Living Here

Contrary to what my recent posts have indicated, we've actually been up to a lot more than just cooking and organizing the house the last month (has it already been a month?!).  It was really great having some time off work the first couple weeks... we completely took advantage of it.  Here's a bit of our recent non-scheduled life:

Just a week after arriving was Will's birthday.  We celebrated with cake, ice cream, and exploring the live music scene around our neighborhood.

Oh- we also celebrated with charbroiled oysters at Acme in the Quarter.  Raw oysters are lovely, but these babies are to-die-for.

We rode our bikes to pick up a couple things at the grocery on our first weekend in town.  In standard New Orleans fashion, a random parade was taking place on our return trip.  I don't know how you qualify to be a "Siren", but I want to.  Dressing like a mermaid and dancing in the street?  Yes, please!

We've officially found our favorite music venue.  The Spotted Cat on Frenchman Street has live music nearly all day every day.  And it's always crazy-good.  I have no idea where the heck all these awesome musicians come from.  Local swing dancers typically come out certain evenings as well, which is a blast to watch.  They even inspired us to enroll in swing classes with Nola Jitterbugs at a nearby studio!  That's a story for another post, though :)  

Kirb has taken to bike riding!  Can you spot him on the back of Will's bike?  We didn't know how he'd fare, but I think he loves the wind in his wrinkles.

On a quest to experience some of the "touristy" activities before we officially feel like locals, we headed out to Laura Plantation about an hour from New Orleans.  It was actually really interesting... Do you remember the Br'er Rabbit stories?  Apparently some of the first stories of Compair Lapin (the French name for the character) were written here.

We spent the evening of the 4th at the rooftop pool of some great new friends.

Not a bad view, eh?  Sorry, no cliche fireworks pictures this year, folks.

Everyone has made us feel so welcome here!  Within the first week, we had already met most of the residents on our street, and our immediate neighbors gave us a sweet housewarming gift.  We're starting to feel right at home :)

Rejoice- Monday's almost over, friends!

New Orleans Classic: Shrimp Étouffée

Will tried étouffée in New Orleans for the first time a couple of months ago at a restaurant called Luke. It's a fantastic upper-scale-feeling restaurant in the Central Business District, where the food is delicious and the service is top notch.  Which brings me to my point- when Will likes a dish, he really expresses it.  I mean, really.  He rolled out a reaction to the étouffée at Luke that was so impressive, our waiter gave us free dessert.  So naturally Will tells me, "You should make this!"

If you've been to New Orleans, you know it's all about the red beans and rice (coming soon!) and étouffée.  Crawfish étouffée is a classic, but I decided to try it with shrimp for my first go around.  I was really pleased with the way it turned out, and Will gave his standard "great food" reaction.  So this is the real deal, people!

This recipe (like the potato salad I recently posted) is adapted from The New Orleans Cookbook.  I changed several things in here though, so if you want the original recipe, you'll need the book.

Here we go:

Shrimp Étouffée (Adopted and adapted from The New Orleans Cookbook)

Ingredients:

• 6 T butter
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 c. diced onion
• 1/2 c. diced celery
• 1/2 c. diced green pepper
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 1/2 c. uncooked shrimp
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/3 c. sliced green onion tops
• 1 T chopped fresh parsley
• 1 c. cold water
• 1 c. hot water
• boiled rice (this cookbook gives the best instructions for this- the recipe is at the bottom of this post)

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat (I prefer my dutch oven for this dish).  Stirring constantly, slowly add the flour.  Cook until a deep carmel-colored roux forms (about 15 min).  
2. Add the onion, green pepper, garlic, and celery.  Stir frequently until the veggies are glazed, like in the first photo below (about 15 min).
3. Mix in the shrimp, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon juice, green onion tops, and parsley.  Add 1 c. cold water and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to simmer, stirring frequently until the shrimp are pinkish and opaque (5-10 min).
4. Add 1 c. hot water to give yourself a little more sauce.  Stir well, then serve over boiled rice.
5. Drink an Abida alongside and talk in a N'awlins accent for the rest of the meal.  This is optional, but highly recommended.

The New Orleans Cookbook Boiled Rice Recipe 
(Adopted from The New Orleans Cookbook, of course)

Ingredients:

• 1 c. long grain white rice
• 2 c. cold water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp butter

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Bring the heat down very low, top with a lid, and cook for 15 min (don't take the lid off during cooking).
3. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Downsizing and a Parlor Tour

Things are starting to shape up around here.  As you can probably imagine, we had a lot of decisions to make about all of our "stuff" when we moved from our 4000 square foot Indiana home to our 1100 square foot New Orleans shot-gun.  We gave a lot of our handed-down antiques back to my parents and grandparents, and we sold a lot more at the Woodruff Place Flea Market.  Even with everything we unloaded to family and flea market buyers, we still seemed to have more that just couldn't make the trip.  Salvation Army and Goodwill came in handy at that point.

The good news is, we've had plenty to furnish and decorate our new place with!  Moving from our first home to our last one was quite the opposite- we had a lot of empty walls and rooms to fill.  This time around, we're filled to the brim.  Talk about an opportunity to simplify!

Here's what the place looked like post moving-truck-unloading.  We definitely didn't think it would all fit!

He's really photogenic.

Thank goodness Kirby helped with the unpacking.

As always, decorating, organizing, and redecorating will be a continuing project.  At the moment though, there's only a little de-cluttering left to do before I can slap a "done for now" sticker on this bad boy.

I'll give a bedroom & kitchen tour later, but below are some shots of the double parlor.  Ignore the extra boxes and rug in the first parlor- did I mention we're still settling?

I've got a few plans for this room.  The first is to paint these chairs.  I'm considering matching the green color of the throw (which my mom crocheted for us, by the way) on the back of the left chair.

I haven't even asked our landlord if we can paint.  I'm kind of diggin' the yellow for now.

Yep, I've already created another gallery wall!  I can't help myself.  Especially since most of our wall art was condensed in the downsize.  I'm hoping to add at least another row to the top.  NOLA is overflowing with great local art, so I'll have no problem finding more pieces!  Check out my last gallery wall post to see my how-to.  I used the same method this time.

We have four mantles in this house.  FOUR!  Dream. Come. True.  Sigh.

We can't forget a little piece of our old 'hood :)

The pugs approve of the move, too.

Have a good week!