Five for Friday: Five Pages You Should Read

1.) Common Kitchen Myths

Still heating your pan before adding the oil? Still afraid to salt that pork chop before frying it? This page settles many misconceptions about how things ought to be done in the kitchen.

2.) 12 Superfoods You Need To Be Eating

Finally, verifiable support for my avocado addiction!

3.) Why You Should Read The Numbers On Your Fruit Stickers!

Come on, you knew there had to be a super-secret code. Embrace 9, reject 8!

4.) Eat This, Not That.

Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where one never had to eat at a KFC or a Carl's Junior? But we gotta live in this world. This website can help with making better choices.

5.) How Much Coffee Will Kill You?

I'm a goner after 273.00 cans of Slim-Fast Cappuccino Delight Shake.

Five for Friday: Five Cooking Tools I Want

It's my birthday this month! I'm not one of those people who yawn and act bored by their birthday coming around. That's not to say I don't try to, but I stink at it. I always like my birthday-- it's a day where I see my favorite people and eat my favorite things and open pressies. What's not to like?

1. A Muddler

I'm pretty strict with myself about new tools I take into my kitchen. Our wedding stocked our utensil drawers to the brim and most of our four-square-feet of counter are occupied by appliances so anything new that comes into the kitchen has to be something that there is a demonstrated need for. I've learned that buying a tool will not make me do whatever it is that the tool does (I know, shocking!) So, buying a pasta maker will not make me make pasta. It's better to monkey around with pasta dough and a rolling pin to see if it's something worth pursuing than to spend a couple hundred bucks on a big machine that will just live as a testament to my own lack of follow through.

I've been smashing mint leaves with the back on a wooden spoon for months now. Time for a muddler!

2. The OXO Citrus Press

I broke my cheesy three-dollar plastic lemon sqeezer. Time to upgrade! I love pretty much every tool that OXO makes. They're sturdy but not heavy, comfortable in the hand without sacrificing function and they clean up easily.

3. An herb garden.

Nora, I'm lookin' at you for this one, good buddy. My thumbs are black but my heart is pure! Help me. I could fund a trip to the Build-A-Bear Workshop with the money I spend on mint, rosemary, basil and thyme every month.

4. A Le Creuset Square Skillet Grill

I look at this pan and imagine making steaks and burgers and paninnis and I also picture the weird pleasure I get from seasoning cast iron. But that doesn't seem like enough use to devote a whole pan to.

What do you think? Do you own one of these? How often do you use it and what do you use it for?

5. The Wilton Large Cupcake Pan

I feel giddy, honestly giddy, when I look at this pan and the magic it promises to create. It's a giant freakin' cupcake! Come on!

Five for Friday: Five Ways to Make Entertaining Easier

I love, love, love having people over and I always have. Just because I love it doesn't mean that I've always been good at it. Entertaining is no fun though when your head might just pop off and fly around the room because everything needs to be "perfect". "Perfect" will make you drink too much, be short with your spouse and insult your own cooking. Not that I've ever done that.

1.) Do as much in advance as possible.

If you plan to clean your house, buy groceries, set the table, prep and cook all in a six-hour span before your guests arrive, your heart might just explode out of your chest by the time dessert rolls around. You will not have fin and having people over should be fun!

When you plan your menu, plan dishes that aren't touchy-- braised meat and potatoes are comforting and delicious and will forgive a little forgetfulness on your part. Look at your days before having people over. I like to have one day of house-cleaning, one day of shopping, and one day of deep prep for the meal. I even set the table the night before. I'm a sucker for a pretty table:

2.) You don't have to offer the world.

Now, if you have a vegetarian coming to supper or someone with a known food allergy, then by all means, do your best accommodate them. But aside from that, try and keep your offerings simple and cohesive. If you're serving dinner, all you really need to serve is the standard protein-veg-starch. Dessert can be coffee and chocolate. Anything else is extra and should be treated a such. This isn't your last meal or your guests'. It's better to concentrate your efforts on making a few things well than many things poorly.

3.) Let others help.

When your guest says, "What can I bring?" the correct answer is "dessert". Or whatever it is you don't have some overwhelming desire to make. Whatever they bring, make sure it's a dish that doesn't need to be assembled in your busy kitchen, which is why I love it when people bring dessert. Check out the sexy cake my friend Nora brought when we had her and her boyfriend over for dinner:

4.) Put out snackies.

Setting out cheese and crackers puts me at ease. If your guests have something to snack on and some wine to drink, the start-time for dinner is less important. And I like to use our cheese board-- it's shaped like a giant piece of cheese! And it has another little piece of cheese to cut with!

5.) Relax.

If you're not enjoying your guests and having a good time, you're missing the whole point. It's an hour until your guests arrive. House still cluttered? Shove it in a closet. Mirrors in the bathroom need cleaning? Unscrew the lightbulb and light some candles. Have a glass of wine, eat some of your cheese and check on dinner.

Five for Friday: Five New Orleans Cheap Eats

1. Beignets & cafe au lait

Oh, Cafe Du Monde! Your fluffly hot beignets are crispy and sweet, your cafe au lait is smoky with chickory. $7 for two milky coffees and two orders of beignets. Tip your waitress well-- she's working her ass off and is still smiling.

