Date Night: Copeland's

The hubby came home a little earlier than usual tonight and said, "Honey, do you have plans for tonight?" After thinking a second, it dawned on me that .... NO! I didn't have any plans! No choir practice, no piano lessons, no handbells, no Boy Scouts, nothing!!! Woo Hoo! and so I told him..."No, I don't have plans. Why?"

He says, "Wanna go out?" How romantic huh? "Wanna go out?" .... to which I delightedly answered, "Why Shore!!!"

So, we leave the little ones in charge of the older ones and we head out for a dinner without all the leg tugging and "can I have a bite?"s. Not sure of our destination, we just hit the interstate and pointed the surburban to the west. Hubby mentioned that he was in the mood for some decent seafood. In light of a previous date night experience, he opted to avoid our favorite restaurant, instead choosing a restaurant that we'd never been to.

We ended up at Copeland's of New Orleans over on Essen Lane in Baton Rouge where we were greeted and seated within seconds! Shortly after we were seated (and I do mean very shortly), our waiter, Bryan, joined us to take our drink orders. There were no little containers of sugar, Sweet N Low, or Equal packets on the table....only a drink menu, a candle, and salt & pepper shakers. Nothing else. Honey ordered a draft beer while I ordered a southern sweet tea. If I had spied the previously mentioned packets of artificial sweeteners, I would have ordered an unsweetened tea and used the pink stuff.

Bryan then asked us if we wanted an appetizer to start off with. I chose the Bayou Broccoli since it just looked like an interesting name. I don't have a photo of this appetizer but trust me when I tell you it was delish!!!! The Bayou Broccoli is a ball of broccoli, bacon, and cheese, all rolled up and then deep fried and served with a dipping sauce. They serve 7 of these little hush puppy sized balls. At a cost of $7.49 for this appetizer, that comes to just over $1 per ball. However, they are well worth it! Yum Yum!!!

Hubby chose the Copeland's Famous Fried Seafood Platter ($22.99) which comes with Golden fried oysters (seasonal), shrimp, crawfish tails, crabcake and thin crispy catfish also served with French Fries, thin sliced Onion Rings, and garlic bread. I could not believe the size of this plate when it was set down in front of my husband!! The following photos were taken with hubby's cell phone. Once I purchase my new camera, I will certainly take better quality pictures.

It was my turn next to order my dinner. Knowing that I could not possibly eat as much as my hubby, I chose to experience the Crabcakes and Shrimp Alredo plate which features two fried crabcakes and a handful of shrimp on a bed of angel hair pasta topped with a light shrimp alfredo sauce with a homemade biscuit on the side. May I just say, OH My God!!! this is GOOOOOOOODDD!!! Much more than I could possibly eat. In fact, I picked out the shrimp and ate one of the crabcakes, giving the other one to hubby. The pasta was just the right texture with just the right amount of sauce.

After enjoying all that good southern food, I could not resist tasting one of Copeland's main attractions. A slice of their cheesecake. Hubby said he just didn't have room for dessert but I was determined to try this cheesecake. I ordered the Signature Cheesecake, Copeland's original cheesecake recipe with a buttery pecan crust. With several toppings to choose from, I chose the raspberry sauce. When Bryan served it, he informed me that they usually put whipped cream on top but the whipped cream machine had malfunctioned tonight. I guess that means that I'll have to do without it. After my first bite, I thought, "Who cares about whipped cream! This stuff reminds me of that scene with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in When Harry Met Sally." You know the scene, in the restaurant, where she fakes the .... well, you know! The bottom line is .... I have never in my life ever put anything on my tongue that tastes this good! I didn't even have to chew it. I just let it sit there and melt. Absolute heaven!
After dinner, hubby decided that he wasn't in the mood for our regular after dinner movie. Therefore, we ended up in the toy department at Target, playing with anything that would respond to a pressed button here or a pulled string there. The Toy Story toys are my favorite!!! I ended up pulling out a pen and paper to make a Christmas list for the girls. But ultimately, what fun we had in the toy department acting like little kids again without having the little kids along reminding us to behave like adults!

Then, we headed home. Hubby does still have to go to work tomorrow. I couldn't keep him out all night ya know.

So, there ya go, our date night. If you are ever in the Baton Rouge area, be sure to visit Copeland's for some fine Southern dining!

