OH BOY! PO’ BOY!

 

 From Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist

 

It has been far too long since I have been in New Orleans, one of my favorite vacation cities in the USA. One of my best experiences in Nola was a cooking class in which I learned the basics of some of the city’s famous dishes, as well as the difference between Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole cuisines. They are often mistakenly thought to be the same, mainly because they do comprise many ingredients in common. “Creole” is still used to describe the heritage and customs, including the cuisine, of the various people who actually settled Louisiana. They were primarily black as well as mixed-race people chiefly of French and/or Spanish colonial origin. Cajun cooking appeared forty years later with the influx of refugees from Acadia (French: Acadie), which was a colony of New France in northeastern North America. Acadia included parts of what are now the Maritime Provinces of Canada, the Gaspé Peninsula of Canada and Maine to the Kennebec River of Maine. The population of Acadia included the various Indigenous First Nations (groups of Canadian Indigenous people who are classified as distinct from the Inuit and Métis), the Acadian people originally from southeastern France, and other French settlers. Acadia was eventually divided into British colonies, and the British deported the people from Acadia during the French and Indian War. They settled in rural parts of southern Louisiana.

The extreme change in climate forced the Louisiana Acadians to abandon many of their original culinary traditions. In their place arose what is now considered classic Cajun cuisine, which is rustic rather than elaborate, pulled together with locally available ingredients, and is simple in preparation and presentation. It is not to be confused with Prudhomme’s style of spicy and sumptuous Cajun cooking. While many modern-day restaurants use the Prudhomme style of “Louisiana cooking,” in-home cooking closely approximates that of the earliest Cajun settlers, oftener than not.  

It is generally accepted that New Orleans is a Creole town rather than Cajun. The underlying premise is that Creole culture and cuisine “is of the city” and Cajun “is of the country.” And if tomatoes are cooked into your jambalaya or étouffée or any other New Orleans dish, you know its Creole rather than proper Cajun.

           If you have been fortunate enough to tantalize your tastebuds with a Po’ Boy Sandwich, then you have experienced the flavor of Cajun fare. The history of the French Quarter’s most sought-after sandwich is as varied and plentiful as the ingredients that go into it. However, the most accepted version of its origin harkens back to 1929 when during that Great Depression year, the former streetcar drivers and brothers Clovis and Benjamin Martin, who became restauranteurs, invented and served the inexpensive sandwich to striking streetcar workers. At the appearance of a striker at the back door of the restaurant on St. Claude Avenue, a cry would go out from a kitchen worker, “Here comes another poor boy!” Thus was born the name of the sandwich.

              At lunchtime, my vacation companions and I often headed over to 511 St. Louis Street and elbowed our way in and among the cheery crowd at Johnny’s Po-Boys “joint.” There at tables clad in red-and-white-checkered table cloths, or sometimes at the countertop, each of us wolfed-down our sandwich. 

 

A great authentic Cajun recipe for a Shrimp Po’ Boy Sandwich, or any other derivation of the sandwich such as roast beef, pork, oyster, shellfish, ham and cheese, and more is at https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/shrimp_po_boy_sandwich/. Take note that once you add the tomatoes, you’ve gone a little bit Creole. To nobody’s surprise, in this city of weekly festivals there is one devoted to the Po’ Boy, normally held in late-October or mid- to late-November. Dubbed the ‘Oak Street Po’ Boy Festival’, it was organized to breathe new life into Nola’s rich culture after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The one-day festival showcases over 60 variations of the sandwich from various restaurants with a backdrop of live music and arts and crafts. It kicks off with a Friday-night party and bar-crawl. Just Google ‘Oak Street Po-Boy Festival’ or visit www.poboyfest.com to obtain the latest information about the festival.©

 

 

***

Linda Lee Greene’s novella, GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS, A Spiritual Odyssey, is a blend of visionary and inspirational fiction with a touch of romance. It is a tale of ex-pat American Nicholas Plato’s journey into parts unknown, in New Orleans, in Sydney, Australia, which is his final destination, and in his himself, a quest that in the end leads him to his true purpose for living.

