living gumbo

 

In Apalachicola thirty-five or so years ago, Linda made a fine soup that we enjoyed for supper. It was a large pot and the soup was so good that I kept adding things so it wouldn't give out. This kept happening over the next ten days or two weeks, with the soup evolving and developing a life of its own, simmering on the stovetop days, and resting in the fridge nights. I called it My Living Soup, and sooner rather than later it got to the point that nobody would eat it but me. I have remembered that soup and the adventure of watching it mature.

Last week we had supper with friends, sort of as a belated Mardi Gras party, with excellent gumbo. There was lots left over, and it came home with us. I loved it for breakfast the next morning. 

A day or so later I added a quart of oysters and two pounds of shrimp, and we had Kristen over for supper the next evening, sending her home with a healthy portion and still plenty left for 7H. Two days later I got it out of the fridge, added half a pound of crab claw meat, and had a bowl for supper, also adding a glop of sour cream.

Suppertime last evening I put it on the stove, having added about half a pint of oysters and more sour cream, and it made plenty. I thought I would finish it last night, but there was a bit left over, so it overnighted in the Westinghouse. This morning I added the other half pound of crab claw meat and stirred it to nearly boiling. 

Cream of Gumbo, with shrimp, oysters, and loads of crabmeat. It made two sumptuous bowls for my breakfast, and that's the end of it. 

Again, as I've said here any number of Times, Linda is wary of my kitchen adventures, invariably turning them down politely after the first or second iteration, ever mindful of Puddleglum's warning to the children, "Food for Wiggles is poison for humans." But I've found, as Eustace says, finishing his breakfast of eel stew, "It's delicious!"

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Can't remember whether I posted a blog yesterday, Wednesday. It was a full day, drafted my next homiletic endeavor, which will be on Palm Sunday. Opened old studies of Revelation starting prep for leading Dr Dan's Sunday school class into Revelation after they finish Daniel.

They're almost through Ezekiel, next comes Daniel, and then Revelation maybe in the summer or fall. Revelation is bizarre, offering Hope to folks who are being persecuted for their faith, and unspeakable horrors for their persecutors and for those who abandon the faith. In every generation for the past two-thousand years there have been nut-fringe cases who "saw" (there's Mark 9:1 again) the tribulations of Revelation finally coming to pass in their own Time. I guess that comes with being human and internalizing everything you read, eh?

A lovely morning this. I may spend some Time outside on 7H porch. My friends, life is short, and we haven't much Time, and now that Spring 2024 is here, I'm entitled to a temperate day in the sun.

RSF&PTL

T88&c