Food Finds - New Orleans

We like to eat.  There's no getting around it.  I have a serious taste for sweets and carbs.  My 6' 4" husband has a love for spaghetti, meat, meat, nachos, spaghetti, and meat. 

A lot of what we do when we are in a new place involves the local cuisine. 
With around 20 more trips to New Orleans in our future, and two meals per trip, I'm pretty sure we'll have a good handle on the local flavors and the places not to be missed.

On our most recent trip we visited The Gumbo Shop on St Peters St. in the French Quarter  and Nacho Mama.

The Gumbo Shop is about a block from the cathedral in the Quarter.  They serve Creole food which is less spicy than Cajun food.  The dining area is simple, with a slightly old world feel, and is very intimate.  If only based on our wait I could tell you that this is a local hot spot.  We arrived around 9pm and had to wait in the alley like entrance for about 20 minutes before being seated.  When we were seated, we were practically sharing a table with the couple next to us.  For this first time I stuck with simple and had red beans and rice with sausage.  Will had the combo platter with shrimp creole, jambalaya, and red beans.  It was good food, but a pretty substantial wait, even after being seated.  I would recommend it, but don't be in a hurry.

Night 2, Will's prof took us to Nacho Mama, not far from the seminary.  It's a casual atmosphere with big screens and a bar.  Will completely scorched his mouth with the unexpected spicy heat of the pulled pork nachos and I had fish tacos.  We enjoyed it enough, but probably won't be on our list of places to return to. 

These two meals were eaten with Will's profs and classmates, so after class let out on Friday night we decided to have a little date, just the two of us.  We found our way to Sucre on Magazine St. in the Garden District.  I can't help but saying, this one takes the cake for the weekend!  Fancy, handmade confections for reasonable prices in a hip setting, what more could you ask for.  With about 25 gelato choices, about 10 gourmet plated desserts disguised as works of art, a case full of individual chocolates, and the coffee and hot chocolate to accompany, it was difficult to decide what to get.  But when I saw dark chocolate and raspberry, I couldn't think of anything else.  A match made in heaven.  Will went for a slightly unconventional pairing.  His apple pie was topped with a cheddar and bacon crumble and was served with a scoop of butter pecan gelato. 



How pretty.  You too, babe!



Sooo me.  Rich, creamy, decadent.



My thoughts exactly.  MmmAzing.  :)

 Unfortunately, Will was underwhelmed with his apple pie.  The cheddar and bacon flavor didn't come through in the topping, so it wasn't as special as it first appeared.  However, the gelato was very good.  They had a carrot cake gelato that I might have to try next time.  I can say with no uncertainty, we will be visiting Sucre again in the very near future. 

To round out the trip we stopped at Central Grocery in the French Quarter on our way out of town and picked up a whole muffaletta for the road.  This is said to be where the muffaletta was invented.  Somebody must have put the word out because the line this time was out the door and down the sidewalk.  In the three times I've been, I've always had to wait, but never that long.  But it's well worth it.  I'm not a huge green olive fan, but the olive salad is very balanced, quite chunky.  The cheese is delicious.  This time the bread was slightly softer than before, and for me, that really put it over the top.  I doubt there will be a trip that we don't make a stop at Central Grocery. 



That completes our food tour for this time.  Much more to come.

Jamie

New Orleans Trip #2

3:15 AM

This is not a time of day I see often.
This is not a time of day I care to see often.

This is the time of day we get up to leave for New Orleans once a month.
This is the time of day that put me in a slightly cranky mood last week.
This is the time of day that I met with more excitement the first time around.

The novelty of this time of day has worn off. 

There was one glimmer of hope for this time of day, and it was quite literally a glimmer.  A couple hours into the trip, I was stargazing out the window, a favorite pastime of mine.  I found Orion and as I was looking, a shooting star came flying into view and then was gone.  I felt like God had sent that shooting star just for me.  I had to smile and get over my slight crankiness.

Overall, our second trip to New Orleans for Will's doctoral work was met with less, let's say, energy, than the first.  A pair of congested sinuses, runny noses, and sore throats were trying to rob us of our fun little getaway.  But with a box of Kleenex in hand and an assortment of decongestant and cough suppressant in tow, we were able to make it through the weekend.