It is available in eBook and/or paperback. Just click the following link/URL and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon on which you can purchase it.

https://www.amazon.com/GARDEN-SPIRITS-POTS-SPIRITUAL-ODYSSEY-ebook/dp/B09JM7YL6F/

 

NewOrleans, #Nola, #Creole, #Cajun, #CookingClass, #PoBoysSandwich, #Johnny’sPoBoys, #SydneyAustralia, #SimplyRecipes, #GardenoftheSpiritsofthePots, #LindaLeeGreene

BREAKFAST TOMATOES, AND BRUNCH OR DINNER

 

From Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist

 

Saturdays are universally hectic. Itineraries for this special day of the week are mind-boggling in their Mach-speed, complexity, and crowded activities. But it is also the time before the starting pistol shoots us into a frenzy to steal a few moments to reconnect with our loved-ones, and even with ourselves. Saturday morning renewals in my house back in the days when my kids were still at home, and admittedly when life was slower and simpler, routinely began with all of us gathering together for a sit-down breakfast. Bacon and eggs, toast, juice, and sometimes pancakes were oftener as not on the menu. It is easy to imagine people of today longing for those laidback weekend mornings, but nowadays convenience is a necessity and usually wins out over nostalgia.

 

The following low calorie, low carb, and high protein recipe is a good one to include in our whirlwind playbook. To meet that convenience factor, it can be made ahead of time, in 30 minutes of the evening before for instance, refrigerated, and then reheated at the appropriate time in the microwave at 50% power. For breakfast, serve it with fruit and a slice of a Keto-friendly bread or bagel slathered with cream cheese. I prefer Neufchâtel because it is lower in fat and creamier than standard cream cheese. This tomato and egg recipe is also wonderful for brunch accompanied with cooked or fresh veggies and a chunk of a hearty bread. At times, I heat it up for dinner. Paired with a side of steamed spinach and carrots, a slice of homemade and healthy bean flour bread, a glass of a tasty bevvie, I then settle in for the rest of evening with a belly full of satisfaction.

 

To serve four, you’ll need:

4 large firm tomatoes, cut in half and their interior pulp and seeds scooped out

Olive oil spray

1 teaspoon salt – preferably kosher or sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried thyme

8 small eggs if available, or 8 large eggs with the excess of the whites that do not fit in the tomato halves discarded, or reserved for another recipe

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

4 tablespoons grated parsley for garnish

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the hollowed-out tomatoes in a baking dish, spray them with olive oil, and then sprinkle them with the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and thyme. Break one of the eggs into a separate small bowl or ramekin and slide it into one of the tomato halves. Continue this process until all 8 tomato halves are filled with an egg. Top each one with 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese. Bake until egg whites are set (about 20 minutes). Using a large, slotted spoon or spatula, scoop them out of the baking dish and onto a serving platter or into an airtight container. Garnish with parsley and serve or refrigerate.[1]

***

In multi-award-winning author Linda Lee Greene’s new release, GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS, A Spiritual Odyssey, ex-pat American Nicholas Plato gets lost one fateful Saturday morning in Australia’s outback and happens on a pintsized hut on a lonely plot littered with hundreds of clay pots of every size and description. Driven by a deathly thirst, he stops. A strange little man materializes out of nowhere and introduces himself merely as ‘Potter,’ and welcomes Nicholas to his ‘Garden of the Spirits of the Pots.’ Although Nicholas has never laid eyes on Potter, the man seems to have expected Nicholas at his bizarre habitation and displays knowledge about him that nobody has any right to possess. Just who is this mysterious Aboriginal potter?

 

Although they are as mismatched as two persons can be, a strangely inevitable friendship takes hold between them. It is a relationship that can only be directed by an unseen hand bent on setting Nicholas on a mystifying voyage of self-discovery and Potter on revelations of universal certainties.

