I’m of course behind on blogging. I made this delicious Gumbo a couple weeks ago and I’m just now getting around to posting it. Just a side note if you make this for two, maybe freeze about half, and the rest should feed you for a couple meals. The entire pot could easily feed 16 folks. My grandma (Gammy) makes this delicious homemade Gumbo and makes it seem so easy. Then she sent me the recipe….
My recipe is a little involved-you have to be patient to make a pot of gumbo.
It goes like this:
In a large heavy pot cook 6 or 8 slices of bacon-remove bacon and make a roux (very important)-by stirring in about a half cup of flour or more- ( you want to have a very THICK sauce)… stir SLOWLY with a WOODEN spoon over a medium heat until it turns dark brown. DON’T BURN… If there’s not enough bacon grease, you can add a couple drops of canola oil to create a thicker roux.
Add 2 chopped onions, celery and green onions. Blend all this together.
Add 2 cans of tomatoes, 4 or 5 cans Campbell’s beef consomme soup (not broth- went to 3 stores to find this), hand ful of chopped parsley, 2 cans of Trappey’s Creole Okra Gumbo (also went to 3 stores to find this) -this is much better than fresh okra-trust me. Simmer for at least an hour. Longer is better if you can.
You may want to add a little water (a soup can or so).
Add salt and a little gumbo file’. (If you want it a little spicy add cayenne pepper)
Now for the goodies. Add about 3 lbs. of shelled medium shrimp (any size works), 1 lb crab meat and claws if you like (bought this prepackaged at Whole Foods). If you care for oysters you can add them now. You can also add any white fish diced. Gammy has added snapper (diced) before and it is good.
Simmer for at least 30 minutes more. Sprinkle with a little parsley and crumble the bacon you started with on top.
Serve over rice if desired.
ENJOY!!!!
Here are my favorite photos of the fun adventure. You can view the entire slide show below or go directly to Flickrto view them all. My lovely coworkers gave us this beautiful yellow cast iron pot from Crate & Barrel. I love it!!
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Most of the ingredients
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Step 1- Making the roux (bacon grease + flour+ lots of stirring)
Jennifer and Ryan’s wedding. Wow, where do I start? It was epic to say the least. Jennifer and I go way back… all the way back to 9th grade. We just didn’t know that until about our sophomore year at TCU. We have a mutual friend that apparently introduced us freshman year of high school, then again when I roomed with that girl Freshman year of college- she introduced us over lunch before the semester even started. Small world. Jennifer and I ended up rushing the same sorority at TCU (go ZTA!), then living together for a couple years, and she was recently my maid of honor back in March for my wedding. Her family has been like a second family to me. I could say so many cool things about them, but I’ll save that for another time.
Jennifer, Ryan, and I were all on the same Young Life team while attending TCU. We led kids from Brewer High School in White Settlement (near Fort Worth). It was a crazy couple of years and we had so much fun together. So much fun, that Ryan and Jen ended up falling in love (we all knew it would happen)! They’re probably… no they’re definitely two of the weirdest, intelligent, and funniest people I know. In the world. So it works out perfectly.
They started dating while we were in college, and continued to date for a couple years after graduation- even when Ryan moved all the way to Arizona to continue school. They were engaged for about 7 months before tying the knot at Jennifer’s family’s river house on the Frio River back in May.
Brian and I spent Thursday traveling to Concan, TX (talk about difficult to get to) – but it was so worth it. We arrived in Texas’ little slice of heaven late Thursday night (technically Friday morning) and tubed the river most of the day on Friday, after enjoying a delicious lunch. The rehearsal dinner was delish, followed by the Spazmatics over at the House Pasture (cool semi-outdoor venue near by) and a video from “George Bush” congratulating the couple.
The day of the wedding we had more delicious food (burgers and stuff), headed over to the family’s ranch and drove some 4 wheelers and shot skeet. Fun! The wedding was later that evening and everyone looked so beautiful and was super chill. Jennifer and Ryan had an outdoor ceremony over looking the river, led by their good friend, Jimmy. Afterwards, us brides maids changed into our Mexican moo-moos, ate some excellent Mexican food and danced the night away to their awesome wedding band, Professor D. Oh yea- and they had a fire works show at the end of the reception. Very much Jennifer style.
Congrats, Ryan and Jen. Y’all make a beautiful couple!
Disclaimer: I was not the official wedding photographer. Just a friend snappin’ photos for another friend.
Here are a couple of my favorites from the weekend.
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House Pasture – after Rehearsal Dinner
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Dancing to the Spazmatics
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More Spazmatics
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Spazmatics and props
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Kate riding around the ranch
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Pedro. Amy's first car.
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Fire pit and rocking chairs.
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barbed wire
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Brian shootin skeet
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Beautiful view below ceremony site.
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Wedding set up
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Napoleon.
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Jack and Napoleon.
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The Groom right before the wedding
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Jennifer's beautiful dress
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Before the ceremony
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Yummy cake.
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Jen & Ryan walking to their 1st dance.
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1st Dance!
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Jack and Jen's dance
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Jack and Jen dancing
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"Go Frogs" in the middle of Jack's toast, naturally.
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Cake time.
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Woa
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Pretty lights
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Bridesmaids in our moo-moos
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Fireworks finale!
Ways to view ALL the photos:
1. Watch slide show below
2. Click on the 4 arrows in the bottom right corner of slide show below to view full screen (way cooler)
3. Go directly to the Flickr set to view images at your own pace.
I used to start and end each day with a cup of tea. Green tea, white tea, black tea, English breakfast tea, you name it. Then I was released out into the workforce and was introduced to coffee. I now begin each day with coffee and try to end each day with a cup of hot tea.
This adorable little tea cup normally sits on my desk and houses paperclips of all sizes, rubber bands, etc…. We pulled it into a photo shoot for Switch’s event branding branch, “Gatsby“. We’re SO close in finishing up the website and almost done shooting all portfolio pieces. Last week we shot all the wedding suites, and next week we’re shooting all the kids birthday party suites. I’m so excited! You can view some Gatsby wedding sneak peek shots here and here.
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