An interesting article about a mysterious subject.

http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=55608

Eric’s Website

  Here is a pic of the Oklahoma sky, taken as I walked out of the WalMart near my house.

Fiction South

Like almost everyone else in today’s economy, my finances have suffered greatly in the past six month.  Unlike almost everyone else, this is not my first rodeo.  I was a millionaire before turning thirty and dead broke before I reached forty.  Now, at my present age, I am neither.  Today’s events bring back memories when times, at least for me, were much worse.

I cannot remember the exact date, but it was sometime in the nineties.  Oil and natural gas prices were in the dumpster with no one drilling any wells or buying any geologic prospect.  I had a deal in Coal County, Oklahoma and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

I had an old friend named Don, a petroleum engineer that got a showing for me with another petroleum engineer.  We met Neil, the other petroleum engineer and his geologist Dave in a sleazy motel room in Dallas.

“This is a great prospect,” Neil said.  “I think Dave and I can sell it for you but we can’t pay your price until we sell it.”

Neil was a bankrupt oilman that had gone from rags to riches, and then back to rags.  When I met him, he was somewhere in between.  Despite my own personal difficulties, I thought I was the best oil finder alive at time.  Neil was not intimidated by my swagger and showed me a couple of tricks about economics and return-on-investment that I still use today.

Dave was about my age and a crackerjack geologist.  He could not find oil like me, but he understood every concept of petroleum geology.  Together, we honed the prospect until it was near perfect.  Then the unthinkable happened.  Neil developed pancreatic cancer.  He fought the disease like a trooper but lost his fight in less than six months.  By this time, Don had started work with a would-be oilman, intent on starting a dynasty.

Richard was a Wharton MBA graduate, and related to the family that owned one of the most famous retail stores in the world.  He bought the prospect for ten thousand dollars, with the proviso that I would help him promote it to other oil companies.  He paid my traveling tab and for the next year, I earned enough air miles for ten free tickets on Southwest Airlines.

This story is quite complicated and I could easily write a four-hundred-page book about it.  To abbreviate, Don and I showed the prospect more than a hundred times, from Houston to Los Angeles, and managed to place fifty percent of it.

Richard got a divorce and lost interest in oil and gas, the prospect never drilled, at least by anyone whom I sold it.  Newfield drilled horizontal Woodford Shale well in the same section last year and completed it for a couple million cubic feet of gas a day.  No one ever drilled my deeper zone, and probably never will.

Don’s wife, Mary Kay, succumbed to Alzheimer’s, much like my Dad.  Richard’s money kept Anne and me afloat for a while and I remember the people I met and the things I learned with fondness.

As I think back, filtering the past through the rocks of time and age in my brain, I consider my own life, and my relationships, both failed and successful.  I also remember Anne, my shining star that never abandoned me, despite my failures.  Anne died eleven years ago today.  As I recall the past, some of it happy and some of it painful, I realize that I will miss her until the very day that I die.

Eric’s Website

A wonderful article for all of you science freaks out there (I’m one of you).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/science/17foss.html?_r=1

Eric’s Website

One of the largest international seaports, New Orleans has always been a melting pot of many nationalities.  The most recent to migrate to New Orleans are the Vietnamese.  Like the Spanish, Germans and Irish immigrants before them, the Vietnamese have made New Orleans their own, adopting both its culture and cuisine.  Johnny Do is a cop in the novel Big Easy.  He loves Cajun and Creole cooking and he has adapted many local recipes to reflect the style of his Asian homeland.  Vietnamese Jambalaya is one of Johnny’s favorite dishes.

¦ 8 ounces Asian pork sausage
¦ 1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
¦ 1 pound sea scallops
¦ 3 tablespoons dry sherry, divided
¦ 3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
¦ 1 whole chicken breast, skinned, boned and cut into bit-size pieces
¦ 5 tablespoons peanut oil
¦ 1 onion, finely diced
¦ 2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
¦ 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
¦ 2 pinches powdered saffron

¦ 2 cups basmati rice
¦ ½ bunch fresh Thai basil, finely chopped

¦ 3 stalks lemon grass, very finely chopped

¦ 1 red bell pepper, coarsely diced

¦ 5 small banana peppers with ends removed
¦ 2 dozen mussels, cleaned, beards removed
¦ ½-cup bean sprouts

