Boots in the Oven

Political junkies ahoy!

Yes, I'm still here.  But I'm listening to the State of the Union address, which renders me unable to blog anything beyond the State of the Union...

8:15 - it would be nice to have a balanced budget.
8:19 - really?  Health savings accounts and tax breaks for people that aren't covered through their employers?  That would be nice, too.
8:20 - OH HELL NO TORT REFORM BAD BAD BAD KILL.
8:21 - NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND NO WAH WHY BAD BAD!
8:22 - faith-based grants are also not something I enjoy.  Ahem.  300 million dollars?  From the Pentagon's $500 billion request (which doesn't include monies for Iraq or Afghanistan), perhaps?  HA HA I KEED.
8:24 - Made in the USA - what about the Northern Mariana Islanders?  Products from there can say "made in the USA" but the workers don't yet have to be paid minimum wage...
8:26 - And, there's the first nukular.
8:30 - no buying, selling, patenting, or cloning of human life.  The patenting one may throw a wrinkle in my "make a million by age 30" plan.

Nah, I won't liveblog the whole thing.  I'm sure angrier bloggers than I are already out there doing it.

And here's the fact-checking, for you geekazoids!  I include myself in this category.  You'll have to move from that post to NPR's main blog page for updates.

Hey, if you get bored waiting for a new post, check out my new photo project.  A picture a day, every day, for the 366 days of 2008.

So far, I seem to have an unhealthy fixation on alcohol.  And farmers' markets.  And putting things on my dining room table and taking pictures of them.  28 days in!

Here's a Project 366 picture from this weekend that I particularly like.  Who says I'm not a quivering bundle of neuroses, topped off with a dash of obsessive-compulsive disorder?

If you click on this picture, it will take you to the page on the flickr photostream - on the right you can click on the "Project 366 - here goes nothing" set to see the rest of the pictures.  I promise there are some cool ones.

Or, you could just follow this link, where all the shots will be arrayed in chronological order.

 

Now, back to your regularly scheduled yelling at the TV.  Or radio, if you're me.

8:32 - YAY NEW ORLEANS!  He mentioned it.  Not that he's been particularly helpful in rebuilding it...

uh-oh, immigration.  Here's where I'll bow out.

I got barbeque sauce all over my triumphant return!

I'm back!  Husbear got back yesterday!  The cats are more well-adjusted than I've ever seen them after we've left them alone for a couple of days, so yay to the cat-sitter (who bought them toys and completed an adorable journal wherein she noted that the cats' priority appears to be FOOD FOOD FOOD TREATS FOOD FOOD)!  Catherine of Catherine's Pet Sitting kicks a ton of ass.

My flights today were uneventful - only two hours late, and the pilot had to circle once more on the approach to Austin because we were about to rear-end an ExpressJet plane.  Yes, he announced this over the intercom system.  It added a sense of fun and barely controlled insanity to the proceedings.

Actually, it was lucky that my second flight was running late, because that meant that I got to indulge a craving that was threatening to take over my entire soul during the DC - Memphis leg, that is, a barbeque bologna sandwich from the Jim Neely's Interstate Barbecue at the airport. 

Grilled bologna doused with sweet/spicy barbecue sauce, emphasis on the sweet, topped with deliciously vinegar creamy coleslaw, on two pieces of texas toast that are rapidly disintegrating, threatening to lose all form before you finish the sandwich?  That's my Memphis airport comfort food, apparently, which I discovered when I had to spend three hours in the Memphis International Airport in September.  Another time Northwest was running several hours late.

Great, the craving's returned.

We had a lovely and delightful trip to Washington DC for my grandmother's 85th... lots of family, lots of wine, lots of museums, lots of fun.  Pictures later.  For now, unpacking!

FLYING!

Well, we spent most of the day today on planes... first, Austin to Houston, a very bumpy ride that at least was over quickly, and then from Houston to Washington DC.

