St. Patrick's Day Parade

We went to the St. Patrick's Day parade on St. Charles St. in New Orleans last Saturday with James' brother and his wife. We had fun. It was the first time we'd to New Orleans for fun (instead of clean up work) since August. It was a nice day, the weather was great. There was a large crowd, and most everyone was dressed for the occasion.


There very several folks sporting these festive green wigs.


This guy was walking in the parade with a group of about 30 men, and there were all wearing these giant green foam cowboy hats.


He was the driver of a convertible in the float. Nice touch with the green Mohawk. This might be the couple that was in that convertible. I'm not sure. They were throwing out Mardi Gras beads.





James with 2 fellow on lookers. They came prepared with their own cooler full of their beverage of choice. And yes, they were really smoking those pipes, but nothing illegal.

Another parade participant. There were a number of groups of men, supposedly New Orleans residents of Irish decent. They were dressed in tuxes, tennis shoes, and a hat. They passed out silk roses - but for a price - you had to kiss them. NO thanks - not for a fake rose. There were a few of them that had fresh flowers, but still. . .

A happy dog enjoying the festivities. Our doggies missed the parade. We considered taking them, but one of us would've had to spend the time a the parade trying to calm Lily down. She doesn't like crowds. She was happier in her yard at home.

This was an Irish dance troupe. The girls were very talented, some of them were very small - only about 5 years old.

A band on a moving float.

A scary leprechaun. . .

And a happy leprechaun.

And a float with Marilyn Monroe, although I don't know what she has to do with St. Patrick's Day. We left the parade with a few bagfuls of goodies. They threw out produce from the floats. We caught 6 cabbages, carrots, potatoes, and onions. We left the cabbages because they looked dirty, and James is the only one of us who will eat cooked cabbage. We also left with about 15 lbs of Mardi Gras beads, stuffed animal toys, a yo-yo, and some magnets - one of a budda wearing a cowboy hat.

Crawfish Boil

James' brother and his wife spent this past weekend with us. We had a great time visitingwith them. Friday James and his bother boiled crawfish. This was James' second time fo boil them here at home, with no help from an experienced Cajun. This first pictures is him purging the crawfish.

Checking the progress.

Almost done. . .

Finished! To help make the crawfish a bit easier to peal, we ice them down a bit before serving them. They are still hot when served, but the ice helps keep the shell from getting crumbly.


Yummy.

Our Daisy

Recipe of the Week

Taco Salad

This is from my uncle, and we had it regularly when I was a kid. I made it for dinner a couple of days ago.

1 lb. lean ground beef (or turkey)
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 head of Romaine lettuce
2 diced tomatoes
1 diced red onion
1 (10 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (10 oz) can original Rotel
1 lb of Velveeta (or 1 bag of Velveeta Crumbles)
Fritoes

Cook ground beef and season with taco seasoning. Mix Rotel and tomato soup in medium sauce pan and warm over low heat stirring frequently - this will be the "dressing". Chop lettuce. Grate Velveeta.

Layer salad together on individual plates as follows:
1) Fritoes
2) ground meat
3) lettuce
4) tomato and onion
5) Velveeta
6) hot dressing

I've also had it with cheddar cheese and French dressing instead of the Velveeta and Rotel dressing.

New TV

We got a new TV today. This first picture is our old TV. It still works except for the DVD player. It broke shortly after we moved to Red Stick. But the TV worked fine. This is our new TV. It is a 37 inch LG LCD TV. We are now officially ready for baseball season!

Another Pair of Shoes

Our little dog Lily chewed up another pair of my shoes this week. Here are a few photos of her damage.

Notice that the shoe on the left has a strap. She chewed the strap completely off the shoe on the right except for the buckle. The strap on the other shoe also sustained a bit a damage a few weeks ago, but it was still wearable. This was the 3rd pair of my shoes that she's destroyed. I went shoe shopping today at Dillards and got replacements. I got a new pair of Ecco tennis shoes. It's the first pair of Ecco's that I've ever bought, and I love them. They are the most comfortable pair of tennis shoes I've ever had.



A close up of the damage. Shoe chewing is her late-night entertainment. She goes underneath our bed while we are asleep, and finds a shoe and chews till she's tired. I know it's not Daisy who's guilty because she cannot crawl under the bed, and that is where we always find the damage. We are no longer leaving our shoes in the bedroom because of this. I went through my shoes today and found about 10 pairs that I never wore and I took them to a local charity. Now we have room to keep our shoes that our in our regular rotation in the closest out of Lily's reach.

Recipe of the Week

I made this for dinner Monday night. I found the recipe in the Memphis newspaper about 5 years ago.

Peach Glazed Spare Ribs
1 cup peach preserves
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tsp. chili powder (less if you don't like it spicy.)
1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 lb. rack spareribs
Preheat grill or oven to 350°.

For sauce, whisk peach preserves, lemon juice, mustard, chili powder, pepper sauce, salt and pepper in heavy saucepan over medium heat to blend.
Place spareribs bottom side up on grill rack (or baking sheet if roasting in oven). Sprinkle with salt and pepper; spread with 1/2 cup sauce. Turn ribs over, sprinkle with salt and pepper; spread with 1/2 cup sauce. Grill or bake ribs for about 45 minutes. Bring remaining sauce to a boil. Brush 2 tablespoons sauce over ribs. Return ribs to heat source, and bake until sauce forms a sticky glaze, about 8 minutes. Cut rack into individual ribs; serve with boiled sauce.
Note: I like to double the ingredients for the sauce so there will be plenty to serve with ribs.

Lady Tigers

We went the see the Lady Tigers play Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. It was our first LSU basketball game. Here are a few pictures. This one is Mike the Tiger in his new habitat right by the stadium.

This is a picture of the half time entertainment. It was pretty impressive. The girl was on a really tall unicycle and she balanced bowls on her head.

One thing I like about LSU sporting events is that you can get better snacks than your standard ball park food, like hot dogs and nachos. During the game I got a shrimp poboy, and they also had jambalaya and grilled chicken sandwiches. I wish the vendors would serve fried gator when LSU plays Florida, but that may fringe on bad sportsmanship?

LSU lost, but it was a close game.