¦ 5 cups seafood stock

Some great pics of the Alaskan volcano.

http://geology.com/usgs/redoubt-volcano-2009-eruption/

Eric’s Website

Another interesting oil price conjecture.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/mckinsey-study-warns-oil-price/story.aspx?guid=%7B371D9789%2D9C51%2D469F%2DB415%2D69E02C5D6BEA%7D

Eric’s Website

An interesting article that includes a chart of OPEC’s crude reduction compliance.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twiparch/090325/twipprint.html

Eric’s Website

Oil markets continue recovery as crude prices approach $55 per barrel.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&refer=energy&sid=ayJUKp5PJJNI

Eric’s Website

I left a secure job with Texas Oil & Gas years ago to start my own company, soon learning that running your own business was tough.  I persevered and managed to learn a few things along the way,

I had less than a thousand dollars saved when I decided to vacate a secure job in lieu of starting a new company.  Times were tough and I ended up borrowing a thousand dollars from my girlfriend and mortgaging my motorcycle for a thousand dollars.  Six months passed without having earned a single penny and I was starting to become desperate.

My girlfriend Carol knew that I had talent.  I had often thought that I was the world’s greatest oil finder.  Of course, I have many other delusions as well.  We had gone to a movie at Shepard Mall (the first mall in Oklahoma) and were passing a music store.

Carol and I stopped, gazing in at the most beautiful guitar that I had ever seen.  It was a maroon-colored Guild and I knew the moment I saw it that I could not live another day without it.  I bought it about ten minutes later with the last few dollars of credit remaining on my last credit card.

“You are an idiot,” Carol told me.  “You haven’t made a penny in six months and you are wasting money on things you don’t need.”

“I’m making a statement,” I argued.  “I’m demonstrating that I think my financial situation is temporary and showing my resolve that things will soon turn around.”

Carol left me shortly after I bought the guitar but I was soon able to repay what I owed her because I made almost four-hundred-thousand dollars the second six months that I was an independent.

Many years later, back in 2003, my business was also failing.  Remembering the crimson Guild, I talked myself into buying an electric guitar on eBay that I could ill afford.  Amazingly, business turned around almost overnight, shortly after it arrived.

Times are tough.  The stock market has crashed, along with the price of oil and gas.  Like almost everyone else in the country, I feel as if someone has nailed me square in the gut with a steel pipe.  I know what I intend to do about it.  When I sign off on this post, I am going to log on to eBay and buy a twelve-string Martin.  Wish me luck because if this works, I will take everyone along with me.

Eric’s Website

More good news for natural gas producers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aLJzPhfFhPI8&refer=energy

Eric’s Website

A very interesting article to everyone dealing in fluids.

http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?archives=true&id=55486

Eric’s Website

Oil and natural gas prices continue to impact drilling activity.

http://energyscout.ning.com/forum/topics/drilling-activity-hits-6year

Eric’s Website

The first day of spring occurred last week.  It also marks the vernal equinox, the day when the hours of darkness roughly equal the hours of light.  One of the biggest pagan holidays transpires during the vernal equinox and this is the situation in a chapter from Bones of Skeleton Creek, my unedited novel in progress.

       Buck McDivit, the central character in my first novel Ghost of a Chance, returns to Logan County, Oklahoma to confront cattle thieves, a black panther and a commune populated with green-minded female pagans.  Here is a short excerpt from the pagan revel that Buck unwittingly participates in during the Commune’s celebration of the spring Equinox:

       Only feathers and animal pelts clothed the mass of chanting women.  Like Buck, colorful paints decorated their faces and exposed skin.  Kristy escorted him to a small group of women, their extra feathers and adornments marking them as leaders.  The most ornate female, he quickly saw, was Lana, looking nothing like the corporate executive of their last meeting.  She didn’t speak when he stood before her, simply nodding a command for him to take a seat on a colorful serape on the ground beside her.

       Waves of frenzied dancers moved into the circle as Buck watched.  When offered, he drank from a cup passed around the circle, almost instantly feeling the intoxicating effects of the warm liquid.  The drink numbed him, but did little to prepare him for the double whammy of drugs he was about to endure.

