Sensation Salad Dressing--the Sequel p. 24

Here's a further note on the doctored dressing...I used what was left to marinate some salmon fillets for the grill. It complemented the salmon with its lemony, cheesy goodness!

Chicken Etouffee p.123

I thought this would be a good make-ahead main dish on the day I picked my parents up at the airport. Knew they would be hungry as soon as we got to the house, so this was ready in the oven (Sophie was home keeping an eye on it).

Instead of 2 large fryers I used 1 cut-up chicken and an extra package of 6 chicken legs. Wasn't sure 2 entire chickens would fit in my biggest baking dish.

The seasoning directions are vague--no amounts given. Salt, red and black pepper...I went too heavy on the red (cayenne) pepper but it certainly wasn't bland!

It takes a while to brown all the chicken pieces but the rest goes pretty quickly...saute the onions, celery, and chopped bell pepper and spread on top. Cover and bake. I baked it for a loooong time, maybe 2 and 1/2 hours. It was fine; very tender and not dried out.

However, the rice was a near disaster. Why am I having these recurrent problems cooking rice?! I've cooked rice for years and thought I was pretty good at it. My first batch was glutinous on the outside and still rock-hard inside. We dumped that and Sophie made a second batch while Randy and I drove to the airport. It was better, but still pretty sticky...maybe it's the brand I'm buying. We had leftovers the next day with Minute brown rice (my favorite--quick and foolproof!) and it was good.

I just love cooking for Mom and Dad. They're sooo appreciative and always say everything tastes good! They're not at all picky.

"Panama Limited" French Toast p. 42

This morning Sophie requested French toast for breakfast and I had just started to whip some up when, hold on, I thought, there's a recipe for French toast in River Road!! So I looked it up and it seemed very close to what I was doing: 2 eggs, mmm-hmmm, 1/2 cup milk; ok, I never measure, but that sounds about right...3 cups of shortening! 3 CUPS!!! So I didn't follow this recipe. This is a recipe for some kind of deep-fried DONUT BREAD, not French toast. I fried mine in a bit more vegetable oil than usual (about 2 tablespoons), and the toast came out yummy (was using some nice oatmeal bread--I think that made a difference--nicer texture than standard white air-bread). I don't see myself ever making this particular recipe, which by the way was supplied by the Illinois Central Railroad. But I'm checking it off my list, just the same!

What is the Panama Limited, a train that goes directly to the cardiac care unit?!

Sensation Salad Dressing (part II) p. 24

True to my word, I doctored the left-over salad dressing the other day. To the 3/4 cup or so that was left in the fridge, I added the juice of another lemon. The result: lemony! And the bitterness that I had noted before was gone. So I would go heavier on the lemon juice, lighter on the garlic, and maybe use less olive oil (or perhaps a mix of olive oil and a lighter oil) the next time I make this.

Cold Tomato Soup II p. 15

Today we take a journey into the past...about a month ago I made this recipe and made the mistake of not blogging about it immediately. Then my notes disappeared (not surprising--I have notes scrawled on scraps of paper scattered around my house--not the best system) and I was sure they would turn up sooner or later...but at this point I'm admitting defeat and will have to rely on my (poor) memory.

This sounded sooo good to me when we were still broiling here in Baton Rouge in early September--a healthful cold soup like Gazpacho minus the fancy name. I started with 4 nice tomatoes that Randy bought at the downtown Farmers Market on Saturday morning www.redstickfarmersmarket.org. Just for fun I did that trick to peel them: plunged them into boiling water for a minute or so, take them out, and the skins slip right off.

This is a simple recipe; it went together quickly and the most time-consuming thing is washing the blender, especially if you leave it around and the soup dries on the blades.

It tastes good the next day, and even better the day after that. I was a little disappointed in the color, though. It was a pale pinky-orange, not bright red like I had expected. I wonder if a dab or so of tomato paste might improve the color and richness of the soup. It was, as promised, "a refreshing soup for hot summer days."

Welcome, Followers!!! I love you (all 3 of you!)

