FOOD + FAMILY = FUN

When we have family, we have food and when we have food and family - we have fun! This weekend, we drove to East Texas to visit family - Carl's sister Carolyn drove down from Ohio to visit and we had a surprise from one of his other sister's (Sandra son, Mark (and wife, Susan) with a visit. They drove from Ft Wayne, Indiana to surprise his mom. Well..........................on Friday afternoon I picked up eleven pounds of shrimp and Carl and friend Roland cleaned them. I also bought a quart of oysters and got about a pint of crab meat from our freezer and off we took. Carl's sister Debbie started the gumbo with a ton of cut vegetables (celery, onions and bell peppers) and probably a gallon of roux. All of Carl's sisters are such good cooks, so each one has their own speciality and gumbo is one of Debbie's.
Anyway, we made it in record time from Rockport in 4 and a half hours, then we got up the next morning, had a leisurely morning and headed out to visit Iris and Herman before the feast. Somehow or another, my car cannot pass "The Pit" without turning in for some catfish and Saturday was no exception (we thought that we still had about 5 hours before gumbo time) I ate my half of a piece and Carl ate his 4 pieces of catfish and 6 shrimp with all of the fixings! When we got to Iris's house, we found out that the meal was to be at 2 instead of an evening meal. But hey, it was still two hours away - there is no way that Carl would ever pass up good food. No fear, by the time we got there and everyone arrived, he was fully able to appreciate another good meal! THEN, we had homemade buttermilk pie and peach cobbler for dessert.
We love getting together with family and we have certainly missed them over the past few years being in Colorado and so far away - it is nice to be here in Texas close enough to visit. None of us are getting any younger and they are all retired (with exception of Terry & Carron and of course, there is alway ME!) Maybe not too much longer and I can join the ranks of retired