New Orleans School of Cooking

We woke up a little later than expected (these shuttered blinds make it easy to sleep in... oh, and someone accidentally turned off the alarm when he meant to hit snooze...) but we made it to the New Orleans School of Cooking just in time for roll call and entrance to the demonstration kitchen. Our instructor Harriet was a funny, lively, septuagenarian who held court for just over 2 hours with her historical tales and family stories while we devoured bowls of gumbo, plates of jambalaya, pralines and (Emmett's favorite) Bananas Foster. We imbibed in the local beer Abita, as well as iced tea and lemonade before heading back to Metarie for a little pool time. At around 5, we headed in to the city's Garden District to join up with some friends of Uncle Fred's. We ate at Purloo, a southern style restaurant that uses locally-sourced ingredients. The restaurant is adjacent to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, and the cocktails and menu items we indulged in could easily have been exhibits themselves. The dishes were as appealing to the palate as the eye. We started with the "Southern"

board: Charleston pimento cheese, smoked Pickett Farms lamb, green tomato chutney, deviled eggs "Meuniere", fried pickles, boiled peanuts and pickled okra - yum. We enjoyed the meal as well as the company of Jake and Courtney whom Fred met many years ago when he worked with the March of Dimes. We enjoyed sharing parenting stories (Jake and Courtney have three young children who are 5, 3 and 3 months) and the delicious food a drink. A wonderful night!