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 

Wonder What the Po Folks are Doin'

Well, I'm a week behind. We are going to Sunday Brunch today and I never told about last Sunday's commander's Palace Jazz Brunch so here goes.

After Beignets (ben-yays) at Cafe du Monde, we walked over to St. Louis Cathedreal where Mass was just about to start so we stayed for that. Music was beautiful-another big organ with timpani and trumpet. The end of every song sounded like a Cecil B. DeMille scene ending.

The cathedral in on Jackson Square, super historical area where the Louisiana Purchase was signed in the Cabildo in 1803. It's fun to check out the artists there.

 

After mass we headed for Commander's Palace Restaurant for Jazz Brunch.
I had Shrimp Remoulade followed by  pecan crusted Drum fish with poached lump crabmeat and a cream sauce with a little corn -  to die for.
 
For dessert, strawberry shortcake with strawberries from Ponchatoula which is down the road from where I grew up.
There were balloons on every table and if there was a celebration, cute paper chef hats were given.I got our waiter to give me a couple of hats (for the grandchildren).

Most Sensuous Moment: biting into beignet
Funniest Moment: when the arch-bishop called Martin Luther King, Jr, Martin Luther King, Jesus.
Everyone chuckled, even the archbishop.
Most Shocking Moment: when they brought our bill, at Commanders

Duh Day of Duh-Gah

I used to say Day-gah but now I know it is duh-gah.

 For Christmas, Julie gave us a gift certificate for a tour of the Degas House and also for the Cafe Degas so we did that today.

The house is on Esplanade Avenue which is where the wealthy creoles ( born in New Orleans of French or Spanish blood) used to build their homes. We watched a great video about Degas's visit to the Mussons, His mother's brother, a wealthy cotton merchant..He only stayed there for 6 months but did many paintings while there.

The juiciest info was that his younger bro, Rene had met the Musson women when they escaped to their French relatives during the Civil War. Well, he fell in love with and married (against the family and church) his first cousin, Estelle. They all came back to New Orleans, including Edgar and the younger brother. Estelle went blind and creepo Rene abandoned her and their 5 children and went back to France with the neighbor America, who came over every day to read prayer books to Estelle. (among other things). The dirty,rotten couple took off to France to spend the family money into bankruptcy, leaving poor Edgar (who was also losing his sight) to pay off the debts.

Poor Estelle, who had been widowed by her first husband (nephew of Jefferson Davis) while she was expecting a child, was left with six children and blind with no money. Four of the six died of Yellow fever or Scarlet Fever. (I'm not making this up.) As the World Turns

Degas is the one who painted all the ballet dancers.

 After the Degas House, we went to Cafe Degas which was down the street. It was a small, but very charming French Bistro. We shared a Oyster Rockafellowish thingy and then I had  L'omelette aux Crevettes. Le Foie De Veau aux Oignons et Petits Lardons  was Boo's choice.  Eggs and liver and onions sounds so much better in French and tastes better too. (but costs more).
Dessert-Crepes Suzette and Raspberry liquor sorbet followed by demi-tasse cafe and port. Life is Good.

Thank You, Julie.

Food Glorious Food (again)

Sunday Morning at Cafe du Monde

It had been such a long time

My heart leapt when I remembered the pure pleasure

There was no dignity in this act

No matter how careful I tried to be 

It always ended in a grand mess

Stains on my clothes

Telling the world what I had done

And yet
I just didn't care

This is what I was put on this Earth to do

 All the sounds around me faded out

The strange accents, the beat of the jazz trio

The clatter of dishes

In that moment
I was home

Me and my Beignet

The French Market in NOLA is the oldest public market in the country. There you will find Cafe du Monde and the dee-licious french doughnuts and cafe au lait. Not WeightWatchers-these babies are deep fried and covered with at least a cup of powdered sugar.

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Greatest Movie about the Greatest Generation

A sobering experience-The World War II Museum. Stephen Ambrose started the whole thing - another Montana/Louisiana connection. The location is right off Lee Circle so we took the streetcar. It's housed in a couple of huge industrial type buildings that give you the feeling you are on a ship (no-nonsense metal stairs,etc.) The video below is about the Higgins boat, without which Eisenhower said the war could not have been won.

We went to a 4D movie hosted by Tom Hanks which was awesome. I guess what made it 4D was that the seats vibrated when you were "on a plane", real objects like the plane nose or a radio came up on the stage, a jungle smell rose when we were in the Pacific, and beautiful snow fell during the winter scene. It was beautifully done with many quotes and the info on the person saying them at the bottom of the stage.

Another feature I enjoyed was the little booths all through the exhibits with 2 minute oral histories of 3 or 4 people telling about their experience (a woman who worked as a riveter,d-day experiences, etc) One man told of his arrival int England to set up troops. He said that when he went to the Town Clerk to request permission to use an area as a drill field, the man looked concerned and said he had a place that would be more suitable. The first place he requested was their Cricket Field. They all said everyone was very welcoming to the Yanks -I guess they should have been. Imagine-when we entered the war, the US military was ranked 18th in the world.

We remembered Ivy Garon, Boo's father, who served in the Marshall Islands in the Navy and my father Fred Sheffield, who served in the Coast Guard here in New Orleans. I remember Ivy telling how he and his friend were chosen to go out on the beaches to pick up the bodies of their fallen comrades because they were the "older" guys.

We ate lunch at John Besh's restaurant there. I had shrimp/sausage gumbo and Boo had fried oyster po-boy. I didn't miss those 89cent 5 layered burritos Boo brings me for lunch at home.

