Merci Beaucoup, Chef

“One day, you’re going to be a great attorney.” “Yeah, uh, thanks, Dad.” How could I tell my attorney father that a morbidly obese cook from Opelousas, Louisiana, a man that favored sweet potatoes and pork belly over Filet Mignon, had already set me on my career path to become a professional chef, and not […]

“Stop Licking That!”

  The house is quiet now.  Too quiet.  Amy and the kids have been gone for almost two hours, I’ve had my breakfast and now I’m back in bed trying to write.  And that’s when the licking starts.  Sometimes she licks her front paws, other times her bottom and sometimes it’s whatever piece of furniture […]

Puffball Tacos

Let’s make this perfectly clear.  Eating the wrong wild mushroom can KILL you.  Not quickly like Clint Eastwood’s creepy Union soldier character in The Beguiled but over the course of a few painful weeks by destroying your liver.  So DO NOT read this then strut into your neighbor’s artificially bright Chem-Lawn yard, pluck ANYTHING out of the […]

Is that Honeysuckle local?

Honeysuckle is in bloom right now.  It seems to be everywhere, if you drive with your windows down, the perfume from this wildflower rushes in with the breeze.  Honeysuckle has such a wonderful aroma and flavor and that flavor can be captured, you just have to pick a lot of the blossoms.  So the other day I […]

Tonight’s Special is…

“Tonight’s special is Rainbow Trout, it’s two boneless filets of Sunburst Farms Trout with a Scallop Mousse filling, the mousse has been seasoned with shallots, garlic, parsley and chives then the filets are wrapped in two slices of Benton’s Ham and it’s oven roasted, served over stone-ground grits with sauteed morel mushrooms, local baby carrots, […]

Bamboo Shoots

We have a walking/cycling trail in our neighborhood and in the middle of this trail is a healthy growth of wild Bamboo.  Bamboo reproduces by sending out shoots from a network of rhizomes that grow rapidly in the spring.  I checked on the bamboo last week and didn’t see any shoots then we went away for 4 […]