225BatonRouge.com - Blogs

Easter is over and I can thankfully move on from filching cheap chocolate from the kids’ baskets and look toward the next food holiday: Jazz Fest. I’m dreaming of crawfish bread and stuffed artichokes and lining up with a hundred of my closest friends. How much I and everyone around me enjoys the line will depend on whether or not I get a babysitter.

Easter Sunday dinnah of brisket-and-trimmings turned out well, but the menu was pretty everydayish. I took the lazy man’s way out and roasted the brisket at 275 for 5 hours the day before, then finished it on the grill before serving. We also had coleslaw and deviled eggs, consummate Easter fare, although slightly weird with the arctic blast. The roasted sweet potato chunks with rosemary were low maintenance and earthy, and dessert was just fresh berries with homemade whipped cream. I love Easter menus because unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas you get real diversity from family to family. Within our vast supply of relatives, one menu features lamb, garlic mashed potatoes and painstakingly shelled sweet peas, while another is fried fish, canned LeSeurs, and Aunt Pat’s inimitable Frito and red kidney bean salad with iceberg, shredded cheddar, and Catalina dressing.

I sampled a good Spanish white last week, the Pazo Senorans 2005 Albarino from the Rias Baixas region of Galicia. This grape from Spain or Portugal (Alvarinho) produces complex wines that can win over the white-reluctant. I noticed one was among those featured at the Calandro’s Select Cellars/Avoyelles Café tasting earlier this month. “They’re all good,” says my wino friend Mary. What fun to find out.

Eat on, and post your Jazz Fest faves or local food finds here.