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Friday, November 20, 2009

Fig and Red Wine Preserves

Many years ago, when I was a kid growing-up along the bayous of south Louisiana, my great grandfather, Francois Gaspard,  owned a fig orchard - around a dozen trees or so.

Some of the trees were huge and grew to 20 or more feet tall and produced an abundance of fruit. Every year our families would come together to harvest the fruit and make preserves for the winter.


Grandma had a way of transforming figs into just about any fruit taste you wanted. Strawberry fig preserves was my favorite. You could not tell the difference from the real McCoy when my grandma finished working her magic.

This evening I wanted to experiment with making fig preserves using an unlikely companion - red wine. Merlot in particular. And, I must say, it turned out pretty good. It's so easy to make, too.

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs. of ripe figs
  • 1 cup of red wine, (or pure grape juice)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
I quartered the figs and soaked them in the red wine over night in the refrigerator.

Using a medium sauce pan I added the figs, wine and sugar and cooked everything on medium-heat for approximately 30 minutes until all of the alcohol was burned off and the sugar had converted into a thick syrup. I stirred occasionally to prevent burning.

The preserves were cooled down at room temperature before refrigeration.

Fig preserve sandwiches with sliced American cheese are great!

It's a good and sweet snack for anyone who is constantly on the go. These turned out great.

Try it. You will like it.

Bon Appetit!


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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Fig Leaf Politics

I may have already discussed with my co-contributors to this publication that inserting personal political opinions is probably not a great idea, and I think I may have agreed not to make a habit of it and keep writing stories about Cajun life and the good ol' days.

But, just this once, I would like to give you my take on how national politics is beginning to take shape in the 21st century.

It is certainly NOT my intention to stray too far from the subject of great Cajun cooking, nor is it my intention to offend anyone personally. Politics affects all aspects of life - including cooking. These are merely my views and historical observations.

So, with that in mind, I shall begin my story:

It all began with Genesis 3: “... the woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So, she took some of the fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate it … and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.”

Fast forward 2,000 years:


Mark 11: “… Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached in he found nothing but leaves; it was not time for figs … and Jesus said, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” The fig tree became withered and his disciples witnessed it.

Fast forward another 2,000 years:


U.S. Congress Bill: H.R. 3200
: “…Congress received a health care plan, a voluminous 2,074-pages document, which makes it next to impossible for average American voters to read and comprehend. Democrats are eager to pass this Senate bill before Americans become enlightened about its potentially  harmful side-effects. [my words]

It’s amazing to me how history repeats itself in similar ways.

The U.S. House has skillfully managed to pluck and eat some forbidden fruit and is now trying to make the Senate eat it as well. There are over 2,074-pages (like fig leaves on a tree) hiding something important that is suppose to be there, but is not.

And, I'll bet that you can probably count all the U.S. Senators, on two  hands, who have personally read and reviewed the "Americas Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" plan in its entirety - and that is very shameful!

So, it seems like fig leaves have been used throughout history as a pejorative symbol for covering-up  something which is shameful, or hiding something which is suppose to be there, but is not. The fig leaves hiding the details of this national health plan is no exception.

"Sometimes rushing into something head-first will cause you to loose it" as my old grandpa use to say. I think he may have been right.

In Genesis 3, fig leaves were used by the first man and woman to hide their ‘nakedness’, and in Mark 11 the fig leaves were hiding something that was suppose to be there, (fruit), but was not.

And now,  6,000 years later, it ends with H.R. 3200 and two thousand seventy-four leaves that are hiding something which isn't there.

If I were a U.S. Senator (especially a Democrat) I would seek to wither that tree before it is too late, so that no one will ever have to eat its fruit.

That's my 7 cents worth (inflation) and I'm sticking to it.

Have a nice day. Catch you later. Ahheee!!

Resources: ‘‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009’’.


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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Skinning and Fileting a Catfish

The reason I filet my catfish this way is because I use the remainder of the fish, after fileting, to make a 'Courtbouillon'.



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Wednesday, November 04, 2009

A Global Paradigm Shift - Who Would Have Known?

It seems like it was not that long ago when I watched my grandfather sitting on the edge of his old oak rocking chair with his chin steadfastly perched in the open palms of both hands -- elbows affixed firmly on both knees, listening intently,  about a foot away from an old Zenith,  to the latest top-billing prize-fight to ever hit the air waves. (I'm talking radio here.)  This was in the early 1950s.

I just can't imagine how things have changed so much on this planet during these last few decades.

I discovered this vid on YouTube and wanted to share it with you. I'm 60 years old right now, but if I get to live to 77.6 years,  (the average life-span of a male in the U.S.),  I can expect to see a lot more changes coming this way from over the horizon (according to the trends in this clip) than I've experienced in the last 6 decades put together.

Are we living in the best of times? ... or what?

(I wonder if folks will still be eating seafood gumbo then?)

Well, what can I say except, "shift" happens!





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