As we hit Memorial Day weekend, what better to have for your barbeque or pool party than some fresh, homemade salsa? This recipe comes from my lovely wife, and truthfully is a modified version of her dad's recipe. We're both huge cilantro fans, and it really adds a refreshing note to this. Plus the combination of jalapenos and red pepper flakes will cause the salsa to get a bit hotter with time, and it's a good idea to make this a day in advance and store it in the fridge.

Ingredients:

1 28-oz can peeled whole tomatoes
1/3-to-1/2 of a 12-oz jar of pickled jalapenos (with liquor)
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/4-to-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
t tbsp olive oil
1 tsp parsley (can be fresh or dried)
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, in all (stems included)

Continue reading this post »

Inspired by KSK's list of the 100 most average NFL players of all time, I decided to take us down recent SEC memory lane with a list of my own. I capped it at about 75 because...screw you people it's HARD coming up with this and still trying to keep it semi-representative. Plus at what point do we acknowledge that Alabama has been starting the same quarterback in various stages of makeup since Jay Barker? We all spend enough time reminiscing about the good and great players, how about the mediocre ones? The players are not ranked in any order and I'm quite sure there are a shit ton of omissions that I'll be reminded of. I also know that there are a couple guys here that had their successes and maybe even an All-SEC season, but we're talking about the career norms, not the outliers.

Bonus points for any non-LSU fans that know proper pronunciation of Joe Domingeaux.

Freddie Millons

Tony Bua

Ahmad Galloway

Andrew Zow

Quincy Jackson

Olandis Gary

Damien Gary

Freddie Kitchens

Kenneth Darby

James Whalen

Jerel Myers

Triandos Luke

Joe Dean Davenport

Tyler Watts

Ronney Daniels

Doug Johnson

Gus Scott

DeCory Birmingham

Caleb Miller

Chrys Chukwuma

Madre Hill

Wesley Britt

Tre Smith

Anthony Mix

DeMarco McNeil

Martrez Milner

Aaron Boone

Brandon Cox

Ben Leard

Roderick Hood

Tony Joiner

Ran Carthon

Taylor Jacobs

Terry Jackson

Jesse Palmer

Andre Lott

Raynoch Thompson

Andra Davis

Michael Johnson

Danny Ware

Tony Small

Leonard Pope

Dusty Bonner

Jared Lorenzen

Dewayne Robertson

Norman Lejeune

Joe Domingeaux

Tommy Banks

Luke Sanders

Mark Roman

Brandon Winey

Pig Prather

Ryan Brewer

Jermaine Copeland

Troy Fleming

Justin Jenkins

Wayne Madkin

Floyd "Pork Chop" Womack

Romero Miller

Joe Gunn

Eddie Strong

Chris Collins

Rufus French

Andrew Pinnock

Mike Davis

Blake Mitchell

Langston Moore

Phil Petty

Eric Parker

Jonathan Wade

Cosey Coleman

Dan Stricker

Reshard Langford

Moses Osemwegie

Greg Zolman

The SEC is thought of as a lot of things these days, but a quarterback's league is not one of them. Even with two Heisman winners in the last decade or so, defense still comes first and when we think of the league's top talents, they usually lie on that side of the ball.

Could that be changing in 2012? Senator Blutarsky's post from last week, followed by this one from the Chattanooga Free Press raised the point, and they could be right. Six of the league's top seven passers from last year or back, including that threw for 2,600 yards or and four return with ratings north of the 140-point plateau.

It's not as crazy as you might think. Funny how the 1990s seem so long ago, but there was a time when almost every team in the league had a run of solid passers. The Steve Spurrier Fun-n-Gun days at Florida; Tennessee's run of guys like Heath Shuler, Peyton Manning and Tee Martin; Eric Zeier and Mike Bobo at Georgia; Tim Couch at Kentucky; and even players like Dameyune Craig at Auburn and Clint Stoerner at Arkansas. This league can, on occasion, be pass-friendly.

Continue reading this post »

Beans, beans, the musical fruit...the more you eat the more you...what's that honey? I can't make a fart joke? Have you been in the interwebz lately? What do you mean "because you're not 8 years old anymore?"

Anyway, Lima Beans -- or Butter Beans, as my grandparents always called them -- are usually on the list of "ew gross" list for little kids, along with broccoli and brussel sprouts. But fear not parents, for I know the secret to making some scrumptious limas that your kids will love. Two words: bacon grease.