       As the tom tom drummed and the half-naked women danced in and out of the circle, Bucks lips and eyelids also numbed.  When Lana handed him a ceremonial pipe, he took a puff without thinking, psychedelic smoke rushing straight to his brain.

       As the drumming grew louder, the dancing became ever more frenetic and sensual.  Even in his impaired state Buck realized that he was witnessing a pagan revel that had some intense meaning to the women dancing in and out of the circle lighted only by the center bonfire and the moon and stars.

       An absolutely stunning woman soon joined the other dancers.  She was tall, and had long black hair that extended to the crack of her well-turned derrierre.  She wore a breechcloth, much like Buck’s, and nothing else except paint and feathers.

       Even in his extreme state of drug-induced numbness, Buck’s mind took a double-take.  The woman was carrying a large rattlesnake.  Despite his mental condition, Buck’s eyes riveted on the gorgeous young woman, and her snake.  Like Buck, every eye in the pulsating circle of women soon focused on the nubile dancer.

       The woman stopped her gyrations directly in front of Buck and held the writhing snake high into the air.  Slowly, she lowered it, until its head resided directly in front of him.  Zoned almost totally out, he stared into the viperian eyes of the reptile as it jutted its pointed tongue a few inches from his face in the flickering fire light.

       Whatever drug that had invaded his brain had also removed any fear or anxiety about the reptile’s danger.  Like star-crossed lovers, they exchanged a kiss that would have curdled his blood, were he cognizant.  He wasn’t.

       Prompted by some primieval urge, Buck stood from the serape and waded into the circle crowded with chanting pagans.  There he danced with arms stretched to the sky, reveling in the proximity to so many half-naked females, his senses flooded by sound and the musky odor of burning wood and sweating bodies.

Eric’s Website

Wonderful pictures from a hidden world.

http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?archives=true&id=55947

Eric’s Website

Here is a recipe that tastes much better it sounds.  Yes it's Cajun!  Remember that New Orleans is a melting pot.  There are many people of German heritage there, and Irish, African, etc. - I could go on but you know what I mean:

2           pounds squash

1           small chopped onion

3           tablespoons butter

1/4 lb    ground sausage

             cracker crumbs

             water

In a skillet mix squash, chopped onion, sausage and a small amount of water.  Cook until squash and onion are tender.  Brown sausage and then combine with squash and onions.  Season to taste with salt and pepper, and then transfer to 1 quart greased casserole.  Cover with cracker crumbs and cook at 350 degrees in oven until brown.  Enjoy.

http://www.ericwilder.com

More good news for energy producers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aaDwzWXWqYDs&refer=energy

Eric’s Website

An interesting article about the fault system that caused one of the most chaotic events in the history of the US.

http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009a/090313CalaisSteinMadrid.html

Eric’s Website

More good news for energy producers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=akQwolafLPL8&refer=energy

Eric’s Website

Giant China profits big time from global economic downturn.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031603293.html

Eric’s Website

Good news, finally, for struggling oil producers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&refer=energy&sid=aiB8Fks0sXi0

Eric’s Website

A great article about the great white shark’s ancestor.

http://news.ufl.edu/2009/03/12/fossil-shark/

Eric’s Website

An interesting and informative site for those of you interested in solar energy.

http://www.seref.us/solarjobsmap.html

Eric’s Website

An interesting site, complete with maps and videos.

http://geology.com/articles/haynesville-shale.shtml

Eric’s Website

Interesting cloud patterns, Logan County, Oklahoma, on my way to check a well.

Eric’s Website

Perhaps the quintessential dish served in the Big Easy is Etouffee, made with either shrimp or crawfish.  There are as many variations of this dish, but here is my favorite variation:

