Writer and Editor C.B. Calsing/ G.G. Royale

Last night I hit the Ruth's Chris here in New Orleans with the girls for an evening out to celebrate the end of the school year and wish bon voyage to a friend moving elsewhere. Normally, I'm not one for sit-down chain restaurants. Here in New Orleans, there are so many great places to eat that it seems a shame to eat someplace that's not local, but Ruth's Chris was established here originally, so I'm willing to bend the rules a bit on this one. The one at the Harrah's is quite nice. It's very richly appointed, with touches of art deco style and large mirrors throughout that let you spy on the people around you. I started with a wedge salad. To me, that's a pretty good measure of a traditional steakhouse. When I talked about Antoine's, I mentioned its OVER THE TOP blue cheese dressing. I am a fan of the blue. Ruth's Chris is sort of on the other end of the spectrum. Its blue cheese is quite mild, and the bacon they topped the lettuce with was...

Last night, I attended one of the Sazerac Academy dinners put on by Tales of the Cocktail . Upon arrival, I first noticed all the necessary accouterments for mixing my own drink laid out at my place settings. This included a bottle of Sazerac Rye and a bottle of Herbsaint. The menu we were offered included gumbo or a salad, redfish or chicken or veal schnitzel, and bread pudding or a strawberry sampler. I went with the salad, veal, and strawberries. The dinner was excellent. The dressing on the salad particularly reminded me of how Caesar salads are supposed to be. During dinner, we got a lovely presentation on the history of the drink and the ingredients involved. We even go to sample a bit of a bottled Sazerac cocktail that hasn't existed for several decades. After dinner, one of the excellent bartenders -- who is also a member of the Roosevelt Hotel's heritage group -- walked us through the creation of our own Sazeracs. I'm not really fond of them in general, but I...

I wouldn't call it writer's block, exactly. I know what I'm supposed to write. I know how the story goes, who does what, what happens in the end, but I just have no motivation to get it down on paper. I usually work better under deadlines, but not this time.

I got my first invitation to join an anthology today. Only about half of the stories submitted will probably make it into the anthology, but having 50/50 odds is pretty keen for me. Although it's something of a cliche to say "it's an honor just being asked," that is definitely the truth. It shows me I've been doing a few things right. These things are: Act professionally and courteously. Turn contracts and edits around quickly. Keep your name out there. The editor who asked accepted something of mine in May of 2009, so it's been nearly a year. An editor can work with a lot of writers in a year, so I'm quite I happy he remembered me. I love the theme of the anthology, and the little gears in my head are aleady turning, trying to come up with something. I just hope it is good enough.

So, after taking the morning at the jury pool to find out which two weeks this year I will be on-call for jury duty, I was ready for lunch. I think I've blogged about Stein's on Magazine Street near Jackson Avenue before, but here it is again. Last time I focused on the tongue sandwich. We had that again. It is quite good. In fact, for the first time visitor to Stein's, I would recommend this sandwich: tongue, seeded rye (toasted), swiss, mustard. If you go in and order it just like that, you won't have to have problems remembering all the choices. It's a delicious sandwich, and the tongue is prepped and sliced in such a way as to not scare away the first-time consumer of this wondrous muscle. The real reason we went today is because Friday is Cuban sandwich day at Stein's. I've had a few Cuban sandwiches in the city -- Margaritaville, Butcher -- and a few elsewhere -- Puerto Rico, the bar at the Paradise Inn in Pensacola Beach. I sort of consider myself...

Last night my husband and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. We consider ourselves foodies, and are on a mission to eat at all the best restaurants in New Orleans. FINALLY we took down the granddaddy of them all... Antoine's. Antoine's was opened in 1840. The ambiance is old school: huge dining rooms, white table cloths and napkins. The walls of the dining room we ate in are covered with celebrity photos, letters, newspaper articles... I got to eat with Katherine Hepburn watching, which was great. So here's the rundown of the meal. I opened with a French martini (here's a recipe at Drinks Mixer) . I love these. However, the one I had last night had clearly been mixed with amaretto instead of Chambord. Did I complain? Not at all. It was still delicious, though I'm not normally a fan of amaretto flavored things. One lesson I've learned in my travels and in eating is that unless you are sitting at the bar and discussing drinks with the bartender, the...