Happy 235th Birthday, America!

July 4th is a great day to fire up the grill and bring together family and friends to enjoy the bounty of this great nation. As Vince Staten said, "The story of barbecue is the story of America: Settlers arrive on great unspoiled continent, discover wondrous riches, set them on fire and eat them."

My family will be grilling some corn on the cob, smoking ribs and serving it with homemade peach ice cream. Here is the recipe for the ice cream:

2 cups sliced fresh peaches
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 T peach schnapps

Put everything in a blender or food processor and combine. Set in refrigerator overnight. Chill Donvier ice cream insert in freezer overnight. Pulse the mixture the next morning and pour into insert. Make 2 revolutions every one to two minutes for about 20 minutes or until mixture pulls away from sides. Put into container to harden in the freezer.

Maya's Restaurant

I was at Maya's recently for the Annual Meeting of the Forum For Equality, an organization of which I'm the Deputy Political Director. The owners are supportive of our work and let us use their upstairs room for our meetings.

I really like their white sangria but they weren't serving it that night, so I went for the margarita instead. Nice and tasty and it sure took the edge off the meeting! I tasted a friend's mojito and it was as good as I make at home with the addition of a piece of sugar cane. The food they serve is Latin fusion--primarily Honduran and Cuban, with a little Caribbean thrown in for good measure. I was off to another meeting after this one, so I just enjoyed the appetizers. The house sauce is good and the empanadas were nice and spicy.

It is a little high end for my usual budget but when you want more than just a burrito or taco, give Maya's a try.

Outback Restaurant at Buena Vista Palace Hotel

I'm in Orlando, Florida at the Golden Crown Literary Society 7th Annual Conference. My first novel, Unbroken Circle, is to be released on Monday and I am here to connect with old friends and promote my book.

It was very cool to see a box of my book for sale:


My publisher, Bella Books, held a dinner for their authors at the Outback Restaurant at the conference hotel. Not to be confused with the Aussie chain, this place supposedly had an Australian theme. However, I never tasted or saw anything at all related to Down Under.

I had the four course prix fixe meal that included a fairly bland French onion soup, an equally banal Caesar salad, and tasteless strawberry cheesecake. The prime rib, however, was cooked beautifully and well marbled. It was quite good and the roasted garlic bulb on top was a very delicious touch.

Despite my quibbles with the soup, salad and dessert, the steak and the company were great--being among such great writers is very inspiring and I hope to spend more time with them in the future.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

When I was just out of college, my great-grandmother passed away. I was working retail and could only take a short time off. I drove to Asheville for the funeral and then grabbed a dozen, piping fresh original glazed doughnuts for the trip back to Washington, DC. In the course of the drive, I ate the whole box and arrived to work with the shakes. I thought it was grief until someone pointed out the sugar content of a single Krispy Kreme. Live and learn, eh?

I say this all to preface how glad I am that there is a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop near my parent's home in Foley, AL. I was never a fan of cakey doughnuts so, the original glazed is a perfect food--light, airy and sugary! As a bonus, today was National Doughnut day, so I got one free! How cool is that?

I do a killer bread pudding with the leftover stale Krispy Kreme doughnuts.


Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding

2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts (best is slightly stale)
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup coffee-flavored liqueur (I sometimes use Amaretto or Bailey's Irish Cream here instead).
2 eggs, beaten
1 pinch salt
1 or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Butter Rum Sauce, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cube donuts into a large bowl. Combine milks, creams and liqueur. Wisk in the eggs. Add salt and cinnamon. Pour liquid on top of donuts and let soak for a few minutes. Stir together until the donuts have soaked up the liquid as much as possible.
Bake for about 1 hour until center has jelled. Top with Butter Rum Sauce.

Butter Rum Sauce:
1 stick butter
1 pound box confectioners' sugar
Rum, to taste (start with a generous Tablespoon)
Melt butter and slowly stir in confectioners' sugar. Add rum and heat until bubbly. Pour over each serving of Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding.

Second Birthday at Mr. John's

I so enjoyed my first visit to Mr. John's Steak House that when a friend asked me where she and her husband could take me to dinner, I told them I wanted to go back for another meal. Being used to spoiling me on my birthday, they agreed.