Sally d' Montana meets Hannah Montana (almost)

I decided to get my exercise while walking up St. Charles Avenue to the Tulane University campus, and maybe buy a sweatshirt at the bookstore. (even though my "how to look young and hip" book says that for women of a certain age, college sweatshirts are a no-no.) I noticed today that the trees all along the avenue are decorated with Mardi Gras beads from last year's parade  -  faded reminders of good times past.

                                          The filming was here-red buildings,Loyola, gray,Tulane."
                      

As I approach the campus I see at least 20 huge trucks parked on the avenue. The nice city police tell me that they are all for the filming of a movie. As I head for the bookstore I am told that I have to wait until "CUT!" is yelled before I may proceed across the green. There are students everywhere. There are huge blow-up bouncy toy things. There are stages set up with sorority types (with painted faces) doing dances,and boys playing football and other games. People are dressed like it's warm, but it's not. I stopped to chat with 2  girls who are "extras" getting about $10/hour for 8 hours. They are to look like they are having fun. Suddenly, the filming starts again and the girls say "You're going to be in the movie!" But, no, I don't want to steal the show from Miley, who has on a warm jacket, of course, so I move on.

The bookstore is not open yet, so I finally get back to St.Charles via a "service" alley behind one of the buildings. It is hidden from elegant St. Charles by a huge bunch of Bamboo. We could hide a lot of things in Montana if we only could grow Bamboo. I take the streetcar back to the apartment.

Boo is going to drive to Baton Rouge to fix his mother's TV which is on the brink and OMG what if she misses a football game? He will also pick up hot tamales which she has been craving. (She's 94-ain't she great!)

He drops me off at a bead shop on Magazine where I buy a Fleur d'Lis pendant and a few other goodies and then a brioche suisse-YUM.YUM! at the gorgeous bakery next door.

I take the streetcar to BORDERS where I hang around doing what I like to do, but having to vie for the cushy chairs with old dudes who are taking full-out naps. That's just not right.

Well, I'm exhausted from writing in present tense.

WALK, EAT, PRAY (sort of)

   WALK - We (yes, the big Boo too) walked to Border's bookstore this morning. It's about a mile down St. Charles Avenue which is lined with beautiful Live Oaks and elegant mansions. Most have shutters and columns and porches.  The street car runs down the middle. Julie's apartment is a block off it (sweet!) It's one of the Mardi Gras parade routes.  Boo had a latte and read the paper while i gorged on the magazines. I will do this every day if possible.

EAT - We walked 5 blocks over to Magazine Street which has become full of boutiques, antiques and cafes. We had calzones at a pizza place and walked back home.   We blobbed out, checked the news on the computer and raided the frig before.....

  PRAY- On the computer we found out about an Evensong Service at an Episcipal church about 5 blocks from here. The organist, Albinas Prizginstas (he should run for office, huh- I expected him to have white hair and pink eyes) would be playing. I checked him out on Youtube and we decided to go. Huge, beautiful church with only us and 2 others there. We arrived very early and Boo had a little snooze while I read the cathechism.

. Albinas came out and then 4 singers in red robes- 3 white hairs (1 female) and younger oriental man (Becky says vases are oriental, people are Asian) so I'd better say Asian. The only other Evensong I've been to was at Westminister Abbey which a bit more impressive, but the organ was great. There's nothing like a really big organ, right?..  After the service we chatted with his charming Parisian wife, Manon, who invited us to come to the free concert Sunday,  honoring MLKing. To the right is a picture of her holding a a bouquet, She is being honored for the French awarding her a prestigious award for supporting the arts.

   Gotta go watch The Daily Show on my computer. Last night I watched Masterpiece Theater. Oh to have fast, unlimited internet.

Boo and Sally's Amazing Adventure, Jour Une

Well, this morning I walked St Charles. I started out on the sidewalk, but then I manned up and walked slap-dab down the middle of the street cars. Yea, I saw others in their Nikes and spandex but my Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and Danskos served me quite well. It's freezing here and fortunately I accidentally brought my hat and gloves. The mansions are beautiful and I went as far as the BORDERS  and then went in the other direction. I stopped at the Tourist Bureau and got maps and brochures including one on Commander's Palace's 25 cent  martinis at lunch.

Gay and Gigi came about 11:30 and we headed for AUGUST for lunch. Yummy! I had Veloute which I thought was salad but was in fact delicious soup. Boo had Gnocci with crabmeat and truffles, Gay had salad .

Entrees: I had 3 shrimp with panko stuffed with andoowee (phonetically spelled) and other stuff
Boo and gigi - speckled trout with lump crabmeat
Gay - short ribs beef

Dessert:
Sally- ricotta custard
Gigi - rum cake with white choc
Boo - cheese plate
Gay - cheesecake with ice cream

We all had an "amuse bouche" of an eggshell with the top cut off with a custard thing in it with a crouton sticking out.
At end, an plate of choc and brittle.

Everything had dribbles.


BLACK EXPERIENCE: After they left, Boo and I went to Walmart where, except for maybe 5 others, we were the only white folks.

UPSCALE EXPERIENCE: Then to Whole Foods where we saw maybe 3 black folks (working there) and many beautiful people caring for and helping the world.  We bought a $10 bag of grapes and a $3 bottle of wine.

Of course I used my grocery bags at Walmart where the clerk acted as if no one had ever done this, and then at WF, I was afraid an alarm would go off shaming me for using their paper bags - yes, there is no plastic there.

Came back to apt. and there is no tv. OMG must we talk? or read?

Stay tuned for parte Duex.