Today I want to get a little personal--just a little bit. And it has to do with time, and cooking, and how there never seems to be enough food even after you spend hours cooking something that's supposed to last for days. It happens to us, our small family of two, and it happens to everyone else, I know.  It also has to do with what I've chosen to post on this blog for the past few years, and why, and some possible changes ahead.

The other day, at a crawfish boil (lucky!), a neighbor of ours was saying that he checked food orleans when he was looking for something to make for dinner (that is, quick) and couldn't really find many choices. Of course, I said, "That's about right."  He said, "Does it seem to you like everything on your blog takes about 3 hours to make?" I said, "[Gulp] Um...yes." And then followed with, "We usually cook those things on the weekends." Which is completely true, but for a busy dad looking for something to rustle up in a half hour, that kind of talk don't do much good.

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Hello, springers of spring.  At this very moment I'm thinking fondly of last week, when the sun was warm and welcome but there was still a cool breeze blowing down every narrow street in town...cause right now, it looks like the heavens are about to erupt in a deathly windstorm. Seriously though, we had some extremely beautiful days last week, little pink and white blossoms popping out everywhere, and it reminded me of living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in the spring, and just shaking off the heavy coats one day, realizing things were about to get awesomely beautiful. Spring always hit me hard in Fayetteville because the preceding winter always threatened to make a permanent hermit out of me.  In New Orleans, winter-into-spring is less abrupt, but still makes my soul feel right.

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If you've never had or heard of grillades and grits, then I apologize for not mentioning them earlier.  They're one of the two most wonderful things to eat for brunch in New Orleans (shrimp and grits being the other).  I've never been to anyplace in town for brunch that didn't offer one or both of these goodies.  Grillades (gree'-awds) are made of beef, veal, or pork; I haven't encountered a rabbit version yet, but I won't be surprised when I do.  The beef is a thin, flat cut of top round or chuck--something that can withstand a long, slow cooking.  It simmers in a pot with the trinity (onion, celery, bell pepper), garlic, and a little jalapeno--not traditional, but I really like it--until the rich broth thickens and intensifies, so what you get is a powerfully flavored beef "stew" that is perfect over creamy cheese grits.  This is a great Louisiana recipe to try if you're hankering for some thick, rich goodness but you don't feel up to stirring a roux, because you don't have to.  The small amount of flour used in the browning of the beef will produce all the roux you need.

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Because New Orleans (and all of Louisiana) is such a melting pot, and because Cajun and Creole dishes often have similar roots, including French, Spanish, Italian, African, Haitian, Cuban, German, and Native American, some of the distinctions between what's Creole food and what's Cajun food can be hard to make. In his book My New Orleans, chef John Besh explains that Creole gumbo pays tribute to a "rich variety of cultures and ingredients, whereas Cajun gumbo evolved as the essence of peasant food, a way to feed a large number of people making the very best of whatever meager ingredients were at hand," and John Folse's Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine extolls Creole cuisine as a "more sophisticated cousin" to Cajun cooking. Explanations like these work perfectly when comparing elegant Creole dishes to rustic cast-iron Cajun stews, but the waters grow murkier near a pot of jambalaya.

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Ah, September...I don't know what the weather's like where you are, but here in New Orleans, it's pretty darn wet.  But once the rains of Lee move northeast, we should get some fall-like weather, topping out around 75 degrees!  Practically winter.  I'm always ready to do some roasting as soon as the major summer heat subsides, and I'm jumping the gun a little here, but with good reason.  We're making this scrumptious jalapeno-roasted pork from Susan Spicer's wonderful cookbook, Crescent City Cooking, so we can use the leftovers in a Labor Day/Paul's Birthday jambalaya tomorrow.  Hooray!

[two pork shoulders (double recipe) about to go in the oven]

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Red beans and rice is one of the quintessential New Orleans dishes. You eat them on Monday--every Monday, if possible--after cooking them on Sunday and soaking them on Saturday night.  Monday was "wash day" in New Orleans, and became the traditional day for eating red beans because they could be cooked all day with little fuss while doing other chores.  I love to make huge batches and freeze them in meal-size portions, so each Monday morning I can set one container out to thaw and dinner is planned.  Make up some fresh rice, heat the beans, and get some pickled onions...oh yes, the pickled onions.  More on those later.

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I'm going to keep this simple: I believe it's impossible for anyone to not like Mondo.  Susan Spicer's intent with this new restaurant, located in Lakeview, was that every diner would find something to his or her taste, and the carefully crafted menu accomplishes this task.  It might be true that any restaurant serving pizza can boast that it satisfies even finicky eaters.  But what Mondo does is sneak subtle culinary lessons into even the tamest plates, so that nonadventurous patrons will feel satisfied and enlightened at the same time.  Here are some examples, from our first Mondo visit, of the easy-to-enjoy twists put on comfortable classics.  First, our snack of caramel-bacon popcorn:

Do you like caramel corn? Then you like caramel-bacon corn.

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