What's for dinner?

Oh dear! I had a lovely meal last night, heaped with cilantro (we call it coriander). I love it!

However I hate all aniseed, fenugeek & licoroce type flavours. I wonder if that is a gene too 🤔

Beatty,

That's sounds awesome,

I'm one of those people that only eat the black jelly beans. 😆

Do you like licorice allsorts Anxietynacy? (yum)

Cwillie yes, I make pizzelles for Xmas. It's an anis Italian cookie. There delishus

Nacy,

We have Angelo Brocato’s, an Italian bakery and gelato shop here in New Orleans. They have been open since 1905. My mom went there as a child.

Everything they make is delicious! I love Italian cookies, tiramisu, cannolis, gelato, etc.

They do ship. angelobrocatoicecream.com

I am with you on black jellybeans. They are my favorite!

Omg, my x is Italian, I love Italian bakeries. Any Italian paster you can't go wrong!

Nacy,

My husband is Italian! I only have a small amount of Italian heritage in my DNA. I am predominantly British. Most of my family came over from the greater London area.

Italians are wonderful cooks! We have delicious Italian cookies at all of our St. Joseph alters here in New Orleans.

New Orleans has tons of Italians. The only other place that has more Italian residents is New York.

Yes, the driver that took us to the swamp tours, was Italian, we drove by a lot of Spanish type homes, and a beautiful church. Then he showed us a tree in a back yard of someone's home , that was 500 years old. It was so beautiful. Spanish moss hanging all over it. I would of loved to of gotten a pictchure of it. We sat up front and chatted with him the whole ride

Lol, here i go again forgetting this is , what's for dinner. 😆

Nacy,

The swamp tours are fun. Did you eat any alligator when you were here?

It’s on some local menus. More often, it is seen in the Cajun areas of Louisiana.

People try to lump Cajun and creole cuisine together. There are similarities between these two cuisines but there are differences as well.

Oh the swamp tours where so much fun. I figured we would maybe see an alligator or two but wow, they were all over!!

My husband at some deep fried alligator bites. I just wasn't interested in trying alligator

Nacy,

Deep fried alligator bites are a popular appetizer. The Cajuns make alligator sausage.

There are lots of hunters in the Cajun areas of Louisiana and they will eat all sorts of things!

Louisiana is referred to as a sportsman’s paradise. I love our local seafood. Many people love fishing in our area.

Needs someone did explain the difference between creole and Cajun. But I don't really remember what they said.

I'm sure you have a lot of interesting people in rural Louisiana. I've read some books about the swamps and such and movies.

Nacy,

The easiest way to describe the difference between Cajun and creole food is that Cajun is ‘country style cooking’ and creole is ‘city style cuisine’ which is more refined cuisine.

It’s the way the food is prepared and cooked. For instance, a Cajun gumbo or jambalaya is prepared differently than a creole version. Sometimes, the ingredients are different too.

Both are delicious! I always get the Cajun gumbo at our jazz and Heritage Festival. The vendor is from Lafayette, Louisiana. I love the Cajun food in Lafayette.

Paul Prudhomme brought Cajun food to New Orleans. He worked as a chef at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. (Garden District)

Ella Brennan hired him. Then he opened up his own restaurant, K-Paul’s, in the quarter. He died several years ago. Very sweet guy who trained many of our fine chefs. Paul was from Opelousas, Louisiana.

There is a restaurant, a town near me, Saratoga, where the horse races are. Hattie's, it's so good. We go there once in a great while. Pretty sure she came from new Orleans. I think they are actually opening one in Albany. She passed, so I'm not sure if it's sold or if her children run it.

Nacy,

Yes, if the owner is a native of Louisiana the food will be good. Otherwise, I wouldn’t trust it as being authentic cuisine of Louisiana.

Too many people think that Louisiana cooks just dumps hot spices into a dish and then they consider it Louisiana cooking.

Louisiana cooks season their food but it is so much more than that. We draw from many different cultures in our cooking.

Of course, the French brought over the wine and cooking with a roux.

The Spanish influenced our jambalaya recipe. It’s similar to their paella.

The Germans brought over the beer. The slaves from Africa influenced our gumbo recipes.

