Food Orleans

03/20/2013 12:03 PM

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foodie times all around!

There are some great food events coming up soon in our fair city! Here are some you don't want to miss: First up, Hogs for the Cause. This yearly fundraiser for pediatric brain cancer has been extended to include Friday evening, and has great music all day, plus a bbq cook-off. Tickets are $5 and the event is in City Park. March 23-24, The Roadfood Festival in the French Market brings you famous

Food Orleans

03/07/2013 09:31 PM

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the miracle of 5-hour onions

French onion soup, a la Bouchon, made with 5-hour onions Paul had been requesting French onion soup for, I don't know, about 2 years? And I kept putting it off, partly because I knew there were so many different ways to make it and I had no idea which to try first. But Paul was pretty adament about trying Thomas Keller's version in the Bouchon cookbook. Two things about this recipe stood out at o

Food Orleans

01/24/2013 03:37 PM

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love and pasta at domenica

passing the plates at Domenica I have a serious, life-long, nearly debilitating crush on handmade pasta. I love its freshness, its tender bite, and the way just a little sauce elevates it into the highest form of art. When I see it on a menu, at places like La Petite Grocery or August, I'm done. Take the menu away, just bring me the pasta, please. Pronto. So Domenica, whose menu features handma

Food Orleans

01/03/2013 12:31 PM

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andouillin' it: spinach, mushroom, and andouille omelet

Happy 2013! Let's get cooking! You might have read this post last year when I talked about a resolution I'd made for 2012, to eat breakfast every day. For the most part, I kept it up--at least I did MUCH better in 2012 than I had in 2011. It's also a habit I plan to keep for 2013, with even more variety and vegetables in every breakfast. One of my favorite ways to sneak in extra vegetables is

Food Orleans

12/17/2012 12:16 PM

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5 easy pieces, part 4: greens with andouille

There's a fantastic recipe called "Voodoo Greens" in The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine by Chef John Folse that produces the most amazing greens I've ever had. The recipe calls for no fewer than 6 types of meat and sausage, 8 types of greens, and takes hours of simmering, but the liquor that accumulates in the pot is highly addictive. We've made Voodoo Greens before to go along with a b

Food Orleans

12/02/2012 01:16 PM

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5 easy pieces, part 5: mashed potato cakes

Finally, here's an easy recipe for turning leftover mashed potatoes into something other than soup. These cakes are simple to mix, quick to cook, and will do wonders for your brunchatude (top it with a poached or fried egg, above, and you're in business!). You can also jazz them up further by mixing in any little bits of cheese you have lying around, goat cheese and cheddar being two excellent ch

Food Orleans

11/30/2012 01:54 PM

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5 easy pieces, part 4: greens with andouille

There's a fantastic recipe called "Voodoo Greens" in The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine by Chef John Folse that produces the most amazing greens I've ever had. The recipe calls for no fewer than 6 types of meat and sausage, 8 types of greens, and takes hours of simmering, but the liquor that accumulates in the pot is highly addictive. We've made Voodoo Greens before to go along with a b

Food Orleans

11/29/2012 01:09 PM

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5 easy pieces, part 3: butter bean hummus

I started making hummus from scratch last year, when I discovered the organic dried chickpeas in bulk at the neighborhood Rouse's. I love to make it, but let's be honest: chickpeas take forever to cook, especially when you want them really soft, for hummus. But you can make a serviceable hummus out of just about any dried bean or pea: black-eyed peas, lima beans, black beans...and butter beans!

Food Orleans

11/28/2012 06:02 PM

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5 easy pieces, part 2: roasted potatoes and turnips

There's nothing easier than roasting vegetables, and this is a great combination that yields crispy red-skinned potatoes, caramelized sweet potatoes, and robust little baby turnips whose tops become crunchy after a long baking time. I love to cook vegetables this way; it's an easy side dish that will go with just about anything, needs hardly any seasoning at all, and will look after itself for mo

Food Orleans

11/28/2012 12:12 PM

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5 easy pieces: smoked salmon breakfast pizza

Folks, I've got a backlog of food photos I took near summer's end, and even though I don't have time to scratch out full-fledged posts for them, they're still worth sharing. So this week, a stretch of 5 easy recipes to make--so easy they barely warrant a recipe at all, but I'll include one anyway. Check back every day through Saturday for a new post! This super-easy tortilla pizza is a spin on a

Food Orleans

11/19/2012 03:13 PM

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i'll have another...Milk Bar!

