2004-01-19 - 9:43 a.m.

Ok, as promised, here are some pictures from the Big Easy trip:

One of my favorite tours was a historic garden walking tour. Even though it was early January, this garden was lush with orange, lemon and kumquat trees. Imagine how GOOD this would smell in the spring blooming season!!

Also on this tour, we visited the earliest and most famous City of the Dead, the Charles 1 cemetary, where the legendary Voodoo queen, Marie Laveau, is buried. If you are interested in her saga at all, there is a great new book out, which I just finished, called "Voodoo Dreams".

Legend has it if you trace 3 Xs on her tomb, turn around 3 times, jump up and down 3 times and then ask a question of her, she will send you the answer in a dream. Also helps if you bring her a little gift as an offering. As our tour guide said, apparently booze and money are Marie's favorites, since those always disappear quickly.

Finally, just a quick shot of some of the FANTASTIC musicians we heard playing. This trio was set up on Royal Street, one block south of the famous Bourbon Street.

AND, for Catherine, who was kind enough to ask, here's a spicy little receipe for paella that we made over New Year's. It serves 4-ish, but is great as leftover.

6 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth

3 boneless chix breasts cut into bite-sized pieces

3/4 pound large shrimp, peeled

2 Tb paprika

3/4 pound of chorizo or spicy sausage of your choice, sliced into bite-sized rounds

1 large onion, chopped

3 Tb chopped Italian parsley

1 22-24 ounce can of tomato sauce

1 cup of frozen peas

1 cup of frozen corn

In a large crockpot, place the chicken, sausage, garlic, and onion. Add the broth and the tomato sauce. Stir in the paprika. Cook on High heat in the crockpot for at least 4 hours. Add the shrimp at this point, and cook for another hour on Medium or Low. Finally, 1/2-hour before you wish to serve, add in the frozen peas and corn. Just before serving, taste the seasoning and add salt if needed, then stir in the chopped parsley.

I usually serve this over rice and the receipe can be doubled. It keeps well as leftovers too.

On the fiber front today, I'm going to try to get a lovely "autumn colors" wool roving spun. I'm also working on some more knitting designs for the farm shop. Since it's supposed to be cold again today (well, only in the teens, but WAY better than -12 as a daytime high), I'm going to get the driveway plowed, do some plowing for our neighbor next door, and then crank up the woodstove and work inside today.

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