Sat Date Night: The Big Easy (on a Sunday)

A fine fish dish from the Commander's Kitchen

It's only appropriate that I would be behind to catch up on some blog posts that I wanted to complete, from back over the last 3 weeks. It starts with our Saturday date night end of February, which got pushed to a Sunday afternoon due to our general laziness over the weekend. It just so happened that my wife returned home from New Orleans for the last time (perhaps not, I find out later?) this year, and we decided to celebrate by breaking out a book that I acquired along the way from my ever-constant moving in the early 2000's. It was a book of recipes from the Commander's Palace restaurant, a veritable NOLA institution that is well-regarded for sumptuous service and cuisine, arguably some of the best of both in the US today. Lofty statements, to be sure, but it turned out to be fairly true from our first-hand encounter with the place when I joined Wendy down to NOLA a few weeks back.

So here we were on a Sunday afternoon, a work colleague over grinding on proposals, and myself manning the kitchen to turn out the sorts of decadent dishes that Commander's Palace is known for. It started with a tomato and onion salad, inspired by the unseasonably warm weather that was reminding us that summer was just around the corner. It finished with the chardonnay-soaked monkfish, smothered with crabmeat and spinach; needless to say, it was as good as pictured, especially accompanied with the decent Grgich Hills Chardonnay that made up some of the base of cooking wine that drew out the flavors of the dish.

As I catch up and run along for today, I look back and smile, a little piece of NOLA to remind us that Carnival was not so long ago and the good cheer and relaxation of summer was not too far off.

Comments

Everyday Love Poem to my Wife

Over a year of marriage carries Happiness, love, and sometimes cranberries But eventually the pace slows down, Work intrudes, some days a frown And suddenly the world has changed. What we must do is simply rearrange The days so that other things fit neatly In their own places, and move on sweetly To the beauties of the everyday together. Because there is love everywhere, wherever You shall be - and perhaps also Rosie - This is a good thing naturally, So good to state it thus and remember That only frigid mornings in November Can keep us apart, but only so long As the work day lasts because so strong Is our pact that I worry not a wink - Your loveliness is worth so much, I think.

Muggles...

...is what I tweeted last night after having the privilege of attending a private screening of the movie hours before the midnight premiere. As much as the digital revolution has fragmented the shared experiences that we have, it has also greatly expanded the impact of those events that touch various peoples. Witness Harry Potter. In the pre-digital world, this would have been an uniquely British story about wizards and boarding schools, but it has captivated global audiences and transcended the borders of its now-uber-wealthy writer. We were part of the crowd that spanned the globe to see this movie, which I can say, lives up to the hype. On a Thursday evening, we could watch the lines of children queuing up to get a chance to say goodbye to a childhood growing up with Harry Potter and watching the actor grow from a plump-faced little boy into a serious actor and apparent alcoholic. It did not matter for 2.5 hours in the theater, of a movie that was pretty gripping from beginnin...

In Memory of Rose

Pets have an uncanny ability of ingraining themselves into the fabric of a household, so much so that their disappearance can cause great grief and disorientation to their owners. Such is the case with Rose, who passed from our household on Sunday. An older dog when we took her in to our home last year, Rose was supposedly the runt of her litter, a fact confirmed by her diminutive 5-pound Pomeranian frame - too small for her breed but too big to be classified a "teacup." This suited her just fine, however, as she came to embody a singular personality as a dog among people, often little acknowledging some dogs and appearing frightened by others just as a hesitant human being might act around jumpy canines. Rose embodied all of what defines unconditional love. She was raucous when we would leave the house and even more raucous when we returned, partly due to separation anxiety but mostly due to her sadness and excitement of being around us; she let us know her affection b...

Journal : OpenRoadWorks

Search This Blog