Friday Food: In New Orleans

We were in New Orleans all week, as you will see in our food. 

Also in photos. This is definitely not New Mexico.

Friday

Short version: Overpriced airport pizza and very late scrambled egg sandwiches

Long version: Our total travel time this day from our house in New Mexico to our rental house in New Orleans was 13 hours. We had a long layover in Dallas on our way to New Orleans. Although I had brought food with me, it was not enough to sustain my children--particularly my always-ravenous sons--for 13 hours. I had planned on getting them dinner in Dallas, so that is what we did.

They all wanted pizza. A. had Chinese food.

When we got to our rental house at 10 p.m., they were all hungry again. I literally had nothing with which to feed them except carrot sticks and some beef jerky. A. had immediately gone to find a convenience store in the hopes of getting bread, eggs, and butter for breakfast the next morning. He returned with Bunny bread, eggs, and margarine, with which I made scrambled eggs sandwiches.

I did not tell my children they were eating margarine. I'm pretty sure they'd never had it. They did note the eggs seemed kind of greasy, but they ate them anyway.

Saturday

Short version: Pork chops, andouille sausage, fried potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, ice cream

Long version: There is a local New Orleans grocery store called Canseco's that has a location just a mile from our rental house. I, of course, was up in the morning way before anyone else was awake, so I took the opportunity to go to Canseco's when they opened at 7 a.m.

This is a small market with narrow aisles. There were workers everywhere stocking shelves for Thanksgiving and it was literally almost impossible to get around the store. For this reason, I did not spend as long looking around as I might have, instead grabbing things as I saw them and getting out of there as soon as I could.

Here's everything I got:

Zoom in if you're really curious.

Food is pretty cheap in New Orleans. I bought enough for four dinners and breakfasts, including meat, plus various snacks and treats like ice cream and Oreos, and it was still less than two hundred dollars.

As soon as I got back to the house, I cooked the entire five-pound bag of potatoes I had bought, just to have them ready to go. I couldn't find a peeler or paring knife in the kitchen of our house, so I just boiled them all whole.

We spent this day in the Garden District and the French Quarter. Everyone was very tired by the time we got back to the house around 5 p.m. Thankfully, the kitchen in this house was quite well stocked, with lots of spices and even olive oil and vinegar. I coated the pork chops I had bought with mustard, mayonnaise, and spices and broiled them. I chopped some of the potatoes and fried them in butter and olive oil, as well as the andouille sausage.

I had bought a big container of washed "baby greens" and some grape tomatoes, with which I made a salad every night. The dressing was made with the oil and vinegar I found at the house.

I found Blue Bell ice cream, which is made in Texas and is really good, and bought half gallons of cookies and cream and pecan pralines and cream. Yum.

Sunday

Short version: Crawfish, shrimp, mashed potatoes, salad, ice cream, Oreos

Long version: I bought prepared crawfish tail meat and shrimp which I cooked this night. The shrimp I just coated in butter and lemon juice and broiled. The crawfish I fried in butter and then added mustard, mayonnaise, cream, and lemon juice to it to make a sauce. This I served over the potatoes that I had made by just peeling and chunking up some already cooked potatoes and simmering them in milk until they were soft and I could mash them with a fork.

Those of us who are not fans of seafood had leftover pork chops.

I found both peanut butter Oreos and birthday cake Oreos that I got for everyone to try. Neither one was as good as original Oreos. They both had an artificial taste. I mean, they were eaten, but I think we would all have been happier with regular Oreos.

Monday

Short version: Chicken thighs, broiled potatoes, salad, last of the ice cream

Long version: Before we left for our day of plantation and swamp tours, I put the boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a marinade of mustard, olive oil, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and a spice blend I found at the house called Trader Joe's 21 Spice Salute (I think). I had thought I would broil the chicken, but that was taking too long, so I ended up frying it in a skillet. 

The potatoes I just chunked up and broiled with olive oil, butter, salt, and pepper.

None of the cookware at this house was big enough for the quantity of food I have to cook, which made it kind of challenging. I got it done, though.

Tuesday

Short version: Po'boys

Long version: This was not my plan for dinner. I had a lot of leftovers from previous nights that we were going to eat this night to use them up before leaving for home the next day.

Plans changed, however, when I got a message from our Airbnb host saying that her cleaning crew was there getting the house ready for the next guests and our personal belongings were still there.

Our things were still there because we weren't flying out until the next day. But I had mistakenly ended our reservation a day too early and never noticed until right then.

Thus ensued a very stressful half hour or so as I confirmed that yes, our flights were definitely the next day, as was our rental car return, so all we needed was somewhere to stay for the one night.

Well, and we needed to go right back to our original house and pick up all our things, which the cleaning crew had gathered up and stored in the garage for us until we could get there. They were very nice about it, and the host really was very understanding and helpful, but it was still less than ideal.

I had quickly made a new Airbnb reservation on my phone for a renovated historic shotgun house in the Riverside district of New Orleans. This happened to be just half a mile from a famous New Orleans po'boy restaurant called Domelise's. We went right to our new house from our old one without time to eat lunch. As we were driving to the new house, I saw Domelise's in the neighborhood and we decided to go there right before they closed at 3 p.m. to get po'boys for a late lunch.

Poppy and I got ham and cheese; two boys got shrimp; one boy and A. got oyster. All were very much enjoyed. There were some leftovers from a couple of sandwiches, which I wrapped up and brought to the new house. They were eaten later for dinner. 

Behind the counter at the po'boy place (and bar). Note the giant beer glass inscribed with "I'll Bet You Can't." 

Also for dinner, sort of, were some Zapp's Spicy Cajun Crawtators, which are a New Orleans brand of kettle potato chips, plus more of the Oreos that I set out on the porch in the evening when we sat and watched the traffic go by.

The cleaning crew had bagged up most of the food in the refrigerator of our first house, with the exception of the leftover meats and potatoes that had been in covered bowls owned by the house. I guess they threw those away, alas, but we got everything else and brought it with us to our new house. It was a fun place to stay for the one night, but the kitchen was much smaller and not as well-equipped.

I had to cook eggs in the morning in this pot, because there was no skillet in the kitchen.

Wednesday

Short version: Gas station burritos, tortillas and cheese and hot milk at home, finally

Long version: I used the rest of the loaf of bread and various leftovers--crawfish, ham and cheese, peanut butter and jelly--to make eight sandwiches that were eaten over the course of our 13-hour travel day. 

We had a three-hour drive from the airport to get home. I ran out of food completely in the first hour and was loathe to stop and get more overpriced restaurant food. So instead we stopped at a gas station near-ish home where I got beef and bean burritos for everyone to keep them happy for the last hour or so. Way better deal at $1.25 per burrito than fast food. 

When we got home at 8 p.m., the children had hot milk along with tortillas and cheese before collapsing into their beds.

Thursday

Short version: Thanksgiving Salisbury steaks with onion/milk gravy, rice, peas, collards

Long version: Although I bought a turkey for Thanksgiving and could technically have kept in the refrigerator to thaw while we were gone, I had no interest in cooking a big meal after our trip. I announced Sunday would be our turkey day.

We didn't eat any red meat while we were gone--New Orleans is a pork and seafood culture--and I wanted some. Thus, Salisbury steaks. Very good they were, too. I got the gravy just right this time, using the milk we stopped specifically to get on the way home.

A. and I had the collards; the children had the peas.

Refrigerator check:

A mostly-empty post-vacation refrigerator is very handy for fitting a thawing turkey.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?