Last week I started cooking for all the daddies in my life. The only one missing from my list is my very dearly loved father, Andrew Benson. He died in 2006 so I went wild making tons of treats for everyone else in his honor. My list includes my husband, Andrew Fox; my ex-husband (The Baby Daddy), also named Andrew (I can't seem to get past the first letter of the alphabet) but people call him AJ; a whole bunch of my girlfriends' husbands - Kevin Eyer, Jim Capparell, Mark Stollsteimer, Chris Summa, and David Kelly ; Joseph Griffin, a sweet, wonderful man who manages the barn where we keep Cecilia's horse, SpyBoy, so he's kind of like SpyBoy's Daddy; Lawrence Adams, my next door neighbor, and father of Cecilia's best friend, Julia, whom all the world, including her parents, refer to as my second child because she pretty much lives with me.

Yesterday seven chefs gathered at the Slovenian Cultural Center in Biloxi, MS, to compete for the title of King of Mississippi Seafood. Last year's Seafood King, Chef Vishwesh Bhatt of SNACKBAR in Oxford, was on hand to lend sustanance to all with servings of his divine Black Pepper Shrimp, which he served over a cold salad of watermelon, radishes, lime juice and mint. It may be the perfect summer dish.

Jyl and I are hitching a ride with LSPMBer Ashley Roth to Biloxi, Mississippi tomorrow; I'm going to judge the Mississippi Seafood Cookoff. The winner will advance to the Great American Seafood Cookoff to compete for the title of King or Queen of American Seafood. 

Delicious!

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Stay tuned for pics and commentary tomorrow night. We've done road trips together before, and interesting things always happen.

 So today I enjoyed the dubious pleasure of visiting the Office of Motor Vehicles to replace my driver's license, which I lost on Friday to the most unwelcome experience of being releived of my handbag during a robbery. Hearing the lines were relatively short, I visited the OMV  in Westwego, which I guess qualifies as a fishing community but I am not sure. It is only 15 miles or so from Orleans parish but it seems a world away. The OMV in Westwego shares a small building with the community's City Hall, City Council chamber, Police Department and probably several other municipal agencies I overlooked. 

When I was a child I did not particularly enjoy the weekly southern ritual of Sunday dinner.  Like many families, mine was pretty screwy and the dinners were often wrought with tension, usually generated by my father's mother, Lillian, AKA Maw Maw Benson, whom I  still regard as my Evil Grandmother. The woman was an absolute terror, a grief-seeking (and generating) missle, a character who HAD TO BE THE CENTER OF ATTENTION at all times. That said, this bitch could cook. She grew up in New Orelans' 7th Ward neighborhood, near the corner of Elysian Fields and St. Claude avenues.  She was born Lillian Lombard somewhere around 1911 to a family of second or third generation French immigrants and her father died of tuberculosis when she was 2.

One of my favorite parts of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience is the Louisiana Seafood Cookoff that takes place on final afternoon of the show. Chefs gather from all over the state to vie for the title of King or Queen of Louisiana Seafood, and competition is always fierce.