Chicken Fried Gourmet

A weekend BBQ and a minor flood in Shreveport LA

This past weekend we had several opportunities to grill outside. On Saturday we went to one of the local lakes where they have a park and camping among other things. I had never been there but Ann had. Her brother was in town so we went with her parents and our 3 kids for an afternoon of hanging out at the lake and grilling burgers. For simplicity I really did not plan on grilling so I went and bought pre-made burger patties. All I did was grill these with some of my homemade ancho bacon bbqsauce. The lake was really nice and the kids had a fun time swimming. There was one thing about the lake that I did not enjoy , especially since I was grilling- I'll give you a hint....its the last picture in the slideshow. This "rule" was heavily enforced, park rangers came by about every 5-10 minutes on 4 wheelers to check on it. Other than that we had a good time, I just need to make friends with somebody who owns a house out there :)

Saturday night we grilled with our neighbors down the street. I brought some pork ribs I had previously cooked(sans bones) and some chicken wings. Robin(our neighbor) grilled some sirloins and mushrooms. He chopped up the sirloin and mushrooms once done and made sandwiches. These were so good, I might have to steal that recipe.

Sunday night I made a recipe from Bobby Flay's new book "Grill It". It is banana and Nutella sandwiches. It is a pretty simple recipe- grill some sliced french bread, top with sliced bananas, nutella and top with powdered sugar. Since I cannot leave well enough alone I added sea salt to the nutella ( TRUST ME ) and drizzled with some orange oil I made.

In other news we have had like 20 ft of rain over the past 24 hours, well really not that much but a lot. The whole city has experienced some kind of flooding and of course people are freaking out. They closed the schools today at noon. Of course by 1pm it was sunny and most of the water had gone down(typical Shreveport). We are supposed to get more tonight so we will see what happens.

Here are some pictures I took of the duck pond across the street from our house.

This is Sunday afternoon....

This is Wednesday afternoon, the water has already started to down from what it was...

Comfort food - shell pasta with fennel, pork and beef ragu

Some nights I want nothing more than to just make spaghetti and meat sauce. Usually if I am thinking about it I will make enough meatballs on a Sunday to feed us throughout the week. Now I am not talking about eating meatballs everyday, well I guess I am. What we usually do is have the traditional spaghetti and meatballs dish a few times and on other nights maybe a meatball sub or meatball sliders. They keep fairly well in the sauce and are easily reheated in whatever form we would like to use them in. Being in full spring mode now I find it difficult to sit down and cook like this at an early time when I could be outside enjoying the weather before it gets to the typical summer in Louisiana where it is 100 degrees and H U M I D.

An easy fix is meat sauce, not as labor intensive as meatballs and as close as you can get to a one pot meal. What I normally like to do is combine equal parts ground meat and ground pork, throw in some crushed fennell seeds, garlic, red pepper and saute away. Once browned I throw in some crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and chicken stock and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Throw in some pasta and you have dinner. It is easily reheated for lunch as the pictures below attest.

In other news my tomato garden is coming along pretty well.

       

Patton ave Block party with Pork belly and Mini-Burgers

This past weekend our street had its annual Block Party. We moved in here about two months before Ethan was born and he is now four years old. Over this time we have never been able to make it to one of these parties for one reason or another. This year was different. At first we started to get worried because usually we receive a flyer about a week before but eventually one made its way to our door.

For this party, you are asked to bring whatever it is you want to eat plus stuff to share. They say grills will be provided but I, like most people, prefer to grill on their own. You can also chip in $10 and get some crawfish as well. I am not sure where they got them but there is a place at the edge of our neighborhood in an old gas station that sells them. On a windy day, even though I can no longer eat crawfish(long story), the smell in the air is intoxicating.

I wanted to do something that would show off my culinary skills a well as be approachable and finger food. I decided on pork belly (surprise) with ancho bacon bbq sauce and a play on corn on the cob. I also cooked mini burgers from a recipe I found HERE that is basically 50% sirloin and 50% untrimmed brisket. People, go out and buy a meat grinder, you will N E V E R buy ground meat again. Trust me on this.

