My Blog

We went out to eat last night with our friends. A neighborhood restaurant that has wonderful food. We all got the special which was trout with a wonderful crawfish sauce on top of it....so good. Then they came over at my house for dessert and we made plans to go to the beach next week! We are making the reservations this morning...our favorite condo is available...hope we can get it!

There was an article in our newspaper “The New Orleans You Don’t Know.” What outsiders don’t know about New Orleans is that our best chefs are not in our restaurants, but in our homes. We are raised with the best food in America: Mom’s red beans and rice, gumbo, backyard crawfish boils, etc. (copied from the Times-Picayune).

The article made me think about my mom so much. I miss my mother. My mom was a wonderful cook and I have so many of her recipes. I use her recipes all the time and I make lots of her dishes. When I have to bring the snacks for our tennis league I usually bring something of my mom’s and always get asked for the recipe. I have given her recipes to so many of my friends and I am happy that her cooking will always be enjoyed by so many people and passed on down. When both of my daughters were married I gave each one of them a book with all my mom’s recipes in it and now I want to make three recipes books for Emily, Kaitlyn, and Abigail so when they get married I will be able to give this to them and hope they will pass it on down to their children.

I decided that this Thanksgiving I am going to make my mom’s recipe for “Cheese Petit-Fours." My mom used to call these “A Labor of Love” as it takes some time to make them. It works out great if you have someone to sit down with and you work together. Helen is coming in soon with “The Mitz” so maybe I can talk her into helping me. These are appetizers and can be made ahead of time and put in the freezer. It will be a wonderful treat for my family!

So this is the first time in months that I have blogged. I think that I just got tired of it and needed a break. Plus I was so busy doing work in my house. I miss my friends! I had hoped that Facebook would be an easier way to blog….not so time consuming, but it’s not what I thought it would be. I do hope to come back to the blogging world!

At the end of our tennis season we had played tennis at a club across the river from us. They always have wonderful food and they are happy to share their recipes. This time they had a coconut cake that was just wonderful and everyone raved about it! The girl who made the cake told us how to make it, but when Helen was here last week and I wanted to make it I couldn't remember the name of the can of coconut that she used. I still had her email address so I wrote her and asked for the recipe and in five minutes she sent it to me. So here is a wonderful and easy recipe for those who like coconut.

This is a cool gadget! I didn't know about it before. Bobby had one a work that disappeared and he had me looking on the Internet for another one. I had a hard time finding it as I didn't know what to call it! It's called Page Up....it's a paper holder. It can hold a recipe card, or sheet music, documents, etc! It's neat! Very small, and it works really good! It's perfect to use at the computer.....I bought one for Bobby at work and one for us to use at home. Here is the link Click Here.... click on Page Up in the left hand column. I bought mine on Amazon. Have a good day my ya ya's!

I bought a book on Amazon the other day. It's called "Blue Dog Speaks" by George Rodrigue. It has aver 500 pages that consists of paintings of Blue Dog and witty titles by the artist. I love the boy, that Blue Dog boy! He is an Louisiana dog and he has lots of New Orleans in him. It a small size book but it packs a wallop, it's a coffee table book and I just love it!...it's the closest thing I will ever have to a owning a print as Blue Dog wants mega bucks for pictures of himself!

Yes! We are marching again! It's almost four years since Katrina came and broke our hearts. Things are much better here, but we still have a long way to go. Bobby's sister and her husband lost their home (eight feet of water) and they demolished it and gave the lot to their only child and they bought a house an hour away from here. Their daughter and her husband are now working with a builder to build a house for themselves and apartment in it for Jean and Joe. Jean misses New Orleans so much, they still drive in for Doctor's appointments, dentist, visits, etc........this is still their home. I don't know if all of this will come to pass, they have to see if they can afford it for one thing and Marcelle is so afraid that if another hurricane comes the levees will breach again. They will have to take the chance like all of us had to do!