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Sensation Salad Dressing p. 24

The Sensation Salad is a local thing--it was created at a Baton Rouge restaurant whose name escapes me. But I tried it at Roberto's River Road Restaurant in Sunshine, Louisiana. Which looks like a dive (was fairly horrified when we drove into the parking lot. And the ancient wooden floor inside is wildly warped--makes you feel like you've had a few drinks before you've even started). But was full of attractive people enjoying upscale (upmarket anyway--it's pricey)fish and shrimp and crawfish. Their salad had iceberg lettuce and black olives and Parmesan cheese.

First of all I had to refer to my good old Betty Crocker Cookbook to review equivalences: 1 pint equals 2 cups. Couldn't see using 2 cups of salad oil (what if we didn't like it?) so I cut the recipe in half.

I used a cup of olive oil, Kraft grated parmesan/romano cheese (couldn't find just romano), one lemon and one big clove garlic. Garlic juice? I just crushed the garlic clove with my trusty garlic press. Haven't used that in a long time--so satisfying when the garlic mush shoots out. Yay!

OK, my kitchen, nay, my house REEKS of garlic now. And while my husband and I enjoyed the salad (just bite-sized Romaine pieces tossed in the dressing), we can sense the garlic coming out our very pores.

Sophie thought it was too oily and a little bitter. I tasted the bitterness, too. What did I do wrong? Too much garlic?

Anyway, I have dressing left over so I'm going to try to doctor it with the juice of another lemon. Will let you know how that goes!

Spinach with Sour Cream page 63

Why did I choose this recipe? Because I had all the ingredients in the fridge, that's why!

I'm not convinced that grating the onions is necessary. I think it would have been just as good with pieces of chopped onion (that my husband could pick out and put on the side of his plate; he doesn't eat onions) so I'll probably skip the grating (and subsequent cleaning of the grater) next time.

As a matter of fact, I keep a baggie of chopped onions in the freezer for just this purpose--when you need a tablespoon or so in a recipe. Saves lots of time, and I don't end up wasting onions.

OK, back to the recipe...I served this as a side dish with heated up, ready-to-serve catfish filets from the Bet-R Grocery Store. Everybody looooves Bet-R. I'm trying to warm up to it. It is very convenient, but a little cramped and limited in its choices. Unless you're buying booze...they seem to have that covered!

We ate our catfish and spinach side with a glass of chilled white wine. Good!

Then, the following day, I mixed the leftover Spinach with Sour Cream into hot spaghetti noodles for a quick supper. Sublime.

Jambalaya p. 76

For my first recipe, I'm trying a classic--Jambalaya! Wasn't sure what kind of sausage to buy. Links? Bulk sausage? I used 1 1/2 tubes of Jimmy Dean. Hope that's okay!

Later, I saw a photo of Jambalaya and realized...it should have been link sausage. Oh, well.

Did I get the roux dark enough? Probably not; I was impatient. Wanted to get it all together to have plenty of time to cook--it says it takes an hour. Also, when I added the onions to the roux, it kind of dried up. Was afraid it would burn, so I probably added the water before the onions were soft enough. Hurry, hurry...I had 5 people to feed!

One hour later, the rice was still crunchy. But we ate it anyway. The flavor was good. I'm blaming the cast-iron frying pan I used--next time will try a nonstick pan with a truly tight-fitting lid.

Lessons learned on this recipe: don't rush. And cover tightly.

Cooking my Way through River Road Recipes, the Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine!

So I had this idea...ok, it's not a very original idea. I recently moved to Baton Rouge and was given a copy of the famous Junior League of Baton Rouge Cookbook, River Road Recipes, originally published in 1959. I remember being told (who said this??) that if you want to learn to cook, all you have to do is work your way through this cookbook cover to cover. And I had recently read the book (and seen the movie) Julie and Julia, in which author Julie Powell has a sudden inspiration to cook her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She felt that doing this would change her life, and it did!

Now, I'm not aiming to change my life. Not much, anyway; life's pretty good. But I'm new in town and looking for a project and this sounds like a good one. Plus, my daughter Sophie said she'd help me. So here we go!