I Know How to Catch a Cab

In Matters of Darkness

 

my dad's backyard during a hail storm

 

…. I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

 

T. S. Elliot,  from The Four Quartets:  East Coker

My Kind of Safety Measure

More on the July 4th Crawfish Boil

I hope you enjoyed the earlier post about the crawfish boil and how to make the best of the leftoevers. If you missed it, find it here. I also wanted to share two recipes that a new friend of mine made and brought as dessert to the boil.

I met Laila through Yelp and thought she was super nice so I invited her to the party. She offered to bring a dessert, and having my hands full, I accepted the offer. This turned out to be a smart move because her dish was AH-mazing and such a refreshing break from the spicy crawdads.  Seriously. Whenever someone would take their first bite, they'd say, "Oh My God." Every. time. 

Soooo what did she make you wonder? Why....blueberry cobbler and homemade ice cream of course. So American and sooooo good. The blue berries were hand picked and the home-churned lemon-ginger ice cream was wildly flavorful. 

The cobbler recipe can be found here at her blog, Rice and Beans and Collard Greens and the ice cream recipe is here. She such a sweet lady. I look forward to getting to know her better and maybe, hopefully getting to taste more of her creations.

"A" Shares Her Story

 

he takes good photos

Even with a small readership and a very inconsistent post schedule, somehow this blog has managed to inspire people. I've gotten messages from readers saying that they can relate to my story and find inspiration from my journey. One such reader shared her story with me, and I hope that reading it sparks something positive in one of you.

Dear Bugeyed Lindsay,  

A year ago I was miserable.  I was living in a far away land (Charlotte, North Carolina) under the spell of an evil prince....

Okay, so I was dating a jerk and deep down I guess I always knew he was a jerk but I loved his daughter so much, and she reminded me of myself. I never wanted her to feel about her parents the way I feel about mine so I tried to make it work with her father.  I also wanted to get away from everyone and everything I knew in Louisiana.  I wanted to not have to listen to my mother complain about her mother, while sounding and acting just like her.  I wanted to live in a place where no one knew my name....or where I grew up...or who I had dated....or what I had done the previous week.  I wanted to escape from my life.  So I graduated from college, packed my truck and drove off to my new home.

Sadly I began to realize that I had moved across the country to be with a man who was not anything that he advertised he was.  He wasn't a good father.  He wasn't a good partner.  He wasn't a hard worker.  He wasn't faithful or honest or true to his word.  It was hard to believe the little voice inside who knew the truth, especially when this man lied to me everyday.  It took all the strength I had to pick up the phone and call my mother and ask for her help.   It took every fiber of my being to come back to a city that I thought had failed me...to a family that had turned their backs on me. The first 6 months were a struggle.

For months I questioned why I had come home.  It certainly wasn't because New Orleans had become so peaceful that the crime rate had dropped.  It wasn't because my family had stopped being insane.  It wasn't just because the saints were destined to win the super bowl. 

I struggled to pick up the pieces of my life.  To figure out who I was and who I wanted to be.  Each day was a new day to learn from my experiences...to find pleasure in the simple things...to find solace in my friends. 

In moving away I got what I thought I wanted.  It turned out to be a year long taste of vanilla flavored boredom and it made me realize that sometimes it's nice to have someone know your name...like Gene at The Grocery.  I walked in the door to my favorite sandwich shop after having been gone for a year and he called out my name and asked me where I had been.  I replied "no place good, but I'm home now" and I was. 

After settling in I went on my first vacation in years.  It was my first time out of the city since my return and I finally felt at ease.  I knew where my home was.  I knew that my relationship with my city was a give and take and I finally accepted that I might be alone for the rest of my life.  I accepted who I was and I was finally content just being me.  I think that's the reason I finally met the right man. 

I had come home to heal.  I had come home to have a pressed poboy at The Grocery and have Gene remember me.  I had come home to go back to working at one of the best restaurants in this city (which I have come to manage over the last few months). I had come home to be close to my niece who is one of the most beautiful, amazing people I have ever known and I am excited to watch her graduate in May.  I had come home to start repairing all of the relationships in my life that needed mending.  And as I discovered on July 4, 2010 I had come home to meet the male version of myself.  My other half.  The person who would come to love and understand me like no other.  

I discovered there really is no place like home and I'm happy to be here. 

XOXO,

A

Favorite Things about Summer

love 

family

traveling

my boyfriend takes good photographs

How to Make the Most of Crawfish Boil Leftovers

My boyfriend is from California, and being the ambitious soul that he is, he wanted to tackle a task that most life-long Louisiana residents don't even attempt. He threw a crawfish boil AND boiled everything HIMSELF. Daring - I know. If you follow only this blog and don't know me in real life, which is probably not the case, you may be thinking "BOYFRIEND? You never told us about a boyfriend." Well, I didn't because I didn't want to jinx, and I still don't. It's actually quite a magical story, but like I said, not going to jinx it. Let's just call him "some guy I know". Anyway, some guy I know threw a wildly successful crawfish boil. He had lots of friends there as did I.

 

Everyone enjoyed the Star-spangled Jello Shots, most claiming that they were the best ever. Hooray for a whipped cream center. Recipe Here

Everyone also enjoyed the music. The neighbors opened their windows, turned up their speakers and their computer to play a Pandora station. The station they played was based on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and surprisingly made for a very good party mix. If you haven’t heard of the website Pandora. Check it out at www.Pandora.com. Users type in a band that they like and the site creates a playlist of artists that have the same sound.

Back to the food...We boiled lots of veggies including onions, bell peppers, corn-on-the-cob,  artichoke, potatoes (red, white and blue), and garlic. 

Not wanting anyone to leave hungry, "some guy I know" ordered 100 lbs. of crawfish so we had lots to spare. Two of my friends sat there and peeled over two pounds with the agreement that I'd make something good with the leftovers. So I made crawfish enchiladas. This recipe is similar to the one that my family uses.

We had two big bowls of vegetables left over as well, and I wasn't about to let them go to waste because they had so much spicy flavor. I bought some shrimp and canned tomatoes and threw together a lovely spicy soup. Louisianans never throw anything edible away. We just add butter.

Lindsay's Leftover Crawfish Boil Shrimp Soup

Leftover Crawfish Boil Veggies:

 5-10 ears of Corn-on-the-Cob (decobbed)

1 or 2 Bell Peppers (chopped)

2 or 3 Onions (chopped)

5-10 Cloves of Garlic (chopped)

Fresh Veggies:

1 Onion (diced)

3 Ribs of Celery (diced)

4 Stalks of Green Onions (diced)

1 cans Diced Tomatoes

1 small can Tomato Sauce

1 Can Tomato Paste

2 cans Seafood Stock

Equal Part Flour 

Equal Part Oil or Butter

1. Make roux with Flour and Oil or Butter.
2. Saute fresh onions, celery, green onions in roux until soft.
3. Add tomato paste, stir.
4. Add crawfish boil veggies and seafood stock to bring to desired consistency. Simmer 30 minutes
5. Stir in shrimp and cook until shrimp cooked.