Healthy and Delicious!

Here's a recipe that's quick, easy, and healthy- and unexpectedly delicious!  Miss Ginger has been seeing a lot of different avocado/pasta recipes on Pinterest, so she decided to copy steal concoct one of her own!  It's avocado season, and she has read that they are good for lowering her cholesterol, so, hey- a delicious food with good PR that's not real expensive? What's not to love?

This dish has just a few simple ingredients, and comes together in a snap!

1 bag of Trader Joe's pasta- any shape (they only have one size! Love that place for it's simplicity!!) Of course, any pasta will work- but you gotta figure out how much!

9 Campari tomatoes, or an equivalent amount of another kind of tomato (if you use big tomatoes you will want to peel them and dice them. Camparis are too small to peel, so Miss Ginger just kinda sliced them. You could also you cherry or grape tomatoes.)

1 can Artichoke hearts, packed in water (not the kind packed in oil)

2 Avocados, sliced

Olive Oil (or I guess you could just use the artichokes with oil in them!)

1 lb Louisiana Gulf Shrimp- the only shrimp worth eating! 

garlic, old bay seasoning- to taste

Boil the pasta.  While it's boiling:

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat; add olive oil to cover the bottom. (Lesson from Momma G:  "Hot pan, cold oil- food won't stick. Always heat your pan first!") Add the tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and seasoning, and cook until the tomatoes release their water and it boils down by about half. Add the avocado slices and stir them in well; they will begin to break up and make the sauce creamy.  Add the shrimp and cook until done, about 5 minutes.  

Drain the pasta and combine with the sauce. 

That's it!  You just cooked dinner in about 15 minutes! It makes about 6 servings!

Enjoy!

Worried sick...

about my coastal homelands!!

Miss G grew up in Lake Charles, about 20 minutes from the Texas border and about 30 minutes from the Lousiana Gulf Coast. She spent many a Saturday and Sunday boating and fishing with her bubbas and Poppa G, mostly in Calcasieu Lake, which on this map is shown to the left of Grand Lake. Sometimes we'd even take the boat out into the Gulf, but it was really too small if there was much of a swell to the tide.

Anyway, this big oil slick is sure to wreak havoc on the Gulf Coast, and it looks like the Coastal Marshes of Louisiana will bear the brunt of it. I know a lot of people think the Gulf Coast of Louisiana is just a gross muddy swamp, but really, it is an incredibly complex and delicate ecosystem, and home to many, many creatures of value both for their uniqueness and their commercial demand.

On the unique side, the Eastern Brown Pelican is perhaps Miss Ginger's most beloved. When Miss G was a young child, the Eastern Brown Pelican, which is the state bird of Lousiana, was nearing extinction. I remember how excited Momma G would get on the rare occassion that we sighted one while driving near the coast. Through valiant preservation efforts, their numbers have been restored, and they are often seen swooping and diving for fish in shallow coastal waters.

The Blue Crab is the "other crustacean" in Louisiana, perhaps not a well-known as crawfish, but just as delicious! They are boiled or steamed, or included in gumbo, and are the main ingredient in "shecrab soup".

When caught immediately after molting, while the shell is still soft, they are fried whole in a crispy batter. Kind of strange looking, I know, but they are quite delicious!

Then there's the mullosk that's pretty much synonymous with New Orleans Seafood, the Gulf Oyster. Like most invertabrates, it filters it's food out of the water, so any pollution will poison them first. They are then eaten by other animals, and the death cycle spirals out of control.

I'm not sure what's going to happen. They say the oil is still leaking, and that the slick is becoming so large that containment booms can't circle it. It could take years to clean up, and it certainly won't be removed by the time the tropical storm season begins. If summer storms, or heaven forbid a hurricane, were to push that mess into the wetlands, they might be destroyed forever.

The Audubon Society has long been a protector of birds and habitats along the Gulf Coast. They are coordinating rescue efforts, but it's going to cost a fortune! Miss Ginger implores interested parties to help by writing a check- any amount would help! Or perhaps even volunteering! The animals are going to need us!

And when you go shopping, be sure to pick up a bottle or two of Dawn dishwashing liquid! You know that's what they use to get the oil off the birds! For every bottle you buy, the makers of Dawn will contribute a dollar to the relief efforts!

Just as Louisiana was getting solid footing after Katrina, this had to happen. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!!!!!

Headin' to the House!

Tomorrow Miss G heads back home to H-town when she finishes work. It's been a good trip but she'll be glad to get back home to the kitties!

The stay in Metairie has been much nicer than in Baton Rouge. Instead of a freeway view, this time Miss G got a lake view. As many times as Miss G has stayed in the Marriott in Metairie she has always had the city view, and this time she got the lake view, right at the foot of the Causeway. Stunning!

The rest of the regional team ditched her ass this afternoon and headed back to H-town early, so the ever resourceful Miss G called her oldest and dearest friend John, and we had dinner at a New Orleans institution, Casamento's Restaurant. Casamento's is an amazing place that everyone simply must visit in their lifetime. It is so cool! The place is over 80 years old, but it is so spotlessly clean you would think is was built yesterday, except for the art deco bent to the decor. You see, it was built in the days before refrigeration, when the likelihood of contracting ptomaine or something even worse from improperly handled seafood was much greater than it is today. So the folks that built Casamentos covered virtually every conceivable surface with porcelain tile, which was quite pricey in the day. This way, it could be effectively cleaned and disinfected to prevent contamination. Also, because there was no source of shellfish outside of the Louisiana oyster season back then, Casamento's simply closed during the summer months, and reopened with the oyster season again in September. Casamento's still follows the tradition to this day, even though they could easily have oysters flown in from other parts of the world. The heritage in Louisiana is that one only eats oysters in months with the letter "R" in the name, which means you don't eat oysters in May, June, July, or August- the hot summer months when the water was too warm and cholera, ptomaine, and other microorganisms could too easily contaminate the shellfish. Today, the Louisiana seafood industry has discovered ways to pasteurize shellfish to prevent contamination, but Miss Ginger prefers to follow the tradition- it just seems to make them taste better!