For the play on the corn on the cob, I pureed fresh and grilled corn with garlic, butter and heavy cream. I strained this mixture, seasoned it then put it in a ISI foamer. It is the consistency of a very light whip cream with all the taste of corn on the cob. It was served on spoons. The picture I had to do at home does not look appetizing - I know but it tasted damn good.

Some of the pictures had to be recreated at home due to a number of factors - lack of table space, getting dark, the amount of beer consumed etc......

Anyway my two neighbors on our end of the street brought their grills as well. They both cooked chicken and it was great. I did not get a picture of the chicken that Teddy made (SORRY) but it was really good as were the stuffed mushrooms.

The rest of the offerings are pretty self explanatory from the pictures.

All in all we had a great time and made some new friends, I look forward to future get togethers and hope I am not labeled the "freak down the street who does weird things with his food" :)

Tomato Garden

Yesterday I was feeling great, my mind was constantly processing thoughts on new food ideas and such and I felt very creative. Today not so much, I woke up and felt sick. I stayed at home all day and basically just slept and watched crappy movies on TV. My food mojo was dead, I didn't even feel like watching my TIVO'ed food shows.

Over the past few weekends I have been steadily getting my tomato garden ready for planting. Over the past few years I have been planting in some old whiskey barrels but this year I decided to build a raised bed. It is 8 feet by 4 feet and is filled with organic potting soil designed specifically for tomatoes and herbs. Right now there are about 25 or so different varieties of tomatoes,herbs and peppers. Every time I go to the local Wal-Mart/Lowes or garden store I add a plant or two. I may need to build another box.

BTW the 2x4's sticking above the ground around the box are strictly for support/level while the box "settles".

My birthday, Canon SLR, Mini Burgers and Honeydew Melon Margaritas

I apologize for the time between posts. It seems like everything is going so fast and there is not much time to just sit down and just type out my thoughts. Although I have not posted frequently, I am still cooking on a daily basis and hope to document everything soon.

A couple of things are going to be happening soon. I have been working on a project that “some” of you may already know about. It will be a big thing for me, as well as for this site, I will let everyone know once the details get nailed down. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time and with the help of a few friends "I Think" it is going to happen.

I also just received a new camera for my birthday. In the past I have used a digital point and shoot but have just acquired a Canon SLR that I think will bring a new quality to the pictures for this site. Until I can sit down and start formulating more posts here is a ‘snapshot” from this weekend.

Now on to the food, we made mini-burgers/sliders this past weekend. I came across a recipe for making your own ground beef using 50% top sirloin and 50% untrimmed brisket. This mixture worked out pretty well and yielded a very juicy burger. I topped mine with onions sautéed with beer and added blue cheese. We forgot to get potatoes for the fries so I found a bag of tater tots in the freezer – bad choice. The tots suffered from a bad case of freezer burn so I just ate extra burgers to compensate. We also made honeydew melon margaritas.

There is also a new tomato garden, that I am still working on, in my backyard.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Kiroli Park West Monroe LA (not food related)

This past weekend my 8 year old clone had a cub scout event at Kiroli park in West Monroe. This park is an oasis in the middle of the city(kinda). Here are some photos from our weekend in West Monroe.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Easter 2008 : Figgy Ham, carrots and pasilla, watermelon Oysters

Last year for Easter I experimented with some molecular gastronomy techniques I was just learning. This year I decided to rely on old favorites as well as trying new recipes, but nothing too out there.

You would think that living in the South you would be able to find rabbit meat pretty easy, well guess what - you cannot. For the past two years every time I visit this one store (who btw has great mexican ingredients) I see a whole cut up rabbit in their freezer section. Well knowing my luck, when I decide to go buy some two weeks before Easter they are out. I called the meat market manager and he said he has had trouble getting it lately. Is there a run on rabbit meat I do not know about???

I started calling around some places and you would not believe the responses I got. One place I called which bills itself as an upscale meat market basically thought I was speaking a foreign language( this is the same place I asked about duck confit and they were clueless). Another "meat market" I called was highly offended that I even asked for rabbit. They then proceeded to tell , before I even asked, "and no I do not know where you can get some". Excuse me, do you think those cows or chickens go gracefully? They sure as hell aren't lining up screaming "pick me,pick me" like you did in elementary school when the teacher asked the one question you knew.

