New Orleans Chef Recipe: Tasty Fig Gelato

Photo/LSU AgCenter -- This LSU Purple fig 

From Denny:  At the Hotel Monteleone’s Criollo Restaurant in the French Quarter this is a seasonal featured dessert, served with slivered almonds, caramelized sugar and lovingly garnished with summer's fresh blackberries.  Figs are hanging off back yard Louisiana trees this month and people are always looking for new recipes utilizing figs.  The Criollo also serves a killer banana split:  small scoops of Pontchtoula (Louisiana grown) strawberry, stone-ground chocolate and fig gelato snuggled up with long slices of banana in sauce, all served in an almond "boat."

The restaurant was willing to seat a couple of food journalists who wandered in just for dessert - and did so graciously.  The chef was also willing to share his recipe!  So, if you are traveling to New Orleans any time soon and fancy a frozen treat to beat the summer heat, just saunter on in to the Hotel Monteleone!  People with this great an attitude deserve a Denny Lyon Bump!  (Stephen Colbert has nothing on me.)  :)

(FYI - artist and journalist Denny Lyon has no association with Hotel Monteleone, just enjoyed reporting on the local news story featuring them)

If you would like to be a guest at this famous historic hotel, here's the contact information:

Hotel Monteleone, an historic luxury French Quarter hotel

214 Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130-2201

Email questions:  Reservations@hotelmonteleone.com

Phone:  (504) 523-3341 or Toll-Free at (866) 338-4684

Retro Sunburst 17" Laptop Sleeve

Check out this happy design and a blast from the retro past!

Available in bedding, pillows, shower curtains and more

From Louisiana artist Denny Lyon

Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  

Dennys Food and Recipes: Readers Recipes: Apple Upside-Down Caramel Cake, Louises Birthday Cake

Image by karenandbrademerson via Flickr

Dennys Food and Recipes: Readers Recipes: Apple Upside-Down Caramel Cake, Louises Birthday Cake: " Upside-down cake is one of the first cakes I learned to make when I was a child.  They were so easy and even smelled good as you assembled them into the iron skillet which was our pan of choice.

This apple caramel cake is unusual in that it employs canned sweet potatoes too.  We love our sweet potatoes in Louisiana and eat them all year long, finding new ways to use them.  This is the first I've seen used in an upside-down cake.  Everyone knows that brown sugar and sweet potatoes are a natural and perfect taste combination!

The second recipe for an unusual birthday cake uses a spice cake mix and pumpkin pie filling.  That makes for a dense moist cake topped by cream cheese icing  - low fat cream cheese and low fat whipped topping, of course. :) To gild the lily the special cake is topped off with white chocolate bark."