A taste of the French Quarter...

Good morning!  A week ago we were strolling through the French Quarter and enjoying the sights, sounds and in particular the TASTE of New Orleans. This week we are back home in Wisconsin, where the sights and sounds are a little different.  Instead of blues, I have Barry Manilow playing on my kitchen CD player:

And instead of lush green balconies

this is the view from my front door:

No palm trees in Wisconsin, 

 

 only snow covered spirea...

But while I can't recreate the warmth and sunshine and joie de vivre that we so enjoyed last week, there are a few things I can attempt to re-capture.  I am, at heart, a Southern girl when it comes to my food preferences, and I was delighted to find this towel in the Quarter, which now proudly hangs on my kitchen island:

Did someone say simmerin' grits??!  

and sizzlin' bacon?!

BEST BACON EVER!!
Praline bacon (baked with a topping of brown sugar and pecans)
Recipe from a great New Orleans cookbook I found in the Quarter (more on that discovery in another post!)

So I turned a lazy (and cold) Sunday morning into my own little Cafe' du Monde and served up a little Louisiana flavor right in my own kitchen.   Besides the grits and bacon, orange juice, coffee and scrambled eggs, I tried my hand at French beignets. We sampled them last week and I brought home a mix to give them a try.  

Cafe' du Monde

Cafe' a la Scales

And here are my beignets...not a bad first attempt!  I'm really glad my husband does the dishes, though, as sputtering grease seemed to land everywhere!!

Cafe du Monde

A plate of small hot beignets

coated in a snow squall

of light powdered sugar

a dense cup of oh so hot

coffee with chicory

at 3:00am, near Jackson Square

Jazz and spice in the air

Before last call,

in the Big Easy

--Raymond Foss, 2005

Happy Tuesday!