To Thine Own Self, Be Food

New Orleans' Donut - the Beignet.  Powdered sugary goodness. A very unflattering picture of my son eating a fried gator Po-Boy. The New Orleans trifecta: jambalaya, red beans and rice, and shrimp etouffee Smothered crabcakes Brent's pleasant surprise: a muffaletta My new passion: The Reuben And yeah, a culinary tour of New Orleans isn't complete without a seafood dish of some kind!

For your viewing pleasure, a photo narrative... But first - context.  God Bless Andrew Carnegie and his public library idea.  I often forget what a veritable treasure trove my public library is, especially in regards to cookbooks.  Supposedly, my husband is a fan of beets...although I've seen him eat them, oh, a half a dozen times.  In FIFTEEN years.  Anyway... I've been quite prejudiced against the blood-red root veg, and I think it comes from my dishwashing days (as a young teen) at my aunt and uncle's restaurant.  Cold pickled beet juice combined with cottage cheese residue congealed into a bright pink mess on salad plates I was to scrape clean?  Did people actually eat that?  Disgusting!  And I harbored that bias for a long time... But, if there's any conviction that we here at "Be Food" (and by 'we', I mean me) try to adhere to, it's that life is about learning and letting go.  So - let's roast some beets! Mind over matter, is my

First of all - welcome back to To Thine Own Self, Be Food!  It has been over three weeks since my last post.  That whole pesky novel-writing thing, you know... Second of all, check this out: This is the dividing and conquering of 50 pounds of bread flour, purchased from the local Costco (ConAgra Harvest).  At $15 a bag, it's quite a deal. However, being a King Arthur brand user, it's disconcerting to discover that Costco's flour is bleached and enriched...and so comes down to the age-old question: cost over nutrition?  I will keep you posted on how my loaves turn out. Third, we were running low on butter earlier this week, and my daughter (10) announced that she wanted to make butter.  So, I sent her and her father off in the direction of the Google.  Thirty minutes later, we had homemade butter (the shakingshakingshaking of heavy cream).  But, my oldest son became enamored of it (as did many others in the house), and I think it now shall become a staple in the N