We're here for my grandmother's 85th birthday party!  Wheee!

A couple of pics from the plane, to tide you over until we can put together an actual post...

I still think it's a hoot to order minibottles on planes.  They're like toys!  For drunkards!

After drinking my tiny bottle of gin (cut with tonic water, I'm not insane) I spent a good chunk of the rest of the flight taking pictures out of the window... at least until it got too dark, at which point I tried playing around with 4 second exposures.  Turns out I can't hold cameras still for that long.  Who knew?

At least I got a cool shot of the wing before things got all trippy and dark.

G'night from Alexandria, VA!

Sliding Around Ayutthaya

I've been dickering around for almost a freaking week about this Ayutthaya post, but every single way I wrote it was extra-lame.  The pictures are way too cool to let them flitter off into the ether, though.

Here's a slideshow of the pictures we took in Ayutthaya, Thailand, capital from 1531 to 1767, when it was sacked by the Burmese.  There are many beautiful Buddha statues scattered around the many sights in the city - some of them were burned and desecrated by the Burmese, but a few survived.

Mouse over the top of the slideshow to slow it down or speed it up.  Clicking on any picture will give you the option of viewing it on Flickr, where I'm going to to input further information.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

A Little Spot of Beauty in Your Otherwise Dull Day.

You must eat this. Not only today, but everyday until it doesn't seem like the best idea you've ever heard of. This my friends, is a soft boiled egg on bacon infused sweet potatoes with a parsley coulis. Phenomenal.

It's a pretty straightforward but brilliant recipe from Chicago chef Bruce Sherman. Like me, Sherman suffers from a severe predilection for eggs. Unlike me, Sherman had the idea to infuse sweet potatoes with bacon and create this vividly colored and deceptively simple masterpiece of a dish. Bastard.

Check out the recipe from Saveur that was originally published in their October 2007 issue.

Don't despair, just eat it.

L.Pants

Reviewing everything in New Orleans

Yeah, not quite.

Actually, not even close.

Now we have a reason to return.

We did put a muffuletta-sized notch in our belts over Christmas, though, and followed that with several sazeracs, some absinthe, and a pool full of oysters!  Wanna see?

We only had a day to spend in New Orleans, and we got a very late start out of Mandeville. 

First things first: Lunch!

We met up with our friend Robert, who needs a nickname, and made our way over to the Central Grocery - with one stop to buy a hat, which you'll see later.  They're the originators of the now-famous muffuletta sandwich (which my spellcheck refuses to recognize, but my stomach does).

This was pretty late lunchtime, but there was still a substantial line.

Luckily, there are all sorts of things to peer at and poke while you wait your turn.  Like cheese.  There was a $50 tray of anchovies in the cooler, too, but surprisingly few people were poking those.

It would be easy to be paralyzed at the front of the line, having waited all that time, but luckily your choices are extremely limited.  There's muffulettas, half or whole.  And a few kinds of drinks and some chips.  They advertised a couple of different kinds of marinated veggies, but nope... all out.  Ah well.

The three of us ordered one sandwich and two bags of chips to share.  These sandwiches are monstrous - though we did see a couple of people who'd ordered a full sandwich for themselves.  They looked confused and chagrined.

This picture makes me want to hum the theme from 2001.

By the way, Zapp's are some dang good potato chips.  I don't know if they're distributed nationwide, though I remember being able to get them in South Carolina.  The spicy creole tomato are a plus one.

And the sandwich?  Besides being huge, which we've already established?

Surprisingly good.  The bread is nice and full of sesame flavor.  The meats and cheeses were ok, but the true star here was the olive salad.  Theirs was full of olive halves, and included carrots and cauliflower in fairly large chunks - more like a olive-heavy giardiniera than the chopped mush you often see on muffulettas.

I think the sandwich would be even better if you let it sit for a while, to let that tangy salty salad really soak into the bread.