                        ¦ ½-cup cooking oil

                        ¦ 2 cups finely chopped white onion

                        ¦ 1 large bell pepper, medium diced

                        ¦ 1 stalk of celery, medium diced

                        ¦ 2 cups whole tomatoes, mashed

                        ¦ 2 cups tomato juice

                        ¦ 1/4 cup lemon juice

                        ¦ 6 tablespoons roux

                        ¦ 2 tablespoons Worcestershire

                        ¦ 1/4 cup minced parsley

                        ¦ ½ cup chopped leaf of garlic, or green onion tops

                        ¦ 2 cloves of minced garlic

                        ¦ 1/4 tablespoon of red pepper

                        ¦ 1/4 tablespoon of salt, or to taste

                        ¦ 1/4 tablespoon of pepper, or to taste

                        ¦ 1 pound of cleaned and de-veined crawfish

Pour oil into a heavy skillet and sauté onions, bell pepper, and celery until limp.  Do not overcook.  Add tomatoes, tomato juice, lemon juice, roux and Worcestershire.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium hat and add parsley, garlic leaf, garlic cloves, red pepper, and salt and pepper.  Cook for about five minutes, then add crawfish and cook for fifteen more minutes.  Simmer until ready to serve.  Over rice, this dish serves four.

Eric’s Website

Capistrano has nothing on me.  My three wild ducks returned yesterday for their third straight year.  There are two males and a female and it is apparent that the female is the boss.

Weather patterns have changed, as has the path of migratory birds.  Oklahoma always had very cold winters when I move here so many years ago.  This is not the case anymore, Oklahoma almost as subtropical as Louisiana when I lived there.

The temperature in Edmond three days ago was eighty-three degrees, all my flowers and trees blooming.  This morning, it was sleeting, the temperature below freezing.  We had two years of extreme rainfall.  This year, we are back into the persistent drought cycle Oklahoma had experienced for eight straight years.

Global warming is not a myth it is a fact.  Scientists only argue who is to blame.  Ed, the geologist that offices with me, says the cause is volcanoes and reef destruction.  Ed is an ultra-conservative but he is far too intelligent to deny that the world is warming at an alarming rate.

Still, the rapid change in geologic conditions, no matter who is to blame, has brought me days of pleasure, watching the three ducks that spend their spring and summer with me instead of flying on to their ancestral home in Canada.

Eric’s Website

One of the most interesting and informative articles concerning oil and gas that I have read.

http://www.epmag.com/WebOnly2009/item32326.php

Eric’s Website

A virtual plethora of Barnett Shale maps, some out of date, for all you shale explorers and would-be shale explorers.

http://blumtexas.blogspot.com

Eric’s Website

Good news for oil producers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&refer=energy&sid=acOvvj3teNpQ

Eric’s Website

An interesting article and an interesting site.

http://rockhoundingar.com/quartz.html

Eric’s Website

In 1718, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville founded the colony that became New Orleans. Sieur de la Salle had claimed the territory for the French in 1682 and France was looking for an outpost from where they could take advantage of the resources of the vast domain. They desired a location with access to the Gulf of Mexico at a spot they could easily defend from possible hostility by other countries. These two factors, high ground and access, likely resulted in the choosing of the present location of New Orleans.

High ground, you say? Everyone knows that a portion of New Orleans is below sea level. This is true but much has changed since the City was founded in 1718. The fact is the mean elevation of Louisiana is only 100' above sea level. To put this into perspective, Morgan City is 7' above sea level, Lafayette 39' above sea level, Baton Rouge 60' above sea level and the far northwestern city of Shreveport only 177' above sea level. Why then did Bienville situate the City of New Orleans at the second lowest spot in the United States, higher only than Death Valley that has an elevation of 282' below sea level? The answer is he didn’t.

There were no topographic maps or GPS devices in 1718. Still, seasoned explorers Bienville and his brother D’Iberville understood the concept of high ground. They had located and chosen the site for New Orleans on an expedition more than a decade before the City’s founding. Although no records exist to confirm this assumption, a look at present-day Louisiana geography and geology indicates New Orleans in 1718 may have been at or near the highest elevation at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

New Orleans is part of the Mississippi River Delta, a geographic region that encompasses 13,000 square miles, fully 25% of Louisiana. Deltas are comprised mainly of silt. A look at the mechanics of the Mississippi River explains why. The Mississippi River drops 1,475' from its source in Minnesota to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. Water flows down river because of gravity. Along the way the Mississippi is intersected by many smaller rivers.

