I got there after work Monday night, and was the first one there. I thought the class was for 6, but it was actually 6:30. I was able to talk to the chef and walk around the store, so that was cool. She said how she’d need a volunteer to make the roux, so I volunteered. There were about 9 people in the class, and it was one of those places where you bring your own wine. When the class started we sat there and listened to the chef introduce herself and everything. She called me up to make the roux and walked me through everything. All I had to do was stir. I did not let it burn! It worked! It only took 5 minutes! It ended up being the base for a chicken and sausage gumbo that was DELICIOUS! She had some other guy make the seafood gumbo roux that was darker, but that worked too. Amazing! We all left full and happy. It was a great night, and now I know how to make a roux.

I actually didn’t have the make the cake for an occasion, I was just making it to make it and use the buttermilk. I finally found time to make it the day I was going to be going to Kelly Clarkson. It wasn’t quite the rush job like the Coffee Cake, so I was able to take pictures of the process.

First the dry ingredients were mixed first.

BTW, I had a dilemma with the unsalted vs salted butter. I had bought both kinds (unsalted for baking and salted that I thought would be better for normal use), and had used quite a lot of the unsalted for different recipes I used (like the Bobby Flay biscuits I made earlier in the weekend), and the cake called for unsalted. I didn’t really want to go to the store for unsalted butter, so I portioned the butter and used probably 65% unsalted. Now I buy exclusively unsalted since now I have figured out the difference between the two, and don’t really notice a taste difference for normal use.

I greased and floured the cake pans. I’ve become quite good at it.

The wet ingredients came together and were ready to go quickly.

Of course, because I am one of the few people in the U.S. without a printer at home, I had my laptop open with all the instructions. I glanced at it quite often to make sure I was getting everything right.

The whole espresso extract thing, I just used the instant coffee I had. I was able to use my John Wayne coffee mug as a tool in this endeavor. The Kahlua is for the filling/frosting.

One thing I didn’t enjoy was washing the bowls DURING this operation. Maybe I should get more mixing bowls, but I’m just working with one set right now. Once the cakes were out of the oven, I put them on cooling racks and had to wait for them to cool so then I could ice them. (BTW, props to my friend Megan for passing down her extra cooling racks)

The ridges on the edge of the cake were from the parchment the recipe called to line the cake pans. I floured and parchment papered the pans, so maybe it was redundant, but I wouldn’t want to take any chances.

I pretty much just poured the syrup over the cakes, which kind of made a mess, but it worked. I might try something different next time. Getting the cakes from the racks to the plate was interesting, especially after they’ve been soaked with syrup. Making the filling and frosting was easy, and the mascarpone worked well. Once the cake was assembled, it went into the fridge to ‘set’ and left for the concert.

I got back probably at 11 pm and cut into the cake. It was excellent.

Sadly, I had to eat at least one piece of cake everyday during the week since I was going to be leaving for Nashville at the end of it. Don’t hate me.

I did end up with about 1/4 of it left after eating one piece a day and pawning off wedges to friends and family, and it still tasted fine when I got back. Win, win.

The icing came together PERFECTLY! I had gotten some tips from blog friend Mandy and my friend Mel on how to make frosting without a stand mixer and avoid the fiasco of last Christmas with runny frosting. I followed PW’s instructions and started with 2 tbsp of cream. I added a 3rd and then VOILA, frosting. It was amazing.

The icing spread really easy and it didn’t take long at all. I stuck it in the fridge to sit until tomorrow. I deem this foray back into baking (first time since the Baklava that I still have not properly documented) a success.

I was on a time schedule because of the Hornets game tonight. I was able to get the cake iced and in the fridge to set proper and make it to the game with a few minutes to spare. Then the Hornets rewarded me by gritting out a win in OT.

The other day my friend Alisa mentioned Five Guys on her twitter page. She likes In N Out better, but I have had In N Out, and the only thing it has on Five Guys is the t-shirts. Reading about Five Guys got me googling, and I came to find out there is now a Five Guys in Biloxi. I emailed my parents Thursday and shared the news. Since I had gone to see Swell Season Thursday night, I didn’t get a chance to check my email until Friday morning. Both my parents had replied asking if I wanted to take a day trip to Biloxi, and since I had the day off work I figured ‘why not?’.

I called them up Friday morning and the plan was set in motion. I dropped my car off at Honda, and my parents picked me up. We made it to Five Guys and it was everything we had remembered. The bell peppers, the fries, the grilled onions, it was all there. We also found out while there that franchises for the NOLA metro had been sold, so there is hope of a Five Guys opening closer than Biloxi. No matter though, a day trip for a fantastic burger like that is completely worth it.

