A lovely day!

We had a fun day today. We went to church this morning, and afterwards we had 14 people from church over for lunch. It was James' idea. He suggested we do it since I'm having surgery this week and may not be able to socialize for awhile. It was so much fun, and I have to brag about all the effort James put into the preparations. I had to work yesterday, so he spent the day at home cooking and cleaning. He made a big batch of red beans and rice and homemade blueberry ice cream. He cooked his grandmother's cornbread today. I put together a veggie tray and helped him finish cleaning the house yesterday after I got home from work.

After we finished eating lunch, we hooked up his new Nintendo wii and played.

Thank you James!

A New Project

A few months ago James' mom gave me a bag of quilt pieces that her grandmother -James' great-grandmother- had sewn together. They were in pretty good shape. No moth holes or tears. They did need a little cleaning up. I soaked them in a bowl of water and oxi-clean overnight and let them air dry. There were no instructions about how to sew the pieces together, but after a little trial and error -and a geometry lesson- this is what I came up with:

The star shaped pieces are what I was given. There are a number of them, so I think I'll be able to make a nice sized quilt. I think the fabrics that the stars are made from is from the 50-60's.

A Culinary Pet Peeve

I think that when you call food by a particular name, that there are certain qualities that it must have in order to actually be what it is named. One of the foods of South Louisiana that I just have to have from time to time is a po-boy. Growing up in Arkansas, I was told that a po-boy is basically the same thing as a sub-sandwich or a hoagie. That is not quite right. I hoagie has cold cuts and can have whatever condiments you want, and can be made out of a number of different kinds of bread. Not so with a po-boy. The traditional criteria for a sandwich to a called a po-boy in South Louisiana -which is the birthplace of the sandwich- are as follows:

1) Made with French bread
2) meat is fried seafood - shrimp, oysters, catfish, or gator. . .yes I said gator, and yes, I have eaten gator. . .I think it's just not right to call your self a South Louisiana resident if you don't least try to eat gator once :-)
3) It is dressed with Mayo - not Miracle Whip-, lettuce, tomato, and dill pickles-not sweet pickles. Any NOTHING else!

There have been two times that I've ordered a po-boy here in Red Stick, but I did not get a po-boy. The first time was at Monjuni's - a fabulous Italian restaurant - but just don't order the shrimp "po-boy." The shrimp on it is not fried. It is cold, and covered in mayo. This is not a po-boy. It is a shrimp salad sandwich. Monjuni's lasagna is just to die for though.

The other time was today at a local pub called Chimes. They put ketchup on the po-boy. I sent it back to the kitchen.

I'm not usually such a picky eater, but there are somethings that just should not be fooled around with.