 

A blend of visionary and inspirational fiction, and a touch of romance, this is a tale of Nicholas’ journey into parts unknown, both within his adopted home and himself, a quest that in the end leads him to his true purpose for living. It is available in eBook and/or paperback. Just click the following link/URL and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon on which you can purchase it. https://www.amazon.com/GARDEN-SPIRITS-POTS-SPIRITUAL-ODYSSEY-ebook/dp/B09JM7YL6F/.©

 

#TomatoRecipes, #BakedTomatoesandEggs, #SydneyAustralia, #AustraliaFiction, #OutbackAdventure, #SpiritualOdyssey, #InspirationalFiction, #Romance, #GardenoftheSpiritsofthePots, #LindaLeeGreene

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[1] https://healthyrecipesblogs.com/egg-stuffed-tomatoes/

"LET THEM EAT CAKE!"

 

~A perfect cake to bake for any special occasion, and Linda Lee Greene’s GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS: A SPIRITUAL ODYSSEY, to fill life’s open spaces~

 

“LET THEM EAT CAKE!”

 

From Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist

 

Jill: “How are workers expected to survive on minimum wage when every dollar goes toward their rent?” Jack: “What do I care? Let them eat cake.” Jack: “Our budget shows that every one of our managers will get an end-of-year bonus.” Jill: “What about the rest of the employees?” Jack: “Such is life. Let them eat cake.”

            Marie Antoinette, queen of France in the years before and during the French Revolution, to whom the idiom is famously attributed, never said, “Let them eat cake” in response to being informed that her starving peasant subjects had no bread to eat. It got stuck to her through time because she was the epitome of indifference and insensitivity among the ruling and upper classes toward the realities of life of ordinary people. This type of obliviousness of their own advantages and numbness to the misfortunes of working-class people on the part of the privileged is a feature of all of human history, unfortunately.

While Antoinette’s head was being lopped off by the guillotine at the Place de la Concorde, a major public square in Paris, plantation slaves in the Caribbean were fermenting molasses, a by-product of the sugar refining process, into alcohol. Distillation of the by-products concentrated the alcohol and removed some impurities, which produced the first modern rums. It didn’t take long for rum to find its way to delectable French pastry and voilà—the soggy, boozy, classic French dessert, Baba au Rhum cake was born in Paris—too late for Antoinette, who would have relished it, no doubt, but just in time for us to delight our guests with it at any special get-together.©  

 

This recipe yields a dozen babas, but the beauty of it for busy cooks is that a small, unsoaked portion, or all of them, can be stored away in the freezer for up to two months. A day before their debut on your table, defrost and then keep them in an airtight container. If yours is a big and/or a really hungry crowd, bake up several batches ahead of time and freeze them. For best results, you need a tender and sticky dough, so be sparing in the amount of flour you incorporate into the mixture. Or, place the dough in the refrigerator for a while, because cold dough is easier to handle.  

                                                                                   

BABA AU RHUM

(Yield: 12 Babas)

 

2 tbsp of active dry yeast

3 tbsp granulated sugar

¼ cup of lukewarm water

4 large beaten eggs

1 pinch of sea salt

To prepare the dough: Put the yeast and sugar in a medium-size bowl, add the lukewarm water and stir until the dry ingredients are dissolved. Set aside for 10 minutes or until mixture is bubbly. And then add the eggs and sea salt to the yeast mixture and whisk together.

 

½ cup (113 grams/1 stick) softened unsalted butter

2 cups (256 grams) all-purpose flour

½ cup (80 grams) golden raisins

 

In a separate medium-size bowl, work together the butter and flour until the mixture resembles wet sand. Add the egg-yeast mixture and raisins that have been soaked and drained. Whip with a wooden spoon to a soft, sticky dough, or prepare the dough in a standing mixer. Cover bowl and set in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough doubles in size.

 

Butter 2 mini-muffin tins or 12 mini-ramekins. Uncover dough, dust with flour, and turn it out to a clean work surface. Add flour as necessary to make dough manageable and knead lightly to a large, slightly sticky ball. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces (about 2 ounces/55 grams). Dust the pieces with flour, roll into separate balls, and place in the muffin tins or ramekins. Cover loosely and set in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until the balls double in size.

