Gumbo—Dumbo!

Yesterday afternoon, while I was outside, John came up to me, and told me that he had something to give to me from his mother, Mary. He handed me a heavy plastic sack. I opened it, and was shocked at what I saw inside!

“I told Mom about you wanting a good gumbo recipe,” John said. “And, she sent me this—to give to you—along with her secret family recipe.”

“Good grief, John—that is so sweet of her,” I said. “I just love her. I will e-mail her a thank you note, later today. In fact, tomorrow morning, I’ve got to go to Kerrville and I’ll fix Mary’s Gumbo recipe for lunch tomorrow.”

This morning, Ben and John decided to join Tony and me for some coffee, before going to work outside. “Ben,” I said. “Look what John’s mom sent to me. She sent me two big shaker’s of ‘Tony Chachere’s Instant Roux,’ and a shaker of ‘Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning’—along with her family’s secret recipe for gumbo!” I picked them up, and handed them to Ben. Then I picked up a small shaker of Gumbo File that Mary had also sent in her care package to me.

“John,” I said. “In your mom’s note, she wrote that some family members like Gumbo File, and some don’t. What do...”

John burst out laughing! “Filet,” John said. “It’s not file, like in file cabinet. It’s pronounced— filet.” Then he, Tony and Ben started laughing!

“John,” Ben said. “She pronounced Merlot as Mer-Lot, as in parking lot.” We all started laughing, again.

“In Fort Worth,” I said, in my defense, “the word ‘file’—is pronounced file. There’s no accent mark—or ‘t’ added here on this label—it just simply reads— file. You're telling me that people in Louisiana say things like: ‘Go filet this in the filet cabinet? It says file, John. No ‘t’. Sorry, I’m not buying it.”

“Nancy, you mispronounce everything. It’s because you’re from Fort Worth,” Tony chimed in. “You call pliers—plowers!” Another wave of laughter went around the kitchen.

“Okay, okay guys,” I said. “John do you like file in your gumbo?” I purposefully pronounced it like— file cabinet.

“Not really,” John said. Then they went outside to go to work, and I took off in Buttermilk—headed for Kerrville.

When I returned from Kerrville a few hours later, with all of the ingredients needed for Mary’s gumbo—I got busy in the kitchen. An hour or so later, I went out to the porch, and clanged the dinner bell, and the guys came running! They were hungry!

After everyone had served themselves, and had started eating, I asked them what they thought of my first gumbo attempt. Ben and Tony told me that it was great! That made me so happy!

“Nancy,” John said. “This is soooooo much better than my mom’s! I’m not kidding!”

(LOL, Mary, just kidding. I know that you’re reading this, and John really didn’t say that! It was Ben’s idea for me to write that—and so I did. We got you!)

I was thrilled with the gumbo being such a success, and seeing the four empty bowls—proved it! After putting the dishes into the sink—to soak, I opened a card addressed to Tony and me —from Mari Bailey, our good friend, and member of The NoMads!

I opened the card and read out loud to the guys—what Mari had written. “What a hoot your blog is! We NoMads have had a blast reading it, and we (with we underlined twice) have a copy of ‘Velma, the Vomiting Vulture’ coming, too! We wanted to let you know that...”

“What?” John said. “They bought a copy of my book, too? I don’t believe it. Let me see that card.”

I handed the card to John. He read, what I have just written above, of what Mari wrote a few days ago, and then he handed the card back to me. “They must have bought the expensive ‘Velma,’” John said, scratching his chin. “That’s amazing.”

“You’re famous, John,” Ben said. “Deal with it. You’re another famous author on this ranch.”

“That’s true John,” I said. “I just hope that I get my copy first! I was hoping that it would come today. I wish that I had FedEx’d it.”

“Nance, thanks for the delicious meal, but before I go,” John said, in a serious tone. “You pronounced Tony's seasonings last name as Cha-cha-heiress—the correct Cajun pronunciation sounds like this: Sha-she-airs. I just thought you would like to know.” Everyone laughed, including me.

“Thanks, John,” I laughed, and then quickly quipped. “I’m just going to call it ‘Tony’s!’”

P.S. Mary, thank you so much for sending me the great gumbo recipe, and the ‘Tony’s’—and you can go filet this with your other correspondence! Peace and Love to you and Richard, cousin nancy