Festival Season

Man, there’s nothing like Festival Season in New Orleans. What is Festival Season, you ask? Ah, well it is when Mardi Gras is over and St. Patty’s has passed and we need another excuse/more events to celebrate with live music, libations and of course, as always, FOOD!

Last weekend was French Quarter Fest and I was stoked because I hadn’t been since probably….well, college…maybe even high school (yeah that long). We’d always come home for Jazz Fest (2-3 weeks later), so it was hard to make it to both.

So we took the street car down last Saturday and made our way past the small stages on Royal Street to Jackson Square. Checked out the food vendors during the Victory Bells performance and discovered our fav of the day: Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse – Prime Beef Debris Po’Boy:

And Bourbon House's Bourbon BBQ Shrimp Po'Boy (which probably would have been better over pasta instead of on French bread).

Then we got front and center for Jeremy Davenport who brought up his 8^th grade protégé, John Michael who go to perform along with him.

After Jeremy, we made our way up to the river front (which was packed out) and saw the Honey Island Swamp Band (a local favorite of ours). The Natchez Steamboat pulled up right behind it and I couldn’t imagine a better backdrop for an outdoor music fest.

We then went in search of more food, and by the end we had sampled:

• Shrimp Regua from Antoine’s
• Crawfish in Puff Pastry with Mustard Dill from Broussard’s
• Gulf Fish Tacos from GW Fins

Just another day in New Orleans.

Culinary Feats...Well, Eats At Least

I apologize for interrupting the renovation results, but I wanted to send a shout-out to the amazing male cooks in my life.

A friend from grade school, my husband and I have taken to experimenting with cooking something new every Tuesday (well, as many Tuesdays as we can manage). It has been a culinary adventure and has really been nice to have our own kitchen to play in again.

The first Tuesday was Asian stir fry, then the next was veggie enchiladas and we even got confident enough to try crawfish-stuffed shells with a Creole cream sauce (featured below).

Getting hungry yet?

Then we even did crawfish ravioli, which was a big hit and “fancy” burgers with onions and jalapeños mixed right in with the ground sirloin and topped with crumbled blue cheese.

Here is a panorama of our kitchen/dining area taken after one of our scrumptious meal:

Photo Cred: Jared de Jonge

Now, what will we cook next Tuesday?

Puttin' on the Ritz

When we first talked about doing a walk-in shower in our master bathroom, my first thought was all white marble like they have in fancy hotel bathrooms - like the Westin at Canal Place for my wedding night and the Ritz Carlton for my last birthday weekend.

I just ADORE the look of sleek, head-to-toe white marble. Of course I learned that there are many types of white marble and there are many costs associated with such beautiful stone.

But we got a good deal on White Carrara Gioia marble (which I liked better than just White Carrara b/c it has more white space between all the grey streaks.

Needless to say, this room needed a good bit of demo and when we ripped the floor out, we found rotten ply wood and beams. So basically a major overhaul/face-lift. Here's the creation:

Before...

During...

Close ups of the hardware...

With glass...

With a mirror and finished custom cabinetry...

And my favorite time of day to take a shower is about 3:30 p.m. when the sun is coming through the West-facing window...the most beautiful light bouncing off of my white marble...and I feel like I'm back at the Ritz.