Crawfish Pistolettes

Who doesn’t love food, stuffed into another food? In this case, I am talking about rolls, stuffed with Cajun goodness. In it we have the Cajun mirepoix, the holy trinity, celery, onions and green bell pepper. Along with crawfish, and jalapeno velveeta. OOH. I’m hungry.

4BB1JbJB8KZ5FfjQ.jpgSince I am no longer in Louisiana, and it’s not always crawfish season, I have to start off frozen. Interesting that has Louisiana written all over it…but it’s a product of China. Womp! I get these in the frozen seafood section of Wal-Mart.

2op9FqJcjIZfxl2A.jpgStart up with the “holy trinity” of Cajun cooking. I wish you can smell it. I can smell it as I write this.

l05tG7rRITizETrh.jpgAdd cream of mushroom, jalapeno velveeta, hot sauce, and seasonings.

tFWQakLMtWYY12zU.jpgThen the main attraction, and stir until warmed all the way through, and bubbling a little. Remove from heat, and set it aside to cool a little.

IinZXrw5ef40LTw1.jpgHollow out the rolls, but keep the tops matched up, because we are putting these babies back together!

LGT40AXVMcBsi1MY.jpgStuff it.

8NN9zJ88Zvg5boze.jpgPut them back together, and brush melted butter on it. Bake, and ENJOY.

I used this recipe as a basis, but of course I made it my own. Because that’s how I roll. Especially when it comes to rolls. GET IT? HAHA.

Drag Show: Golden Lantern

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To continue with our streak of live performances for the weekend. The ladies were invited to a drag show Saturday by Miss Monique’s alter ego, Michael.
Britnee Aluxander
We got to Tubby’s Golden Lantern a little early after dinner, so we had some time to kill, especially since they moved the regularly scheduled 10pm show to 11pm due to some country line dance convention (yes they really have those). This is were we met Britnee Aluxander.

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She became leader of the pack for the night, leading us to her favorite hot spot Bourbon Pub where she performs weekly. As we were walking the streets and exploring the area, we stopped in on a few ghost tour groups and listened a little (well, I ran away because I’m not having a ghost follow me home). Then we headed back to the show!
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The show’s platform was pretty much as follows, 5 drag queens, performing country songs, they each get about 3 songs each, with a costume change for a 2 hour show. As they sing they walk around and interface with the crowd, and this is where you can pull out your ones and tip them. It was hard to believe that these women were actually men! Beautiful with sparkle and shine, we were all mesmerized.

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The Golden Lantern was very welcoming to everyone, male, female, gay or straight. They had a community vibe and gave us the best southern hospitality I’ve ever had at a bar. Afterwards there was plenty of line dancing for everyone all around!

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Swamp Adventures


There are two kinds of Gator people in the bayous of Louisiana. The kind where they love the alligators, and treat them as members of their family and are conscious of their preservation. And the  others are the kind you see on swamp people who make their yearly income in the short hunting season chooootin’ em.
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We were the kind of gator people who sat with our cameras safely inside an air boat. I’ve been on gator tours before in different bayous, but this is my first time on an air boat. I was terrified of being that open to gators, but after reassurance from Deanna, who has dealt with boats for a good chunk of her career, I was pumped.Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

It was awesome. When the air boat was on the go, we were going so fast, the breeze helped relieve the heat. Our captain was hilarious and knowledgeable. You got to get up close and personal with the gators. Did you know they love their marshmallows? And if they are old enough, they’ll enjoy a nice cold brewski. I’ll let the pictures speak.Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
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After all that, we came off the boat with literal swamp ass!

(photo by Deanna K.)

New Orleans: Girls Trip Overview

I know, I say all the time, I have the best girlfriends. Because, well…I do. Memorial Day weekend we decided to hit up New Orleans, since none of my friends have gone, and I haven’t been there in two years, since my family moved closer to me. I got there a day later than my ladies because I couldn’t take the time off work, but you can bet that I was there right after work on Friday!

A quick Snapshot of the trip:


Friday// I land, dropped off my stuff and headed straight to House of Blues to see Future ( WALAAA MAAAGIC) Then a walk to Pat O’Briens for the strongest hurricanes ever. I opted for water because I was not planning to be hungover the next day!

Saturday// Woke up and had brunch at Cafe Fleur de Lis. Huge portions, everything was DEEELICIOUS. Biscuits are amazing. AMAZING. So were the hash browns. They’re cajun so if you can’t do spice, this might kick you too hard.

Then we got picked up to go on our air boat swamp adventure. This is going to have to get it’s own post. It was SO FUN.

After that we got cleaned up, and went out for dinner. Waited over an hour in line to eat at Acme’s Oyster House. I’ve been there before it was televised and was happy with their food. But this time around, greatly disappointed. I’ll detail it later.

Then live entertainment for the night? The drag show at Tubby’s Golden Lantern. We met a couple of fabulous divas and enjoyed an entertaining show filled with gorgeous women..with balls.

Sunday// Woke up, feet hurt and just tired from being up late and walking all over we grabbed some Mickey D’s for a quick breakfast. Stopped for a foot rub. Then headed to the French Quarter for market shopping, snow cones, gator jerky, and of course no NOLA trip is complete without a trip to Cafe du Monde for iced cafe au lait and fresh hot beignets.

Headed back to the hotel on foot, got cleaned up and made our plans for the evening. We were done with cajun food and just wanted something YUMMY to eat and decided to eat at Ginger Lime, a modern sushi bar, which was by far a good choice.

Deanna and Scooby missed their ghost tour (more on that drama later), and headed to the casino for the night. Me and Vitya headed to a metal show at Siberia in St.Claudes. My first metal show, in a super sketchy part of town. We came back safe and I was barely bruised from getting thrown during some moshing and headbanging.

All in all, a super fun trip, and I look forward to yearly girls trip after the success of this one! Hope everyone is re-calibrated and ready to get back to the daily grind!

Stay tuned for break out posts about new orleans!

Louisiana in Virginia: CRAWFISH

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Since my oldest brother and my dad moved up to Virginia, I haven’t been “home” to Baton Rouge in a long time. (But I’ll be going to New Orleans with the ladies soon!) My favorite thing about Louisiana is FOOD. All the holidays I spent there were.. Thanksgiving (food!) and Memorial day weekends (prime crawfish time) were based on food. Last year, I had an independence day weekend crawfish boil at Vitya’s house. And it was awesome! Grilling, boiling and just getting down and dirty with food and friends. There were also cigars and red wine for those that chose to partake. Pure summer bliss. In preparation of making that an annual thing, my brother ordered a real Louisiana crawfish pot and gas tank and this weekend I sent 30lbs of live crawifish to his house to do a trial run. OMG. YES. This is pretty much how it went down, in pictures :

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Live Crawfish

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Butter and secret ingredient that makes it burn your mouth but not your butt.

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Never enough butter in southern cooking.

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Stir enthusiastically.

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Taste.

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Enjoy!

Ugggh. The weather has been cold and yucky this week, which is a shock from that nice warm weather we were having before. I can’t wait until its steady with the warm temps and have cookouts and boils EVERY weekend.