2. Oysters & crawfish

Both are seasonal and both are plentiful and cheap when the time is right. A dozen oysters for nine bucks? A pound of crawfish for even less? Yes, please. These are from Acme Oyster House but there are great oysters and crawfish to be had all over the city.

3. Po'boys & muffalettas

Sigh. These sandwiches... oh, these sandwiches! These were some of the last bites we had before leaving the city and, oh, what good bites. These were both from Ignatius Eatery on Magazine Street, a new restaurant. The roast beef po'boy was stuffed with fork-tender beef that was perfectly seasoned and very juicy. The muffaletta was something stolen from the buffet in heaven. Get the muffaletta warm. I was stuffed but could not stop eating it. We had others while we were there (and Patrick has probably eaten enough over the years he was living there to fill a taxi cab) but these were simply the best. Two huge sandwiches and two beers for just over $20.

4. Breakfast
There is great breakfast to be had all over the city. The pictures above are from Petunias but there are lots of other places to get a great, hangover-chasing breakfast. Camellia Grill is another great stop (chili cheese omelette with a pile of french fries, anyone?) If there's a line out the door at 10 a.m. and the scents wafting towards you are making you salivate, get in line.

5. Abita
I'm not a huge beer person (moonshine, anyone?) but I will never turn down an Abita, especially when they run about $3 a pop in the city (you can get Abita from BevMo. See that you do.) Their strawberry lager is delicious but hard to find outside of the south. Second best (for me) is TurboDog. Their brewery is just over the causeway* in Abita Springs and is a nice little day trip, especially when coupled with a visit to Insta-Gator.

*haha, just over the causeway... also known as the longest causeway in the world. There's nothing quite like being in the middle of Lake Pontchartrain with only water surrounding you!

Five For Friday: Five Ways To Eat Good Away From Home

I've been sitting here, trying to come up with a line that sums up how amazing New Orleans has been so far and I can only come up with that tired, over-used superlative "amazing". But it is. It's everything a city ought to be. I love it here.

1. Talk to people.

This is the most basic advice and often the least used. People often feel awkward talking to strangers and to do so while traveling? To look like (gasp!) a tourist? But looking like a fool for a few seconds might yield you one of the best meals of your life and people love to talk about food, especially the foods that make their city great. Just asking "where should I eat?" is a good way to start, though you might get directed to the tourist traps. Try, "It's your birthday, where would you go? It's your last meal before you move away for a year. What are you having?"

2. Go to the Grocery Store.

You learn a lot about a place by wandering the halls of the local Piggly Wiggly, Acme, Tom Thumb, Howie's or whatever the heck is the dominate chain. You'll learn what's expensive and what's cheap and what they have that you don't have and what you have that they don't have. Be sure to check out the candy and chips-- ever part of the world has their own preference for junk food and may even make good souvenirs for the folks back home.

3. Go to a Dive.

If you're only eating at places where there are cloth napkins and nobody calls you "hun", you're missing out.

4. Try the Local "Delicacies".

In Philadelphia, it's cheesesteaks and scrapple. In Hawaii, it's seafood and tropical fruit and plate lunch. Often, these treats a served at the above-mentioned dives and they're also great fodder for conversation with the locals. Ask someone where you should eat in New Orleans and you'll get an answer, but ask where the best oysters in town are, and you're in a whole other ball park.

5. Visit a Farmer's Market.

Like visiting a grocery store, you'll learn a lot about where you are by seeing what they grow and what it's worth to them. Sure, you probably don't have access to a kitchen and can't pick up a pound of muchrooms, but all you need is a little water to rinse off a peach or some strawberries. Lots of farmers' market have hot food vendors too, which is another way to take care of good ol' #4 (which I considered making #1 and then I wanted to reorder everything and then I said screw it because New Orleans is outside my door and I need to get off the computer and go eat some things.)

Five for Friday: Five Good Things to Put on Toast

Welcome to my new series, Five for Friday, where I'll be posting five thoughts on food or cooking every Friday. I figure it will keep me posting frequently and a frequently updated blog is a happy blog, no? And what better way to kick this off than with a post about toast? Toast, toast, glorious toast! I love toast. Here are five things I like to put on toast! Whee!

1. Smashed up avocado with salt and pepper

(If you're feeling really decadent, butter the bread first.)

2. Mushrooms sautéd in butter

Slice up a handful of mushrooms while your toast toasts and a big nob of butter melts in a little pan. Sauté the mushrooms until they are nice and limp. Season with salt and pepper, then pour on your toast. Mmm.

3. Butter, cinnamon and sugar

This would have looked a lot prettier on a piece of white bread, but it wouldn't have tasted any better. A good dessert when it's 2 a.m. and there are no sweets in the house.

4. An over-medium egg, fried in lots of butter

Such a perfect simple pleasure.

5. Fresh-ground peanut butter and a little coarse kosher salt

Have you ever had fresh-ground peanut butter? They sometimes sell it at farmers' markets and health food stores generally have a machine that you can use to grind you own. I'm like a little kid with that machine! A big tub of the fresh stuff costs as much or even a little less than one of those jars of natural peanut butter and you don't have to mix the oil back in. Get some!

Thank you, Madame Toaster:

Happy Friday, everybody! The weekend is just about to start!