What's the Difference Between St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo?

No one pretends to be Mexican on Cinco de Mayo!

But we sure do like the food! Tonight we're having some friends over to celebrate Mexican Independence. I will leave you with a preview and our favorite guacamole recipe:

Ingredients:
4 avocados
2 cloves of garlic (shaved)
1 tomato
about a cup of salsa
loads of lime juice
salt and cumin to taste
dollop of plain Greek yogurt

Mash it all up, stir together, drop the pits back in, and chill.

 

A Week in Meals: Feb 25-28

This week I had every intention of cooking 3 vegan meals (I'm trying to get us to be vegetarians at least three nights a week for health, environmental, and cost concerns). Unfortunately, we added chicken to our chopped chicken salad (so good!) and turned our tofu lettuce wraps into steak salad. We did have one vegan meal, the minestrone soup with quinoa pasta. However, if there had been Parmesan in our fridge it would have been perfect! Better luck next week; vegan meals planned are: a veggie loaf, mushroom stroganoff, and apple bean bake. Here's what the Hardy's had this week:

The last time we were in Mobile, Cynthia made this amazing dressing that was like a salad in itself. She makes it from memory from a cook book called The Well Fed Bridegroom, which she purchased at a cooking demo in New Orleans and later lost in a fire. I recreated this twice this week and would recommend you do the same. Here's a pic, followed by the recipe:

Recipe:

Olive oil or canola oil (I used half and half) 

2 garlic cloves smashed, infuse the oil while you get the rest of the ingredients ready

chop and add however much of the rest you see fit:

green onion

shallot

fresh or dried thyme

fresh or dried parsley 

chopped olives (one night I used kalamata, one night I used green, both were good)

scoop of sweet pickle relish

splash of pickle juice

splash of sweet relish juice

capers

cracked pepper

squeeze of lemon

pinch of powdered sugar 

red wine vinegar (we just poured some wine straight from the bottle)

Friday night: Sushi picnic in bed 

Saturday morning breakfast: coffee and beignets  

I think Christian's are better than Cafe du Monde 

Freshen Up

courtesy of the bloodyblogger

A friend recently left town and the night before her afternoon going away party I inquired as to what I could bring to the party. After some contemplation she said she wanted 'a good Bloody Mary' before leaving New Orleans. She scoffed when I mentioned that I knew a great mix. So it was on. A challenge to make a tasty from scratch Bloody Mary.

So I did a little research...

The Bloody Mary's true roots seem to be all hearsay at this point. Even the name's origins are muddled. I had thought the Bloody Mary was a New Orleans cocktail. This is not the case. New Orleans played no part in the development of the drink but the Bloody Mary plays right into New Orleans drinking culture and is a hair-of-the-dog staple at any Jazz Brunch.

Further research also showed that a lot of these 'over the counter' mixes not only contain a lot of sodium & preservatives but high fructose corn syrup as well. Zing Zang seemed to be the most 'natural' and it probably is my favorite mix after finding that Whiskey Willies uses high fructose corn syrup. Zing Zang however has 25% of the recommended daily allowance of sodium in just one cocktail.

Anyways I go to the market and picked up fresh veggies for my base. Which I made up of carrot, celery, tomato, garlic, lemon, and lime in the JuiceMaster (retro hand-me-down edition). You could really add any veggie to it, but I wanted to keep the color red. Then I added a little low-sodium V8 to thicken it just a bit. Then I just mixed the individual cocktails from there. Mine include a handful of ice dusted with cayenne pepper, 3-5 jiggers of vodka, a shot of Guinness (same concept as worcestershire but a bit more velvety & it's more booze), fill the rest with the base, crack some salt-n-pepper and Pirates's Bite spice blend, drop in a celery stalk and skewer up a big salad (the more pickled treats the better ie: olives, pepperoncinis, pickled green beans, pickled cocktail onions, pickled caper berries, pickled garlic, pickled okra, pickles). Anyways the fresh Blood Mary's were a hit and I think I completed the task well.

Truth is: the perfect Bloody Mary is probably as hard to find as its true history. But this quest raised the bar for me.

