Café à l'orange

I love me some Community coffee, the Louisiana brew I grew up drinking.

Lots.

Lots. Lotslotslots. Drinking lots. Lots. The coffee I grew up drinking lots of.

I also love me some Clementines. So one day after eating me some Clementines -- but right before I was about to make me a pot of coffee -- I got to thinking.

What if. . . ?

Hell, what could it hurt?

In went some orange peel into the bottom  of our old French-drip pot. And then a little piece went atop the coffee grounds.

The effect on the brewed pot of Community was subtle, but right tasty.

Give it a try, especially if you're fond, as I am, of making your coffee the old-fashioned -- translate as "best" -- way.

Tonnaire! Ça c'est bon, oui!

First, you choot 'em. Then you make a roux.

If Julia Child weren't already dead, she'd have to kill herself in protest.

Why?

That Swamp People cookbook that master alligator hunter Troy Landry is writing. I could lapse into full snark mode at this juncture, but decided to leave that to TMZ. You know, the website that causes serious journalists to kill themselves in protest.

According to Landry -- the guy who basically cooks everything on the show -- SEVERAL publishers have already approached him about a book deal since "SP" premiered last year ... but he's still weighing his options.

Landry tells us, he's currently compiling a master list of all his recipes -- which includes his most famous dish called "Nutria Sauce Piquante" ... a gumbo made from a semiaquatic rodent called a nutria ... basically an over-sized rat.

DEM TMZ PEOPLE horrified at dem "rodent stew," cher.

Meanwhile, Louisiana chef John Folse is set to kill himself in protest of TMZ's failure to appreciate the difference between gumbo and sauce piquante. Me, I'm just wondering why it's OK for Hollywood people to wear extremely expensive coats made of rat pelts (a.k.a., nutria and mink) but it's not OK to eat what's left after you skin it.

That's what you call a conundrum. What's not a conundrum is knowing what the first step will be in each of Mr. Landry's recipes.

"CHOOT 'EM! CHOOT 'EM!"

What time is it, boys and girls?

That's right!

It's just like Starbucks, only better. And much, much cheaper.

Coffee time

Cher, I was gettin' tired tired, and I damn near fall asleep, yeah! So I made me a pot of coffee.

I love the java jive, and it loves me

Barring a descent into heavy alcohol consumption, there's nothing like a fresh pot of good coffee, made the way God intended it, to take the edge off a crappy day.

Today has been one of those crappy days, and this is my means of self-medication. If this is a total fail -- I don't think it will be, but you never know -- perhaps I will resort to calling Dr. Jack Daniels.

But I don't think that will be necessary.

I just have some simple advice to the world. Or at least some advice for having a happy middle age.

First, never allow your parents to get old. Second, don't let them get weird.

If one or both go weird on you, you're just screwed. In that case, I'd recommend stocking up on good coffee . . . and good bourbon.

Just in case.

I like my juleps dark roasted

I am from the South.

This means I will find a way to put fresh mint in everything. Even my Community Coffee.

No bourbon for mint juleps? No problem. Just make your pot of dark roast minty.

Personally, I thought the garnish in the cup was a damn nice touch.

It is always -- repeat, always -- nice to be able to walk out the back door and cut a mess of something to put in something that will make that something taste like something special.

A nice, hot cup of . . . DUDE!

In the middle of a hard day's work on a cool fall day, nothing refreshes like a fresh pot of pot.

Dude!

HOLD THE PHONE. That's not how we roll -- er . . . not that we roll anything at La Casa Favog -- on this blog or at 3 Chords & the Truth. It just looks like it, kind of.

And the sight reminded me of the time some friends brought back some oolong tea from China and gave us some sealed in a sandwich bag, prompting Mrs. Favog to exclaim "It looks like a lid!" That brought down the house -- which you'd understand if you knew Mrs. Favog.

In reality, I was making a pot of Community Coffee (the coffee so good I advertise it for free) when I thought it would be nice to go outside and cut some fresh mint to add to the ground coffee. So I did.

So here's what you do, particularly if you're blessed with mint coming up all over your yard: Cut a nice sprig of mint, wash it off, finely dice it with a good kitchen knife and add it to your ground coffee in the pot.

It's as simple as that.

As the late Vernon Roger used to say at the end of his cooking segments on Channel 9 in Baton Rouge . . . "Tonnerre! Ça c'est bon, oui!"