Saturday, September 8, 2012.
Pruning. Bosco's.
With no radio show this weekend, I was hellbent on beginning an assault on the rooftop raccoons. My plan was to prune all the branches they use to hop from nearby trees to the roof. I thought there was only one such, but a guy we had over here a few weeks ago said that there were at least eight branches that the raccoons and squirrels could use.
My first attempt was to climb a ladder and clip the smaller branches, then to get up there with my cordless reciprocating saw to go after the bigger stems. As soon as I got up there, though, this came to resemble a bad plan. Not as bad as cutting the branch at the trunk, though. That would have perhaps knocked me to the ground, or worse. I just read an article about a guy who killed himself that way.
I went to the hardware store and came back with a fourteen-foot combination pruning clipper and saw. I gave both a try on some of the smaller offending branches, and was astonished how well it worked. The saw attachment, which I had figured as a slow-moving tool, was amazingly effective. And to think it's made by the same company that I first got to know when the kids were buying Fiskars scissors for kindergarten!
I went after the big overhanging oak bough again. It was at the tool's reach limit, to say nothing of the musculature of my arms. I ran into some problems--mostly when the branch fell away, but remained attached at the bottom of the cut. But after a couple of hours I had it about halfway removed. I quit when it got dark, and I was petered out from the effort anyway. This is good exercise!
For dinner, I suggested Bosco's to the Marys, who agreed eagerly. Bosco's is now one of the Big Three for our family. We go there so often there's almost nothing new to try. What now happens is that I think I see something new, but when it arrives I realize that I've enjoyed it before. That's the story of the shrimp remoulade, whose sauce is a bit too sweet for me as a remoulade, but more than good enough, with nice big white Louisiana shrimp.
I always look forward to the salads here. Bosco's house salad is the best simple salad in town. Romaine, cherry tomatoes, and a vinaigrette with a little garlic and a lot of lemon juice. I could eat a bushel of this stuff.
That, in fact, is more or less what the Marys ate. I had the cannelloni, which are cleanly flavored with a spinach-and-veal stuffing and two sauces: a red one and an orange one. (The latter is the former plus cream.) One of these is enough for me.
Mary Ann started worrying that we were not spending enough money at Bosco's. She sold the place an ad not long ago, and now feels we ought to become even better customers than we always have been since the place opened. I ignore this imperative, knowing it will go away on its own.
Bosco's. Mandeville: 2040 La Hwy 59. 985-624-5066.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
