I Won!

In this greater scheme of things, I know this is no big deal. In fact, it's really nothing. If I were a better person, I wouldn't even care at all.

But. It IS a big deal, and I care about it a lot. (OK, more than I should.) So I am taking this opportunity to announce to the world, This weekend, I finally won the Morel Family Cook-Off!

A bit of background: In my 15 years away from the city, I gained a reputation as a terrific cook, and I not only got used to thinking of myself that way, I took no little pride in the distinction. Serving congregations in Tennessee, New Zealand, and suburban Philadelphia, I was pleased that congregants made a fuss over my pot-luck contributions, and even paid big bucks at church auctions for the privilege of being a part of my annual Creole Dinner. (My Creole Dinner always sold for far more than my annual auction sermon topic. A parishioner comforted me by saying, "We can hear you preach any time, but it's difficult to find good New Orleans food.") When I first met and cooked for Big Man, he was blown away by my cooking and bragged about me to his friends.

All this was, of course, quite gratifying, but it was out of context. Just as I have always said that I may seem extravagantly extroverted when I am outside New Orleans, but I am only mildly extroverted when I'm in the city, something similar can be said about my cooking. (I'm even less extroverted when compared to other Morels.) Outside the city, I'm a whiz-bang chef, I'm a cooking genius, I should open a restaurant -- but inside the city, I'm about average. I'm not even the best cook in my family.

My family, those wonderful, funny, outrageous, everybody-talking-over-each-other, competitive Morels. Once a month, all 5 of the New Orleans siblings gather together for an over-the-top dinner with a pre-announced theme. (Once a year at the Morel family vacation in Gatlinburg, our out-of-town sister gets to compete as well and then there are 6 entries.) Everyone submits an entree befitting the theme, we eat like starved elephants (remember, to be fair, you must taste every submission), and then there's a blind vote to judge which is the best. ("Blind" is not always so blind, but there is a conscientious effort not to identify cooks until after the vote is taken.) While all my entries have been -- to my mind, at least -- creditable, I have never won. A few times, the only vote I got was MINE, after I reluctantly gave Big Man my assent to the novel proposition that he should be able to vote for whichever dish he deemed the very best, and not just voting loyally for mine. (Do you have any idea how humiliating THAT was?)

Not that I didn't make every effort. Once I traveled all over South Jersey and Philadelphia to get the finest ingredients for an authentic and superb pizza, only to be beaten by my brother-in-law who concocted a filet mignon pizza. Another time, after going to great expense for high-quality veal shanks for my specialty osso bucco, my Crockpot malfunctioned and I was almost disqualified altogether for the use of a microwave to finish it off. Didn't seem to matter what I did, I was just an also-ran. In a family as competitive as mine, it was depressing.

Then, luck went my way. The winner of last month's cook-off announced meatloaf as the next theme dish, and Big Man and I exchanged looks. I make a *killer* meatloaf, using the justly-famous Hunters' Mix from D'Angelo's on 9th Street in the Italian Market in South Philadelphia. This heavenly concoction is made up of venison, rabbit, wild boar, buffalo, pheasant, and kangaroo meat, ground to order and "Cajun" spiced by the butcher/artist Sonny D'Angelo, a 3rd generation butcher (go to http://www.dangelobros.com/htm -- try as I might, I can't seem to get the hang of inserting an actual link into this blog). The taste is unbelievable, and Big Man and I knew immediately we'd be placing a long-distance order with Sonny as soon as possible.

We met at our older sister's apartment in historic Bywater on Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, with sunshine and some decorative clouds, and a cool breeze blowing. All of the meatloaves were great -- with special mention of my sister-in-law's reproduction of an old Creole recipe out of an out-of-print cookbook that had belonged to our mother, my sister L's *individual* meatloaves made in muffin tins (GREAT idea!), and my sister D's "jellyroll" meatloaf with a stuffing of rice and cheese (unfortunately, not heated all the way through) -- but in the end, it was my hunters' meatloaf that got the most votes.

I almost did a Sally Field at the Oscars, I was so overwhelmed ("You like me! You really LIKE me!"), but managed to confine myself to a simple wordless screech. I finally won a Morel Cook-Off! About damn time!

Well, then, there was the giant round and round discussion of the theme of the next cook-off. A few sibs (who shall remain nameless) tried to veto our choice of Italian, saying it was too broad, contending that it would be impossible to choose between a pizza, a lasagna, and an eggplant parmegiano, but Big Man solved it by narrowing it down to *Northern Italian.* This shut up the nay-sayers, and caused someone to add that all entries would need to be in some way certified as being northern Italian in origin, and there was great discussion of how one would prove provenance. In the end, we left that decision to the cooks.

And so we're the hosts for the April Morel Cook-Off, and we're in the club of Morels who have won a cook-off. What a relief!

THE WINNING RECIPE: Melanie's Hunters' Meatloaf
1 lb. of hunters' mix variety ground meat from D'Angelo's Meats in South Philly
spray olive oil (like Pam but doesn't have to be Pam)
1/4 cup of New Orleans "holy trinity" chopped fine
4 end slices of stale whole-wheat bread, torn or cut into little pieces
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup evaporated skim milk
New Orleans Slap Yo Mama spice
seasoned bread crumbs


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a glass or metal loaf pan with olive oil. In a bowl, mix the holy trinity with the eggs and milk, and add the bread pieces. Season lightly (remember, the meat is prespiced.) Using your hands, mix this mixture with the ground meat, adding seasoned bread crumbs if necessary if it is too wet. Form into a loaf shape and press into the oiled loaf pan. Put into hot oven and bake for 1 hour. Can be served hot or cold. Polenta is a nice alternative to mashed potatoes with this dish, and it can stand up to a well-spiced rich gravy.