Ella Brennan Inspired ...

Sometimes you just have to go to a place where the food and the atmosphere pull you in, wrap around you, and make you settle back in total comfort - a place of happy people, happy food, and happy music.  Ella Brennan has played her game on that premise for many, many years! She has been a signature presence in the restaurant business for most of her life, starting young in her brother's New Orleans restaurant as a kitchen grunt and working her way up to menu development and front house management. When his restaurant ran into financial trouble, she took over and as they say, ''the rest is history". She has spent her years creating just the kinds of places of which I speak!

                                                                                                               photo by Steven Forster of the Times-Picayune

Okay, so that's the back story ... let's come forward. She is considered the grande dame of New Orleans haute creole/cajun, has worked with the likes of Prudhomme and Lagasse, has a chain of successful restaurants that the family runs, has stepped back because of age and family factors but still keeps a presence in the New Orleans Restaurant, Commander's Palace. Her awards are many, but when all is said and done, she is really just an excellent hostess with impeccable taste in food and style ... and a great business sense! What a lady!

Mussels Stuffed with Union Square Café's Recipe

Heard my hard luck story on mussels? I had grand plans to post Melissa Hamilton's recipe for broiled mussels last Thursday, had all the ingredients except the freshest of mussels. Went to get them at the market and horrors! there were none to be had ... well, THAT post went by the boards! Yesterday, I was researching other shellfish recipes and found this delectable stuffing for littleneck clams, but I thought ... my! that would be terrific over the top of  mussels! Off to the market again and score! The freshest of mussels, a bit of white wine, orange zest and juice, vegetables and just a dusting of bread crumbs. Voila! A platter of mussels, a salad, and white wine for dinner!

Chicken and Red Lentil Soup

Soup and crackers ... one of the simplest and most wonderful of comfort foods.

I am trying to be positive about my life right now, but boy, when changes come along that you really don't want to acknowledge, it's time for comfort food and a whack up side of the head. Well, I got my whack the other evening when I had the epiphany that I REALLY need to lose weight  ... for my health, for my comfort, for my self-image, for my husband and kids, for posterity, for every good reason in the world. Won't go into the gory details, but let's just say that I decided to finally do something about my situation.

So ... to keep myself honest, I'm divulging my big step. I joined Weight Watchers.

The Most Beautiful Walk In the World

I walked the dog today ... it was grey and chilly and the trees were groaning and clacking together in the breeze and spooking Mimi as we made our way down our dirt road, across the state highway, up over the hill and into the village. Two big Newfoundlands bellowed at us, as they lumbered around in their yard. They made Mimi jump and jolted me out of my daydream about this book that I've been reading.

Building a Better Pizza ...

 ... vegetables and lean meat under some cheese

I love thick snowy white crusted pizzas that are loaded with cheese and sausage and peppers and mushrooms, but ... my backside and midriff don't so much. Sooo ... I'm making a pizza with a higher fiber crust, some very lean chicken, broccoli florets, red pepper slices, a bit of onion slivers, a more reserved amount of part-skim mozzarella ... and some herbs and garlic.  I'm also cutting way back on the amount of olive oil that gets slathered, the dollops of basil pesto that would get dropped, and the salty black olive bits. I'll def miss those salty bits and all that herb-y slather, but ... this will still be a great pizza!

Two Words ...

... pineapple Pisa ...

Sicilian Tomato Sauce ... A Basic

Horrors! There were no fresh mussels at the market today, so I am faced with delaying my end of the week 50 Woman Game-Changers post ... there were some nice vine-ripened tomatoes, though. So ... I am making a couple tomato-based dishes in the next few days. A young friend has asked for a good Italian 'gravy' recipe. I guess I might just as well use this time to post for him, Jeff Smith's Fresh Tomato Sauce - Sicilian Style!

Venison Sloppy Joes

If you went to public school, you KNOW the Sloppy Joe shuffle. My elementary school had Sloppy Joes on Mondays ... surely a way to use up any burger that had languished in the fridges over the weekend and the burger buns from Friday's hamburger and hotdog lunch ... it was also such an easy recipe that it got the lunch ladies back into their work week with minimal effort.  The Sloppy Joe lunch always had carrot and celery sticks alongside and some sort of canned fruit in those sad-looking plastic dishes behind the glass shelf shields. A carton of milk, napkin, straw, and there you have it ... public school lunch fare!