Home At Last! with Patty Gironda

  I am on a roll with my pasta! Craving seafood I sent out for 2 pounds of succulent King Crab and turned every bit of the crab into stuffing and sauce. I boiled down the shells for stock and made a delicate lobster-type sauce with a little tomato and sherry. The pasta was as sheer as a dainty hankerchief and was perfectly tender, again. My big push, this week, is to make the perfect loaf of Italian bread for po-boys. A friend wants to learn how to make gumbo and po-boys. While it's easy to find all the ingredients for gumbo-it's a bit of a challenge to find just the right New Orleans-style Italian loaf for po-boys. Larry has requested an Oyster Po-Boy (one of my favorites) and for good measure we will make a Soft-Shell Crab Po-boy with lots of Louisiana Hot Sauce. Ron asked that he act as my guinnea pig tonight on the bread experiment and asked that his po-boy be dressed as a BLT. I started to ask him to stop by the store for green tomatoes to put the sandwich over the top...

I suffer from "oyster mania" Raw-baked-broiled-stewed-gussied-naked-it really doesn't matter. I grew up on raw and thought I was pretty much a purist-but, I've discovered that I really love them just about any way they are lovingly prepared! You're probably thinking "Hey, I really like oysters, too? So, what's the big deal? No big deal, I suppose . . .I'm just setting the record straight I get a lot of questions about my favorite types of foods and recipes and I never remember to include oysters! But this week has been an excellent reminder of how much I really enjoy these wonderful little bi-valves! I started the weekend with a dozen oysters raw with cocktail sauce, fresh lemon and extra horseradish and a BBQ sandwich. Saturday, I enjoyed steamed oysters with a little Monterrey Jack cheese (surprisingly good) along with a steamy bowl of clam chowder. Sunday - I broiled them with a spot of butter creamy Butterkase cheese (from Germany), a smatter...