The Milk Bar, 1514 Delachaise St. When Paul and I first tried the Milk Bar last spring, we were pretty jazzed: we got two delicious, hot po-boys, with not-your-average-bear fillings, for a very good price. But there was the issue of parking, and driving all the way up to Touro (the original Milk Bar is right next to it), and the fact that it wasn't open on weekends if we wanted to take out-of-tow

Food Orleans

10/30/2012 04:00 PM

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An Al fresceaux Oktoberfest!

If you can, take this opportunity to eat an Oktoberfest-inspired feast paired with New Orleans beers courtesy of Al fresceaux, an innovative new dining experience. Here's the menu for Thursday, November 1: Roasted garlic and lobster bisque, wild mushrooms, shallots, fennel-orange salad Duck pastrami, bremers greens, goat cheese, pecans, sliced pears Wild boar & kobe oxtail carbonara, truff

Food Orleans

10/29/2012 06:14 PM

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time for treats: boudin and greens potstickers

Paul and I love to eat treats! Anything small, bite-sized, warm, and savory pretty much does the trick. And the best thing about these potstickers is that they're easy to cook--really, really easy. You have to be in a bit of a crafting mood to fill them and pleat their little edges, but the cooking itself is easy-peasy. Normally, potstickers are filled with raw pork or shrimp and cabbage, and t

Food Orleans

10/21/2012 01:28 PM

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rainy day beef goulash with gnocchi

Goulash is a dish that Paul and I have radically different memories of. I grew up eating the 1970's school-lunch version known as "Goulash Supreme," which consisted of soggy macaroni, bland ground beef, and stewed tomatoes. I should point out here that when I was a kid, I actually liked it. And that it's pretty much the only thing called "goulash" I remember eating, ever, anywhere. And that I'm r

Food Orleans

10/06/2012 04:20 PM

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simple mushroom gravy and John Saturnall's Feast WINNERS!

WE HAVE WINNERS! 3 wonderful winners of the wonderful John Saturnall's Feast! And we have MUSHROOM GRAVY! More on that in a minute! The winner of the Twitter contest is: AiLien! The winner of the Facebook contest is: Martha Banks! The winner of the blog comment contest is: Jennifer Tillman! Winners, email your name and shipping address to publicity@groveatlantic.com with John Saturnall's Feast/Foo

Food Orleans

10/02/2012 03:35 PM

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John Saturnall's Feast giveaway!

FREE BOOKS! Free books free books free books. Have you heard of the novel John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk? It's a 17th-century British tale of a young, orphaned boy who has great things in store for him as far as his culinary talents go. I'm about halfway through so I couldn't even give the whole thing away if I tried, but I will say that it has elements of some of my favorite sto

Food Orleans

09/02/2012 04:53 PM

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paws for thought: my neighborhood bead dogs

This week, I'd like to share photos of the Paws on Parade bead dog* sculptures around my neighborhood, the ones I see when I go to work or the grocery store or the gas station. Though there are some awesome dogs I love in other parts of town, these are the ones I'm going to miss seeing on a daily basis when the sculptures are taken down at the end of September. Since hurricane Isaac just did a nu

Food Orleans

08/23/2012 01:30 PM

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the theology and geometry of Greek lasagna

If you're back in school, back to work, back in stressland of any sort, you might be craving some sort of soul-fortifying food hug right about now. One of my personal favorite food hugs is a big ol' pan of lasagna--and not a thin, dainty one, either. It's got to be tall and stacked through with vegetables, meats, and a ton of cheese. Lasagna is such a childhood classic for many of us who grew u

Food Orleans

08/17/2012 11:57 AM

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in the beantime: red bean huevos rancheros

The beantime is, I've decided, that stretch of days after making a giant pot of red beans during which this debate is always on your mind: Do I freeze them? Keep eating bowls of beans and rice? Or think of some interesting things to do with them? Usually, in our house, we freeze a portion and keep eating red beans at every meal, in some form. Burritos made from red beans, rice, and cheese, or a

Food Orleans

08/16/2012 12:26 PM

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sing along with Julia!