Lots has actually been going on. I’ve been keeping track on my good things for September post, and I’ll probably elaborate on some of that later. However, I just got home from the store restocking on yogurt. I have been addicted to yogurt the past couple of weeks. It first got into my head at work when I saw a friend eating some one afternoon. Then when I was in Dallas for Macca, the hotel had yogurt as part of the continental breakfast. I tried some, and it was not as bad as I remember. I remember one time thinking vanilla yogurt would taste like the stuff from TCBY. Since that day, I really didn’t want any part of yogurt. After Dallas though, I was at the store and grabbed a few things of yogurt in a bunch of different flavors. It’s delicious, and now when I go to the store it’s like a kid in a candy store. There are so many flavors to choose from! I can’t get enough.

In other news, I’m going to my first NOLA Eat Club tomorrow night. It’s going to be a kind of double date thing, and I’m stoked. My friend Chet and I have talked about the Eat Clubs, but they’re usually pricey places in NOLA. We spied a place on the northshore for $45 a person all inclusive, and pounced. I cannot wait, I might even get to namedrop my friend Alton. (BTW, I have not gotten his book yet, but if you have, let me know what you think)

On Monday afternoon I had an appointment with my eye doctor, the same doctor who has in the past called me to just hang out. Allow me to explain…

He was recommended to me by my old eye doctor when I realized that doctor was not on my insurance. Anyway, my current doctor is cool, and I think about 3 or 4 years ago we were making small talk at some point and he told me he was a volunteer fireman. The next year when I saw him, I asked him how that was going. We talk about it every time I go now, which is not awkward itself. He’s tried to recruit me too, but I’ve turned him down. The problem is the calls after I leave the office, to numbers that are in my file that I did not actually give him when I saw him. Two years ago he called my cell phone and left a couple of voice mails. I wasn’t screening my calls, just not able to answer the phone. He was calling to see if I wanted to meet up with him and his fellow firemen for karaoke at a local bar. Last year he called me on my work phone to see if I needed my contacts polished, and also if I wanted to go hang out. I had been out of town, so when I got back I listened to my messages. The first voice mail was about how he could polish my contacts if I needed them polished, the 2nd was the same thing, but he was leaving at a certain time, the 3rd was that I could come later if I wanted because he was staying longer than he thought. I don’t find this anywhere near as creepy as the run-ins with CGG, but it’s odd. He’s a pretty decent guy, just looking for another guy friend to go hang out with (he has pictures of his grandkids in his office), and I guess he sees me as awesome, and wants to hang out with me. I guess I feel like I want to keep our relationship professional, so I’ve never called him back. I did see him in the local bar doing karaoke one night when I had gone out with a couple of work friends, but that was totally accidental.

So Monday was my yearly checkup. It was a little weird because I was the only patient under 70 it seemed like. The nurse did her pre doctor visit thing and then the doctor came in. The conversation wasn’t too awkward, although he did tell me about a fireman who was getting fired and how his friend he used to go sing karaoke with had moved or something. On the way out, he told me how his wife was now changing shifts so he was going to need something to do on Friday nights or something. I told him good luck. I know he was fishing, but I was not biting. I haven’t gotten any phone calls since either….another win.

The main thing about the visit was that my prescription isn’t changing (go gas permeable contacts!) so I won’t have to buy new contacts or glasses. I like my new glasses, so I was glad I won’t have to worry about updating them. They even said I’m seeing at 20/15!

I walked out with my eyes still a little dialated and made it to the grocery store to pick up some bread. While there I managed to find what must be the last sixer of Abita Strawberry for 2009. I had not seen any in stores since the beginning of summer! I found it inside the walk in cooler for the beer. That particular store has the walk in cooler where they keep some of the higher end stuff, and I walk in there mostly just to look around and see if there’s anything interesting. Monday I saw the Abita Strawberry sitting on a shelf and couldn’t believe my luck. I quickly picked it up and brought it home. It is THE BEST ABITA THEY MAKE and I’m sure my friends will be happy when we have our Saints party in a couple of weeks.

So on Friday night, I picked up my dad and we went to this BBQ place he had found out about that has a location in Gulfport. It’s been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (according to the magazine article posted at the door), which means it’s probably the first time I’ve eaten at a DDD blessed place. The food was good, and by that I mean the pulled pork and the banana pudding. I love homemade banana pudding….also sweet tea. Winner.