Date Night: Robbery Excitement

DH had been calling me several times during the day. Did I want to go out with him tonight? I was excited! Usually, I'm the one planning our dates. However, today, it was him! We decided to go out to a local restaurant that's been in the area forwhat seems like FOREVER! Brunet's Cajun Restaurant.

This place has wonderful fried seafood with a Cajun flair. The service is great, the atmosphere is relaxed, the food is outstanding, the helpings are overwhelmingly generous! If you are a fried seafood fan, this is the place for you. Although, there are SOME healthy options on the menu as well.Your waiter will start off with your drinks, followed by a bowl of hot hush puppies (fried bread). Then she/he will take your dinner order.

One of my FAVORITE appetizers is the Little Stuffed Bread. It looks like a dinner roll stuffed with a filling of crawfish or shrimp and then deep fried. Absolutely to die for!!! If you want a simple meal without all the calories, just ask for the Little Stuffed Bread with a salad and a bowl of gumbo and you're set!

I LOVE the shrimp dinner. It comes with a shrimp salad, bowl of gumbo, shrimp etoufee, fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, shrimp au gratin, 1 stuffed shrimp, and another bowl of shrimpy something but the name escapes me right now. Be sure to ask for a to go box when your meal is served because there is no way you're gonna clean your plate in one sitting.

Our tummies full of not so healthy fried Cajun seafood and several glasses of iced tea, DH and I exit the restaurant to head home. Since he'd been driving all day for his job, he opted to be a passenger instead. We got to my surburban where I got into the driver's side seat. He opened the back passenger side door and noticed the glass. My purse was gone. The purse that I had THOUGHT about taking inside with me but decided against because....after all....there's nothing in that thing that anybody could actually want! Hah!

He says, "Where's your purse?" and I turned to see him and all the glass and I say, "Where's my purse!!!???" Then he says, "Cynthia, go inside and talk to the manager. I'm calling the police." An hour later, we're still patiently waiting for an officer to arrive. In the meantime, hubs had his copies of all credit cards so we spent our time on the phone getting all accounts closed/cancelled. That part wasn't that difficult. It's a good thing he had his cards with him. I was more concerned about my checkbook, son's social security benefit check that I hadn't deposited yet, and much, much later I remembered that my wedding ring was in that purse! I didn't have much cash in the purse as I had just emptied it of all pocket change. My GPS navigator was also taken. My bank debit cards were in my back pocket since they are what I use MOST of the time.

The officer arrives, we file the report, officer R. Simoneaux goes down into the canal that runs alongside the restaurant. He shines his flashlight around a bit and looks for my brown purse that's gonna miraculously appear in the dark weeds.

At this point, I'm livid and shaking. I even felt a bit nauseous. If I could only get my hands around the neck of the jerk, kid, drug addict, whoever.....Why do I feel this way? It's only a purse! I can certainly relate to the vigilantes of the world now!

The report filed, the theories discussed, we said our goodnight's to the officer and headed home. FINALLY. Arriving home, the very first thing I do is sit down at the computer and began researching what to do about stolen social security numbers. Learning that there's NOTHING you can do through Social Security . gov, I start looking up the credit bureau info.

I'm concentrating on that at 11:45 p.m. when my house telephone rings. Not recognizing the number on Caller ID, I ALMOST didn't answer it. But curiosity got the better of me.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mrs. Cynthia?"

"Yes it is"

"My name is Chris and my wife and I found.....Did you lose a purse?"

Me, excitedly...."YES, YES I DID!"

Chris proceeds to inform me that he and his wife were looking for moving boxes in dumpsters and he found my purse sitting on the top of a lot of garbage about 3 blocks away from the restaurant!!! He told me that he had gotten my phone number off the checkbook.

So, anyway, to make a long, long story short....My purse was returned to me approx 4 hours after it was stolen. Checkbook, credit cards, and son's undeposited Soc Sec check were still in it. My wedding band, ALL cash (even down to whatever pennies was in there), and the GPS navigator are still missing.

Now, off to file a claim with the insurance company to get that back window replaced.

Ahhhh, date night with hubby. I think it'll be a while before we go out again.