This recipe comes from the John Folse Encyclopedia, and it's an old Cajun recipe that calls for bacon grease as the base, along with smoked ham and smoked ham hocks, a portion of a pig's leg.

I know that's not necessarily the most appetizing thing, but trust me here.

Ingredients

1 pound dried lima beans
8 oz Tasso or other smoked ham, diced
2 smoked ham hocks
1/2 cup bacon drippings (or shortening)
1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced red peppers
1 cup diced celery
1/4 cup minced garlic
3 bay leaves
water

If you can't find any ham hocks, I suppose you could sub some additional pork source. Diced-up boston butt, pickled pork or maybe some Andouille.

Continue reading this post »

So, Mo Isom's been in the news a bit lately...

Oh, y'all noticed?

So anyway, one-half of the ATVS Official Crush duo (still remarkably cool about sharing that title with Lolo Jones), was good enough to, once again, answer a couple of questions for us.

Mo Isom. Puppies. Resistance is futile.

via thebiglead.fantasysportsven.netdna-cdn.com

Continue reading this post »

Like I said, this started to run really long, so I broke ‘er into two parts. Part 1 here. In this portion, we'll delve into more of LSU's passing concepts and wrap up with some general conclusions.

We'll start with one of the more fun route concepts to watch unfold if you're a fan of open-field running.

Drag

via 3.bp.blogspot.com

This one's pretty self-explanatory. It's a fairly classic West Coast, yards-after-catch concept that's been co-opted by almost every passing offense (West Virginia in particular had a lot of success with their version last year, and I discussed Georgia's version before the 2011 SEC title game), built around an inside-releasing receiver (or tight end) running a classic drag route (the landmark he should be aiming for is out-of-bounds on the far sideline, six yards from the line of scrimmage).

The dragging receiver is the primary read here, with the goal being to get him the ball in open space with room to get up the field. Versus man-to-man coverage, the receiver will continue his route across the field, but versus zone, he will have to read the frontside (for purposes of this concept, the frontside is the side the dragging receiver is moving towards) linebacker and either continue across the field or cut off his route near the opposite hash-mark and turn towards the quarterback. This is the perfect play to either exploit man coverage with a speed guy like Odell Beckham, Jr., or a way to get it into the hands of a great open-field runner like Jarvis Landry.

Continue reading this post »

Disclaimer: Some of y'all might remember that I did something like this a few years back. Some of the points wound up holding up, some didn't. This time around we're going to focus solely on the passing game, and besides I didn't exactly get into them that much this spring, specifically because I was still researching. There's a bit of analysis, a bit of speculation, and yes, a bit of hope in here. But I feel pretty comfortable in the theories and notes herein. You will have to bear with me, and use some imagination and patience on some of the diagrams. A lot of these plays maybe diagrammed out of spread formations, but are designed to be adjusted to almost any set.

If I could describe the LSU quarterback situation over the last 3-4 seasons in a single animated sequence, it would be something like this...

We could make it work. Sure, one couldn't throw a screen pass, the other couldn't check down over the middle and neither could move beyond a secondary read, but its okay we can make it work! The amazing thing is LSU kind of did. If anything, it's a little impressive when you see what quarterback issues have done at schools like Texas or Florida, or the way they contributed to the declines of powerhouses like Florida State and Miami. Twenty-four wins the last two seasons, all the while "trying to make it work" at quarterback.

I'm not going to tell you that Zach Mettenberger is going to throw for 30 touchdowns. I'm not going to tell you he'll be all-conference or a Heisman candidate or any of that type of hyperbole. But I can tell you with confidence that he'll at least represent improvement. A quarterback that can process the type of concept-based passing game that Steve Kragthorpe likes to use. One that can read a defense, anticipate a throw and go through progressions. I can't promise tremendous accuracy or sterling decision making (I feel good about these things, but I'm not going to promise them), but I feel good about hitting those bare-minimum benchmarks.

Now, over the last two years I've written a couple of pieces on the offensive philosophies and schematics of opposing offensive coaches like Gus Malzahn, Chip Kelly and Dana Holgorsen, and while I've talked in some generalities about LSU's offense and some of the concepts, I've never really been able to get into some specifics. Part of that was the limitations of the quarterbacks -- why talk about a passing game the coaches obviously want to hide? And part of it was that I just couldn't really tell you that much based on Kragthorpe's background. He was raised in the classic West Coast Offense of Lavell Edwards and Norm Chow but he's also spent time in the NFL around an old Run-and-Shoot specialist in Kevin Gilbride. And of course from Les Miles you get some classic Ehrhardt-Perkins concepts with a little one-back Scott Linehan style out of Greg Studrawa. And that seems like a lot going on until I got a little more into the study of the passing game in particular. On a tip from Chris Brown, I picked up a copy of the book "Concept Passing: Teaching the Modern Passing Game" by Dan Gonzalez.