We are still waiting for our furniture to come in.....we have another three weeks to go *sigh* and we are getting tired of the rocking chairs. The Papa Bear chair was an unfinished piece of furniture that I stained so many years ago, it's really pretty and solid oak. The Mama Bear chair was in my mom and dad's bedroom for years...I have no idea how old it is....but I am happy to have it, simply because it belonged to them. We watch TV in our bedroom as we have a HDTV in there so we really spend little time in the rocking chairs. Have a good day my ya ya's!

Saturday evening we are going to a baseball game. Every year my niece's (Marcelle a.k.a. Boo) husband gets the use of a suite at the ball park. Thank goodness it's air conditioned! They have large widows so you can sit inside and watch the game. Bobby's sister and her husband will be there...I love them and they love us! Kelly, Emily, and Ryan are coming with us and we will stay to watch the fireworks. Michelle is on a cruise with her family. ("Don't let go of those children's hands") Michelle is so tired of hearing me say that! Two people from La. fell overboard in the past few months! *sigh*

We finally had rain late Monday evening. It rained really hard and for a long time. We were so happy to finally get some relief from this heat wave and that our grass and flowers were able to get a good soaking. I have been watering every day. But now it seems we are paying the price for the heat wave....not only our grass, flowers and the people have suffered, but now it seems that "fish" have also suffered. Yesterday evening Bobby and I went in the backyard to go swimming and the smell in the yard was just horrible. We thought that an animal had died on the other side of our fence. Our backyard backs up to a canal. We opened the gate and we couldn't believe what we saw! Hundred's of dead fish were floating in the canal. Here is what they think happened....copied from Nola.com.

WDSU has reported that Metairie residents are concerned about hundreds of dead fish that have floated to the surface this week in the West Esplanade canal. Carp, shad and perch have been spotted, as well as several oil slicks.

Wildlife officials told the station the fish kill is likely due to the blazing heat, which can cause a drop in the oxygen levels of the water. Experts will check out the situation today, according to the report.

What's a New Orleans girl to do??? *sigh*

We still haven't had a drop of rain and the heat wave continues. I put down a pot of red beans and they will simmer all morning. Many, many years ago Monday was considered wash day and wash day was so hard and it was an all day affair...the clothes were washed on the wash board and hung outside to dry. So every Monday families here in New Orleans had red beans and rice for dinner. Once everything was put in a pot it could simmer all day and be ready for dinner that night. That tradition still continues here....restaurants have red beans and rice on their menus on Monday. It's Bobby's favorite dish! Have a good day my ya ya's!

Bobby came home early yesterday and we went to the mall so he could buy a pair of shoes. I had been to the mall early in the morning and I walked. I had been walking with Bobby in the morning in our neighborhood, but yesterday I slept in....too tired to wake up! I hadn't been to mall in quite a while so I went to Restoration Hardware to see if the throw that I have been looking at forever was on sale......it had come down, but only $10.00. I decided to bite the bullet and buy it! Way too expensive, but it's beautiful, soft, large, perfect colors, and it will look so nice on my sofa or chairs (whenever they come in *sigh*) Yesterday we broke the record...104º then around 5:00 it got dark and so windy! We were so excited rain! rain! It was all around us, but we never got a drop! *sigh* Have a good day my ya ya's!

Bobby is enjoying his new Kindle, and I'm enjoying it also. We both use it...Bobby reads at night and I read in the afternoon. The Kindle is pretty amazing.....I wanted to read a new book "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See. I have read all of her books and this is her latest. She had written a few novels about 17 century China, but this novel takes place in the thirties. Bobby and I lived in Taipei, Taiwan when we were first married, he was in the Air Force and he translated Chinese into English. I took a course in Chinese while I was there and the Chinese girl, who lived above me, became my best friend.....so she learned lots of English and I learned enough Chinese to get by with......So reading Lisa See's books always reminds me of that wonderful time in my life.