After lunch, it was time for a walk around the French Quarter.  And self-portraits.  Indulge me.

This is Robert and The Hat.  And us.  We loved his outfit, as did lots of drunken middle-aged tourist ladies!  (This is one of the reasons I love New Orleans - it encourages people to really dress.)

The stores in the Quarter are always fun to walk through.  Lots of them specialize in feather boas and enormous beads and tourist t-shirts, but there are some pretty great finds too. 

If you spend your time in New Orleans only in the Quarter, it's easy to forget about the storm that hit here over two years ago.  Except for the omnipresent anger.  The real devastation was outside of the quarter, where whole neighborhoods are still rubble.  It's absolutely ridiculous and infuriating to me, so I can't even begin to imagine what the people that lived and live there are feeling.

I had a small shopping errand I had to run at the Lush outpost.  They were in the middle of a HUGE after-Christmas sale - think buy one, get two free - so we were there for quite some time and ended up spending a bit more than we meant too.  I was in such a frenzy I forgot to take pictures of the shop.

We emerged from Lush just before 6, I'm sure stinking of their perfumes (you can smell their stores around the corner), ready to have our first drink.  I've lately become a little obsessed with the sazerac, which I had for the first time several months ago here in town.  Turns out that not only is this one of the oldest cocktails, it's also quintessentially  New Orleans.  Bill, the bartender at Fino,(and the best bartender in Austin as far as I can tell -L. Pants) told us we had to have the sazerac at the Napoleon House in New Orleans.  So.

We turned up at the stroke of 6, ready to begin our sazerac-inspired tour of the Big Easy, only to be greeted by a big CLOSED sign.  NO!

But there were still people drinking inside!  It turns out that the Napoleon House closes at 6 because of a lack of staff.  Again, blame Katrina.  Husbear went inside to speak to the bartender, Lenny, who relented and allowed us inside for one drink apiece.  YAY!

The Napoleon House is  one of New Orleans' truly historic bars - it's in a 200 year old house that first belonged to a mayor of the town in the early 1800s.  The name may seem incongruous, and the bust over the bar out of place - but it's not.  In 1821, the house was offered to Napoleon in exile as a place from which to presumably plot his triumphant return to France... but oops, he died before he could take the city up on its offer. 

Now, we only need to go to St. Helena to complete our exiled Napoleon world tour!  (Here's our visit to Elba last Spring.)

Lenny made us three beautiful Sazeracs.  They were everything Bill had promised.  These were made with Herbsaint - I wonder if bars will start making them with absinthe, now that it's legal again?

Robert was dressed perfectly for the bar and the drink. 

Though there were still a few people left at the bar, we quickly moved on after finishing our drinks.  It was really nice of them to let us in.

Onward and upward!  Not very much upward, though we did have to climb a few steps to get to our next bar.  It's a true American oddity housed in the Hotel Monteleone.

The Carousel Bar was installed in 1949.  The name sort of gives it away - it's a round bar that revolves around a center area filled with bartenders and bottles of liquor.  It's sort of hilarious to sit there at the bar, ever moving to the right.  It's probably less enjoyable after a couple of drinks, though - I certainly wouldn't end my evening there!

A couple of drunk older men rearranged half of the people at the bar so we could sit there - we bought him a sazerac in thanks.  Thanks, Jimmy Dale!  You were hilariously good company.

These sazeracs weren't nearly as good as the ones from the Napoleon House.  They ran out of the "sazerac" rye whiskey they were using and topped it off with bourbon!  No no!

Plus, these were three dollars more apiece than the Napoleon House's version.  Now, I'm willing to pay a little extra to experience the bizarre carousel bar, but not for more than one drink.  So, onward!

To food!

Next stop, after passing up long lines at the Acme Oyster House, was the Bourbon House Seafood and Oyster Bar.  And their sazeracs, of course.

Better than the Carousel Bar's, but not up to the Napoleon House. 

