Gumbo shouldn't be hard. Some people out there want to make it difficult and complicate the living shit out of it, but there really is no need. It's a rustic dish, with the Creole Trinity, meat, and okra. I can't say it's thickened with roux since the roux is cooked so dark there's little thickening power remaining, but I can say it's imbued with the rich, intriguing "Soul of the Swamp" by the dark roux.
I have a raging boner for food safety, and keeping hot dishes out of the “time/temperature danger zone” is damn near impossible when three out of the four allowable hours are spent in the car. No one’s getting the shits from my food—not on my watch. So, we finally ditched the idea of bringing hot food for Christmas since there’s no way to keep it warm or reheat it on the other end.
Today I’m thinking about chili. I don’t have a chili recipe. I barely have a method, because it’s just not something we eat a lot of. My method, is basically a Texas Red (no beans) with a molé vibe. It'd beefy. It's rich. It's mysterious.
It's also undocumented so I need to fix that before it get deported.
It’s Black Friday. The Wife and Offspring are busy undecorating Thanksgiving to make way for Christmas. Meanwhile, I’m sitting in my office typing this. I’m grateful he’s here to haul stuff up and down the stairs because my hip is giving me hell. I really aggravated it while doing some last-minute shopping on Wednesday. I need to remember not to pivot on that leg, but when the store is packed and patrons are playing full-contact grocery shopping, only the nimble survive.
I know owning a home is supposed to be an asset. That’s what they tell you. It’s bullshit. They tell you it’s an asset to make a traditional 30 year mortgage seem like a great idea. That’s not to say I don’t believe in the investment possibilities of real estate, I genuinely do, but home ownership is bullshit. Why? Nature and taxes.
This is the fourth attempt I’ve made to write this blog entry. The original one began on November 4, covered the election, covered a lot of libertarian/agorist/abolitionist theory, delved into life after burnout with some really gut-wrenching realizations on my part, and then talked about the slump I’ve been in regarding my cooking of late.