Well to make a long story somewhat short I was unable to find rabbit. I did have one more option I was thinking of but the few people who I asked said it would be completely wrong to go to PETCO and asked for the "fat" rabbits. The dish I had wanted to do was a beer braised rabbit leg over fava beans and garlic aioli. It would have been good but oh well - maybe next year.

So without further suspense :) here is the menu that I settled on for Easter 2008

Carrot and Pasilla Soup shooters - two ways

Grilled Oysters with Watermelon Foam

Ancho Fig glazed Ham sandwiches with fig jam, garlic aioli and buttermilk biscuits(that did not rise)

Chocolate mousse with candied Kumquats and whipped cream

I did make some sauteed fava beans but they did not turn out so well :(

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

TCHO Chocolate from Blake Makes.com

A couple of weeks ago I was able to procure some free TCHO chocolate from Blake Makes. The only thing I had to do to get some of this free chocolate is sit at my computer around 8pm and hope to be one of the few people to be the first to comment on Blake's site. Once I was able to "win" this chocolate all I needed to do was sit and wait by the mailbox(impatiently I might add)to arrive and blog about it once it did.

Well it is here now and it is good. Well I say it is good, I have not tried it yet but it smells REALLY good. When I opened that little brown package I smelled chocolate like chocolate is supposed to smell - this is no Hershey's bar for sure.

I was told to just write about the taste and what not, I did not have to cook anything with it. Well I cannot just bring myself to do that, so my mind has been constantly spinning about what to do with it.

What do you think I should try?

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Issues with design and a question for my readers

Okay I am in the process of redesigning some elements of this blog and Typepad is not the easiest thing to use. For now, none of my links to other sites show up as well as my Flickr badge.

I do have a question for my readers though, before these past few weeks : has anyone had any trouble with my site?

Do the Flickr slideshows load correctly and in a timely manner?

Do the external links work?

Any feedback you can give will be much appreciated........

Oh and I am on Twitter now, username is Chickenfried

Thanks

Chicken Fried Gourmet

Balsamic Fig marinated ribeye with corn tortilla puree

So the other day I was at the store and came across a thick piece of ribeye that was priced fairly well. Since the ribeye contains more fat than I should consume on a daily basis (yes I know I contradict myself with previous posts) I usually only buy one and cut it in half to split between Ann and I.

I have this Fig-Balsamic vinegar in the fridge and decided to use this to marinate the steak along with some red wine,the usual spices  and olive oil. It ended up marinating for about 4 days before we decided to grill it. The weather here in Louisiana is crazy,last Thursday it snowed , the weekend was nice and sunny with temps in the 70's, this morning was 40 and ended up with a high of 70. You can see why outdoor grilling can be sketchy.

Anyway I usually pair grilled steak with some sort of grits concoction, but not this time. I am not sure why I thought of it but I took some corn tortillas and tore them into small shapes and added them to a pot with a little bit of olive oil. I sauteed these for about 5 minutes then covered with chicken stock. I brought it to a boil then simmered for about 10-15 minutes. I pureed then strained this mixture and kept it at a simmer while the steaks were cooking.

When ready to serve all I did was add a touch of milk to loosen the puree and added salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

For the sauce all I did was add the leftover marinade and some red wine, brought it to a boil then reduced to a syrup like consistency.

For an additional side I made a simple zucchini soup flavored with garlic and jalapenos. I was not too impressed with it as it was too "grassy" for me but Ann loved it.

BTW, my wife pointed out the seemingly "risky' pictures" of the puree........

Pork Belly Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche won something

Last year around this time I entered a small bite contest for an appetizer to be featured in a tasting menu put on by Joe DeSalazar from Foodie NYC. I entered a Crawfish Grits Croquette with Creole Mustard Foam and green onion "dust". I didn't win. This year he had the same contest but not for small bites. I entered my Pork Belly PBDDL that I made from the excellent Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche from Blake of BlakeMakes.com. I did clear it with Joe that I could submit a previously blogged about dish beforehand.

Well guess what....I won. You can see the write up here FoodieNYC. I was so excited that I won although I could not claim the prize - a seat at one of Joe's upcoming tasting menu dinners :( since I will not be in NYC anytime soon.

I did however find a person that I thought would thoroughly enjoy it - Lisa from HomesickTexan. She happily agreed to take the invite off my hands.