The Mississippi and the rivers that feed it transport many tons of alluvium picked up along the way because of erosion. The energy of the flowing river carries this alluvium in suspension. As the elevation nears sea level and this energy is dissipated, the river can no longer maintain its load and it is deposited in the form of silt. Often, extra silt is deposited at a meander in the river where energy is locally dissipated. This is a likely scenario for the location of New Orleans in 1718.

Just north of the small town of Donaldsonville the Mississippi turns abruptly eastward. Interestingly, Donaldsonville is near the point the modern Mississippi River threatens to abandon its present course and flow into the Atchafalaya River Basin. The Corp of Engineers has prevented this occurrence for many years by constructing special levees along the course of the Mississippi River. Near Donaldsonville, the Mississippi River flows eastward until it reaches a point just east of New Orleans where it again turns, this time abruptly southward.

Old New Orleans is located in a crescent-shaped bend in the river, a meander. The crescent that formed the Crescent City is really a meander. What happened in 1718 at this meander was a dissipation of energy that resulted in higher ground because of an unloading of sediment. Likely, New Orleans was the highest point near the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1718.

Why is much of New Orleans presently below sea level? The answer is subsidence. Geologically speaking, silt is very unstable. When loaded, it readily compresses and subsides. During the early days of New Orleans there were no man-made levees separating the City from the Mississippi River. Because of this, the City was flooded with silt and knee-deep water every spring. City fathers soon began building up the natural levees to prevent this from happening. The result is that much of New Orleans, without the yearly addition of silt from the river, has subsided in the centuries following 1718. Even with this subsidence, the French Quarter and the Central Business District, part of the original settlement, remains at or near sea level and was surely even higher in 1718.

Another reason Bienville chose the present site of New Orleans was because of access. Native Americans had shown the French a short cut from the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans - a strategic advantage over any foreign power that might attempt to wrest the region from France. This short cut came through a pass from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Pontchartrain, and then from St. Johns Bayou to present-day New Orleans.

Everyone is aware of the tremendous damage done in 2005 by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. How can we alleviate a future disaster without moving the venerable old City? Here is my suggestion. Cut the levees near Donaldsonville and let the mighty Mississippi follow its preferred course: into the Atchafalaya Basin to the Gulf of Mexico. Will it change history? Only time will tell.

Eric’s Website

  It is a fact.  Southerners love both rice and chicken.  While most chicken eaters like plump thighs, hot wings and juicy breasts, they don’t all partake in the less-than-subtle flavor of livers and gizzards.  Long ago, frugal New Orleans cooks found a way to use livers and gizzards in a tasty dish locals call dirty rice.

       The ingredients are cheap and Bertram Picou, a character in my new novel Big Easy, always has a pot of dirty rice on the stove in his kitchen for his hungry regulars and curious tourists.  Here is how Bertram prepares the dish in his own words, as quoted in Murder Etouffee:

       “Like most everything else I cook, my secret is the big old cast iron skillet Mama give me years ago when I told her I was leaving home.  First thing I do is put the chicken gizzards in it, add water and bring everything to a boil.  Once the gizzards are boiling, I lower the heat and simmer them for about thirty minutes, or until they are good and tender.

       “While this is going on, I heat the butter in a heavy pot then add the chicken livers and sauté until cooked.  When they’s finished, I take them off the heat and put them aside.  Next, I add the ground beef, onion, pepper, celery and garlic to the pot and sauté until the meat is no longer pink, and the vegetables are tender.

       “Next, I chop the gizzards and livers until they are real fine.  Then I add the meat to the skillet, along with cayenne, salt, thyme, water and rice, stirring as I go.   I bring it to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until my rice is done.  When it is, I add chopped onions and parsley and let the whole thing stand, covered, for about ten minutes.  I garnish the rice with sliced red bell pepper strips and serve it up to a bunch of hungry customers who don’t really care what it looks like.

¦ 4 Chicken gizzards; or more

¦ 2 Chicken livers; or more

¦ 2 tsp Butter

¦ ½ lb Ground beef

¦ 1 med. Onion; chopped

¦ 1 Red bell pepper; chopped

¦ 2 Stalks celery; chopped

¦ 2 Cloves garlic; pressed

¦ 1/4 tsp Cayenne

¦ 1 tsp Salt

¦ ½ tsp Thyme leaves; dry

¦ 2 cups Water

¦ 1 cup Long grain rice

¦ 4 Green onions; chopped

                        ¦ 1/4 cup Parsley; chopped

Eric’s Website

Here is the latest rig count information reported by Baker Hughes.  The total rig count for the U.S. is down 632 rigs from the same time one year ago.