Yesterday was Julia Child's 100th birthday, and this video is a really sweet rendering of her voice, enthusiasm, and joie de vivre. I especially love the clips where she's sitting in her green-cabineted Cambridge kitchen. I used to watch those episodes every Saturday morning when I was in high school, long before I ever roasted my first chicken. I guess I was soaking up the knowledge through Jul

Food Orleans

08/12/2012 01:03 PM

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cooking lessons: lighter chicken and biscuits

This recipe, a favorite of ours for years now, comes from the relentlessly delicious kitchen of The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. I've spent many happy hours of my life curled up with her cookbooks and a cup of coffee, dreaming that I too had a cooking assistant named Barbara by my side, and that I too had a gigantic barn-sized kitchen with two dishwashers and plenty of gorgeous natural light.

Food Orleans

08/07/2012 06:28 PM

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the summer of love. i mean lunch.

I've been collecting some lunchtime photos this summer, and I'm trying a new way to lay them out here, in a slideshow-type of gallery. Let me know how you like it!

Food Orleans

08/02/2012 04:03 PM

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a heatwave fruit save: stone fruit caprese

Did someone say heat wave? Can I get a witness sweatband? Look, it's too hot to cook, but the good thing is, there's plenty of ripe fruit and veggies to gorge on. Take a simple caprese salad, for instance: tomatoes, basil, mozz, vinegar, and oil. I love it, you love it, we've all eaten plenty of them. But don't think a caprese has to stop there: use fruit, like peaches, nectarines, and avocados

Food Orleans

08/01/2012 12:08 PM

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thanks you's all around: a blog year in photos

Above: one of the tastiest parts of the year: Alon Shaya's charcuterie and relishes. It was just over a year ago that I decided to get to work. I mean really work, and I mean on this here blog. I started it in 2008, but I tended to just piddle around on it every few months. Last summer, I had a break from work and a need to do something creative and writerly for myself, and I channelled just a

Food Orleans

07/30/2012 09:55 AM

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the gift of grits: creamy peppered mascarpone grits

So, a couple of years ago, on this very blog, I made a statement I'd like to retract: "I don't cook grits with milk or cream--I just don't see the need." You see, I was stuck then on the notion that grits cooked in chicken broth were the most flavorful and avoided scalding milk in my favorite pot, even though my friends were all telling me that cooking grits in milk was the way to go. Eventually

Food Orleans

07/25/2012 11:30 AM

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gettin' fresh: new fresh market opens on st. charles

The new Fresh Market opens today, y'all! 9:00 a.m. Be there ready to fill a cart full of goodies because everything looks so bright and shiny and gorgeous. It's in the beautiful old Bultman Funeral Home at the corner of Louisiana and St. Charles, which was most recently a short-lived Borders Bookstore. It may just be the most awesome place in town to make groceries, considering their offerings, t

Food Orleans

07/21/2012 01:57 PM

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not-your-mama's tuna salad bagel

A few weeks ago, our neighbor Andy gifted us a huge chunk of fresh tuna right off the boat after one of his deep-sea fishing trips. I'm talking about 8 pounds worth. I don't remember what Paul and I had planned on eating that night, but whatever it was, it got DITCHED. We set to work on the tuna right away, because when you have a nice piece of fish that fresh, there's only one thing to do. Eat

Food Orleans

07/18/2012 11:13 AM

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love for Uncle Lionel

Uncle Lionel graces the poster for Treme's bicentennial celebration. 10 days ago, New Orleans lost one of its best ambassadors: Uncle Lionel Batiste, longtime drummer of the Treme Brass Band and generally the sharpest-dressed gent in the city. It had been a while since we'd run into Uncle Lionel on Frenchmen Street or in the Quarter, but when we first moved here, Paul and I used to see him all t

Food Orleans

07/04/2012 02:24 PM

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things i lurve*, July

*Love is too weak a word[.] Woody Allen 1. Iced Chai with these Bigelow chai tea bags! Iced chai is delicious! But it's an expensive habit. I've been making my own lately for less than .50 per cup. You just simmer a chai tea bag for a few minutes in a small pot of water and milk, add sugar to taste, set it in the freezer to cool while you read facebook or something, and after about 8 minutes, pou

Food Orleans

07/02/2012 02:39 PM

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when heaven happens: the commander's palace chef's table

This is Commander's Palace. If it looks like a fairytale building, that's because it is. It's a place where stories are told, surprises happen at any minute, and everyone works together to entertain you and take care of everything you could possibly want. Prepare to be a princess, in other words. Any time you eat at Commander's, it's special; from brunch on any Sunday to lunch on Thursday to d

Food Orleans

06/22/2012 06:31 PM

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of love and lunch: The Root Cafe, Little Rock