If you want to find out more about PBDDL go visit Blake Makes, you won't be disappointed. Today is is his birthday and he has some exciting news as well.

I also have to credit Joe with having such great taste to finally pick me as a winner....j/k but in all seriousness he did introduce me to one of my most listened to albums of the past year : The National's Boxer......people go check out this album.

Alright that is all for now, I have to go finish dinner and continue to work on my bubble gum recipes, yes you read that right :)

St Patrick's Day Parade Shreveport LA

This is the 1st year that this parade has happened here in Shreveport. It was put on by 4Shreveport to benefit an all access children's park for the handicap here in our neighborhood. It started at 10am this morning and circled several blocks. There was not a big turn out and that was a shame. It was really put together well and it was a great family atmosphere. Being irish myself it was hard not to crack open a Guinness at 10am, but hey 11am was not too far away :)

I really hope that they do this again next year and more people come out. At a time when some in this city want to take every Mardi Gras parade and move it to a parkway near the river(which I am totally against) it is nice to know that you can have something in your neighborhood that you can be proud of. Happy St Paddy's day everybody, enjoy your Monday and throw back a couple of Guinness' in honor of the Irish.

And just because this post has nothing to do with food here is a recipe for Guinness Chocolate Milkshakes.

Take one pint of Guinness and reduce it with about a 1/8 cup of sugar till it is a syrup. Place in fridge to cool. Once cooled take about 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream and place in a blender, add a liitle bit of Guinness syrup and about a 1/2 pint of fresh Guinness. Pour and enjoy.

Togarashi,Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche, Pretzel Ice Cream,Corn, El Bulli chocolates,ravioli, corn nuts,steak and BBQ sauce

Okay so I haven't really had time to create new posts although I have been cooking quite a bit recently. For now I would just like to leave you with some images to tide you over till I am able to make some proper posts. I have been experimenting with new ingredients, different flavors and have even just ordered a bubble gum making kit. Watch out world !!!

I realized after sitting at my computer and compiling all these images that it took just as long if not longer to make this post than it would a regular one. Oh well.

I do have some exciting news coming up, still working out the details.

Pistachio Pesto Pasta

                              

When going to the store on a weeknight after work I usually am picking up last minute ingredients for dinner. The other day I had one idea in mind and once I got to the store another had materialized. I had seen a picture of a pistachio pesto pasta dish on StarChefs the other day and at that time I knew I had to make it soon. As I was passing through the produce to get to the soup I passed a bag of pistachios. Right then I knew I had to make this dish.

After picking up a bag of pistachios I headed over to get some fresh basil and then make my way over to the wine and beer section. We already had pasta and parmesan cheese at home so no need to go down those aisles.

Once I got home the dish came together pretty easy, I googled a recipe for the pesto and came across several but settled on a combination of all of them. All you do is take a handful of chopped basil, about a cup of shelled pistachios,two to three cloves of garlic, a dash of crushed red pepper,1/2 cup of shredded parmesan,a few tablespoons of lemon juice , salt and pepper. You process this in a food processor or blender and slowly add about a half cup of extra virgin olive oil.

After this I put it in a jar and placed it in the fridge to allow the flavors to marry while I cooked the pasta. Once the pasta was done I added about three generous spoonfuls of the pesto to a saute pot and added about a half a cup of pasta water. I heated this over low till the two ingredients formed a sauce. I tossed this with the pasta and added grated parmesan cheese on top. There you have it, an easy weeknight dish. It was very flavorful and filling despite having no protein associated with it.

Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche from Blake Makes and Pork Belly

A little while back I came across a blog on the Seriouseats.com website named Blake Makes. What caught my eye was that he was from New Orleans. Since then we have traded emails and I would have to say we have formed an “internet friendship”. Blake’s blog is fairly new but the content on there already is amazing. He has some great things coming up for his site as well that I am excited about.

About two weeks ago I get a message to check out his site. I do, and find that he is giving away a batch of peanut butter dulce de leche that he had made. It arrived on my doorstep about 4 days later. The idea behind this promotion, SOOPZ, is to get a product out there and have people cook with it, then blog about it. Pretty good idea, but I would not expect any less from a guy who runs his own marketing firm.