It's a relatively short read -- just about 200 pages -- but make no mistake, it's very much a textbook on the passing game and reads like one. If you're interested, it's more research-intensive than entertaining. Gonzalez is a former University of Texas walk-on that went on to coach at Abilene Christian and various high schools across the state, where he developed a reputation as a passing-game guru. He now mostly works as a consultant for various staffs, clinics along with some personal coaching.

The biggest takeaway about the overall approach is that the modern passing game does a little bit of everything. There are elements in the book of the Air Raid, the West Coast Offense, and every style that has had its era of success. That should surprise no one, as coaches in general are nothing if not copycats. As often as NFL teams love to cast "college offenses" as things that simply won't work in "the league," they damn sure aren't shy about using their ideas. As often as you'll see these concepts on Friday night or Saturday afternoon, you'll also see them on Sunday and Monday nights from coaches like Mike Martz, Andy Reid, Sean Payton or Bill Belicheck, albeit with the kind of extra wrinkles you can teach to professionals who can spend as many hours as necessary learning them during the week. Among Gonzalez' influences and acknowledgements are John Mackovic, Greg Davis, Todd Dodge and yes, Steve Kragthorpe.

This began as one post, but as I kept typing and saw the word count creeping closer to the four-to-five-thousand-word mark, I figured we'd be better off splitting things up. Part one will deal with the basic structure of the offense and how it adjusts to LSU, along with two of the concepts that make the heaviest use of them. Part two will round out the other concepts I've observed with some conclusions.

Continue reading this post »

Ah...spring time in South Louisiana. Also known as pre-summer, because spring my ass. In South Louisiana it's nice for like two weeks and then we're back to 90s with 120-percent humidity. Though, of course this time of the year comes one of the region's best traditions, the Good Friday family crawfish boil. For my people, this typically involves as many as 30 or so people and upwards of 150 pounds of live crawfish, but for the 2012 addition, my immediate family was celebrating in Memphis, Tenn. with my oldest sister's brood. And since we've mostly centered on some of the Cajun/Creole classics, I figured this would be a good next installment.

Again, boiling crawfish is something that almost everybody has their own tips and tricks for, and my dad would gladly tell you he's learned most of his over numerous decades of attending numerous boils and the guidance of numerous influences. But I don't mind telling you that my dad boils the best crawfish I've ever had, and frankly, I'm willing to fight anybody who challenges me on this point.

Truthfully, the principle trick is a short boil for the crawfish, followed by a good long soak. But we'll get into the details below.

Ingredients

1 sack crawfish - typically anywhere from 35-50 pounds
2.5 cups liquid crab boil
7 oz jar cayenne pepper
10-12 yellow onions
10-12 lemons
4 boxes salt
Maple syrup
1-2 bags red potatoes*
Green bell peppers*
Frozen Corn*
Garlic Bulbs*
Mushrooms*

*In the case of the extras, I advise doing as much as you like, though in my family we never skimp on the garlic for that extra flavor. Plus, the leftover potatoes are great for other dishes. There are some other things people will throw in, and I'll address some of them below.

Say hello to my nephew, and future Tiger, Jacob.

Continue reading this post »

Back from the Spring Game and with the sunburn to prove it. I can't think of a sufficiently witty intro aside from the usual Allen Iverson-esque disclaimers, so let's just dive right in.

• And of course that has to start with the reason we were all watching, Zach Mettenberger. Y'all know I'm not one to wild swings on a spring game. He looked good -- confident, and most importantly, smooth in the pocket. There was a rhythm to his progressions, and there were several throws that showed off his unique arm talent. He finished 14-25 after missing on his first three passes, which included one batted down at the line, and two long-balls to James Wright that were into fantastic coverage from Jalen Collins. His first big'n, a scramble play to Jarvis Landry, would've at the very least been reviewed and might have been overturned due to Mettenberger being very close to the line of scrimmage and possibly over it (Freak Johnson complained to the officials to no avail). Either way, the throw was an absolute beauty -- perfect touch from a very awkward angle to Landry's back shoulder. There just aren't that many quarterbacks out there that can make that kind of throw, and if Mettenberger can make it consistently...
  
