Saturday, September 4. Breakfast. The Prodigal Daughter Returns For A Visit. Bosco's. It's two weeks since Mary Leigh moved into her dorm room at Tulane. Last night she came home for the Labor Day weekend. Was there not enough action on the campus? Maybe. The more likely story was that she wanted to tool around in her car again. Which is how she spent most of the day after getting up too late for breakfast with me.
While out for breakfast, I went to the Chrysler dealer to get a lug nut. During the three miles I drove on a flat tire on the Causeway this past Tuesday, one of the nuts became unusable. (I hope that's what it is, and not the lug bolt--an expensive repair.) At the parts window, the man (who recognized me by my voice alone; I'm always amazed when that happens) told me they'd have to order the thing. I've bought three cars from these people over the years, and had more repairs than I can remember. Not once were the needed parts in stock. I'd like to look at their parts storage shelves. I'll bet there's nothing on any of them.
A radio show filled the three first hours of the afternoon. After that I cut the grass, once again high enough that the wind makes waves of green. It's rained fiercely through all my available grasscutting time for weeks. The tractor was close to getting stuck a few times today, so wet is the ground. The project took two and a half hours, including the meadow by the pond. That's only been cut twice this summer, and it's really high.
Cutting the grass was nice. The summer heat took a day off today, and even though it was sunny out there enough of a cool breeze blew to hint at the coming of fall. Mary Ann said she read somewhere the the smell of new-mown grass is good for you, but I don't see how, what with all the tractor fumes mixed in.
At dusk, it was off to dinner at Bosco's with the Marys. Bosco's was a favorite daddy-daughter dinner date venue for years until ML's social life took off. Tony Bosco has expanded his menu, something I was surprised he didn't do right after he moved into his much bigger new restaurant a couple of years ago. He now has much more seafood and big deal dishes like veal chops.
We started with the house salad, always astonishingly better than it appears (it looks like a stack of romaine leaves, period). Mary Ann amped that up into an entree-size Italian salad, with pinwheels of ham and salami, olives, tomatoes, artichokes, and too much other stuff for a person who would follow it with a cheesy, red-saucy eggplant casserole (below).
With that bubbling, aromatic plate came panneed chicken and two different kinds of pasta for ML. I ordered last so I could act as a sort of belt tensioner. My entree was an appetizer of crabmeat dressing in an artichoke bottom with a lemon butter sauce(below)--one of Tony's best new dishes. I filled out the meal with the gross excess on the girls' side of the table, especially the part in front of Mary Ann.
Bosco's continues to be an underpriced, simple delight. It's everything New Orleans-Italian food should be.
Bosco’s. Mandeville: 2040 La. Hwy. 59. 985-624-5066. Italian.