Amazon's Kindle lets you download the first few chapters for free of a book.....you can then buy it (most are $9.99) or you can pass on that one and download another one and read those chapters to see if you would like that book. I bought "Shanghai Girls" and in less then a minute is was on the Kindle! Neat!!! Have a good day my ya ya's!

We are having a heat wave here...it has just been unbearable. Today our high will be 97º....I stay inside as much as I can....I am at the grocery at 7:00 in the morning try to beat the heat. Tomorrow I have Mah Jong at my house so I won't have to go out in the heat at all. The kids came over yesterday evening and they went swimming and then I fixed hot dogs and chili for them. Bobby got more gift cards so I will be ordering him a cover for his Kindle today. We went out to eat Saturday night with our friends and then went back to their condo for dessert. We went to a neighborhood restaurant that has really good food...I got stuffed peppers with shrimp and crabmeat. We still laugh when we go there as this was one of the first restaurants that had opened after Hurricane Katrina. I had Kelly living with me, her husband, Emily, and two dogs.... Carole had her daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren and Carole's mother living with her. After we ate we had no place to go as nothing else was opened and we didn't want to go home...we wanted to spend some time where there was peace and quiet. We sat on a bench in the parking lot of the restaurant........Ahhhhh! Weeks after our "escape" the restaurant caught on fire and then we had no place to go!! Have a good day my ya ya's!

What I had been dreading for a long time is finding a oven that could fit into the space that I have...I have lived here for 38 years and this is the original oven. It's what they call a wall oven as it fits inside a cabinet. I didn't know what we were going to do if we couldn't find one that fits. Anyway with Bobby measuring we thought that we needed to order a 24 inch, but we were so lucky when we went to Sears that the sales people there were aware of the problems with the wall ovens and older homes in our area. They know just what to do: "You have to order a 27 inch and it has to be a GE." That was fine with me...I was going to order a GE any away as that was the make of the oven that I had for 38 years. Anyway I had wonderful installers that brought the oven Tuesday and had no problems at all (they had to cut a small piece of wood on the cabinet to make it fit perfectly) and I was only an hour late for "Mah Jongg" There are five of us that play so it works out good if one person can't play as you need 4 people to play. Have a good day my ya ya's!

I grew up in the fifties, in the "Father Knows Best Days." It was a wonderful time to grow up. Peggy and I became friends when we were six years old. She lived two houses away from me and we have been best friends ever since. Along with Peggy in our neighborhood there was Susie whose grandfather had a swimming pool in his backyard. We were so lucky to be able to spend our summers swimming...not many people had a pool in their yard in those days. Then there were three boys on our block and believe it or not all three boys were good friends of Peggy and I. That friendship has continued to this day. Friday Peggy came to pick me up and we drove past our old houses on our way to a beautiful Catholic church where we would be attending the funeral mass of Lionel's mother.....his family lived next door to me and after college he got married and took a job in North Carolina and has lived there ever since. He brought his mom up there about nine years ago, but now he brought her back to be buried next to her husband. The three boys are just like Peggy and I ...they have remained close friends all these years.....once a year they all go on vacation together and they still keep in touch with Peggy and I. It's just like Helen.....her friends are here.....all from grammar school and high school Although she has lived away for 35 years....this is her home! Ahhhhh! New Orleans! You gotta love it!

The Mitz was real sick....they think she ate one of Helen's plants that she has on her porch. She spent a couple of days at the Vets with an IV as she was so dehydrated and was sent home with a collar as she kept trying to take the bandage off her leg where they had the IV. The Mitz is fine now and just as wild as ever.....she is back in puppy school leaning more sign language. She is in a group class now and since she already had private lessons Helen gets a discount...LOL as I write this. She still can't get the "sit" "stay" "lay" right yet....you give her one hand signal and she does all three in a row as she knows she gets a treat. Helen is so funny telling me stories about Mitiz....they love her and I love her too! You gotta love The Mitz!

