Eating in NOLA:

Because I know your answer is undoubtably "The glorious resurgence of the Eating In Nola foodblog" I thought I would shoot you a quick post about what I'm thankful for.

It's really 3 things, and in this order.

Good friends
Good food
Big Green Eggs

We did our traditional MBA potluck Thanksgiving last week and like always it was great. Kerry and I brought the mashed potatoes, creamed onions, rolls and spiced pear bread pudding. Other selections included stuffing, sweet potatoes, fresh green beans, green bean casserole, cupcakes from Sucre, chocolate pecan pie and a turkey smoked in our friends' brand new Big Green Egg.

Take a look at this plate.



I'm actually sitting in the airport right now getting ready to fly back home from my family Thanksgiving. So check these out too.




Dinner




And the post Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich.

And hell, here is the turkey sandwich I'm eating as I write this in the Victory Lane Bar in the ATL airport.




Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Coming up? Luke and Huevos.

I really believe that if you only have one Thanksgiving dinner you aren't taking advantage of the season. I was lucky enough to sneak in two last week. One in New Orleans with my MBA classmates and friends and one up in Atlanta with my parents and grandmother.

Obviously, they were two very different different kinds of meals but I like to think that both captured the true spirit of Thanksgiving.


NOLA Thanksgiving 2009 included 30 dishes from 30 participants and a 30 pound turkey. Also about 30 bottles of wine and a handle of Crown Royal. I don't need to tell you that those things all add up to 121 units of good times.


Seriously look at this plate. That's Chicken Parmesan on there next to the stuffing, cheese mashed potatoes and turkey. "Why?" you ask?

You ask too many questions.


The Villegas' had a more traditional spread. Look there is my mom and grandmother! We went a little more gourmet than usual this year. Check out the menu below.

Appetizers

Hot Tomato, Jack and Crab Dip

with Toast Points

Salad

Pear Salad with Rasberry Cream

Entrees

Herbed Roasted Turkey Breast

Brown Butter Mash Potatoes

Roasted Broccolini with Crushed Red Pepper and Bacon

Orange, Gingered, Glazed Carrots

Cornbread, Wild Mushroom, and Pecan Stuffing

Old Fashioned Apple Cranberry Sauce

Desserts

Spiced Pumpkin and Apple Pie

with Whipped Cream

And that's what it looked like on the plate. It was delicious and well executed by two talented chefs if I do say so myself.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Don't get me wrong... I know you read for the colorful writing style... No time though at a free wi fi bar and we are leaving here are a few pics from lunch at chez... Something... Kerry says Clemente. Chicken salmon mashed potatos and something with goat cheese and apple








-- Post From My iPhone

... and this was one of those days. So we headed down to the Whole Foods at Arabella Station on Magazine.

The normal thing we do at Whole Foods is get the California Club, which is pretty great. You should get one the next time you're there. Turkey, bacon, avocado, some sun-dried tomato spread, probably some tomatoes on ciabatta and grilled up.

Either way, we get that and we split it.  Then normally we get some soup. This day we got sides from the hot bar at the deli instead. Kerry got the grilled vegetables which you can see below. You won't see my cheese and garlic mashed potatoes below because I ate them incredibly fast because they were the best mashed potatoes I have ever eaten.


The other thing we do is get good drinks to go along with it. Kerry got Pomegranate Limeade by Odwalla, and I got an Orangina.  Kerry doesn't like Orangina so I got to drink every sip of mine. She was nice enough, though, to let me have a sip of her limeade. I was appreciative.

And a funny side note - I just went to tag this post with the word "vegetables" and it was the first time we had used it... this is our 48th post.

All the food cookin' at the levee made us want to grill out. So we grilled up some hot dogs on Mardi Gras night. We got some Bob Evans sides (Macaroni & Cheese and Original Mashed Potatoes) to go along with our Oscar Mayer Deli Style Hot Dogs. I sauteed up some sweet onions too.


Kerry went with some of those onions, ketchup and mustard.

My plate looked messier because I went with chili and cheese and didn't skimp at all on the sides.

It was a nice quick, easy, pre-travel dinner. Look out for the Eating in ATL posts coming up this weekend.