I wanted to do something different with the PBDDL (surprise) and not follow the usual theme of making a dessert with it ( no offense to all the others – those brownies look great). My first thought was pork belly. The inspiration came from Sam Mason's Tailor, where he does a miso-butterscotch pork belly. As you can tell from previous posts this is one of my favorite meats to prepare recently. I wanted to do just simple flavors with the PBDDL so there is really not a lot of things going on with this dish other than the usual accompianents.

I started by marinating the pork belly in a mixture of PBDDL, bourbon, fresh garlic and olive oil. I then vacuum sealed it and put it in the fridge for 3 days. From the start the dish was made to be of smaller proportion. Originally we were going to have this on Saturday night with friends where we all made two small dishes. It would sort of be like Tapas but not Spanish themed. Everything was on track till Louisiana’s crazy weather sidelined two of the couples with flu like symptoms. Since I had already spent so much time on the dish I decided to just go ahead and make it the main course.

                   

I wanted to have as few ingredients as possible in order for the PBDDL flavor to come through. I settled on some micro arugula dressed in balsamic dressing with crushed peanuts to top it off. I added a “paint” of the PBDDL under the belly and added 3 drops of balsamic syrup to cut the sweetness of the PBDDL. All day Friday I kept obsessing on if I should add a “base” to the dish. My old standby of grits would take away from the idea of the dish and besides I wanted something new, something that would stand out. I came up with two ideas and actually made them both. Right before I plated the dish was when I made my decision. The two ideas both involved sweet potatoes as I assumed they would balance well with the pork and the PBDDL. The 1^st idea was a sweet potatoe and ancho foam that would sit under the belly but on top of the paint.The foam would have more of a consistency of a very light whip cream rather than a froth. The 2^nd idea, and the one I went with, was a sweet potatoe ice cream. It follows a basic ice cream recipe but I add two roasted sweet potaoes then strain before making the custard. Looking back I would have added more sweet potatoes for a more pronounced flavor. It was still good though.

This dish was a hit. It was filling but not to the point where you felt like you had to save up to go see your cardiologist. The ice cream palyed well with the swettness of the PBDDL and the savoriness of the pork belly. Other than adding more sweet potatoes to the ice cream, I would not change anything about this dish. Much thanks go out to Blake of BlakeMakes.com, I look forward to what he has to offer in the future and hope to contribute myself. If you can get your hands on some of his Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche I highly reccomend it. The possibilities are endless.

A few things

Two big announcements, 1 good 1 not so good

You can now find us at www.chickenfriedgourmet.com both addresses should still work but now it is easier to type in.

         

EDIT : I almost forgot - the whole reason for the above change is thanks to Dave who I met through Carla. Thanks buddy :)

and now for the not so good news : one of my favorite restaurants in my adopted hometown of West Monroe is closing. Canards is calling it quits come Friday February 1st 2008. I attribute it to a number of factors, Cory starting his own place, the lack of clientle in the city and just the overall impression of going out to eat in West Monroe. Check out the short article here and see if you can figure out which comment is mine ;)

          

Grilled Chicken with Pears, Balsamic Pear Gastrique and Pear Nectar Foam

A few weeks ago Ann wanted to do a simple Sunday dinner of just chicken with some fresh pears. We were at the grocery store at the time and I asked her if she wanted a salad and she was like, no just chicken and pears - something simple. Immediately my mind started thinking how I could make this more complicated but still just use a few ingredients.

What I came up with is this : Pear nectar and balsamic grilled chicken with sliced fresh pears, pear balsamic gastrique with a pear nectar foam.

It was pretty easy to put together. I bought a couple of cans of pear nectar and used one for each recipe. For the gastrique I combined 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar and about a 1/2 can of pear nectar. I brought it to a boil and then let it reduce to about 1/4 of its original volume. I set this aside to cool.

For the foam all I did was to incorporate some lecithin with the nectar and used a handheld bender to foam it up. Even if you don't have lecithin you could probably do the same thing, just try to incorporate more air into it to hold the foam or just add a little bit of egg whites.

The chicken was marinated in a mixture of olive oil, pear nectar, balsamic vinegar and garlic then grilled till done.