Recent Counts

Eric’s Website

Eric’s Website

I’m not sure about the validity of this article but I really like the phrase “embryonic recovery.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=ajS3Z4SOVmVM&refer=energy

Eric’s Website

In writing about life in downtown Oklahoma City during the last oil boom, I mentioned the Concourse. The Concourse was a tunnel system connecting all the major buildings in downtown OKC, originally created to provide workers with a way of avoiding the city’s weather that is often inclement. It grew into much more than just an underground pathway.

During the oil boom, the city leaders decided there was room for retail development underground. Texas Oil and Gas, the company I worked for, had offices in the Midland Center and you could enter the Concourse from a stairway on the ground floor there.

The tunnel system was simply a dimly lit concrete pathway with a colorful carpet on the floor. The system of tunnels snaked in all directions and it was easy to lose your bearings – especially if you had just visited one of the many clubs and partaken of their liquor-by-the-wink.  Purchasing alcohol, at the time, was illegal anywhere except a liquor store.

Retail clothing establishments, a jewelry store, a fast food kiosk, two barbershops and other businesses soon began to thrive. Several combination restaurants occupied space in the Concourse, among them the Bull and the Bear, the Brigadoon, and the most notorious underground establishment of them all, the Depot.

The Depot was a dark saloon masquerading as a restaurant and it is true that the place sold as much booze as it did chicken fries. Its main draw was the gorgeous and friendly waitresses dressed in skimpy outfits. The drinks were strong and at any time of the day or night, half the downtown Oklahoma City oil industry congregated there.

My former business partner, John and I had an engineer.  Those days preceded the age of cell phones and we began noticing music and noise in the background when Nick called in a report.  We soon realized that he was reporting from his “office” in the Depot rather than one of our oil wells out in the sticks.

The Depot was dark and loud and if I told you that I had witnessed a sex act performed on an adjacent table, I would be lying.  I actually saw more than one, and I imagine they were a common occurrence in some of the back corner booths.

Another article for you shale mavens.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twiparch/090304/twipprint.html

Eric’s Website

Loess is wind-transported silt derived from fresh glacial deposits exposed at the end of the last ice age.  Loess formed steep bluffs near Vicksburg, Mississippi and the Mississippi River.  The bluffs formed because loess, unlike most soils, has a high angle of repose.  The very nature of these bluffs affected the outcome of the Civil War.  Here is another story of how geology affected history.

http://www.backyardnature.net/loess/civilwar.htm

Eric’s Website

Technical trading predominates as traders search for oil market answers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=agfaySLulvYE&refer=energy

Eric’s Web

Natural gas prices move upward as a major winter storm blankets the northeast.  The storm, combined with producers idling non-commercial oil and gas wells, has resulted in three consecutive days of upward movement in the market for natural gas.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aQNXCrycaVOw&refer=energy

Eric’s Website

When I first moved to Oklahoma City, there was only one seafood restaurant.  Herman’s, the lone venue, served mostly fried catfish and shrimp because there were no shipments of fresh seafood from the coasts at that time.  Thank goodness, things have changed!

It is now possible to enjoy fresh seafood at many restaurants in the area.  Marilyn and I like Pearl’s for its Cajun and Creole fare.  Every Saturday and Sunday, they have a brunch featuring several variations of New Orleans-style breakfasts.  While they do not serve this dish at Pearl’s, here is one of my personal breakfast favorites.

Oyster Omelet

2 doz. Oysters

1 tbsp butter

4 shallots

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp minced bell pepper

2 tbsp minced celery

2 bay leaves

4 eggs

2 tbsp chopped parsley

   Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in saucepan and add minced garlic, bay leaves, pepper and celery.  Drain the liquid from the oysters and put them into the butter with the seasoning.  Lower heat and cook about three minutes.  Beat the eggs, add salt and pepper and turn them into saucepan with oyster mixture.  Do not stir.  When lightly browned, turn onto hot platter and garnish with chopped parsley.

Eric’s Website