The ZZ Top show was at a casino, which I generally do not like going to. They seem cool on TV, but actually going to one and seeing people who probably should not be dropping money into slot machines sitting there entranced doesn’t make me feel good. To get to the theatre, we had to walk through 2 levels of casino, which I guess was a planned thing. The theatre was pretty small, and I would estimate about 1250….maybe 1500….people could fit in there. There were three bars that I saw, and all of them were full up with people in line buying drinks about 15 minutes before show time. I thought about getting a drink, but by the time I wanted to go there were too many people in line. Also, the people on our row didn’t really seem to realize it’s easier for people to walk past you if you stand up and make an effort, than just sitting there and hoping no one trips on your knees.

The show started and the sound wasn’t very good. Billy’s mic was all messed up, and Dusty had to sing a few verses, but they eventually got things situated. I knew judging from recent setlists that they saved most of their hits for the 2nd half of the set, and that’s just what they did. Since they were in Mississippi, they did some blues covers, which was cool. People were still yelling out for songs in between though, as if they weren’t going to play “Sharp Dressed Man”.

They had guitars that had gold glitter on the front, and were bright purple on the back. They even still had the synchronized steps and sways going, which was awesome. Billy showed off by playing one handed, which I’m still not sure how he pulled that off. I tried to take some pictures, but unfortunately there was a stage light directly pointed in my direction, so sometimes it was like watching the band play directly in front of the sun.

“Just Got Paid” was amazing, as were the fur covered guitars they used for “Legs”. They saved “La Grange” for the encore, which was alright with me. The last song they did was “Tush” which had about half the theatre standing up. People didn’t stand up much at all except for some people down in the pit section, and even they didn’t stand up until the end. I thought the show was great, but the venue kind of sucked. The sound was just okay, the seats were crowded together (at least there were cupholders), and we had to walk through a lot of casino to get to the theatre. Despite all that, we saw ZZ Top live again and if they came back to the same place, I’d probably want to go again. On the way out my dad and I posed with show posters.

I hope he does another book signing tour again, because I had a great time at the last one. Thanks to some people moving back to the south shore, I may not have to go it alone.

i got home from the gym (i’ve doubled my ability for pull ups since i first started doing them) and turned on the USA/Costa Rica soccer game. someone forgot to tell the USA defense they were playing, because within the first 15 minutes it was 2-0. i made a tomato and cheese omelet (i’m getting good at those) and had dinner. i called up a friend one last time about Sonic, but got VM. sad. i rode my bike down to the Sonic and the clientele was sketchier than i remember. they had waitresses walking around with the floats, so i didn’t have to order or anything. i got my float, sat down, and enjoyed the evening. after i finished, i thought about getting one for the ride home but decided against it. it kind of would have seemed greedy since the same two waitresses were walking around. i rode home and got back in time to see the 2nd half of the soccer game, which ended up being a 3-1 defeat for the USA. yuck.

the root beer float night was a great idea. i hope Sonic makes it a yearly thing, though i’m kind of hoping they decide to make a night later this summer for a free slushie or jr banana split.

(side story, that summer (i think 2006?) when they had the 99 cent jr banana splits, i must have eaten 10 of them, they were awesome.)

last weekend though, after working a few hours of OT, i went out with some friends in NOLA, hoping to meet up with a friend from Birmingham who was in town for a wedding. she didn’t show, but i still had a good time riding the street car and meeting friends of friends. btw, why does anyone order a beer if they don’t like beer? why order a beer and then only take a sip and be done with it? order a mixed drink or at least water! Sunday i met up with Jacob at the pub to watch some soccer. it was the first time all season we had gone to the pub together, which was a shame.

later in the evening, Whitney and i hit up Brandi Carlile. the show was much better than i thought it would be. i mean, i know my friend Brandi loves Brandi, but the past few months i had taken some of her songs off my iPod. she played a lot of new songs, and everything was acoustic. the new songs were great! and she covered Johnny Cash, the Beatles, and Radiohead. it was an excellent show. the crowd was unique as well, and some 60 something year old lady was trying to move me out of her way so she could move up. i stood my ground. i don’t care if she was only 5 feet tall, i was there first! also Whitney said her breath was horrible.

i’m going to yadda yadda work last week. amongst the highlights were walking past BO Guy on the way out one day and in the midst of saying “have a good night, see you tomorrow!” i took a big whiff of BO and almost suffocated at ‘see you tomorrow’. things have been really weird with him lately. he’s been on the phone a lot with health food type people, and he asked some lady last week if avocados and tomatos were considered fresh vegetables. that’s not even the weirdest thing.

the other big things last week were the making of the homemade pasta sauce and the restoration of the front flower beds at my house. the restoration was a 3 day affair, but now i look like i have an actual landscaped front yard. here’s a picture my dad took Sunday afternoon:

actual mulch! hopefully the precautions we took with the weed screens will prevent the weeds from taking over again. also, i killed a few hundred ants in the process and that felt good.