The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has posted a notice that at least 245 people have been infected with the outbreat strain of Salmonella Montevideo. These unfortunate folks are spread about in 44 states and the District of Columbia. The first reported case was on our about July 1, 2009. (2009!!) No deaths [...] Read more »

Sometimes you just want something a little different with your Cajun or Creole food. I mean, You Can’t Have Rice With Every Meal, can you? (Well, if you’re in Louisiana, maybe you can.) With that in mind, I offer this recipe from a great chef (and honorary Cajun), Emeril Lagasse:

Caramelized Onion Focaccia

I first saw this [...] Read more »

Mud bugs are the national crustacean of Louisiana. They’re boiled, fried, steamed, put into stews and soups, and otherwise consumed with a passion that surpasses all reason. Heck, even my spouse likes them, and she’s never been to Louisiana. (At least not that she’ll admit.) Believe me, it’s an acquired taste. If you’ve acquired the [...] Read more »

Shrimp are strange little creatures. They spend their whole life crawling around on the bottom of the ocean, scavenging anything they can find. They eat anything, as if they’re the chickens of the sea (Sorry, Charlie)…
No, wait. Wrong blog! This is the food thingie, right? With chiles and all? Got it. I was momentarily confusing [...] Read more »

A recent post on Slashfood asks, “What the hell is that?” The author, Jose Ralat Maldonado, explored the “queso” that is Velveeta and RO*TEL prepared tomatoes and chiles (and that’s the last time I’ll use that silly trademark). One of his premises is that Texans love the stuff. Another is that this mix was invented [...] Read more »

I spent an interesting Friday afternoon at Texas Lutheran. The fall semester is about to take up, and we have a plot afoot: We’re going to use some of the facilitative methods we’ve built for industry to see if we can push the freshman Chemistry students to be more successful. A big challenge! Performance is [...] Read more »

Tim and Derek had seen a lot of stuff on Tuesday, but they were ready to see another full day’s worth of sights today. We grabbed breakfast at the motel, then squeezed into the shuttle van with about a dozen other brave souls tourists headed downtown and hung on for the five-minute screaming session ride [...] Read more »

The fateful day has finally arrived. Although her birthday isn’t until next week, she’s now officially 40. And after that insane donnybrook mayhem and merrymaking boisterous party the Chile Underground may never be the same…
After an early start to the day, cleaning and prepping (mostly sou-chef chores), we got the house in pretty spiffy shape. [...] Read more »