  

  via 28.media.tumblr.com

  There were a couple of other great ones -- the two bombs to ODB and a perfect touchdown to Russell Shepard on a corner route in the endzone that had a similar placement to the Landry throw.
  
  As for the interceptions, the first was a solid decision, but a poor throw; Mettenberger floated a corner route and Ronald Martin made a good play on the ball, along with a nice return. The second one was far more defensible, as it was a very catchable ball off of Tyler Edwards' hands. In fact, the off-balanced catch and run by Lamar Louis was a heck of a play in and of itself.
  
  All-in-all, the talent is there, along with a...don'tsaygunslingerdon'tsaygunslingerdon'tsaygunslinger...propensity to take some risks. And that's not a bad thing. If anything, it's extremely common with big-armed quarterbacks, but there's a cost of doing business with that. So where on the risk/reward wheel ratio does it settle?

Continue reading this post »

No matter what anybody says, spring games are nothing more than glorified practices. And when I say glorified, I mean you'd be better off watching a real practice through some sort of hidden camera. Even the most open and accommodating head coaches only show so much, and even then they generally worry more about avoiding injuries than anything else. And then there's Les Miles, who likes to keep his cards so close to the chest that I sometimes wonder if he has tiny Tyrannosaurus arms.

That isn't to say you can't observe things in them. They give you a piece of the puzzle, albeit usually a small one that you might not be able to quite find a fit for without some hindsight from the fall. That is to say, you might not realize what you're really seeing until the real games start. But given how last season went, how it ended, what LSU has returning and the fact that we as fans might finally be crawling our way out of the quarterbacking desert, I certainly can't resist watching.

On that note, here are a few things I'll be looking for.

• Real offense? Miles is notoriously tight with what he shows in these instances, however, with the game not being on TV, plus the season opening with a cupcake like North Texas, maybe he'll be a little more willing to let the offense being at least a little open up a little. At least with the basics. Maybe. Possibly. Okay probably not...
• The bare essentials. Realistically, I don't expect this to be some tremendous showcase for Zach Mettenberger. Oh sure, he'll get to throw the ball a little, but with 100 plays to work with the coaches also have to get in work on running game, special teams plus get some passing reps for for Stephen Rivers and Jerrard Randall as well. Look for the passing game to show some of its basic concepts and personnel groupings.

Continue reading this post »

Just thought I'd throw this out there -- to any readers/commenters that plan on attending the Spring Game on March 31, is there any interest in having a meet-and-greet-type thing, possibly at a bar or tailgate? Interested parties weigh-in here.

Specialists/Top Returning Special Teams Performers

Continue reading this post »

I wouldn't say that picking up three commitments in a single weekend is a weird thing for LSU, but I think the circumstances here kind of fit the bill, as LSU picked up two more 2012 recruits and a pledge from a 2013 one as well over the weekend.

It all began on Friday as news leaked out that LSU had officially locked up class of 2012 junior college offensive line prospect Fehoko "Hoko" Fanaika. The 6-6, 340-pound Tongan (he is not actually Samoan, as reported -- think Meng of the Faces of Fear, not Big Manu Manu the Slender), will arrive in August with three years to play two. He was something of an under-the-radar guy out of the College of San Mateo in California, but had offers from Georgia and Florida. Per the recruiting analysts, the plan appears to be to redshirt him in 2012 if possible, and start him off at guard in 2013. It'll give LSU another big body with a little more experience than somebody like a Jonah Austin or a Corey White once 2013 gets here. Plus, as you can see from his highlights, the guy is a mauler. Faces of Fear is a great name for a center-guard trio anyway.

Continue reading this post »

Defensive Ends:

Defensive Tackles:

Continue reading this post »

For two years now, it's been pretty tough to know much of what to say about LSU's wide receivers and tight ends. Of course, there's been plenty to say about the quarterback situation. That's why there hasn't been a lot you could say about the guys on the other end of the throws, good, bad or indifferent, and that's why we have six questions here instead of five. We'll have more (much, much more) about the quarterback situation at a later date, but for now, let's focus on the receiving end of this equation and not the giving one.

Thanks to the hard work of some other bloggers, we have a little bit of insight into the catch rates of some of them. For a quick explanation, a catch rate is the percentage of passes intended for a receiver (targets) that are actually caught. The numbers aren't quite as precise as what the guys at Football Outsiders might keep, but they keep track of things like drops, passes that get batted down and throws that are just off the mark.

