Gumbo and Hurricane: A Perfect Blend

After a late morning of sleeping in and a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and coffee, my older children left the house and the younger ones went outside to visit a friend in the field and make a kite from plastic shopping bags, ribbons, and string as well as a duct-tape purse from a Cracker Barrell paper bag.

You know...things you make when there's a hurricane trying to blow down your house.

 

 

Only the wind didn't blow today. It didn't rain. It has been, indeed, very quiet outside. Puffs of wind every now and then. That is it.

We are found on the pie-shaped particle of land in SW Louisiana which is not gridlocked inside Isaac's path. I've been keeping up (via FB) on family and friends who live in the path of the hurricane. Many have lost roofs, have leaking ceiling, some have flooding in parts of their house. One friend said her patio was fixing to collapse. Many are without electricity.

 

It seemed like a good idea to all concerned...school officials and city officials and the town children alike...to close the schools down.  In our household that means college kids too. In Louisiana it's just a good excuse to shut-down schools and make a gumbo.

 

In the yawn of Wednesday morning it seemed ridiculous to be indoors preparing to hunker down for a hurricane. Where was the hurricane? That's when the girls ran outside. And I began to cook.

 

I feel mildly guilty that, in a feverish realization of the weather getting bad, I over-bought. But let me explain: the one thing a family does during a storm is eat, and eats a lot.

 

And so I bought. And just about everything I bought was related to comfort...comfort food...making everything as simple and easy as possible while making everyone as comfortable as possible even if we were in the mist of a storm with no electricity, no lights, no A/C, and no access to restaurant carryout.

 

I picked up some frozen pizza...that got eaten last night.

I picked up some watermelon slices to snack on.

I picked up salad fixings which my daughter-in-law and I made into a hearty meal at lunch today.

I bought bags of chips and lots of canned meats, canned stews and soups, and canned fruits. My daughter has a gas stove next door so we can at least warm up food if we loose electricity. Huge plus!

 

Oh, and water bottles.

 

My sweet tooth and my desire to make a lockdown a little bit sweeter for the whole family also got the best of me. Into the basket went preparations for: peach cobbler, apple pie, and banana bread.

The banana bread is already baked. The apple pie is baking.

 

There's vanilla ice cream in the freezer too...for the apple pie...but which can easily be eaten between all ten of us if necessity demands.

 

And did I mention the ingredients for the chicken and sausage gumbo and potato salad?

The gumbo is cooking on the stovetop right now. The potatoes and farm eggs are boiling happily.

And the apple pie is smokin' in the oven.

 

If the winds of Isaac knock on our pie-shaped plot in SW Louisiana, the damage (if any) will be done tonight.

 

But the gumbo is cooking, the pie is baking, coffee's brewing, the wind is now blowing, God's in His heaven, and all is well with the world. :-)

 

Hope all our Gulf Coast neighbors are faring equally well.  Just remember to...