Holiday Roundup

Yes, the holidays are over but I am just uploading pictures so I wanted to sum it all up for you, photo-journal style. I made lots of jarred and canned things this year, including watermelon pickle, satsuma marmalade, mirliton chutney and hot pepper jelly, pictured. I also learned how to de-bone a duck

...and subsequently made duck confit.


Then I made Christmas cookies. I already posted about the specuulas.



Then there were some chocolate-almond financiers.



I went home and ate some fantastic food, look at this pretty and oh so festive cheese and olive assortment.


Of course, we can't forget New Year's Eve!!!! Ben took over the kitchen. First there was venison carpaccio.

Scallops and boudin cakes on sweet corn essence.

Lamb chops with fig mostarda.

Lemon-brown butter cake from Sucre.


It was a lovely season but it is even nicer as a memory, with life back to normal, the house is a pleasing quiet and spring is beckoning

Please Support the New Orleans Food Co-op!

One thing I really, really miss about home is the wonderful supermarket (Wegman's) and dirt-cheap Italian delis (Guercio's) and farmers markets that overflow with produce, flowers, demonstrations and music (Bidwell). I'm not going to dog the New Orleans farmers market scene, it's a good start, but selection is pretty limited, spaces are constrained and so on. I also miss the food co-op (Lexington), of which my mother was member number 15 and we spent playful hours of childhood sorting spices and such so that we could reach our weekly hours and therefore get our family discount on food.

New Orleans has improved since I moved here in 1998 when the scene was dominated by Schwegman's and Winn Dixie. Ugh, and also that awful Canal Villere that used to be on the corner of Claiborne and Carrollton.



Remember this beauty? Ain't dere no more. It has been replaced by a much nicer albeit much pricier Robert's. Don't forget that god awful wasteland of a Robert's by my old house on Annunciation. I can't find a picture of that, likely because Robert's wants everyone to forget that location ever existed. But anyway, I am not doing an expose on local supermarkets, just commenting on the dearth of fresh produce in New Orleans and overall, the lack of food access as it relates to social justice sort of thing going on here(I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Hollygrove Farm but that's another day).

Okay, finally getting to my point here. New Orleans is forming a food co-op! How post-modern and hip! PLUS, they are building it in the old St Roch market, which is a beautiful building that is getting the restoration it deserves. (UPDATE: It is not in the old market, it is in the old Universal furniture store across the street.)The St Roch/St Claude/Marigny/Bywater neighborhood doesn't really have much in the way of grocery stores, unless you count Mardi Gras Zone (and you shouldn't), so this is another reason for celebration. They need 1500 people to become founding members and donate $100, so far I think they have about 800 people committed. Join the food co-op, it's such a worthwhile venture for yourself, your family and the community as a whole.