Wide Receivers:

Tight Ends:

*Target Data not available for all WRs/TEs. HT: kleph/TSK

Continue reading this post »

Cornerbacks:

Safeties:

Continue reading this post »

Tackles:

Guards:

Centers:

Miscellaneous OL (positions unknown/undetermined):

Continue reading this post »

Paul's depth chart post spurred some discussion, so by popular demand, here's a look at the linebacker position for this spring.

Linebackers:

Continue reading this post »

As much as I thought this offseason would feature me actually following basketball and baseball a little more, Spring football done sprung up again, and it's time for a breakdown. There are always spring questions, and for LSU we'll break down the five most important ones at each position, starting with the bell cows of the 2012 offense, the running backs.

Running backs:

Fullbacks:

Continue reading this post »

The official announcement came down today, via Michael Bonnette:

Former LSU standout Corey Raymond has joined the Tiger coaching staff as defensive backs coach, Les Miles announced on Tuesday.

Raymond, a 1992 graduate of LSU, replaces Ron Cooper, who resigned last week to take a job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL.

This will be Raymond's second stint in Baton Rouge as an assistant coach, after serving as an intern/strength and conditioning assistant from 2006-2008. From there he spent two years coaching defensive backs at Utah State before joining former LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini's Nebraska staff last season.

Filling out the résumé:

Raymond returns to LSU after spending the 2011 season as the secondary coach at Nebraska. In his one season with the Cornhuskers, Raymond coached a Nebraska secondary that featured the 2011 Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year in Alfonzo Dennard. Despite inheriting a group that lost four starters from the season before, including three NFL Draft picks, Raymond's secondary helped Nebraska rank No. 18 in the nation in pass defense in 2011.

Prior to his one-year stint in Lincoln, Raymond served as the cornerbacks coach for two seasons at Utah State. Raymond's top pupil at Utah State was that of Curtis Marsh, who earned All-WAC honors and later went on to become a third-round pick in the NFL draft.

In terms of pass-defense efficiency (which I generally think is a better measure than total pass defense), the Huskers dipped from third nationally (coincidentally exactly where LSU was ranked in 2011) to 34th. The 120.42 rating Nebraska allowed to opposing quarterbacks would have ranked them in the bottom quarter of the SEC. Husker Mike of SBN's Nebraska affiliate Corn Nation weighs in:

While I wish Raymond the best at LSU, I'm not completely sorry to see him leave. From my perspective, secondary play last season took a huge step backward, and that's not all because of the departure of Prince Amukamura or the injuries to Alfonzo Dennard. All season long we saw more mental mistakes from the secondary than we ever saw from any Pelini defense. Who knows how Pelini felt deep-down about Raymond's performance, but it's hard to overlook the fact that Raymond was the only assistant coach to not receive a pay raise after the last season.

How much of the dip in play is due to Raymond and how much of it is the limitations of Nebraska's personnel, there's no real way to know (I'll reserve my opinions of Bo Pelini for the moment). But this much is clear -- Raymond fits a similar profile to the recent hiring of Adam Henry as LSU's new wide receivers coach, and of Thomas McGaughey last year as well. A younger guy with local ties (Raymond is a native of New Iberia) with something of a reputation for hitting the recruiting trail hard. Honestly, in terms of coaching and teaching, Raymond is almost certainly a step back from Cooper, but almost any other DB coach would be. Over the last two years LSU's had three All-American cornerbacks that between them have earned two Thorpe and Bednarick awards, and by the end of May two will have been top-10 NFL draft picks. Plus another two more DBs that will likely be drafted in this class.

However, the staff could certainly use another go-getter on the recruiting trail. Cooper did most of his work with a fantastic eye for talent in the players that came to LSU's camps, but he rarely pressed the flesh out on the road. Raymond recruited Louisiana for Nebraska, and even secured Debo Jones' commitment in the fall before LSU offered, and his Rivals.com profile suggests contacts on either coast, especially in Florida. Six years of NFL experience is a pretty good selling point (and I'm sure he picked up a few coaching tips as well), both with recruits and current college kids. And Raymond will definitely be sending a few more on to the pros in the coming years, as he inherits a loaded group that not only returns the 2011 Bednarick Award winner in Tyrann Mathieu, but two more emerging stars in Eric Reid and Tharold Simon.