5 lbs. of Possum

The Teen got up early this a.m. and went out to check his grandpa's traps. My dad is hoping to trap a raccoon for dog training purposes. The Teen returned in record time with his catch. However, it was not the ringtailed bandit he thought he'd have. Instead, it was this very attractive critter.

My girls were quite mesmerized with the animal. I had to warn them SEVERAL times NOT to touch the cage!!!

Finally, when The Teen was satisfied that the girls had their fill of the possum, he took it back to the woods and turned it loose.

And for the rest of the day I had this lovely little song reverbing through my head. I looked it up on YouTube and this is the clearest video I could find of the song. I don't know this fella but he's got a nice voice doesn't he?

Anybody feel like some possum stew?

Cajun Christmas Gifts, pt. 2

Continuing the Cajun Christmas Gifts...I decided to do 2 separate posts because #1: I was getting tired of all that typing and #2: separate posts make for easier reading...(you're welcome!)

Day 7: Seven Fleur De Lis...How hard is it to find THESE in Louisiana? So this is what I sent my sister to help her keep her wine glasses or water goblets from getting confused!

Day 8: Eight crabs a brewin' .... oh boy. What am I gonna give her now? Can't send her eight crabs now can I? I go back to Ebay and do a search and "to what do my wonderin' eyes do appear?" This beautiful bracelet for my sister to wear!

Day 9: Nine oysters stewin'....Well, now HERE'S a dilemma! I search and google all over for SOMETHING but I keep drawin' a blank. Finally, I find an oyster platter but it only has 6 wells for 6 oysters. I need a 9 well. Do they make those? Well, yeah, but not for cheap! In fact, after googling and ebaying, and finding everything from a 6 well to a 24 well plate, I decided that if it can't be found....then it can be made. I sent hubs out again with the chainsaw to cut a plate size piece of wood in which he can rout out 9 wells. This task turned out to be not so easy. In the end, he purchased a wood cutting board and did the routing on that. It wasn't as pretty as I would've liked but it was much less $$ than the $2000.00 I kept seeing for antique platters. In the end, I guess I could've found a 9 inch oyster!? Also, wouldn't cha know.....This is the one gift I didn't get a picture of!!! So you'll just have to picture it in your mind. Sorry! :(

Day 10: Ten pirogue paddles. Hubby easily solved this one for me. My dad has been building his house next door and doing much of the finishing and trimming work with cedar. Dad gave hubs a plank of cedar just big enough to cut some small, ornament sized, pirogue paddles out of. Then I tied a pc of red ribbon to it and stuck ten of them in a box for sister. I figured she could hang them in her closets now that she has that house full of smelly kids! (Her new hubs brought 5 children (ages 7 - 17) with him into their blended family!) This picture is of the first one. It was damaged so hubs had to start all over but you get the idea.

Day 11: Eleven duck decoys. After searching Ebay, I found some duck decoys, I but wasn't happy with sending her eleven of them. I mean, she's already picking up after seven children now....did she want to keep up with eleven duck decoys? I just couldn't do that to her. I finally ran across this beautiful print featuring a pair of children feeding a mother duck and her ten ducklings. Then I purchased a Walmart frame to put it in. I figured my sister could hang it in her bathroom or something.

Day 12: Twelve shotgun shells. Okay, well, all I could come up with here was this. I made twelve of these and sent them off to her. I'm sure there are some other really cool crafty things to do with shotgun shells, but I was at the end of my rope....not to mention DEADLINE! I needed to get this stuff packed up and shipped off to Olive Branch, MS!! This picture came from the http://www.shotgunsanta.com/ website. I didn't make mine exactly like this but it was pretty close.

So, there you are. The Cajun 12 gifts of Christmas. I did this for my sister because just love her sooooo much!!! Sadly, I can only do this for one family member at a time, so hopefully, my other sisters can be patient and know that they will get their turn eventually. Although, I'll have to change up the gifts a bit to keep the element of surprise!!!

Cajun Christmas Gifts, pt. 1

In honor of my little sister's (I have 3 little sisters) new family and her celebrating their first Christmas together, I decided I would gift them with the 12 gifts of the Cajun 12 Days of Christmas.

Day 1: A Crawfish in a fig tree.....minus the crawfish.