This visit was just as good. The cocktails we started with (sidecar and sazerac) were perfectly blended. My friends enjoyed some French Onion Soup which was rich and hearty and no-one choked on the cheese (my paternal grandmother was forever warning anyone who ordered such a soup as to the dire consequences awaiting you). I had the ribeye again and they went for the filet mignon and the petite filet. The filet was just a little dry for my taste but that could have been because the marbling on my piece of meat made mine extra juicey! The sides of potato au gratin were super hot but filled with creamy, cheesey goodness. I only had a bite of the spinach au gratin to reaffirm how much I hate cooked spinach.

As they had told them when making the reservation that it was my birthday, we enjoyed another complimentary bread pudding with our tawny cinnamon port. Not a bad ending to any meal.

I've also got to give kudos for the service--the waitstaff is attentive without being obtrusive, water and iced tea is filled before the level drops below the half way line, all the plates are delivered to the table at the same time. We got there at 7:30 and were the second to last table to clear at 10pm and they never made us feel rushed or that we should take our conversation elsewhere.

Central Grocery

A definite must stop on any trip to the French Quarter is Central Grocery. I usually pick up some spices, cans of lentils, olive oil and hot sauces. When I have friends in town and we're looking to picnic or a quick bite, we also grab a muffuletta (a sandwich which consists of a loaf of Sicilian bread, split horizontally and is then covered with a marinated olive salad, layers of capicola, salami, pepperoni, emmentaler, Ham and provolone).

Central Grocery claims to have either created or perfected the muff and I have to admit that theirs is very, very good. While not layered as thick as it used to be, it is still a good combination of flavors on good bread that pairs well with a bag of Zapp's chips and a root beer. I also have to admire how quickly they move the line that can fill the small space at lunch time. What I don't like is how utterly rude they are. They won't answer questions, they won't explain what's on it, they won't make special orders, etc, etc. Now, I've worked counters before and I know how aggravating it can be to be asked the same question a million times but they are in a customer service business and a little bone thrown to clueless tourists must surely take several years off your scheduled stint in purgatory.

And there is a difference between brusque and rude--they come down solidly on the rude side!

Cafe Pontalba

Situated on the corner of Jackson Square, Cafe Pontalba has one of the best locations in the city for foot traffic. Perhaps that is why it serves pretty darn bland southern and soul food. Very much a tourist trap, don't go into it expecting great food. I was with some folks who were exhausted from walking the French Quarter and were fine with the people watching. The fried shrimp po-boy was served on stale bread, the brown gravy on the roast beef sandwich tasted canned.

Pascale's Manale

I've spoken before about my neighborhood Creole Italian restaurant. It is within walking distance of my house, which is a good thing when you need to work off a bit of over indulgence. Pascale's Manale is upscale and is best known for their Barbecue Shrimp.

This last visit we all decided to branch out and try something new. Helen had pasta with meatballs. The two meatballs were huge and quite flavorful. Butch had the veal gambero that came with a couple of peeled bbq shrimp. The veal was paneed and very flavorful. I kept reaching across to dip my bread into his bbq shrimp sauce. I had the crabmeat alfredo--lots of lump crab meat and two spicy crab cakes. Because the crab cakes were so well seasoned, the alfredo sauce came across a little bland.

As usual, we had a very friendly server who occassionally got distracted by his conversation to the detriment of getting menus and the order taken but, we weren't in a rush, so it wasn't such a bad thing.

American Sector

Next to the theater/stage area of the National World War II museum is John Besh's American Sector cafe. The menu is pretty eclectic with a mix of New Orleans' staples and fusion inspired takes on comfort food.

I had the spicy garlic glazed fried chicken--a very nice heat to the coating made them finger licking good. The mix of pickles that came with it (watermelon rind, squash and daikon) were a cooling touch. My friends got the fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade--the coating was a little thin but they had a good flavor--and the shrimp po-boy that came with homemade potato chips. The fish fry batter was nice and crisp on the shrimp.

This is a good place to take a break between D-day exhibits, the film and the other sites. Plenty of folks who work in the Warehouse District also go there for lunch.

I'm a fan of Chef Besh's red velvet cupcake, so make sure you leave room for at least one!

12 Mile Limit

Not so much a restaurant as a dive bar, 12 Mile Limit is located in Mid-City. They serve barbecue, cocktails and cupcakes, so that is why I included them here. The cocktails are pretty fancy but without the fancy price. The cupcakes come regular size and as a DoBite which usually comes paired with a cocktail or a shot. The BBQ comes in cow and pig and is fork tender. The mashed potatoes were out of this world--creamy with cheese, green onions and a bit of potato skin left in.

All in all a perfect neighborhood bar to relax after a day of work. They even have some board games in addition to the video of poker for folks to make a night of it.