Archive for » 2012 «
16
May 2012
May 2012
The week before last I made my monthly run to BJ’s, our mammoth wholesale club, where I stumbled upon these adorable gourmet baby carrots. I had to have them. They were so cute. They were the real McCoy too–as in true baby carrots. Not those mature, often tasteless “baby-cut” imposters they sell in damp plastic bags at the grocery store. As soon as I got home and before I even unloaded the car, I grabbed the two pound bag of carrots and ran inside to get them going. Within a few seconds, I had those babies perfectly aligned on a [ ... ]
11
May 2012
May 2012
Globe artichokes get a lot of table time in the Crescent City thanks to the French settlers who brought them to Louisiana from the Mediterranean back in the 1800s and the Creole-Italians (among many others) who knew how to cook them. Interestingly, it’s been said that Louisiana was home to the first commercial artichokes fields. They flourished in and around various parts of South Louisiana including a small patch of land in New Orleans currently known as the Warehouse District. In the early 1940s, the crop mysteriously disappeared from these parts and today nearly 100% of all the country’s globe [ ... ]
Category: Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, Sauces, Side Dishes, Vegetables
Tags: Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, Sauces Comments off
09
May 2012
May 2012
In the current edition of New Orleans Magazine, Dale Curry writes about “Daily Devotion[s],” those local classics that make their way onto restaurant chalk boards and family dinner tables week after week. I giggled as I read through her list, because five out of the seven dishes she mentioned were constants with my family. Like many New Orleanians, we always started the week with Red Beans and Rice usually had Meatballs and Spaghetti (or some other red gravy-based dish) on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, paneed something or other after that, seafood on Fridays and pot roasts on Sundays. I [ ... ]
Category: Chicken, Main Dishes, New Orleans Classics
4 Comments
04
May 2012
May 2012
Have you all missed me? I’ve certainly missed you. The pass few weeks have been challenging. First there were all those renovations which, by the way, are not completely done but far enough along to bring some level of normalcy back to the Hogan residence. From there, I found myself ushering repairmen and furniture deliverers out and weekend company in for a 50th Anniversary party I was hosting for my wonderful in-laws. Then my dearest grandmother, my last living grandparent and the matriarch of our family passed away. So I dropped everything and abandoned my house guests to fly [ ... ]
Category: Appetizers, Beef, Christmas, Finger Food Fridays, Main Dishes, Po-Boys
Tags: Appetizers, Beef Stock, Finger Food Fridays, Po-Boy Comments off
27
Apr 2012
Apr 2012
Mushrooms stuffed with anything are delicious. Mushrooms stuffed with seafood are divine. These mushrooms, stuffed with crabmeat and topped with hollandaise, are the bomb! Because they’re so good, you may want to consider doubling the recipe if you’d like to get through this Finger Food Friday without any complaining. Just a suggestion. Another suggestion, or recommendation, is to use crab claw meat in this dish. The meat from the claw (especially the Louisiana blue crab claw) has a bolder flavor than say choice lump crabmeat. It can stand up to the spongy nature of the mushrooms. Its texture is also [ ... ]
Category: Appetizers, Crab, Finger Food Fridays, Seafood, Vegetables
2 Comments
13
Apr 2012
Apr 2012
Friday has finally arrived. Whew! It’s been a hectic week and I’m so ready for the weekend. The hubby and I are tackling some long-over-due house renovations, so let me apologize now for any untimely posts. I don’t have adequate access to my kitchen or the computer. Hopefully, the craziness will end in about two weeks. Amid the chaos, though, I was able to sneak into the kitchen late last night for some much needed cooking therapy and a home-cooked meal. But I have to confess, I didn’t prepare a full-fledged dinner. It was a finger food. That’s right. [ ... ]
Category: Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, Pork, Sauces
Tags: andouille sausage, Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, Sauces Comments off
06
Apr 2012
Apr 2012
Back in November, I shared with you my Blackened Shrimp recipe which included a quick inside blackening process using an electric griddle or grill pan. While that technique is fine for cooking small batches of shrimp, I don’t recommend it for blackening big fillets of fish. In order to cook blackened fish properly, it needs to be done outside in a cast-iron skillet over very high heat. Cooking the fish indoors under these conditions could cause a fire hazard (the melted butter meets blazing hot skillet equation) or severe “spice inhalation” (the inability to breathe due to mass quantities of [ ... ]
Category: Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, Fish, Main Dishes, Sauces, Seafood
Tags: Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, Fish, Sauces, Seafood Comments off
03
Apr 2012
Apr 2012
Before my kids were born, I prided myself on making salad dressings from scratch. But having three kids in two and a half years left little time to prepare anything beyond three squares and two snacks a day. Once my babies were old enough to appreciate salad dressing, it was all Hidden Valley Ranch. Twelve years and three blenders later, their palates have finally expanded and I’m back on the homemade dressings track! These days, the one at the top of my list is Green Goddess. There’s nothing better than pulling a couple of handfuls of fresh herbs from my [ ... ]
Category: Salad
2 Comments
30
Mar 2012
Mar 2012
Most New Orleanians are traditionalists when it comes to red beans. They fix them one way and one way only–cooked down for several hours in a large pot of water with the Holy Trinity (onions, celery and green bell pepper) and various types of pork. The beans are served over rice and the dish is usually reserved for Mondays, which long ago were wash days.
I’m all about tradition and love my Red Beans and Rice. But I’ve come to learn that there’s more than one way to cook them. My favorite, non-traditional red bean dish is this Roasted [ ... ]
Category: Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, Snacks
Tags: Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, Snacks One Comment
27
Mar 2012
Mar 2012
Growing up, Easter dinner always revolved around my mom’s perfectly baked Chisesi’s ham. (Chisesi’s Pride makes some of the finest smoked meats in New Orleans.) She bathe it in a sweet and savory mixture of brown sugar, coca-cola and yellow mustard. Then she studded the top with canned pineapple rings and marashino cherries. It was and still is one of the best baked hams I’ve ever tasted. Unfortunately, we can’t get Chisesi hams here in Atlanta (although the company recently expanded and is looking to make their fine pork products available nationwide–yay!). Even worse, I won’t be able to [ ... ]
