result of Brad Pitt's Make It Right project. They are all built "green" with solar panels and angled roofs, about as far from usual NOLA architecture as possible. Here is a link about that:   http://www.makeitrightnola.org/index.ph

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

We've been to the movies twice while here. We saw The King's Speech at a theater in Canal Place, an upscale mall downtown where we used the paid  indoor parking. When we bought our tickets, the man asked us to select our seats from his chart.  We were then escorted to our seats and handed a menu and cloth napkin with utensils. We sat back in our huge leather chairs with foot-room galore. The button on our chair could be used to call for service.

The couple next to us had a bottle of champagne and something from Chef Adolfo Garcia's Italian restaurant. We had some Mrs. Fields cookies we "happened to have with us".

Total Cost for two: $37 (not counting cookies)

Our other movie experience was to see Black Swan. If you haven't seen it, I must warn you that it's a psychological thriller that's not easy to watch. But not to worry, just watch it while sipping a frozen daiquiri. There in the lobby was a place to buy frozen daiquiris which came out of a Slurpee-type machine into to-go cups.

I'm afraid ours didn't have the fruit. They looked toxic but tasted yummy.

  Oh, and you could buy your tickets with a credit card from a machine next to the ticket booth or online. This theater was in a suburb with free parking.

Total Cost for Three: $30 (not counting daiquiris)

We're not in Kansas or Montana anymore!

Po Boys

Ode to the Po Boy

 It's the bread

No, it's the oysters

It's the sauce

 No,It's the shrimp

 It's the crawfish

No, it's the BBQ

It's the Abita beer
No, it's the Barq's root beer

I like mine "dressed"

I like mine often

OMG- They are so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!  There should be a festival dedicated to po boys. Oh yea, there is.

Po boys are everywhere. They are all made with WONDERFUL bread from the same bakery, Leidenheimers.

  

One of our po boy trips was to Domilise's.

Menu at Domelise's

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We sat at the bar and there was so much to look at, including signed pics of the Mannings. I bought a New Orleans Fireman calendar which made me want to play with matches.

If a "hole in the wall" that hasn't changed its decor (or staff) in 50 years
  has good po boys, it will be bursting with foodies and everyone here is a foodie. 

Trust me, Subway just ain't the same. I'm afraid Jared would gain weight.
We will miss those New Orleans Po Boys.

We went to the Creole Creamery on Prytania for dessert. 

Red Beans and Rice on Monday

Traditionally, around here, Monday meant wash day and red beans and rice. You could use your leftovers and leave the beans to cook all day while you washed. Now many restaurants serve red beans and rice on Monday.


Monday we drove along River Road, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge to see a few Anti-bellum plantation homes. We found a seafood market/cafe that had red beans on its special. I got it with fried catfish and Boo got it with sausage. Yummy and about the price of a drink at the fancy places. Of course we had bread pudding for dessert.

We visited 2 homes.

San Francisco Planation. The structures on either side are cisterns.

The rooms were well-preserved with beautiful painting on the walls and ceilings and faux bois (wood grain) or faux marble on the fireplace mantels. I love to hear the stories about the families who lived there.

The other place we went to was Oak Alley.

It was absolutely gorgeous-prettier than than photo.

Had we driven further, on the other side of the river, we would have come upon Houmas House who had as the first owner, Alexandre Latil, of whom my most noble husband is a direct descendent.  Latil  "bought" the land from the Houmas indians.

On other visits,we have enjoyed going to Latil's Landing ,the wonderful restaurant there,  with Claude's mother, nee Jan Latil. Does this mean that had things worked out differently, I could have been in Louisiana, fanning myself on the veranda with a Mint Julet in my hand,  instead of in Montana freezing my..............? oh well   :(

Latil's Lhttp://www.houmashouse.com/history.htmanding