Today is July 16, 2026, my final day in New Orleans. Lets get to it then…
It’s time to learn how to cook. I signed up for another cooking class at the Cooking School of New Orleans. There were only 5 of us in this hands on cooking class which is intended to be small even when full. Part of today’s lesson, we were going to learn how to cook Sweet Potato and Tasso Soup, Crabcake with Poached Eggs and Beignets for dessert.
The reason I enjoy this class is because you get to do all the cutting and cooking with guidance from the chef leading the class. Today’s chef was the same person from my last class, Chef Austin with a new assistant Chef Felipe. Now being new doesn’t mean he was young, he was just new to the job of teaching at this cooking school.
Without going into all the details of the soup, I’ll just share some pictures. Now, I can tell you this was some really good soup, even if I cooked it myself. I’ve found a new way to cook sweet potatoes and will be make this soup repeatedly in the future.
The second dish was the crabcakes with poached eggs, covered in a Hollandaise sauce. Now the crabcakes were easy and I didn’t have any worries about cooking the; however, I didn’t have as much confidence in the Hollandaise sauce. Today, was my first day of trying to make this sauce, and it actually came out fine.
Now, the dessert was beignets, and well, for the sake of time we used the box mix from Cafe Du Monde. Which is actually a pretty good mix.
With all this good food cooked and eaten it was time to continue the learning for the day at The Historic New Orleans Collection.
This is a free museum just off Royal Street that gives you the best chance to walking through a historic home that has been converted into a museum. Since this is 250th year of the United States, there was a special 1 room virtual exhibit in the museum. The coolest thing about this exhibit was the use of technology to let you view historical sites from the American Revolution in the 1770s and the same location in 2026. You walked around and used the tablet provide to scan 1 through 19 stations that walk your through reasons leading up to the war and the end of the war. What made this special to me, was in June I walked the streets of Colonial Williamsburg and visited the Yorktown battlefield.
The second floor was a small exhibit of artwork related to the music of New Orleans. As you walked this short hallway they had music playing related to the paintings.
In the next room is an exhibit titled: Vanishing Bounty, all about the vanishing costal environment.
The third floor housed a Aeolian residential player pipe organ, it was what was trending in the 1920’s home theatre. The one in the museum has been full restored, with an interesting modern upgrade. It can play midi files. While yes, you can play the keys or use the original paper rolls for automatic play, it is much easier to just plug in a USB stick and let the music play.
Now, I did record one of the song the organ played, but I’m not posting it hear because it won’t be the same as being present in the room. If you want to hear this 1920s entertainment system, you will need to visit the museum.
With the museum finished I went on my final shopping quest. I wanted a new hat, and even go my old hat reshaped a bit at The Hat Loft, right on Royal Street. I’m telling you, the best parts of the French Quarter are not found on Bourbon Street.
And with that I will be saying goodbye to New Orleans this year.
Carl's Blog 
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