While we sipped on these, we perused the menu and ordered a buncha oysters and some crab fingers - a cute name for cracked crab claws.

The trio of cooked oysters was the first to arrive - we had oysters Rockefeller (spinachy, though I gather that's not traditional), Bienville (shrimpy/cheesy), and Fonseca (sausage/tomatoey).  They were very, very rich.  I'm not really a fan of cooked oysters, but the toppings on these were so creamy and yummy that I'd definitely recommend them. 

This bar was a little crazy when we were there, by the way.  We were surrounded by people, some of whom had probably been drinking since they got out of bed, and this led to a couple of hilarious run-ins.  At one point, a drunk Atlantan (North Atlanta I might add) probably in her 50s followed Robert outside (he was having a smoke) and sang Tom Cochrane's "Life is a highway" - with one astonishing difference...

"Life is a HIGHWAY," she sang; "I wanna ride YOU all... night... long."

Then adding, by way of explanation, "It's the hat."

Meanwhile, inside, some dude in flip-flops was making his way up and down the bar, grazing.  "You gonna eat that?  How about that?"  The conference-goers to our left donated a couple of baked oysters and a crab finger.

In the midst of all this, we ordered some raw oysters.

The one on-duty oyster shucker was pretty overwhelmed by the crowd pressing against the bar, not to mention the full dining room.  He was working slowly and methodically, and while we may have had to wait a while for our oysters, they were very tasty and well-cleaned.  We sympathized with his busyness when he came to deliver our platter, and he must have liked us, because later on he dropped a couple of truly enormous guys on our plate, "for the lady".

MINE MINE NOM NOM UMPH. 

Where should we tote our bellies, now full of oysters?

The Old Absinthe House, of course!

Why not?  Absinthe was illegal in the US for 95 years.  Now that it's legal again, we had to order some in a bar - and the Old Absinthe House seemed ideal!

We were a little surprised when they set fire to the absinthe.  Not traditional, but lots of fun.  Apparently there's a society of peoplethat are pissed to no end to learn of this travesty... methinks some people should just sit back and perhaps have another slug of absinthe, mixed just so with the proper spoon and ice-cold water?  Calmate, per favore?

Sometimes setting things on fire is fun, no two ways about it. 

After this, the picture-taking stopped for several hours.  Another bar was visited, then One-Eyed Jack's, where we danced for several hours to '80s music.  Yes, we dance.  RARELY.  Robert, I blame you!  And the 1980s!

Our night ended at Molly's at the Market with a big ol' greasy pizza.  Yum.

Phew.  No worries - we'll be back.  We have to try more than three sazeracs, of course! 

Happy weekend!

Central Grocery, 923 Decatur Street, New Orleans.  504.523.1620.   Lunch only... until like 5 pm.

Napoleon House,  500 Chartres Street, New Orleans.  504.524.9752.  Limited hours for now - call ahead.

Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone, 214 Rue Royale, New Orleans.  504.523.3341.

Bourbon House Seafood and Oyster Bar, 144 Bourbon Street, New Orleans.  504.522.0111.

The Old Absinthe House Bar, 240 Bourbon Street, New Orleans.  504.523.3181.

Molly's at the Market, 1107 Decatur Street, New Orleans.  504.525.5169

Goosing Christmas

It's Girlie, again, taking over the hallowed halls of the Kooking Korner.

So, how many of you have heard of a Christmas goose?

Now, how many have actually EATEN a Christmas goose? 

Just because this was a tradition in Victorian England, and not so much in 21st century southern America, wasn't going to stop us from partaking.  Husbear was even able to find a local goose, raised (and slaughtered) by Sebastian of Countryside Farm Products.  It was a bit costly, but turned out to be totally worth it!

Not only did we drive this goose over from Austin to Mandeville, we also brought a half a hog... about 100 pounds of pig.  That will have to wait for another post; for now, can I just say that the freezer is full of pork and pork derivatives?