Cheers!

  

Stuffed Italian Meatloaf

courtesy of musicstack.com

I never been have been a fan of the ketchup on meatloaf idea. My mom always made a stuffed italian meatloaf topped with marinara and served it with mashed potatoes. I've taken her recipe and tweaked it a little bit to make it my own. Then tweaked it a bit more to keep from looking like the 'heart-attack-waiting-to-happen' pictured above. Now mine is half ground beef and half ground turkey to cut down on the fat. I simplified the stuffing from several cheeses to a blend of part skim ricotta & shredded parmesan. Also since Lauren is off the refined carbohydrates we substitute cooked lentils for bread crumb & serve ours over puréed cauliflower. It's topped with Lauren's hearty marinara. So good.     

                         

  

                 

Homemade Hot Sauce

Remember that habanero tree given to us by a friend who was moving (see the post here)? I used the ripe habaneros to make hot sauce. This process takes about a week and because I went back to work this week it took me almost two. Here's how it began, and the finished product:
I got the recipe from Bon Appetite, see it here.

I really should have used gloves and worn a face mask for destemming the habaneros. It ended up being okay because I washed my hands like crazy afterwards. However, my throat was burning the whole time!

I did not have kosher salt, so I subbed equal parts table salt and sea salt

 Day 1:

I left the jar sitting in my kitchen for 10 days, the recipe recommends 7. 

 Day 10:

As you can see my mini food processor was leaking the molten juice all over the counter!

Sieve inside of a funnel 

The recipe does not call for this, but I saved the habanero chili paste to use in recipes. 

The recipe says that the sauce can last in the refrigerator for up to 4 months. 

EASTER WEEKEND

Was a pretty busy week leading to an amazing Easter.  After our Destin get-away, Lauren and her mother went on to Pensacola and I went to Baton Rouge to finish wrapping The Host. We met back in New Orleans Thursday night and had dinner at Irene's, which was excellent as always. With every visit better than the last it's becoming my favorite restaurant in New Orleans. In fact we decided to return Saturday night as well.   

Lauren and Lynn went shopping Friday for Easter dinner while I worked on Meryl Murman's narrative dance film, Paper Cranes and Pendulum. Lauren's sister Emily flew in that day and came to set with me to learn and help out. We met back up for a late night dinner on the balcony at the Royal Street Oyster Bar.

Saturday after an early morning shoot we had brunch at Elizabeth's, and headed home to prep Easter dinner. Eventually I had to break off and return for an evening shoot, while Lauren and Lynn continued prepping and cooking.

Getting Ready For Gumbo

Mirepoix

Andouille

Tomatoes

Chicken Breast

Roux

Stock

Mixing the Roux & Stock

Stuffing the Beef Tenderloin

 The Gumbo was cooked slow and low all day. Lump crab meat with chopped onions is marinated overnight with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt to be served as a gumbo topper. Shrimp & Okra were added Sunday. After the loin was stuffed with garlic it was rubbed with salt and pepper at marinated overnight in Cabernet.  Sunday, it was was seared on both sides, topped with tomatoes and roasted at 325 degrees and served medium rare.

  

Sunday we met in Jackson square and went to an early mass at the cathedral. From there we met up with our friend Durado and strolled over to the House of Blues for the Gospel Brunch. Great food, awesome Gospel, and we had the best seats in the house.  I left from there with Durado for more movie making while Lauren, Lynn, and Kyle put the finishing touches on the Easter dinner. When I arrived the house looked and smelled amazing. Appetizers, antipasti, and cheese plates were all laid out. Gumbo, rice, and asparagus on the stove. The loin roasting in the oven. Kyle was manning the grill in the back with filets of red snapper he caught out in the gulf. The entire cast and crew from the shoot showed up as well as several friends and we had a feast.  

St. Louis Cathedral

Lynn & Durado

HOB

'Going to Church'

Our Host

Roasted Beef Tender Loin with Tomatoes

Kyle's Grilled Red Snapper

Lauren's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

the spread

hummus

antipasto

cheese plate 

cheese board

A Packed House