It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve finally perfected gumbo. I’ve gone through countless over-complicated recipes over the years and have systematically thrown out the steps and ingredients that were superfluous. This recipe is what remained. It’s the best gumbo I’ve ever had.
As I’ve mentioned before, the wife doesn’t like hard-boiled eggs. Since the standard Southern recipe for chicken salad is swimming in chopped eggs and mustard, I’ve had to develop another recipe. This one comes out so creamy and mild that we usually eat it on crackers like a dip instead of spread over white bread.
I wasn’t planning to make meatloaf, much less blog about it, but the wife forced my hand when I caught her putting ketchup on the shepherd’s pie I made over the weekend. Since that’s a sacrilege in my book, I decided to make her a real meatloaf that she could defile however she pleased. Ironically, the meatloaf I made was so delicious that she raved about the taste and balked at the notion of masking the flavor with a sugary condiment.
We had dinner with friends earlier this week and the hostess made shepherd’s pie. I haven’t eaten it in years and was reminded how much I enjoyed it. Since it’s a faux pas to go back for a third helping, I decided to just make my own version of the dish over the weekend.
The wife and I visit other people’s homes for Thanksgiving, so we don’t have any leftovers. Each year we make a small, post-Thanksgiving meal just for ourselves. Since there’s no one around to criticize, we can experiment with new dishes. A recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing (or dressing, if you’re in the south) comprised of White Castle sliders has been making the internet rounds lately. The wife and I thought we’d give it a try. It’s actually a pretty good idea. Instead of cooking onions and sausage to go with the stale bread, you just toss in some tiny burgers that already have beef and onions on them.
Asparagus was on sale at the grocery store, so I decided to take another stab at my potato and asparagus salad. Last time I made it with our homemade mayonnaise.
This time I simplified the recipe to cut down on time an effort.