 

Bake babas 15 to 20 minutes in a 375° oven until lightly brown on top. Turn babas out of their molds and onto a baking sheet. Return to the oven for 5 minutes to brown all over. Remove from oven and cover the babas with a clean towel to keep them soft. (Store cooled babas in an airtight container at room temperature if making in advance of imminent serving.)[1]

 

TOPPING

2 pints strawberries, setting aside 12 strawberries

3 tbsp Cointreau, 3 tbsp Cognac, 1 tbsp Grand Marnier

2 cups whipped cream

1 pint coffee ice cream

 

Meanwhile, clean and hull the strawberries, setting aside 12 of them. Place the rest of the strawberries in a bowl and pour over them all of the designated liqueurs. Stir gently and let sit for 1 hour. Then fold into the mixture with a rubber spatula the whipped cream and ice cream. For each guest, cut 1 baba in half horizontally and place on a dessert plate. Top with an additional scoop of coffee ice cream, the strawberry/liquor mixture, and crown with a whole strawberry.[2]

 

Or substitute the ice cream with a dollop of whipped cream and a strawberry on top.

 

***

                                                                                   

A blend of visionary and inspirational fiction with a touch of romance, multi-award-winning author Linda Lee Greene’s GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS: A SPIRITUAL ODYSSEY is a tale of ex-pat American Nicholas Plato’s journey into parts unknown, both within himself and his adopted home of Sydney Australia, a quest that in the end leads him to his true purpose for living.

It is available in eBook and/or paperback. Just click the following link/URL and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon on which you can purchase it. https://www.amazon.com/GARDEN-SPIRITS-POTS-SPIRITUAL-ODYSSEY-ebook/dp/B09JM7YL6F/

 

#MarieAntoinette, #ParisFrance, #BabaauRhum, #RumCake, #PlantationSlaves, #Caribbean, #Cointreau, #Cognac, #GrandMarnier, #DarkRum, #Whiskey, #SydneyAustralia, #GardenoftheSpiritsofthePots, #LindaLeeGreene

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[1] David Tanis, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022037-baba-au-rhum

[2] Sheila Del Guercio, TROPICAL NATIVE COOKING, MARATHON GARDEN CLUB, FLORIDA KEYS, January 1971

ABUNDANCE FILLS THE OPEN MIND

 

From Linda Lee Greene Author/Artist

 

Outside the kitchen window of our home on Long Island, New York, it was a cold and windswept November morning of 1970. Thanksgiving Day was approaching and I missed my family back in Ohio sorely. Oh, how I wished I could be with them; but it wasn’t to be. I needed a distraction and decided the best way to accomplish it was to lose myself in a painting. I gathered fall deco items I had placed around the house and set them up on my kitchen table in a composition I deemed worthy of a still life. A sheet of watercolor paper taped to my board, and with my simple little pads of watercolor paints, a couple of brushes, and a stick of charcoal to rough in the initial shapes, I got to work.

          The charcoal shapes came together easily. As is typical of the way I tackle most jobs, I touched my paint-loaded brush to the item on the paper that I thought would be the most difficult to render—which was the stem of the pumpkin. My first attempt was a total bust, as was my second and my third. By then, my heart was galloping in my chest with utter fury at myself. I pushed away from the table and paced the floor—across the length of the kitchen, into the hallway, into the living room, and back again and again…pace, pace, pace…and then a voice sounded ‘round my ears. “Empty your mind of what you ‘think’ a pumpkin stem looks like and paint only what you actually see!” I had heard the instruction from my teacher in a painting class I had taken years before, but obviously it had failed to register in my brain. I returned to the table, emptied my mind, and painted only what I saw with my eyes. Wallah! In no time at all, the still life painted in a primitive style I had hoped to execute appeared with what seemed very little further effort on my part. It was almost like magic.