Today is Bobby's birthday! We are going out to eat tonight and then Sunday afternoon the kids will come over to swim and we will BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs. I bought him a Kindle from Amazon, but it hasn't arrived yet....in transit. He has always enjoyed reading, but when he came home from work he was always so tired so only when we went to the beach he was able to read a book. Soon after he retired someone who badly need some help with his company asked Bobby to do some work for two months...he said okay and then many things happened. The company was up for sale...the buyers backed out....the owner who then went to Washington to have a lung transplant died and now the company is sold, and the new owner has asked him to stay on. Anyway it's a long story, but in October the two month job will have lasted two years. It's easy, no pressure what so ever, and they are good to him. He is happy and now reads when he comes home. But his eyes get so tired so I am hoping with six different fonts to choose from and the screen that is sharp and natural with no glare or back light will be so much easier on his eyes. Kindle's screen reflects light like ordinary paper and uses no backlighting, eliminating the glare associated with other electronic displays. As a result, Kindle can be read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room.......I'll let you all know how he likes it! Happy Birthday!

My new BFF Chris (floorman) came over Friday to bring me a floor care kit and we showed him where two of the boards made some sounds when we stepped on them. He suggested that we put some weights on the floor boards for a few days and if that doesn't correct the problem he will send the installers back out to replace them. We have two weights from Bobby's long ago days of "keeping fit" and we put those down, but we knew how dangerous it would be if we tripped on them so I put a box in front of the weights as we turn into our hall and another box in front of the weights as we walk down the hall into the den. Bobby has already crashed into the boxes twice and Kelly once. Hello! Can't you see the boxes? Just seeing the boxes should tell you "Be careful!" "Danger ahead!" *sigh* Have a good day my ya ya's!

Last week I had Abigail and we went to pick up Emily from school. They wanted to go out to the lake to see Quackers so we stopped at Emily's house to get some "duck food." The water was real high that day and part of the pier was underwater so nervous Nina wouldn't let Abigail walk on the pier (some of it was covered with water.) We could see Quackers and Emily called out to him...it really is amazing that the duck still recognizes her voice and comes to her. The retired men were sitting out there and they tell everyone the story about Quackers as he is the only white duck! We didn't see his girlfriend...I guess they broke up! While Emily was feeding the ducks I saw a mother duck swimming to Emily with six baby ducks...no white ones so we don't think they were Quackers. It seems when I put my camera in it's case it some how moves my auto settings Grrrr! and I don't know it so the pictures are not good, but you can make out the white duck!

Here is a picture of Abigail (with lipstick on) sitting at my kitchen table and you can see of little bit of my floors. I now have no furniture in my den except for two end tables and coffee table and I might replace those things. Bobby and I went this past weekend and bought a new sofa and two chairs.....I still need to buy a cabinet for my HD TV which I also have to buy. Yikes! So between my ceramic floors, two toilets, two counter tops, three rooms of hard wood floors, sofa and two chairs I win the prize for stimulating the economy!!

I am thinking about getting a tee shirt made that says: "I survived the installation of hardwood floors." It was hard, exhausting, and a mess! It took about three days and Bobby and I hid out in our bedroom...at least we had a TV and a bathroom....we did nothing, but yet we were wiped out by the end of the day....we would go and pick something up to eat and asleep by 8:30. Whoa! Talk about a Maw Maw and Paw Paw! What made my experience so hard was that I had a brick fireplace, and two brick walls in the den. They had to cut with a saw the bottom of the bricks so the floor boards could fit underneath. The dust was so bad that we at first thought our house was on fire...the workers had some kind of strange mask on and scared us to death. We had closed all the doors to other rooms, and I had sheets and other things covering furniture....it hardly did any good. I really wanted to cry....everyone had told me how bad it was going to be, but it was even worse! *sigh* It's all finished now, and the floors look real nice and yes I am happy that I did it, but I never want to do it again!

Saturday we went to the wild child's sons wedding. The mass was for 12:00 at St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. It was a beautiful day, but hot! The French Quarter was packed with people. We parked about two blocks away and walked to the church. Past small bands on street corners entertaining the people, tap dancers, break dancers, people reading tarot cards, artists painting portraits, carriages drawn by horses parading people up and down the narrow streets. St. Louis Cathedral is just beautiful from both the inside and outside. It was built in 1789 and then expanded and rebuilt in 1850. Click here to see the Cathedral.