My plans for the weekend were to spend my time in Audubon Park visiting the zoo and taking pictures of all the trees clad in their fall colored leaves.  The first part of that plan was very successful.  The second, not so much.  I didn't see one tree, not one, with the yellow, orange, or red leaves I was expecting.  Just a bunch of green.  Don't get me wrong, green is excellent on any other day.  But on this day I wanted some more variety.  I think I would rather have missed the whole leaf dropping process and had bare trees than all that green.  This is what happens when you have an expectation and it isn't met.  But then you have to move on, so that is what I will do now.

The Audubon Zoo was great.  It's a very nicely kept zoo with open exhibits that allow you to feel very close to the animals.  There were some animals I felt they were lacking, but the ones they had were awesome.  It was a crisp, cloudless day, perfect for the zoo and much more relaxing than trying to navigate myself around town.  The animals...

Momma and baby orangutan

Hungry monkey

Suspicious duck

Playful Jaguars

Curious giraffes

Elegant White Bengal Tiger

Mischievous Asian Elephants

Talkative Macaw

I love the zoo.  I can't wait to take Will back with me.

I'll end this post there and come back later with a recap of the food we ate.  It deserves it's own post. 

Jamie

A not so spooky, but very cheesy Halloween

15 - crockpots

11 - 1 gallon cans of condensed cheese product

4 - 1 gallon cans of chili

3 - 64 oz jars of jalapenos

16 - 3lb bags of tortilla chips

                                                  

~250 servings of sub par, artery clogging nachos

After spending all of yesterday afternoon and evening up to our elbows in this soup of food dye posing as cheese, I am completely turned off of the stuff.

The youth choir sold nachos at our churchs' Halloween alternative, Festival 31, as a fundraiser for their summer trip.  It was a kick in the pants after an already abnormally long, somewhat stressful week.  It reminded me again of why I chose not to work in fast food with a lot of my friends as a teen.  Food service is hard work. 

A few things I learned last night:

Texans like it hot...these people can eat some jalapenos

Crockpot liners - our saving grace of the night.  Use them!  These things are ingenious. 

People don't eat chili when it's 80 degrees.

Get roasted corn first thing, unless you want to stand in line for 20 minutes or risk them running out.

..........

Being responsible for the food booth, we didn't try to dress up this year, nor was I able to take any pictures of all those who did. 

The biggest tragedy of Halloween this year - I did not have a single piece of candy!  How can this be?  Oh yeah, 250 servings of nachos in 3hrs!

I'm thinking I need to remedy this asap. 

...........

The extent of our spooky activity for the weekend involved watching this...

and this....

Yeah, pretty innocuous. 

Will grew up watching Beauty and the Beast on Halloween instead of trick or treating.  With the new release of the movie this year, it was only appropriate we continue the tradition.  This is definitely one of the best of the Disney princess movies.  The music is amazing.  I couldn't help but sing along.  Paying about $7 for the Blu-ray & DVD combo pack after coupons and mail-in-rebate made it all the sweeter!

Speaking of Belle and Halloween...

Hoop skirt and all. 
Look at the makeup!
Wow. 

 But nothing quite compares to this pair!

That's the recap of our Halloween, and a quick look at Halloweens past.

I've already had a few thoughts about some possible costumes for next year.  As far as the food goes...I'm thinking Cotton Candy!  Spinning sugar must be easier than melting cheese, right?!   On second thought...

Until next time,

Jamie

Show Us Your Life: Master Bedroom

A blog that I follow here and there, has been doing a series called "Show Us Your Life:...".  Each week she chooses a different room in her house to feature and others in blog land link up with posts on that room in their home.  I have never participated, but recently we got new master bedroom furniture and I love it so much I want to show it off.  So, here's my own Show Us Your Life: Master Bedroom. 

We were able to purchase the bedroom set thanks to a very generous gift given to us by my sweet grandfather, Poppy, for our wedding.  Yes, it took us almost a year and a half to pick out and purchase a bedroom set.   We looked a couple times early on and almost purchased a set on one occasion, but couldn't quite commit.  When we determined we would be moving we decided to completely put the purchase on hold.  A couple months ago, I got an email from Costco about a furniture sale.  I decided to take a look and when I did, I came across a beautiful set that really fit what I wanted.  It was simple, had classic details, dark wood, and some other very neat features, namely built in storage drawers.  It was top quality, but even with the sale the six piece set was more than I could really spend.  The five piece set was more doable financially, but I was afraid I would always wish I had the chest of drawers that came in the six drawer set.  After agonizing over the decision for a while, I decided to let it go.  Have I ever mentioned that I am indecisive and often times when I do decide I second guess my decision?  Yeah, not so fun.  Well, that's exactly what happened.  So when the same furniture went back on sale recently and I felt like I had to go look at it again, I determined I must really want this set.  But with that decision I made a deal with myself that I would be happy with the five piece set.  After checking with Will, I threw caution to the wind and ordered it.  Ha.  Have you ever heard of such turmoil in picking out furniture? 