          I learned a big lesson that day, not only related to the art of painting, but also to the art of living. Our preconceived notions (opinions, prejudices, attitudes, and so many other absolute doctrines we hold in mind) blind us to the truth of things.

          With my humble painting titled, CORNUCOPIA, I wish all of you an open-minded, a clear-eyed, and a very happy holiday season.©

                                                                        

***

Multi-award-winning author, Linda Lee Greene’s GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS: A Spiritual Odyssey, is a novella in which ex-pat American Nicholas Plato relocates to Sydney, Australia to escape the mental torture of devastating losses. Strange encounters in Australia’s outback with an indigenous potter reveal to Nicholas unexpected blessings and a new way of living. It is available in eBook and/or paperback. Just click the following blue link and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon on which you can purchase the book. https://www.amazon.com/GARDEN-SPIRITS-POTS-SPIRITUAL-ODYSSEY-ebook/dp/B09JM7YL6F/

                                                                       

www.gallery-llgreene.com - Online Art Gallery

http://Ingoodcompanyohio.blogspot.com - Blog URL

https://twitter.com/LLGreeneAuthor - Twitter URL https://www.amazon.com/author/lindaleegreene - Amazon Author’s Page

 

#LongIsland, #NewYork, #Ohio, #Thanksgiving, #WatercolorPaintings, #CORNUCOPIA, #HolidaySeason, #GardenoftheSpiritsofthePots, #SydneyAustralia, #OutbackAdventures, #LindaLeeGreeneAuthorArtist,  

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

A friend of my friend told him, and then he told me, that all my other friends have wanted to know this trivia for a very long time. I think I have that right. Nevertheless, read on friends, because I have it here for you…..

 From Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist

The gods and goddesses of literature, who decide such things, maintain that my book, GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS, A Spiritual Odyssey, is not a novel.

“What do you mean it isn’t a novel?!” I shoot back. “It’s chock full of narrative that transports readers to a fictional world. It sends my protagonist on a spiritual journey in which he encounters a series of obstacles he overcomes. Surely my book is a novel!” I insist.

“Your GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS is too short to be a novel!” the sentry goddess steps forward and informs me, a self-righteous lift to her upper lip that galls me to no end. “It has to comprise 40,000+ words to be a novel. Your book, which comes in at just under 39,000 words, qualifies as a novella. Not to be finicky about it, but strictly speaking any piece of fiction that falls between 17,000 and 40,000 words is a novella. If you want it to be a novel, you must go back in and add 1,000 words or more to it.”

It irks me to give in to this arrogant custodian of all things literary, but I swallow my annoyance and revisit my manuscript to find more words to insert in it. But no words come! It satisfies me just as it is. I suppose I must be content that my GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS is a novella.

This exchange with the arrogant sovereign of the literary world sets me on a quest to reacquaint myself with the parameters of other types of works of fiction. In my research on the subject I stumble upon an obscure thing called a “novelette,” described as a work of fiction of 7,500 to 17,000 words in length. You will never guess what I found to be famous works of this type: Edgar Allan Poe’s THE TELL-TALE HEART and his THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, as well as Franz Kafka’s THE METAMORPHOSIS. Who knew?!

Okay, so now I’m dying to discover the next category in this demanding hierarchy of literary regulations, and you guessed it—number four on the list is short story, and it has to be between 3,500 and 7,500 words to gain and maintain its much-loved position in the pecking order of literature.

Further down the list, flash fiction, otherwise known as short-short story, or micro-fiction, or postcard fiction, requires only 53 – 1,000 words. A number of my blog posts qualify for this classification.

What form a piece of fiction between 1,000 to 3,500 words takes, I have yet to discover. Most of my stories of historical fiction that I have posted on my blog, and will continue to do so, fall into this unspecified classification of fiction. The goddess of literature refuses to tell me its name. If anyone out there can clear-up this mystery for me, I implore you to do so. Otherwise, it will hang on as another bit of trivia among an over-abundance of them that drills into my brain night and day.©

                   Image: THE SENTRY, acrylic painting by Linda Lee Greene

 ***

 ON SALE NOW!