My birthday burger and salad with blueberries and honeydew. Last week, Paul and I attended a wedding in Little Rock, Arkansas...and also got to hang out with some of our favorite people for my 40th birthday! We've actually enjoyed a whirlwind of weddings, birthdays, and friends since June started, and we've been eating some terrific food along the way. We seem to visit Little Rock every two year

Food Orleans

06/13/2012 06:10 PM

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the summeriest of snacks: fried whole okra with remoulade

The other day, in the midst of a marathon 4-day wedding weekend, Paul and I took some out-of-town friends to The Company Burger so they could revel in its deliciousness. As always, the bacon-and-egg burgers and mayonnaise bar at Company didn't disappoint. But we also got to try one of their vegetable specials, fried whole okra with a vinegar pepper sauce. it was a revelation, and I haven't bee

Food Orleans

06/07/2012 02:32 PM

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what do you get the queen who has everything?

The good folks at Tabasco sent me this photo and I had to share it with y'all: it's a sterling silver Tabasco "coozie" they sent to Queen Elizabeth for her diamond jubilee. Apparently the Queen likes her spice! Engraved on the coozie is the Queen's Royal Warrant, bestowed on the McIlhenney Company in 2009; the Royal Warrant marks excellence and fine quality to those companies who have provided g

Food Orleans

05/28/2012 11:58 AM

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head north! Trey Yuen and La Provence

Above: goats at La Provence in Lacombe The first time Paul and I travelled to New Orleans together, for Mardi Gras 2005, I was a little confused about the geography of the city and the water surrounding it. When we were driving into town, I thought the large body of water to our left was the Gulf of Mexico. I did! In fairness, we had been on the road for a long time, and it was very late at ni

Food Orleans

05/21/2012 03:28 PM

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shakshuka, or a saucy way to start the day

Earlier this year, when I began an obsession with poaching the perfect egg, I started replacing the water I'd normally used to poach eggs in with tomato sauce. Magically, those eggs turned out perfect. Then I started poaching eggs in salsa for huevos rancheros, and it dawned on me that I might never need to poach an egg in water again. Why would I, when they're so easy and so delicious in a to

Food Orleans

05/18/2012 01:49 PM

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the way of the dough, or the eternal olive ring

One thing I've learned about bread-baking is that the baker must adapt to whatever the dough has decided to do...but that it's really not a big secret how to make a good dough. It usually comes down to starting with a small amount of flour and adding more only if you need it (I usually do, because I live in such a humid place). Really good bread recipes will give you that small amount of flour t

Food Orleans

05/15/2012 02:13 PM

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smother me with love: spicy smothered chicken and butter beans

Twice, I've asked a native New Orleanian woman what her family's favorite thing that she cooked was, and been pleasantly surprised by hearing an answer that I'd never heard before in my short, sheltered life. The first was "rice and gravy," and the second was "chicken and butter beans." My road to understanding rice and gravy was a winding one, but I think I've got it down (I wrote about that e

Food Orleans

05/09/2012 12:58 PM

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my green heaven, continued: fried green tomato parmesan

Because I love them so, I've written a couple of love letters to fried green tomatoes over the years: the fried green tomato caprese "salad" I made without remorse, and fried green tomato BLTs, a longtime favorite. Green tomatoes are so good when fried, I think a lot of folks never try them other ways, like in a salsa or gazpacho. I really, really want to use them in recipes like that. I really

Food Orleans

05/08/2012 11:42 AM

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how i learned the true meaning of jazz fest

Up to this year, Jazz Fest, to me, had always been a puzzle of trying to figure out which day contained the most acts I wanted to see (read: knew who they were) and could therefore maximize my $65 ticket. We actually went on two days this year, thanks to a pair of free tickets from our neighbors. But the first Sunday, which we'd been planning to attend ever since we heard he was slated, was prim

Food Orleans

05/06/2012 06:11 PM

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one cheeky chowder: chipotle shrimp and corn soup

Last week, I wrote a bit about a shrimp stock that Alon Shaya of Domenica prepared before our eyes at Avery Island. I couldn't wait to try his technique of "bashing around the shrimp heads" to extract more shrimpy flavor. So the first chance I got, this past Thursday's farmer's market, I bought some fresh jumbo shrimp to make a stock of my own. Alon used a LOT of tomato paste in his shrimp stock