The Italian families brought their Sicilian cuisine to Louisiana.

And so on…

Yes this is very authentic, she is actually rather famous for are area, but I'm thinking it's going to get to big and it won't be the same.

Nowadays on Magazine St. here, we have many middle eastern restaurants.

One of my favorite restaurants on Magazine Street is Tal’s. It’s an Israeli restaurant that is excellent!

They also own another restaurant next door that is very good too, Misa, a Mediterranean restaurant.

We have Indian food on Magazine Street too. It really is a blend of cultures.

Just looked at the Hattie’s menu. Looks fantastic!

CWillie, we had the pickle soup in a polish restaurant. It wasn't creamy and the pickles were grated.

When I prepare it, if it's good :-) I will give the recipe. Otherwise the next time I fix it I will :-)

Reviewing recipes on-line and came across one that sounds very much like the soup we had do I thought I would share.

Eatingeuropean.com dill pickle soup, traditional polish recipe.

Is it sweet or dill pickles? My favorite is spicy pickles. I can’t eat them often because of my high blood pressure. Too much sodium. Grrrr…

Amazing how that beef stew has turned out!
Huge pieces of country style ribs, fresh potatoes, fresh carrots, fresh green onions, dried onions, and canned cheater sauces: 3 parts vegetable soup, 1 part tomato soup, Tbs. Kitchen Bouquet and seasonings, etc. Plus all the tiny veges in the vege soup. Enough soup to cover all ingredients.

Had to take the meat out and cook 20 min. in the pressure cooker, then back into the sauce. So tender! (Did not plan ahead when I started browning the meat.)

So, we ate.
It is the end of the month-comfort food.
Nothing on hand to go back in history and cook (what are they called?)
(You drop bisquick mix into the stew at the end.... ??)

I love beef stew! Sounds delicious, Send.

Clean-up is just torture, continues today....
Very heavy huge pressure cooker. It maybe was worth it, I'll let you know.

In the meantime,

If the sky above you
Grows dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind begins to blow
Keep your head together
And call my name out loud
Soon you'll hear me knockin' at your door
You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I'll come runnin', runnin', yeah, yeah
To see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there, yes, I will.

I went to my doctor yesterday morning. Thankfully, my BP was fine. I am on two meds for it. My weight is about the same but my cholesterol went up.

I get so confused about what is best to eat. I feel like I eat fairly well. High cholesterol can run in families. It has in mine. I cannot take a statin due to having adverse reactions to it.

My doctor was telling me that she loves her air fryer to cook with. I don’t fry foods, but I might go ahead and buy one to try it out.

I am going to start drinking skim milk instead of 2 percent. She asked me to try almond milk.

I don’t eat a lot of red meat. I eat more chicken than beef. I love vegetables and eat those. I guess I should cut back on eating eggs for breakfast too.

Have any of you struggled with high cholesterol? What foods are you avoiding. Please share low cholesterol recipes with me.

Needs, the best air fryer is the ninja. It airfries and grills , I actually didn't like are old air fryer, got rid of it was done with them. Then someone bought this for us, it literally stayed in the box for a year and , one day I took it out out of boardom and , I use it constantly.

It's more expensive than others but it's great, couple people I know bought one after I did and they agree.

That's good about your bp , my cholesterol is borderline also. Has stayed that way for years. Was a little lower last time.

I have cut portion size of all meat. I'm not huge meat eater anyways. It is very confusing what to eat what not too. I get confused too.

Did your doctor mention walking and exercises.

Cheese and butter are my down fall. Oh and ice cream!

For low cholesterol snacks I like, skinny popcorn, belvita, There good breakfast gram biscuits. And I like nature valley wafer bars. I love pop tarts , can't see them as being healthy but the box says 0 cholesterol.

Nacy,

I do exercise. Maybe, not enough, 30 minutes a day.

Can you tell me the model # and size of your air fryer please?

Needs, ninja AG30, foodi 5-in-1. It's about 170 on Amazon. . It's a bit pricey compared to other but it's the best!

I think 30 minutes sounds good.I don't really exercise exercise, lol I just keep busy and walk . But haven't been doing a lot of that either. Boccie starts next week that is pretty good exercise.