Tropical heat wave! Of course, just after KP and I seal the windows with plastic to keep in the heat, God cranks up the sun dial to 11. We’re in the 80s after Thanksgiving!!! I rode to the hospital today wearing a sleeveless blazer and smiling like a Californian on the boardwalk. Could this be […]
Category: Dinner
Curried Scallops
Could not have been more perfect timing to get sick with the flu. I had planned to feel sorry for myself all day anyway in using some of my vacation time to study for my boards, so it was a drop in the ocean to get a roaring case of influenza in the midst of […]
Baked Lemon Pepper Chicken and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
Home Cooked Dinners, I believe, make the world a better place. The time it takes to do this. The time is the most important ingredient. Time spent standing in the kitchen, salivating at the aromas issuing from the oven, from the cast iron, from the dog sprawled out at our bare feet watching the skies […]
Shrimp and Pork Dumplings
We have the pleasure of welcoming KP’s parents to New Orleans and on my first day off in two weeks, we had a leisurely breakfast of eggs and toast to follow last night’s feast of shrimp and pork dumplings. Ralph and Marilyn are fantastic examples of how wanderlust and a sense of adventure should ripen […]
Crispy Pork Belly Tacos with Pico de Gallo
I am aware this makes three posts about tacos out of the last five. It can’t be helped. I must have more Mexican food. So we learned some days ago that fried pork belly (chicharrones) is not my thing. The entire time I was reciting the TIMI score risk factors in my head and wondering […]
Black Bean Tamales with Ancho Adobo
In the precarious midst of hurricane season, I can’t help but work on growing things. The hot summer afternoons are fading into breezy, even cool at times, bright fall days. KP just built us our first raised bed after my experiments in the backyard Earth resulted in a grand total of 17 undersized lima beans. […]
Green and Red Chicken Chilaquiles and Chicharrones Tacos
The spice cha-chas on. Red light, green light, red salsa, green salsa…you’ll be doing the Conga at the stove. After I played this oldie music video, I proceeded to watch every Gloria Estefan classic and now all I have is fantasies of doing a karaoke montage of Conga, Turn the Beat Around, and The Rhythm is […]
Taco Baskets
KP and I are on a Hispanic cuisine kick ever after Labor Day. Just feeling spicy. And also, we’ve been doing the weekend warrior routine as new homeowners and I’m sure the caloric density of Latin dishes is an instinctive choice after free time spent dangling from ladders, kneeling over shrubs, knuckles-deep in garden soil […]
Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce for Southern Decadence
Saturday, Labor Day ahead. I would say last chance to BBQ if I were still living in Minnesota, but HAHA, I’m in New Orleans and will be BBQing all the way to next Labor Day. For those of you watching yellowing tree leaves with the stink eye of betrayal, for those of you with chilly […]
Why I Love New Orleans on Katrina’s Anniversary and Chicken Fricassee
To be a New Orleanian requires one to harbor a certain philosophical slant. More than once I’ve entertained discussions with non-New Orleanian folk that became arguments at a predictable impasse: why choose to live somewhere that is near-certain to flood again? There will always be another Katrina, they say, it doesn’t make any sense; why […]