It arrived a couple weeks ago, and I could not be more pleased with my decision.  It's lovely and timeless.  Between the under bed storage, the nightstands and the dresser, there is ample storage.  I don't think I'll end up missing the chest.  Another factor contributing to this thought is the size of the furniture and the size of our current room.  The furniture is BIG and our room is not.  It all fits, but just barely.  There is absolutely no way we could have fit the chest in this apartment. 

The size issue is also why I'm going to show you stock photos instead of the actual stuff.  I can't seem to get a good angle and that room doesn't get much natural light.  You'll be able to appreciate it so much more this way. 

So, now that you are completely bored by the lead up to these pictures, here it is:



Sleigh headboard, bun style feet



Two built-in storage drawers
I have several sets of sheets and a couple blankets in these drawers



My nightstand
I'm so glad not to be using a TV tray anymore!

Dresser: All these different drawers are keeping us organized and everything that was in the chest we were using from my home bedroom set fits nicely in here.



Will's nightstand with built in power strip for charging his IPhone and a cute little night light underneath. 


Will didn't have much of an opinion when it came to picking out the furniture.  He wanted me to be happy, such a good husband.  :)   Thankfully, he also loves what I picked. 

One funny thing...because of the built-in storage and almost platform like style, this bed does not require you to use box springs.  But we already had them and decided we would "see" when the furniture arrived.  Well, we quickly "saw" that we would need to get rid of the box springs.  With the box springs, the mattress was about 4ft off the ground.  I needed a step stool to get into bed.  I felt like the Princess and the Pea. 

Thanks to Craigslist we were able to sell the box springs and the metal frame pretty quickly and now we have a little extra money to play with on our next New Orleans trip or for Christmas. 

Thanks, Poppy, for helping us buy our beautiful bedroom set.

Love you.

Jamie

Pumpkin

I am typically not a bandwagon type of girl, but lately, with all the talk of pumpkin this, pumpkin spice that, I felt the need to try my hand at something pumpkin.  I set out just to attempt a classic pumpkin roll, but when I came home from the store with a 29oz can of, what else but...PUMPKIN, one pumpkin roll turned into a pumpkin roll, a dozen pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and a pumpkin chocolate chip bundt cake.

I was slightly hesitant about the pumpkin roll at first.  The idea of rolling a cake wasn't resulting in images of success in my mind.  I was already formulating back up plans just in case the whole thing stuck to the pan or crumbled to pieces.  Much to my surprise, however, I was successful in rolling a cake.  What's more, I took pictures!

The line up

Ready for the oven

It's in one piece!

Rolling, take 1

The best part

Rolling, take 2

Ta-Da

Pumpkin Roll

Ingredients:



3 eggs

1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup solid pack pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon lemon juice

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 Tablespoons butter

8 ounces cream cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a jellyroll pan.  Line with greased and floured parchment paper.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs on high for five minutes. Gradually add white sugar, pumpkin, and lemon juice. Add flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and ginger. Spread batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle pecans evenly on top, and press lightly into batter.

3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until it springs back when touched. Loosen edges with a knife. Turn out on two dishtowels that have been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll up cake, and let cool for about 20 minutes.

4. To Make Filling: Mix confectioners' sugar, vanilla, butter or margarine, and cream cheese together till smooth.

5. Unroll pumpkin cake when cool, and spread with filling. Reroll, and push aside the dishtowel. Unroll long sheet of waxed paper. Put pumpkin roll on waxed paper. Dust pumpkin roll with powdered sugar. Twist ends of waxed paper like a piece of candy. Put pumpkin roll in refrigerator and chill overnight. Before slicing, dust with powdered sugar. Serve chilled.


Next time, I'll make sure to flip the cake over once more when it comes out of the pan to ensure that the pecans are on the inside of the roll. 

The pumpkin chocolate chip muffins weren't quite as successful.  I think Will gave them a B-.  The texture was a little off.  They were dense, almost more like cupcakes than muffins. 
The cake is pretty good but needs some more moisture, maybe a glaze.  I'll have to work on those some more. 

We've got storms headed our way.  I'm shutting down for the night.

Jamie