The bride was a California girl (San Diego) blond and beautiful. The guys in the wedding wore seersucker suits (blue and white) with light peach color ties. They really looked nice and the suits reminded me of my dad. I can still see him going to work in the summer time wearing a seersucker suit.

The reception was at City Park. They have a beautiful building where they have wedding receptions and other functions The place is called "The Pavilion of Two Sisters" (click here) and it's lovely. City Park suffered catastrophic damage when the levee's broke during Katrina. City Park is 150 years old and has 1300 acres. The Park was 90% under water anywhere from one to eight feet and stayed under water for weeks. The damage was estimated at 43 million dollars and it was heartbreaking to see what the salt water had done to the oak trees, grass, and plants, but life is returning to City Park.

When Helen was here not too long ago we she wanted to buy some seafood to take home with her. I only buy my seafood from one place and so does Helen when she comes in, but one of her friends had bought some crabs from this new seafood store and they were really good. Helen found out the name and I took her there. It was located in the same shopping strip as my cleaners so I knew right where it was. It was a young couple who had just recently bought the business. The girl was adorable and of course we all were best friends when we left. Helen bought tons of seafood to take home with her. Yesterday while they were boiling crawfish the propane tank they were using exploded and fire broke out and spread to four other businesses in the strip mall...it was a three alarm fire. One of the stores was a pet store and grooming place. The owner and her helper were able to get all the cats and dogs out, but not the birds and fish. No one was hurt, but so much damage was done to the four stores. I feel so bad for this young couple, working so hard to make a living and just starting to get the word out about their seafood business. The fire spread to the right of the seafood store and the cleaners was to the left...I still have some of Bobby's shirts in there.

Tonight I play tennis and the wild child is having the after rehearsal party for her son so I will be playing with one of my friends...Jackie. The wedding is Saturday at noon.....it's in the French Quarter at St. Louis Cathedral. The girl is from California and about 40 guests from California will be there. I think they will really enjoy seeing a New Orleans wedding! "Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler" The after rehearsal party is located in the Quarter on the river, I have been to parties there over the years...it's really beautiful to see the boats on the river at night. She had champagne flutes hand painted with New Orleans themes...Mardi Gras, Fleur de Lis, crayfish, etc and the guests will take their glass home with them.

We really had a good time yesterday...ten of us went to Houmas House for lunch and then shopping. We have all been together for 35 years and I love my friends....we have such a good time when we are together. Our lunch at the plantation was very good, we all got something different...I ordered fried soft shell crab....yikes! I never eat fried foods , but I couldn't resist. I only ate a salad when we got home yesterday evening and this morning I walked two miles at the mall to try to make up for all the calories. *sigh* We gave up our Mah Jongg game to go on the field trip, but we will play Friday instead. Have a good day my ya ya's!

I have been busy getting my house ready for the installation of my wood floors. My house is really a mess right now with the contents of my dinning room and den in other rooms. I had to wait three weeks for the floors to come in and now I have to wait another two weeks before they can be installed. I am not happy! We are now looking for a sofa, two chairs, and a piece of furniture to put my TV on which I also have to buy......I am not good at picking out things...I always second guess myself.

I get a break tomorrow as I am going with some of my tennis friends to have lunch at one of the plantation homes here in Louisiana. This one is called Houmas House and it was built in 1825. It's located about an hour from my house and you can have a tour of the house, but we all have seen it before so we will walk around the beautiful gardens and have lunch there and then go shopping at the outlets. I always feel connected to these plantation houses when I go there, I wonder if I lived in one of them in another life. Click here to see some pictures of Houmas House. Scroll down till you see the thumbnails, click on one of the pictures of the house, be sure to close that picture before you click on another one. Have a good day my ya ya's!