The dish was really good and seemed very light, not heavy at all. Other than my wife's great choice in men(me) she sometimes has some other great ideas. :)

Fizzy Cranberry Vodka Spheres

These were originally planned for the Christmas Eve dinner at the in-laws. I got the idea from Jose andres' Minibar where he does a "fizzy mojito". The 1st round of experiments did not turn out to well. I was able to finally get it right about a week after Christmas. I got most of my information for the idea from the EG Forums and actually from one of Minibar's chefs - Chef T. I originally thought the idea of cranberry and vodka would go well with Christmas and it actually worked out well once I was able to execute it accordingly.

The recipe is a mix of vodka, cranberry juice, and a splash of lime. This cocktail is thickened with xanthan gum and then calcium chloride. It is frozen in a spherical ice cube tray and then put into a sodium alginate mixture to form a shell. This process is referred to as reverse spherification since normally the sodium alginate is added to the internal mixture. This process stops the sphere from continually hardening, the outer shell is firm but the inside is still liquid. Once theu were "spheres" I carefully added them to the ISI and added a little bit of the cranberry vodka mixture to cover(too much it turns out) and then charged them with two CO2 cartridges for 3-4 hours.

They turned out pretty good but they were not as "fizzy" as I thought they would be. The taste was definitely there just not the fizz.

I think I added too much extra liquid which absorbed the CO2 and not the spheres. Oh well, at least I have a base recipe to try out other things.

Christmas 2007

Sorry for the belated post on this one, I have had a lot going on. As anyone with a family and in laws know, Christmas time can be a little hectic. Everyone wants you at their house and sometimes it feels like you are being pulled in many different directions ( alcohol can numb these feelings btw). Luckily we have settled into a routine for the holidays. For Christmas Eve we go over to Ann's parent's house here in Shreveport for a late night dinner with the whole family( about 12 people including spouses). This year we had the idea that each person would bring one dish "tapas sized". Well I could not just settle on one dish so I went with the idea of upscale bar snacks. For Christmas day everyone came over to our house where I was in charge of the whole meal, this may change next year although I feel I will be a little hesitant to relinquish full control. Yes I have issues :)

Lately I have been trying out different flavor combinations and the upscale bar snacks I wanted to try for Christmas Eve were no different. I had heard about a bar in Chicago, the Violet Hour, that served curried rice krispy treats and I knew the minute I saw them I would have to track down a recipe. I came across the recipe I believe on CHOW.com  I also made the cocoa covered corn nuts and maple syrup pork rinds from Jose Andres’ Minibar. I had wanted to make a version of Minibar’s “fizzy mojito” using cranberry and vodka but I could not get the spheres to hold. I made the Passion fruit whiskey sour again and it was a big hit.

For Christmas day dinner it would be a little more involved.

Well for one the fried turkey did not work out. It was unusually cold Christmas day here in Louisiana and it took well over an hour to get the temperature of the oil over 350 degrees. Once I did and submerged the turkey I could not get it back up over 250 degrees. Needless to say the turkey did not cook all the way through and the skin did not even come close to crisping up. It was a major letdown and I was pissed. Luckily every year for Christmas my company gives us Omaha Steaks so instead of turkey we had grill sirloin marinated in rosemary and cane syrup over cheesy grits.

The foie gras crème brulee was interesting. I got the idea from Shola over at Studio Kitchen and he answered some of my questions about it. I had planned on going to Dallas the weekend before Christmas but we were unable to go. Finding Fresh Foie Gras in Shreveport is pretty much impossible. Luckily I had some Foie Gras mousse in the freezer left over from a trip to New Orleans some months back. I am sure that it was nowhere close to the same taste as fresh, but it was good.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Charbroiled Oysters

Foie Gras Crème Brulee

Bourbon Marinated Deep Fried Turkey

Chocolate Ice Cream with Smoked Oreos, Nutella and Orange Oil

not Food related but.................

                     NATIONAL CHAMPS

                                    LSU 38 - OSU 24

                       

                     

By the way, I have family in OHIO and they are BIG OSU fans. Lets see, a few days before the game I received a package from "OSU Santa" which was an OSU shirt that was not worn :) and my grandfather is probably the biggest OSU fan and works at every home game and just this past year was honored on the field for all his service. Gotta say though........................GEAUX TIGERS !!!!!!

and in honor of all things Louisiana here is a recipe for one of my favorite foods to eat courtesy of Nola Cuisine