Saturday, October 15, 2016.
Ox Lot 9 For Dinner. Brilliant Idea In My Sleep.
Yesterday, I awoke at five in the morning with what would prove to be a brilliant idea for getting my lawn tractor back to work. It occured to me in the dream that if I install a new, screw-down valve stem on the wheel with the flat tire, the washers and rubber seals on the stem might hold enough air for me to trim a big chunk of the Cool Water Ranch's two acres of grass.
That worked! All that remained was to take the tractor down from the prop we put under it so I could rotate the wheel. ML's fiance Dave had lifted it up atop a stack of boards. But I don't have Dave's 25-year-old strength, he doesn't have my bad ankle, and he's in Washington, D.C. I manage to lower the old unit by knocking away one support board at a time.
All that was left was to turn the starter key. The mower started instantly! I drove onto the prairie and cut all the cuttable grass. I love it when plans break through all the puzzles and disasters and begin to function normally.
The lawn was hot and dry, in some spots kicking up clouds of dust. It took me a little over two hours to run through all of it. I clean up and take a nap, then meet for dinner with Mary Ann and our friends the Swifts.
For the first movement of this massacree, I must explain that our daughter Mary Leigh has a cottage industry in making reservations for us and others by way of Open Table. She gets points for doing that, and accumulates enough credits that she can dine out with big discounts, or even for free. Sometimes MA calls ML to make an Open Table reservation for a restaurant we will enter only a minute or two later. Does this qualify as gaming the system?
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Ox Lot 9's Charcuterie board[/caption]
I am the first to arrive at Ox Lot 9 in the Southern Hotel, where MA asked me to meet her. It turns out that this was just a gathering, after which we'd cross the street to have dinner at Del Porto. But by the time everybody is in the same place, I have a cocktail order in the works, and discussed the specials with the waiter. Who tells me that he used to work on one of the six radio stations associated with mine. (Only 500 people live here, as this comes closer to proving.)
Doug and Karen Swift have been friends since Jude's two years at Jesuit, where their son also matriculated. Since then we have watched our sons as they move through the same stages of life, but we have many other matters of mutual interest. I always look forward to dining with them.
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Ox Lot 9's Mussels.[/caption]
The dinner is good, too. I put in an order for Ox Lot 9's charcuterie board while still waiting for the others to show up, then add some cheese to it at MA's request. Most of the cured meats are on the peppery, salty side. It recalls other dinners here that began with the charcuterie, which we all agree is something less than what you could get from a first-class deli. I continue to believe that the time chefs spend on showing off with their smoking and curing capabilities would be better spent on almost anything else. The only counter-examples I can think of are Toups Eatery, Dominica, and Delmonico.
With that board out of the way, we have only good eats. The menu seems more extensive and more appealing than in previous visits. We seem to be in a seafood mood. Karen has the most interesting dish--a tropical lobster tail. The spiny lobsters from the Caribbean have been absent from New Orleans menus for many years. All we get are Maine lobsters, perceived as intrinsically better. I would agree with that stance, but the things you can do with the langouste branch of the family are interesting and different.
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Pompano @ Ox Lot 9[/caption]
Doug had the grilled pompano, which we are told was speared, not taken in nets or hooks and lines. It is the best dish at our table.
Mary Ann, whose diet book says to eat all the red meat she can, has a very generous and very good filet mignon with fresh-cut ponnes frites on the side. I'm looking at the pork chop, but decide on the mussels. Third time I've had an entree of mussels in two weeks. These, like the others, are not as plump as I would hope for. Must be the season.
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Steak and frites at Ox Lot 9[/caption]
Every time I find myself in the very cool Southern Hotel, I think of how much fun it would be to gather some of the NPAS singers and a pianist and perform some of our growing repertoire in the hotel's lobby bar. If I knew anything about music, I'd organize it myself. When MA reads this, she will roll her eyes and think, "If only he knew how to organize anything!" And she would be right about that.
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S'More baked Alaska @ Ox Lot 9[/caption]
Ox Lot 9. Covington: 428 E Boston St. 985-400-5663.
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Sunday, October 16, 2016.
Overeating At Crabby's Shack.
At St. Jane's, our usual choir leader and keyboard lady is on vacation with her fellow musician and husband. The substitute organist is the same as last week's, and she has us singing mostly songs we've never seen before, let alone rehearsed. I must be learning how to sight-read, because I don't find this score impossibly difficult.
The temp organist tells me at the end that I have a nice voice, and that I should take the classes for other singing gigs in the parish. Classes? I didn't know they had classes.
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Roast beef poor boy at Crabby's Shack.[/caption]
Mary Ann goes kayaking in the morning, and she is very hungry by noon. We cross town to Crabby's Shack in Madisonville. She orders fried artichoke hearts and a fried oyster salad. I have a roast beef poor boy and, as it has been here in past samplings, there is too much gravy. That's probably because the sliced beef sits in the warm gravy all day. The taste is good, but it's difficult to eat without knife and fork.
When the temperature drops from 90 to a mere 85 (can this really be October?), I take my familiar walk around the Cool Water Ranch for the first time in about a month. The cruise was the culprit. I'd better get back on that good habit before I start getting fat again.
A cause of distress in my life lately is that I have too much work on my plate. I could spend a whole day organizing the hundreds of photographs I've taken for the newsletter. But a day might not do it. I will lose the time one way or another: when I start looking for a shot, it takes much too long to find it.
Crabby's Seafood Shack. Madisonville: 305 Covington. 985-845-2348.
