Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara logo

Dinner That Almost Wasn’t

Watch me blow my image here.  I burned dinner!  Totally ruined it.  I’m not sure I’ve ever done that before  . . I’ve scorched a thing or two but I don’t remember ever just totally ruining dinner . . til yesterday.

Gumbo is better if made the day before.  Sunday we were having gumbo so Saturday morning I cooked the chicken, made the roux, chopped the veggies and made the gumbo.  Saturday evening it went into the fridge and then Sunday morning, it was heated, seasonings were tweaked, green onions and parsley were added.  And then . .

I went downstairs to clean the sewing room.  I thought the gumbo was on simmer.  Somehow, I had turned it on high and left it and when I went back upstairs, all the liquid had cooked out, the chicken and sausage were one big glob of charcoal.  Company was coming for dinner and expecting gumbo so I ran to the grocery store to get a thawed chicken, stuck it in the pressure cooker, and started over with the pot of gumbo.

And Nicole said “I don’t eat juice” so she put rice in her bowl and added a little bit of meat and ate it with a fork!  She ate my gumbo with a fork!  The gumbo that almost wasn’t  . . she ate it with a fork!  That’s just not right.

The girl eats like a bird.  But she did like my cinnamon rolls.

Chad definitely knows how to eat gumbo!  Yes, they work together . . hence the same colored shirts.

And Vince . . always happy with anything I fix (except burn gumbo) but look at this outfit.

Why is he wearing gauntlets at dinner?  He tried to tell Chad and Nicole that he made them on his sewing machine but they knew he hadn’t made them.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. She ate gumbo with no “juice”. What’s wrong with that girl. LOL. She mustn’t be southern!!!
    And ewwwww, burnt gumbo, that probably didn’t smell too good!! Everyone’s allowed to burn something, so I think your image is still intact (at least with me!!!)

  2. This gives the rest of us a boost to know that even accomplished cooks can have big goofs!!! LOL (Am I remembering incorrectly about Chad’s girlfriend? This isn’t the one I recall…..but maybe my mind is fuzzy on that.)

  3. Oh, yes….one of the photos didn’t show up for me…but the others did. (The one with Chad isn’t showing up.) I wonder if it’s just my computer or if others are having that happen, too?

  6. A burned

    A burned gumbo — and not just the roux, but the whole thing– I’m hyperventilating just thinking about it! I always thought my husband put too much rice in his gumbo, but this girl has him beat. First you ruin the gumbo, and then she does.

  7. A couple of weeks ago I made a white cake from scratch–using real live butter. It was to bake for 1/2 hour, so I went to work on the computer…forgot the cake and baked it an hour. Sad , sad face!! To redeem it, I made cooked chocolate frosting and called it “bars”. The pan was licked clean! (how else you going to get all that yummy frosting!) jolyn

  8. I guess you can’t blame your dog for it like I do… my dog has a nasty habit of turning burners up (it’s a knobs-in-front range, with somewhat loose knobs) in the process of filching anything that’s left out on the stove top.

  10. Judy, you make me laugh. I (brag?) that I’m a terrible cook.

    Truth of the matter is, I used to make EVERYTHING from scratch, canned all our veggies, fruits, made homemade soup and pressure canned it, when the children were young. (I was a domestic diva.)

    Then, I started working. I was not supposed to work, I was a stay-at-home mom and _that_ was my career. (Isn’t it funny how life takes you places you didn’t plan on going?) After I started working, my cooking skills got BAD! I could tell you stories about burned, ruined dinners. Eggs that explode and smoke alarms that get tripped.

    LOL…now that I’m retired from that dreadful part of my life, I’m cooking again. Now I don’t plan to do all the canning, etc., but I am enjoying feeding the hubby again.

    Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day, sweet Judy. Give that sweet Vince a pinch from one of your fans!

  12. I would be upset if that happened to my gumbo. We don’t have it often and if I were to burn it that much I would be really sad. It is not that gumbo is difficult to make, but some of the items I use in it are not available at our house all the time.

  13. Thank you, Judy, for an absolutely PERFECT giggle-creating post that I needed to read right now. I absolutely love reading about your day-to-day. So care free…so laid back. Lovely!

  14. You are too funny! I bet dinner turned out fine anyway! By the way I made your cinnamon rolls this past week! The best recipe ever! Thank you so much for sharing!!!

Discover more from Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading