Sunday, April 11. Reprise Of Last Week's Dinner, With Beans. The Marys didn't want to go out to dinner. Instead, they hungered for another repast just like last week's. I suspect most of this was motivated by Mary Ann, who was still on the West Coast last Sunday, but who tasted the leftovers. So back to the grill, firing away at three overly large chicken breasts covered with Creole seasoning and semi-blackened. And a couple of links of Manda's boudin, which continues to be delicious despite the mediocrity of most of their other products.
Mary Ann cooked the honey brown cowpeas Chris Harris sent to me a couple of weeks ago. Chris, a professor of photography in Tennessee, was a long-time photojournalist in New Orleans. He took the finest photograph of me in action for the cover of Figaro in 1978. It showed a laughing Chef Paul Prudhomme dumping a pot of sauce over my head in the courtyard at Commander's Palace. The photo was staged--no actual animosity was involved. I used it in Hungry Town, with Chris's permission.
Chris said that these beans were delicious, and suggested that I not only eat them but plant them so I could grow my own. We did all of that, and the beans were as good as advertised. Mary Ann especially liked them. Meanwhile, the little seedlings are already popping up with their cotyledons flaring. Both the eating and the growing transpired on our deck on a fine, cool, sunny afternoon.
Then back to work. Tax returns. Ugh.