Multi-award-winning author Linda Lee Greene’s

GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS

A Spiritual Odyssey

Readers were introduced to American Nicholas Plato in multi-award-winning author Linda Lee Greene’s A CHANCE AT THE MOON, which was published in 2019 and is available for purchase at https://tinyurl.com/3dc75u6p. Greene takes readers on another adventure of Nicholas’ whirlwind life in her GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS, A Spiritual Odyssey. In this sequel, Nicholas shows up in Sydney, Australia. The principle plotline unfolds as on one Saturday of sightseeing he gets lost in Australia’s forbidding yet alluring outback, and there he happens upon a pintsized hut on a lonely plot littered with hundreds of clay pots of every size and description. Driven by a deathly thirst, he stops. A strange little brown man materializes out of nowhere and introduces himself merely as ‘Potter’ and welcomes Nicholas to his ‘Garden of the Spirits of the Pots.’ Although Nicholas has never laid eyes on Potter, the man seems to have expected Nicholas at his bizarre habitation and displays knowledge about him that nobody has any right to possess. Just who is this mysterious Aboriginal potter?

Although they are as mismatched as two persons can be, a strangely inevitable friendship takes hold between them. It is a relationship that can only be directed by an unseen hand bent on setting Nicholas on a mystifying voyage of self-discovery and Potter on revelations of universal certainties.

A blend of visionary and inspirational fiction with a touch of romance, this is a tale of Nicholas’ journey into parts unknown, both within his adopted home and himself, a quest that in the end leads him to his true purpose for living.

It is available in eBook and/or paperback. Just click the following link/URL and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon on which you can purchase it. https://www.amazon.com/GARDEN-SPIRITS-POTS-SPIRITUAL-ODYSSEY-ebook/dp/B09JM7YL6F/

#SydneyAustralia, #AustraliaFiction, #OutbackAdventure, #SpiritualOdyssey, #InspirationalFiction, #Romance, #Metaphysical, #Parapsychology, #GardenoftheSpiritsofthePots, #LindaLeeGreene

 

 

 

 

 

       
 

NEW RELEASE - GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS

 From Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist

I am delighted to announce the release of my new book, a novella titled GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS,  A Spiritual Odyssey. It is a story in which ex-pat American bachelor Nicholas Plato, following the violent death of Tobias, his twin brother, roommate, and business partner, is on his own for the first time in his life. But that is the least of the challenges Nicholas encounters in his adopted home of Sydney, Australia and the area’s forbidding but alluring outback. One fateful day, Nicholas gets lost in the outback and happens on a pintsized hut on a lonely plot littered with hundreds of clay pots of every size and description. Driven by a deathly thirst, he stops. A strange little brown man materializes out of nowhere and introduces himself merely as ‘Potter,’ and welcomes Nicholas to his ‘Garden of the Spirits of the Pots.’ Although Nicholas has never laid eyes on Potter, the man seems to have expected Nicholas at his bizarre habitation and displays knowledge about him that nobody has any right to possess. Just who is this mysterious Aboriginal potter?

Although they are as mismatched as two persons can be, a strangely inevitable friendship takes hold between them. It is a relationship that can only be directed by an unseen hand bent on setting Nicholas on a mystifying voyage of self-discovery and Potter on revelations of universal certainties.

A blend of inspirational fiction, romance, and allegory, this is a tale of Nicholas’ journey into parts unknown, both within his adopted home and himself, a spiritual odyssey that in the end leads him to his true purpose for living.© 

The book is available in eBook and/or paperback. Just click the following blue link and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon on which you can purchase it. https://tinyurl.com/dw6zbhbv. 

 

#SydneyAustralia, #AustraliaFiction, #OutbackAdventure, #SpiritualOdyssey, #InspirationalFiction, #Romance, #GardenoftheSpiritsofthePots, #LindaLeeGreene