My candle burns at both ends,
It will not last the night.
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends
It gives a lovely light.
Candle In The Wind
Reply
Category Archives: Musings
Enough
Two times now I’ve seen you cry…
Once in anger…once in love…
Both at I.
It occurred to me that our sight is misaligned.
We’re searching for something that’s easy to find.
If we look ahead and not behind.
So, on those tears I make this vow,
To forge forward and love you in the now…
Anyhow.
Enough with tears…let’s have more fun
Fewer clouds and much more sun.
We’ve just got started, we’re not done.
I love you through the good times and bad,
Happy and sad,
Even when you’re mad.
So if you’ll follow, I will lead
Just one more line for you to read.
Remember the weed.
I love you.
GC
Gumbo
Cagle’s Cajun Gumbo
Ingredients:
10 pounds peeled and deveined medium shrimp
2 cans fresh lump crab (or 5 pounds lump crab meat)
1 ½ tbls cayenne ground red pepper
1 ½ tbls paprika
1 tbls salt
½ tbls white pepper
½ tbls black pepper
½ tbls dried thyme leaves
½ tbls dried oregano leaves
1 ½ cups margarine
5 cups chopped onions
5 cups chopped celery
5 cups chopped green peppers
2 containers gumbo filet powder
6 tbls (or more) Tabasco sauce
1 tbls minced garlic
4-6 cans tomato sauce
4-6 cans water (use tomato sauce cans to measure)
*Note: Make sure the onions, celery and green peppers are chopped similar in size, otherwise, the flavors will not be consistent. All should be small.
Melt margarine over medium heat. Turn to high and stir in gumbo file, Tabasco, garlic and seasoning mix. Stir carefully until spices marry. Add onions, celery and bell peppers. Cook six minutes while constantly stirring. Make sure to scrape pot bottom well with a spoon as the mixture will begin sticking. This adds to the gumbo’s flavor. Add tomato sauce and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. Then reduce the heat and simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
While the gumbo is cooking, make a black or red roux. The proportion of oil to flour is 50-50. Heat oil to smoking. Stir in flour gradually, about 1/3 at a time, whisking constantly to avoid burning. When the roux reaches the desired color, toss in some celery, onions and green peppers and remove it from the heat. Stir another 3-5 minutes, then add to gumbo. This will thicken the gumbo noticeably and add to the flavor. Simple rule: If more thickening is needed, add more roux…or tomato paste if you’re lazy. The finished product should be thicker than soup, but not as thick as gravy.
After an hour, add the shrimp and crab, stirring occasionally. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Cook for 30-60 minutes. Serve over Cajun or regular rice with crackers or French bread.
Gumbo is actually better the following day. Store covered in refrigerator. Heat, adding water if mixture is too thick. Serve the same way
Picture Perfect
Good Morning:
I’ve just posted 50 new pictures from my personal archives. More to come!
The Goat
There was a man, now please take note,
There was a man, who had a goat.
He loved that goat, indeed he did,
He loved that goat, just like a kid.
One day that goat felt frisk and fine,
Ate three red shirts from off the line.
The man he grabbed him by the back,
And tied him to a railroad track.
But when the train hove into sight,
That goat grew pale and green with fright.
He heaved a sigh, as if in pain,
Coughed up those shirts and flagged the train.
Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both.
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Time
One pure love went searching for a mate
And found it, not by careful planning,
Nor diligent unearthing…simply fate.
To Captain and maintain control and chart a steady climb
Is what we ‘ere and swear to, but is it
Simply Time?
And perfect love was made by this
And was not ready long before;
Through adolescence, prepubescence,
Puppy love and so much more.
And Time.
Instead of wedded bliss and perfect happiness
And all things bright and nothing blue,
It quickly turned to traps and nooses,
Little lies and more excuses,
Absent plot, no fault to find,
No blame to claim, none due.
It Wasn’t Time.
And now the circle’s come to full and he can look askance
And claim it was a perfect plan and not by idle chance.
The truth is somewhere in between,
Of luck and fate and God’s will deemed.
The perfect love, found, lost, then found again
Without a single sound is mimed
And starts afresh with explanation
Needed not, nor exclamation
It Is Just Time.