YumSugar

Happy Hour: Hurricane

partysugar — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:25:14 -0800

View Slideshow ›

Celebrate Mardi Gras With a Frozen Bananas Foster Bombe

YumSugar — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:22:51 -0800

View Slideshow ›

Coveted Crib: Doullut Steamboat Houses (Part 2)

CasaSugar — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:05:53 -0800

On Friday I told you a bit about the Doullut Steamboat Houses. You can read the first half of the story here.

As you may have guessed, the houses were influenced architecturally by the steamboats that Doullot himself navigated. The deep decks that surround the houses, their narrow inner hallways, round smokestack chimneys, and square portholes, as well as the Mississippi River facing belvedere, are all distinctly derived from the vessels' architecture. Also in nautical fashion, much of the building (interior and exterior) was constructed with tin, and of course, the ornate woodwork with unusual pearls on the balconies is inspired by those on the steamboats that cruise the mighty Mississippi. In addition, the houses share many qualities with Louisiana plantation homes, which are generally grand, symmetrical, and boxy, featuring balconies and columns or pillars.

What you may not have suspected of the steamboat houses is that they were also largely influenced by the Japanese exhibit building, or teahouse garden building, at the St. Louis World's Fair 1904, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The exhibit building spawned the second level and pilot house concave roofs and glazed tiling of the scroll-shaped columns of these New Orleans treasures.

400 Egania Street:

View 4 Photos ›

503 Egania Street:

View 2 Photos ›

Source

Coveted Crib: Doullut Steamboat Houses (Part 1)

CasaSugar — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:00:51 -0800

TeamSugar member RowD recently shared photos of two Steamboat Houses which she encountered during a post-Katrina trip to New Orleans. Since they're such fascinating houses, and historical landmarks at that, I figured I'd give you a bit of a background. The two remarkable houses in question, at 400 and 453 Egania St., were built between 1905 and 1913 by Milton P. Doullot, a steamboat captain, for his daughter and son. In 1977, the twin houses were designated historical landmarks by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission.

In the 100 years since they were built, the houses underwent some changes, due to hurricanes and normal aging, so they are no longer identical. The original house (400 Egania) was also originally closer to the river, but moved back when the levee was moved. Doullot's great grandson still owns the house, and the other was auctioned out of the family.

For details on these houses' unusual architectural influences, tune in over the weekend for the second half of the story.

400 Egania Street:

View 4 Photos ›

503 Egania Street:

View 2 Photos ›

Source

'Wich of the Week: Muffuletta

YumSugar — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:13:31 -0800

Yesterday was Super Tuesday and Fat Tuesday, so I decided to celebrate with the super-fat New Orleans sandwich known as the muffuletta. Though lesser-known than the Big Easy's other big-bread creation, the po'boy, today's 'Wich of the Week is just as beloved.

Invented about a century ago by the French Quarter's Central Grocery, this sandwich is made on massive rounds of Italian bread cut into quarters; one sandwich easily feeds two to four people. I've never been able to find the bread outside of New Orleans, so I substitute seeded kaiser rolls.

The key to a good muffuletta - which features piles of ham, salami, mortadella, and provolone cheese - is Italian olive salad. Central Grocery closely guards its recipe, but Boscoli's version is hard to beat. This time I decided to make my own, and I was quite pleased with the results; to get the recipe for the olive salad and the sandwich, plus lots of photos, read more.

Muffaletta

For the olive salad:

1 cup green pimiento-stuffed olives, coarsely chopped
1 cup kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup diced carrot
2 gloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup roasted red pepper, finely chopped
2 T. dried parsley
1 T. dried oregano
1 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 T. white-wine vinegar
2 T. lemon juice

For the sandwich:

2 slices mortadella
2 slices ham
4 slices salami
3 slices provolone cheese
Olive salad
One seeded kaiser roll or similar

How to make it:

Preferably one day in advance, make the olive salad. Combine all 11 ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Store overnight in a tightly sealed container.
Next, slice the seeded rolls in half, hamburger bun-style, and hollow out the top slice by scraping out most of the fluffy bread.

