Well, As you know today is the first day of summer!
Growing up on the Gulf of Mexico, we spent our summers layin on the beach, fishing and eating great seafood. We walked 2 blocks to the beach everyday during the summer and baked ourselves with a mix of baby oil and iodine. OK who else did this? We would walk home EVERYday with NO shoes...jumpin from the hot asphalt to the grass with sand burrs back to the asphalt until we just couldnt stand it any more. Never occurred to us to wear shoes~
My mom had the hookup for fresh shrimp. We would get a call early afternoon after the shrimp boats were in and we would go pick up the best fresh gulf shrimp or oysters or crabs(depending on the month).
Cheap too. 30 count shrimp for 3 buck a pound
those were the days I am tellin ya.
My mom made the BEST shrimp, crab creole gumbo.
For those of you who dont know...Creole gumbo is made with
OKRA (yep said it outloud) and tomatoes...and cajun is made or surved with file' (a powdered spice made with sassafrass leaves) it is pronounced "fee lay"
So to celebrate the first day of summer, I have been cooking this gumbo all day!
Also all I have been signing the jambalaya song...which is totally burned into my brain.
Although it was first made popular by Hank Wms, I have never been a huge fan of his..but couldnt find a good video of a cajun band
Would love to hear of your favorite childhood summer memories!!