Our goose, of course, still had its head, neck and feet.  No, I won't subject you to a picture of its face, since I know that gets to some people... how about a foot, instead?

The recipe Husbear wanted to do is straight out of the Supergoose essay Jeffrey Steingarten wrote for Vogue, which can be found in It Must've Been Something I Ate.  It's a riff on a traditional Alsatian recipe and is a little labor-intensive.

First, you have to grab all of the excess fat out of the goose cavity, then season the raw cavity and fill it with chopped apples.

As far as I'm concerned, that sounds great and I can't imagine what else you'd do... but wait, there's more.

Then you brown the goose on all sides in its own fat in your roasting pan.  Yum.  Goose fat turns out to be insanely tasty, totally different from duck fat.

When you get it good and brown (20-30 minutes later), then you put it in the oven to roast by itself for a while (another 20-30 minutes).

You can tell that this recipe isn't difficult, exactly, but there isn't a lot of downtime.  While the goose is browning, for instance, you need to be chopping all of the vegetables that will soon be accompanying it into the oven. 

When you're done, take the goose out and surround it with chopped carrots, celery, celeriac and pears.  Pour some chicken stock and white wine over the fruits and vegetables, and pop the whole thing back in the oven.

You'd think that here, the recipe would be just about done making you jump, but no... after everything roasts for a while, take the pan out of the oven again and get the apples out of the goose.  Put the apples and pears together back in the oven, and what the heck, throw the goose back in there too, because you're up and the goose isn't quite done.

When the goose, along with everything else, IS finally done, take it out of the oven and arrange everything really prettily on a serving platter that will turn out to be just a hair too small for actually carving the bird.

It really did look quite pretty, set up on the serving platter, and Husbear made a nice pan sauce out of some of the seventy-three cups of drippings we got off the bird.  Since this was my first goosey experience, I don't know if they're all quite this fatty, but I can tell you this was one fatbutted bird.

Husbear served the goose with a rice pilaf.  As you can see, he bravely (some might whisper "stupidly") elected to carve the bird right there on the dinner line.  Wow.  He did a very good job, though several family members came very close to getting nicked a bit when reaching for slices of delicious goose that hadn't quite been detached from the carcass.

So, the verdict?  Goose is tasty.  It is very tasty.  Vegetables and fruit roasted with a goose and some wine and orange zest are magically flavorful.  I know this is a hard bird to get a hold of in many parts of the US, but it is worth it for a special holiday.  You know, like Christmas.

Hey, do you think that's why the Christmas Goose is such an archetype?

It's a bonus if you have a mother-in-law who's really good at making desserts, and who has just so happened to get her hands on a Galatoire's cookbook.  Then you might be lucky enough to get served a sweet potato cheesecake with a sour cream topping and a caramel sauce.

Though there was some cursing from the kitchen over the caramel sauce, which doesn't seem to be recorded correctly in the cookbook.  (Well, it was Mama Bear, so by cursing, I actually mean lots of "Oh, shoot.  Shoot shoot shoot.  Shoot!")

 

The cheesecake is also served with spiced pecans, that help to break up the sweetness.  It's certainly rich - a great recipe to follow an equally rich bird like our afore- and aft-mentioned goose.

What to do with leftover goose?  Well, how about a soup, with barley and dandelion greens?

This soup was worth all the trouble of the initial goose recipe.  It was rich and dark and lovely and perfect for a 60 degree New Orleans night.  Hey, it's tending towards cold down here now!  (I will have you know it's actually supposed to get down to 28 tonight.  I know it's no, well, -28, but it's pretty cold for here.)

Mmmm.... anyway, soup.

And that was our Christmas dinner!  Check back later, when I'll attempt to whittle down the 400 hog pictures we have into some semblance of a post.  Plus we went to New Orleans and drank lots of sazeracs (and absinthe, newly legal!) and ate several dozen oysters and an original muffuletta.  Yeah, I went to the gym today - why?