Bananas Foster and New Orleans

Bananas Foster is one of my favorite desserts.  I used the recipe for John’s Bananas Foster from Southern Living magazine when I made it this past weekend, and wow… It was so good.  I stuck very closely to this recipe — I only omitted the banana rum because I didn’t have any, and I didn’t miss it at all.  The combination of the banana mixture with the ice cream was brown sugary and buttery, and so warm and so cool all at the same time — just plain yummy!  It was a perfect ending to our Mardis Gras celebration meal.
All this talk about Mardis Gras has made me think a lot about the last time I was in New Orleans.  My husband Kenny took me there for a quick trip to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary this past November.  It was such a fun trip.  We stayed at a hotel on Dauphine Street — just one street off Bourbon– The Chateau LeMoyne.   There’s a casual elegance about the Chateau LeMoyne that I like. . . It has a very romantic, historic feel.  Here’s a picture of our room:

We did all of the typical touristy things a couple in New Orleans should do…

We ate raw oysters at La Bayou.

We had cocktails at the Famous Door.

We indulged in beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde.

Kenny took my picture with this lady, and it cost him five dollars.

We also had a fabulous meal at Deanie’s Seafood in the French Quarter that I failed to take a photo of.  Between the two of us we had seafood gumbo, corn and crab bisque, fried artichoke petals, and a gi-nor-mous platter of fried shrimp and hush puppies.  And all of that was just ONE meal.  The artichokes were by far the best thing we had all weekend –crispy artichoke perfection.  I wish I had some right now.  Yum.  Thank you, Deanies.
And thank you, New Orleans.  Great hospitality, incredible food, crazy fun.  Definitely a perfect spot to let the good times roll.

My Turn

Hello everyone!  Today I have made the decision to officially join the blogging world, and I'm excited about it.  
 
You might notice that my blog title is quite boring -- It's just my name, but I think it's appropriate for a blog about my life, and I have a really strong aversion to "catchy" blog titles that aren't so catchy.  Titles like "Talkin' with the Thomas's" and "Henderson Happenings" just really drive me crazy for some reason... (that's mean, isn't it?... sorry.)  Plus, obviously, I'm not into the anonymity thing.

Anyway, in this blog, I plan on sharing little bits of information about different topics that interest me.  I like to write about yummy recipes that I’ve tried, my precious family whom I adore, fabulous vacation spots that I’m dying to visit, and my love/hate relationship with my 14 year teaching career.

Yep, I’ll write a little bit about all of these things, plus more topics that I think of along my blogging journey.  Here we go . . . let the blogging begin!