So, I send my sister and her new hubby a fig tree. When it arrived, my sister didn't know exactly what it was she was looking at. She called me up and asked in this accusatory tone, "You love me so much that you sent me some poison ivy? What's this about?" I just responded, "Sis, it's a FIG TREE!" Still sounding puzzled, she says, "A fig tree? What am I gonna do with a fig tree?" To which I answered the obvious, "Plant it!" Then I went on to explain that I couldn't find a crawfish to send with it (As a matter of fact, I found a crawfish TODAY at Hobby Lobby!!!) and would she just accept the little fig tree and plant the thing in her back yard. It took her a minute before she exclaimed in my ear....."Ooooooh I get it!!!" I swear, some people are just sooooo slooooow!




Day 2: Two voodoo dolls. So I sent them these in honor of their new marriage. My new brother in law phoned to say he'd never rec'd a voodoo doll from a Baptist before! LOL

Day 3: T'ree stuffed shrimp. Well, now, here I drew a blank. I had no clue what to do for 3 stuffed shrimp. I toyed with the idea of phoning a restaurant in her area and just having 3 stuffed shrimp delivered to her office for lunch. Then she went and took 10 days off from work so she could decorate her house. So much for having lunch delivered to her office....and I couldn't have it delivered to her house because I had no idea whether or not she'd even be there. Then her cat would end up eating the shrimp. Oh, yeah, she has a CAT!!....so I purchased 3 little pkgs of Meow Mix, Ocean Explosion, for my sisters kitty. I later rec'd a text that said, "You're a nut!" followed shortly after by another text telling me that she treated kitty with one of the little morsels and he was going crazy looking for the rest of them. Awww, sweet puddy tat!

Day 4: Four pousse cafe'. For this one, I had to do some internet research. I didn't even know what a pousse cafe' was! I learned that it is a sweet, striped drink made from a series of liqueurs poured in succession so that they float upon each other. It's a "chaser" to enjoy after dinner and after your last cup of coffee. I also learned that bartenders absolutely HATE to make this drink as it requires a bit of tenacity and patience. Since it's layered, the alcohol must be poured with care, the heaviest liquor first, then lighter liquors poured over the back of a spoon so it doesn't mix with the previously poured layers. The end result is a lovely looking layered cordial. Personally, I think it's too pretty to drink....not that I would or anything. However, my daughter tells me that it will knock your socks off! She also says that when she ordered an 11 layer pousse cafe, the look on the bartender's face was absolutely priceless! Anyway, the fourth gift my sister received was pousse cafe cordial glasses I found on Ebay for $10! Woo Hoo!

Day 5: Five poules d'eau....a.k.a. American Coot. Another gift I had to do some research on. This little bird looks like a cross between a chicken and a duck. It has a white, duck like bill but not webbed feet like a duck. It can also be found in stews and other southern Louisiana cuisine. On Ebay again, I found a collector's plate (Only $5!) with 5 of these critters on it. I bought it and sent it on to mah sister.....since I didn't know how else I would fulfill this particular gift.


Day 6: Six cypress knees. Now here's a little story. First of all, I don't know if there's a law against this or not, but I sent hubby out to cut the tops off some tiny cypress knees. I needed them to be about 4 to 5 inches in heighth. I wasn't sure at first what I was going to do with them. I'm not a wood carver or even a very good painter so I debated whether or not to deface these beautiful pieces of wood. Anyway, I finally decided that they'd be the perfect heighth to make unique Louisiana Christmas ornaments for her tree. I started out by boiling the cut knees in order to peel the bark off. This is my first time ever crafting with cypress knees so this entire craft was quite an experiment. To my surprise, the bark just slid right off the wood, leaving a perfectly smooth surface eliminating the need for sanding to paint or polyurethane. I sat them out in the sun for a couple of days to get good and dried out before I sealed them. Then I sat them up on my kitchen counter and..... Do you see what I see?

I see the nativity. Now the really cool thing about this is that these knees were just randomly picked and cut by my hubby down in the woods behind my house. I imagine when he was looking at them all covered in mud and bark, he didn't see the nativity. It was only after they were cleaned that the nativity was revealed. My sister thinks this is the coolest of the 12 gifts so far and instead of hanging them on her tree, she opted to set them up like in the picture.

See Cajun Christmas Gifts, pt. 2 for the rest.