The day went like this: grocery shop at 9, while the first load of laundry gets washed downstairs. Back home, load wet clothes and dirty clothes into the Kia, put dog into back, and beat feet over to Chris & Ginny Burroughs house, where they were gracious enough to let me use their laundry equipment. Okay, dryer going, washer going, dog back in car, home to climb nineteen steps, and begin the prep work for the gumbo. But I couldn't really get to the prep work, because I couldn't get to the sink. First I had to clean my kitchen.
Loads changed, dog runs around back yard, home again, climbing those damn nineteen steps again with a load of clean sheets in my arms. Prep work can now begin. Green onions, onions, garlic, green pepper, parsley. Of all of that, I really only like garlic. Talk to a true Cajun, though, and you'll be told over and over the Holy Trinity of roux - garlic, onion, green pepper. Cut up chicken, slice ham, slice sausage, both Andouille and Polish. Okay, time to go.
Stupid steps.....
Little Boy runs around the yard, I fold the duvet cover, and pop towels into the dryer, clothes into the washer. (Yes, all of my bath towels are dirty - and yes, I look like I need a shower!)
Man, I'm putting in a chair rail - I trip up the last three of the stupid nineteen steps, catching myself on my right palm, and left arm. Fun, fun, fun.....
Brown the chicken - vegetable oil. I never have vegetable oil, only olive oil. So I had to buy it, and was overwhelmed by all the choices. Vegetable oil, Crisco, okay - the chicken stuck to the damn pot, and splattered up - right onto my face. Yeah, so the F bomb came flying out - a couple of times! Chicken out, put into warm oven, time to begin. Roux .... flour into the oil until the color of hazelnuts, then veggies for another ten minutes. A scarce 1/4 cup water for roughly three cups of chopped and minced veggies. Suddenly the smells filling my house went from okay to orgasmic.
Add sausage and chicken, stir liberally - but carefully, so as to keep chicken on the bone. Add 2 quarts of water, come to boil. I added one quart of water, and the liquid seemed fine to me - I stopped there. Added pepper, cayenne, basil, fresh bay laurel leaves crushed (Chris Burroughs had given them to me as a house-warming gift in 2012 - so damn good!).
Boil achieved, lid on pot, fire off, time to go.
Stupid steps. Little Boy practically ripping my left arm from its socket in his eagerness to GO, LET'S GO! Those last four steps were taken in one jump.
Last load, fold towels, put clothes into dryer.
Damn I hate steps!
King Cake - I don't have enough sugar, so I stop and get more sugar, then go home to begin the cake. A yeast-based cake. It's 4:30. Party at 6. Yeast-based cake .... yeah, I didn't really follow through on this very well, huh?
Well, I get the cake assembled and set aside to rise, the file added (in two parts) to the gumbo, get me cleaned up, and by now it's 5:30.
I want a nap ....
Instead, I stir the gumbo again, and bones float up to the top. Hmm....what happened to keeping the chicken pieces whole? Well, that was moot .... the skin floated to the top, the bones kept surfacing - okay, I guess we're going boneless. I skimmed off oil during the course of the afternoon, fished out bones and skin, and by the time the dinner hour was upon us, only the King Cake remained to be shoved into the oven.
Susan Kucynda is the first to arrive - with red beans and rice. Because what would a true Cajun meal be without red beans and rice????? She and I catch up, enjoy a martini, and I'm still trying to finish the damn King Cake.
Chris and Ginny arrive, in two installments - Chris with food, Ginny with dogs. Tucker is delirious. They brought Mosby wines, and shrimp with remoulade sauce and rabbit sausage with Cajun spicey brown mustard. I served dirty martinis to accompany the appetizers - oh my god. I mean, really. Oh my god.
Keith and Kristen arrived bearing a beautiful salad. Kristen makes a salad look like a piece of art - and this was no exception. Beautiful, simply beautiful. For dressing, she offered up Lucien Delicate Shallot and Cucumber Creamy Dressing, a perfect match to the spices of the meal.
We were finally ready to eat - everyone served themselves. Bowl for gumbo, plate for red beans and rice and salad. Glass for wine, bourbon, or water, whatever your pleasure was (yep, martini hour was over). I bet you can't guess who had the bourbon.....
Dinner was amazing. Every layer of the meal, from four different houses, complemented the other beautifully.
We finished with the King Cake - and I didn't use a baby or a bean. I used a bullet - and that was the same day Lynn Martinis posted the book quote on my page about some girls carrying guns .... cracked me up!
The postscript to the bullet is even funnier. No one found it, which doesn't surprise me - the damn cake could have served 18 people, not just six. We broke up the rest of the cake trying to find the bullet, and none of us could find it. However, after I'd gone to bed, the Little Boy just couldn't resist the delicious yeasty goodness wafting through the air to his overly-sensitive nose, and he somehow managed to climb up onto the desk-cum-table and inhale the entire cake. On one side of my desk was the bullet, coated in spit and sugar. On the other side of my desk, the wall side, was a HUGE pile of his .... appreciation. Ugh.
However, the hours spent cleaning, prepping, cooking, the trips spent up and down those damn stairs, the two days spent cleaning up my mess in the kitchen .... I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Great great night - Happy Mardi Gras 2014!!!!
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