Weekend In The Big Easy

Our last-minute trip to NOLA included a lot of eating and, there being Bourbon Street and all, a fair amount of bar-hopping. We managed to visit Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral plus Tulane and Loyola, but mostly we consumed. Here's where:

• MiLa - Highlights were duck pate and pork cheek ravioli.
• Pat O'Brien's - Hurricanes! (Plus we had Hand Grenades from one of the many bars along Bourbon St. that sells the neon green drink.)
• Cafe Du Monde - For chicory coffee and beignets of course.
• Bon Ton Cafe - Where the locals go for lunch.
• Carousel Bar - Disorienting but fun!
• Tonique - The bartenders are tops. They do old-timey cocktails like Aviations and Sazeracs, though they'll make up drinks on the spot, too, if you provide them with a base spirit. In my top 3 for cocktail bars.
• Restaurant August - Two words: Mangalitsa pork.
• Central Grocery - One word: muffuletta.
• Crescent City Farmers Market - There's a knife sharpener! I've never seen one at a farm market before, but what a grand idea.
• Luke - Beer and shellfish a la John Besh.
• Cochon - I had fried rabbit livers on toast and a ham hock served over smoky greens and black-eyed peas. The hubby had seriously lacquered ribs served with house-made pickled watermelon rind and a kind of pulled pork loaf. They get whole pigs and they break them down to use all of their piggy goodness. GO HERE!!

Nawlins Spontaneously

Coming up after Thanksgiving: a report on our spur-of-the-moment New Orleans trip. We saw a ton - mostly in walking from restaurant to bar, restaurant to bar... ;) Needless to say it was a fantastic weekend! "Laissez les bons temps rouler."

Happy Turkey Day, everybody.

Follow-Up

The four-hour set time my hubby mentions at the end of the video is the Cook's Illustrated-recommended set time for after a pie comes out of the oven. When I saw that I said, "Yeah, right, they must be joking." I could never let a freshly-baked dessert rest that long without at least tasting it let alone eating a giant piece. Who's with me?

My Pie's Only A Cobbler

Well, I tried my hand at baking a pie. I don't know what I did wrong, but the dough discs came out very soft such that I couldn't roll them with a rolling pin. I decided to still make the "pie" by pushing the dough into the bottom of the pan, pouring in the blueberries, then topping it with dollops of the rest of the dough. Cobbler! It's yummy, but not exactly what I was looking for. Better luck next time - maybe next week.

(By the way, yes, the blueberries are from South America. I went rogue - aka not local - this one time because blueberry pie is my and my hubby's favorite pie.)

Check out this silly video: