Chop, chop, chop could be heard from our kitchen early this morning. First the onions were chopped and sauteed, then green onions, celery, and parsley
went into the pan
and then in the gumbo pot, already full of goodies, my husband calls Poor Man's Gumbo. Poor Man's Gumbo is made of whatever left-overs you happen to have on hand, but our left-overs from last year were pretty rich if you ask me: softshell crab, crawfish, regular crab, Louisiana hotlinks, other sausages, and ham.
After a while it's time to make the rue
under the watchful eye of Soldier.
Made from the leaves of the sassafrass tree, Gumbo File is added right before serving to thicken and add a delicate flavor to the gumbo.
And then we stuffed ourselves for lunch - the crawfish added an unusual flavor to the gumbo and it was delicious. Unfortunately, the photo of the pot of finished gumbo kept uploading upside down and since I just had this wonderful lunch, I'm too full and happy to try to fix it. So here is another picture, not as good, but I think you get the general idea that if you like this sort of thing, there is nothing better, really.
