Mr. Lake's New Orleans Forum

Recently, my husband helped someone with a problem they had, and today they showed up at his office with this:


Wanna guess what's for supper tonight? Ignore the chicken wings Wes is about to cut up in the background. He's fixing hot wings for appetisers.

That's nice! I'd love some homegrown tomatoes!

I was about to barter with a plumber, but turns out I fixed my own problem.
It probably would have been better had I just had him fix it, but sometimes you learn things in this life that you need to learn that take a little bit more effort.

I am not opposed to barter at all!

I was just kidding about the barter part - it was a totally unexpected gift to my hubby for doing something nice for somebody else. But we're all picking on him about it and telling him what we want to eat tomorrow night that he should find someone to barter with.

I doubt any of us are old enough to remember it, but we've all read how people used to pay doctors with chickens or other foodstuffs. I have a friend whose almost 100 year old father was a doctor in rural Alabama, and when she interviewed him for a book she wrote about his life, he told her some of the things people gave him during the lean years of the late Depression and WWII. Hope we don't have to go back to that in this country.

IM, what is it with you and tomatoes? I am cracking up here.

Those are beautiful. I would make salsa and would bake some with some good olive oil and dago cheese on top. I will eat tomatoes that way.

BTW- you know why people eat salsa?

Where is Paula when I need her......


I can't tell you how happy the 2 young cameramen are to work with me on this cooking show. They are college students and when they ate spinach stuffed salmon with tasso infused polenta, a greek salad and had some expensive wine that was donated, I thought they were going to have seizures. I also took them across the street to this cute bar and treated them to some good beer. Just like you said- It all comes around. I could never bear the thought of working them and doing nothing for them. How unfair. They were quick on telling me that they want to work with me on a permanent basis. LOL. They are so cute.

Maria I think you know how much we love Asiago topped broiled tomatoes. Recently I've been serving them atop a splash of balsamic vinegar on the plate. Truly delicious.

I'm here, I'm here!

That is such a cute story about the youngin's.

IM, I'm jealous. I have tons o' green tomatoes in my garden, but they don't seem to want to turn red!

Maria, you have devoted followers for life!!

IM... how terrific! When I was a little girl, my father did a super Atticus Finch impersonation. He would never take a monetary fee from a client he suspected might have to commit another crime to pay. So we were loaded down with wild duck, oranges, peaches, tomatos... you name it. Oh and one time!! I was very very young, and we didn't have air conditioning in the house in Carrollton yet. One of his clients took a "six month trip to Europe", (as an adult I found out he went to jail for six months), and we got to use his fancy schmancy Cadilac during that time. heehee... talk about COOL. We always teased daddy that the air-conditioning in the car spoiled him. We took tons of day trips during those months, it was lots of fun.

Shortly after that, he bought our first window unit... and to his credit, he put it in the kitchen window for Mother. He was a terrific guy.

Hey we were poor, but we ate well, and had air conditioning before anyone else in the neighborhood. lol

Ms Fury, will you tell me a little more about how you make your broiled tomatoes with cheese? I will have ripe ones soon. thanks

My family was blue collar and thus most of my friends' families were, too. My best friend in high school and I used to often refer to the "good friend" phenomena. Notice how tradespeople never pay for services that they themselves can't perform? They always have a "good friend" who is a plumber or a mason, or a tile layer or a roofer and they trade services. Good Friend could be a family member or a friend, but they always came through for each other. My friend's father was a plumber and I remember one time her car was dead for about a week. When I asked her when she was going to get her wheels back her reply was, "Whenever Good Friend gets around to it."

Okie, I love that... "Good Friend".

I've heard countless stories, postK, of GoodFriend.... folks getting together, and not so much bartering as reciprocity.... working together to hang sheetrock, or do flooring etc. Especially that first year when there was practically no work force back. Add to that, no one had much money to do repairs!

I like it, "GoodFriend". It's a way of life that I hope "sticks".