On the bottom slice, spread a thin layer of olive salad, just enough to hold the sandwich together.
Atop that slice, stack the mortadella, ham, salami, and cheese.

Then, fill the hollowed-out section of the top slice with a generous helping of olive salad.

Assemble the sandwich by placing the olive-filled half of the roll atop the meat, and slice in half to eat.

Print recipe with images | without images

View 12 Photos ›

Out and About: Louisiana's Krewe of Barkus

PetSugar — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:30:16 -0800

It's especially fitting that we're spending this week out and about in Louisiana, home to the biggest Mardi Gras celebration in the country! North wasn't lucky enough to make up some craw~~fish~~dog gumbo, but I'd still love to deck him out for Fat Tuesday.

My fave dog-friendly part of this holiday is the parade by the Krewe of Barkus - the theme of the sixteenth annual event was "Indiana Bones and the Raiders of the Lost Bark," and took place last weekend in New Orleans. The krewe member pooches are accompanied by a human escort around the French Quarter and to a follow-up "pawty" in Armstrong Park - it looked like so much fun, I couldn't resist sharing pictures of the festive pups when you read more.

View 16 Photos ›

Source

Come Party With Me: Mardi Gras Bash - Invitations

partysugar — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 06:59:12 -0800

Lately I've been hosting dinner after dinner and I've been dying to have a reason to host a big blowout bash. And I've just found my reason: Mardi Gras! Mardi Gras is typically celebrated the last five days leading up to Lent with the biggest day of partying on Fat Tuesday, the night before Ash Wednesday. As much as I would love to host a huge party on Fat Tuesday, I know that not all of my friends will be able to attend, so it will take place this Saturday night instead. Mardi Gras is not the most sophisticated of celebrations and I'm excited to plan an informal party with dancing, flashing, beads, and all around havoc.

Today it's my favorite time of the week: invitation making time(!) so, read more

When I think Mardi Gras, the colors green, purple, and gold come to mind so they will be the color of my party.

To make the Mardi Gras mask invitations you will need:

dark green cardstock
purple paper
mask stencil (I made mine by tracing the shape of my eye-mask onto a piece of plain white paper. I added flared wings and cut holes for the eyes)
gold foil or gold candy paper
dark green threaded sequins
glitter (green, purple, or gold)
glue
scissors
pencil
needle
green thread
computer
printer

To assemble this invite:

Using the stencil and a pencil, outline the shape of the mask on the green cardstock.

Cut the shape of the mask out.

Repeat the same process on the purple paper. Outline the eyes and cut out both the mask shape and the eye holes.

Glue two pieces of gold foil onto the front of the green mask shape. The gold is going to be the inside of the eyes.

Cut gold paper down to the size of the mask. Glue the purple mask on top of the green and gold front of the invitation.

With the thread and needle, sew the sequins to the front of the outside rim of the mask. It is not necessary to sew each and every sequin. Thread the needle through a sequin on the front and into the sequin directly next to it pulling tight on the back side of the invitation. Skip several sequins and thread through further down the line. Pull tight on the front side threading through the next sequin and pulling tight on the back side. Skip several sequins before threading through again.

Repeat process until the string of sequins is secured in place on the outside edge of the front of the mask/invitation. (Alternately, carefully glue the sequins to the edge of the front of the invitation.) Set aside.

On your computer type the details of the party in a Mardi Gras-ish font. I used BlairMdITC TT-Medium and wrote the following message:

It’s Time To Let Loose…
And Celebrate Mardi Gras!
Saturday February 17
10 PM
PartySugar’s House
San Francisco
RSVP 415.444.5555

Print the text out on another sheet of dark green cardstock.

With the stencil trace the shape of the mask onto the printed out text sheet.

Cut the shape of the mask out. Do not cut eye wholes.

Glue the text onto the back of the invite being careful to cover up the thread.

With the glitter decorate the front of the invite to your liking. I chose to use a purple glitter pen and outline the the inside of the eyes.

Voila! Your invitation is done and can double as a mask!

Send in the envelope of your choice.

How would you create an invitation for a Mardi Gras blowout bash? Tell me about it below. Stay with me on this one, there's more to come: the Cajun inspired menu, drinks, look, and music!

View 41 Photos ›