It's a slow day at the radio station when the hosts start interviewing one another. Today I did an hour on WWL with Garland Robinette, who claimed that he is such a bad cook that people dread eating at his house. But he has a Big Green Egg!
My own radio show continued its long tradition of turning the Christmas Eve program into a caroling. It requires me to go into the studio downtown–my gizmo for broadcasting from home injects a little delay, making it impossible for me to join in with the callers. But I don't mind. I like the show, and so do enough people that we gave away over thirty cookbooks to those brave enough to give forth with a holiday tune.
Made straight for home after that, to get started on my two contributions to Christmas dinner tomorrow. The first was a cheesecake. To differentiate it from the one I made on Thanksgiving, I took a cue from Chef Jeremy Langlois (Houmas House Plantation is his home stand) and made a red velvet version. What makes red velvet cakes of any kind such an intense color is two whole bottles of red food coloring. That leaves only one other nonconformity: four tablespoons of cocoa powder. That's the mystery taste: a little bit of chocolate, but not enough for that flavor to register in the eating.
My other project was to make several appetizers with a half-gallon of oysters I was able to pick up from P&J Oyster Company. My plan was to serve oysters en brochette (broiled, not fried), wrapped with bacon in the customary way. I fried the bacon about halfway under the broiler, then poached some leeks to add another flavor dimension.
Waiting for me when I returned home was Mary Leigh, back from almost two weeks with The Boy and his family in their hometown of Baltimore. I would have guessed that she would have a tough time getting a flight back to New Orleans on Christmas Eve, but apparently everyone traveling has finished doing so by the twenty-third.
Written by Tom Fitzmorris January 02, 2014 02:16 in
