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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Not So Super Market


When it comes to food, they say that cooking is an art, baking a science, and shopping a pain in the ass! Actually, I added that last one, but if you're in a wheelchair, you probably know what I mean.

In remembrance of the two year anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, I thought I would prepare one of my favorite New Orleans-inspired dishes: chicken and sausage gumbo. For inquiring minds, the recipe I use comes from the Food Network's Rachael Ray. I know of at least one loyal Winheld's World reader who will disagree, but Ms. Ray can cook for me any day. Not only does she know her way around the kitchen, she's also very easy on the eyes! But I digress.

The particular supermarket where I shop is somewhat pricey, but it's usually not too crowded and the aisles are relatively wide. So much for all of that. When we got there, all of the accessible parking spaces, which have room for me to put down my lift, were taken. Because it was beautiful outside, we parked at the far end of the parking lot.

"No one's going to park next to us," I reasoned, "There are plenty of other spaces."

Naturally, when we came out of the store, some idiot had parked right next to us! As a result, we had to back out of the space and then load me into the van.

Inside the store, it wasn't a whole lot better. Driving through aisles was like playing dodgeball. People get in my way no matter what I do. And it's okay for people to stand in the middle of the aisle to look for items, but if I do that, I get the evil eye.

"Sorry," I say, moving aside, but I'm really not. I have every right to take my time, too.

Things got a little dicey over in the seafood department when a store employee pulling a hand-truck nearly walked backward into me! Most upsetting was that in avoiding hitting him, I missed the free samples being given out nearby!

But even if it was a pain at the store, it will all be worth it when I taste that gumbo. I'm already hungry!

2 comments:

Sue said...

CHICKEN TENDERS in a gumbo?!! By gumbo, that's just wrong. The rest of the recipe looks ok, with these changes:

Cook the andouille BEFORE the chicken, so at least you'll flavor those pathetic chicken pieces a bit more.

1/4 cup seems like an awful lot of flour. I would use 3 tbls. (I guess you know that 1.4 cup is 4 tbls.)

And cook your celery and onions for longer than 5 minutes. Make sure they are REALLY completely soft and your green pepper for LESS than 5 minutes.

But aside from that, Josh, the recipe sounds great.

Sue said...

So??? How was it?