For the average person, gumbo is probably THE quintessential South Louisiana/Cajun dish. The one you see most often on cooking shows, and the one most imitated, usually quite poorly, in Northern restaurants. The biggest reason most excuses for gumbo fail, in my opinion, is that the chef either doesn't know how to make a good roux (or doesn't make enough of it) or tries to pass off some other random smoked sausage as Andouille. I've brought it up before, but for the last time, if it doesn't look like this:

It ain't Andouille.

When it comes to gumbo, I've generally been of the opinion that you should either do seafood or chicken/Andouille, and not mix ‘em. All too often people include sausage in a seafood gumbo and wind up with shrimp that taste like sausage. But I digress. In this recipe, I borrowed some elements from a few different chefs, aiming for something thick and rich that would kind of approximate one of my favorite gumbos, the Chimes' Duck and Sausage version. As such, I decided to lightly fry up my chicken pieces beforehand, and used chicken thighs, figuring that the dark meat and extra fat would help create a thicker broth and a richer flavor. This proved to be a good call.

Some people prefer to just use a fryer chicken and cut it up into pieces, or use chicken breast meat, and it always just comes down to your personal preferences. Frying the meat up beforehand isn't necessary either if you're short on time/convenience. Once you get the roux/vegetable/liquid mixture going, you can always just throw your meat straight in and simmer it until it's all done.

Continue reading this post »

With the NFL Combine beginning today, Paul and I decided to discuss the event and the chances of the former Tigers taking part in the next few days' events in Indianapolis.

Billy: Eight players will be headed to the NFL's annual Scouting Combine this week, the headliners, of course are Morris Claiborne and Michael Brockers, the potential top-10 picks. But Rueben Randle is starting to creep up the draft boards, and as we saw in last year's draft, you never really know how things are going to go.

I said this last year but it bears repeating again: scouting and talent evaluation is an incredibly imperfect science, and there's really no singular way to do it. All of the best minds in the game have had their mistakes; Jimmy Johnson once thought Steve Walsh would be a better NFL quarterback than Troy Aikman; Ron Wolf told everybody that of the legendary 1982 quarterback class (including John Elway, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino), the name we'd all remember would be Tony Eason; Jim Finks used a first rounder on Shawn Knight, who was so bad Saints coaches could tell at his first mini-camp that he didn't even have NFL talent; and of course Bobby Beathard famously hitched the San Diego Chargers to Ryan Leaf, franchise savior. The combine matters for a lot of reasons -- the comprehensive medical exams, the team and media interviews, the infamous Wonderlic Test and, of course, the drills. They all factor into NFL teams' draft decisions, along with the hours of tape they've watched. And for every great player that didn't run that fast on a track or throw up 225 that many times, there have been legit workout warriors that put those numbers to use in the league. Hell, Jason Pierre-Paul played one year of major college ball and had 6.5 sacks. That hardly sounds like first-round material, but when you have his athletic talents sometimes a team is willing to take a chance, and New York Giant fans certainly are thankful for that.

And by the same token, even guys left off the combine invite list (which I believe is compiled based on the number of teams that want to look at a player in that setting) still wind up getting drafted. Going back to the two Super Bowl participants, Osi Umenyiora and New England's Sebastian Vollmer were both second-round picks despite not being invited to Indianapolis out of college. So players like Will Blackwell, Jarrett Lee, Mitch Joseph and T-Bob Hebert all still have chances of getting their names called.

Continue reading this post »

Who says I can't get fancy every now and then? Occasionally, my wife does get tired of the more extreme Cajun, and of me cooking with beer for some reason. But anyway, for Valentine's Day, I decided to try this one out for her -- Pecan-Pesto Chicken with Angel Hair pasta, out of the John Folse Encyclopedia, a book we've referenced before.

You'll have to bear with me on the pictures slightly, but we'll do this in two parts. First, the Pesto mixture.

Ingredients

1/3 cup pecans
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp minced garlic
2/3 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt/pepper to taste

Pesto is of course, a green flavorful paste used as a base for sauces, made with fresh herbs and, typically pine nuts, although Folse recommends pecans here.

Instructions

1. Combine pecans, Parmesan, garlic and basil leaves in a food processor. Pulse for a minute or two until the mixture is well chopped and combined.

2. Turn the processor and add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream until you get the paste consistency you see here.

Once finished, you can store this up to two weeks in a glass jar, and this portion size will be more than enough for this particular dish so you'll have some more to use in other things if you so choose. Now, on to the chicken and pasta.

Continue reading this post »