Food Orleans

05/02/2012 11:29 AM

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dining in at dooky chase

Dooky Chase Restaurant, in the Treme Yesterday, Paul and I found ourselves at Dooky Chase for lunch, after considering a few of our favorite lunch spots. Something about yesterday just felt like we needed to try something new. We've actually eaten some of Leah Chases's food before, her famous green gumbo and fried chicken on Holy Thursday, but we got takeout that day because there wasn't a seat t

Food Orleans

04/30/2012 03:41 PM

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satchmo, rice calas, and a giveaway

Today, April 24, Smithsonian Folkways is reissuing a rare live recording that Louis Armstrong, New Orleans' favorite son, recorded just months before he died in 1972. Not only does the CD package (or digital download, your choice) contain Louis Armstrong classics like Mack the Knife and Hello Dolly, but it also includes a 16-page booklet with some of Armstrong's favorite New Orleans recipes! I

Food Orleans

04/30/2012 10:40 AM

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Satchmo winner! And a bit of breadlove.

This bread is a real winner! But first, we have news: Thanks to everyone who left a comment last week on my first ever giveaway! I'm happy to announce that the winner of the Louis Armstrong recording is John Mark! John Mark, send me your address at thesouploop@gmail.com and I'll get this on its way to you. Now, for some serious breadlove that you may have heard about already, but if you haven't

Food Orleans

04/25/2012 01:03 PM

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Avery Island, part deux: boils, bottles, bloodies & boudin

This was my lunch. I ate it all. Avery Island is a gorgeous place; it's surrounded by a long lace of bayous, has plenty of wildlife roaming around freely (deer, bears, raccoons, alligators), and houses the beautiful Jungle Gardens and Bird Sanctuary. You can spend a full day there soaking up the splendor, especially if you pack in a trip to the Tabasco factory. We had a lovely, long ride down t

Food Orleans

04/24/2012 12:03 PM

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satchmo, rice callas, and a giveaway

Today, April 24, Smithsonian Folkways is reissuing a rare live recording that Louis Armstrong, New Orleans' favorite son, recorded just months before he died in 1972. Not only does the CD package (or digital download, your choice) contain Louis Armstrong classics like Mack the Knife and Hello Dolly, but it also includes a 16-page booklet with some of Armstrong's favorite New Orleans recipes! I

Food Orleans

04/23/2012 01:12 PM

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of mash, marsh, and memorable meals

It all starts with seeds... Last week, I visited Avery Island, Louisiana, the home of the McIlhenny Company and Tabasco. Lucky me! I and nine other food writers (Amy Sherman, Camper English, Hank Shaw, Sarah Spigelman, Jeffrey Pogash, Gaby Dulkin, Jenna Weber, Lori Lange, and Jessica of Modern Day Moms) toured the fields, barrel warehouse, processing factory, and the island itself, and had some

Food Orleans

04/22/2012 02:29 PM

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spring is where you find it: thai green curried pork

Hello, springers of spring. At this very moment I'm thinking fondly of last week, when the sun was warm and welcome but there was still a cool breeze blowing down every narrow street in town...cause right now, it looks like the heavens are about to erupt in a deathly windstorm. Seriously though, we had some extremely beautiful days last week, little pink and white blossoms popping out everywhere

Food Orleans

04/22/2012 02:29 PM

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love thy asparagi: springtime potato salad

Do you love asparagus like I do? Cause I really, really love it. I also love that it's a harbinger of spring eating, and even though we can technically buy it at the store year-round, I try not to. Waiting until the spring for asparagus is one of the first seasonal-buying lessons I learned when I started learning to cook. Plus, I like the fact that I can get excited about a vegetable. It's like

Food Orleans

04/22/2012 02:29 PM

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prepare for love: no-bake chocolate yummy

If you make it, they will love. There's no way for me to properly portray to you how rich this monster is, but I will say that chocolate yummy is one of those things you can't stop eating even if you're completely full from tasting all the different goodies at the potluck, cause it's so darn cool and smooth. Plus, this version packs a wallop of dark chocolate that tempers the typical over-sweetne

Food Orleans

04/22/2012 02:29 PM

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time: what is it good for? roasted pork fried rice.

Today I want to get a little personal--just a little bit. And it has to do with time, and cooking, and how there never seems to be enough food even after you spend hours cooking something that's supposed to last for days. It happens to us, our small family of two, and it happens to everyone else, I know. It also has to do with what I've chosen to post on this blog for the past few years, and why

	Food Orleans
	Talking about recipes, restaurants, and festivals in the food capitol of my heart.

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