Cooking in the Family

I originally posted this on March 3rd, but when I tried to update the post with keywords for searching later all of the text was deleted.  Agh!!!!
In my post I talked about Emaleigh recovering from illness that started on morning of my birthday.  She and I were staying home from church and she was resting contently quietly and without need of attention from me.  So I was cooking some gumbo for our family lunch on a day with a bit of a chill in the air. My gumbo and jambalaya recipes that I cook are beth derived from MawMaw Myra's recipes.  She is not my grandmother though. She is grandmother of my dear friend Zac Tureau.  He and I along with Kari L'huillier lived together in Las Cruces for a while and we used food to make friends.  We started with a pot for 6 people but before long we were cooking for 30-50 and it was something I continued even after Zac left Cruces.  Food has always worked for me to bring people together in a happy way.  Eventually, in one of those cooking for many occasions after Zac moved, I captured Kevin with a pot of Jambalaya.
Here is the recipe for Jambalaya incase there is some out there you think worthy of capturing with a warm meal:


MawMaw Myra’s Jambalaya
1 lb smoked sausage sliced into wheels
2 chicken breast boiled and shredded
1 large white onion chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
some tobasco not too much
2 cloves garlic minced
2 cups rice
4 cups water

Cook sausage in an uncovered large. pot on med-hi heat until it is very done, burned really, trust me.  Drain fat and add chicken, the bell pepper and onion and cook until onions are clear and mushy.  Add garlic, salt, pepper, tobasco or other hot sauce and stir before also adding rice and water. When mixture comes to boil and rice is about even with water turn heat down to low, cover and wait 20 minutes.  In 20 minutes uncover fluff rice and serve.  Serve with sliced white bread and white beans and ham.  Serves 6 unless my father in law is there.  In that case it serves 3