May Day began with a call I fielded for Del from a woman who is in her garden club. After I
hung up I had a burst of Treppenwitz (in English, staircase wit ), which is the German word for
the witty comeback you think of while walking up the stairs at home after returning from the
party at which you should have said it: "You have to call her on her cell phone. Del may belong
to the garden club, but she doesn't let any grass grow beneath her feet." I didn't say it, I wasn't
climbing up the stairs, and there was no one around to hear it, up until now.
We've begun going to the Gretna Farmer's Market each Saturday morning and with inexpensive
leeks available for just one dollar a bunch, I've been using them in several new dishes. The first
one was in a Leeks-Crawfish Étouffée. You can find the recipe, complete with photos of
preparation and final dish served, in the Recipe of the Month in this Digest. At another time
during the month, I made an omelet with a frozen segment of Crawfish-Eggplant Dressing and
decided, since I lacked green onions, to use some chopped leeks from the freezer. I sautéed the
leeks in olive oil and added the egg batter on top it and the delicious results will appear in an
upcoming Digest. People ask me all the time what are leeks good for, and my answer to their
questions is: Check Bobby Jeaux's Kitchen Recipes on-line.
With Del's mom's car in the shop for minor repairs to the bumper, I drove Del around or she
used our Maxima for the first week of the month. As we backed out of the driveway to take Del
to Sandra's for her Bible Study luncheon, the postman approached us with a box in his hands.
We opened it on the way and it was our Sparrow Music Box we had ordered with Roger
William's playing "His Eye is on the Sparrow." I suggested that Del take it with her to show her
friends, but she demurred. I explained the MOM approach used by detectives to identify
suspects: Motive, Opportunity, and Means. She said she didn't have a motive. "Well," I told her,
"you could say that I made you do it — that would qualify as a motive, wouldn't it? She took it
in and it was a big hit with her group. When I went into pick Del up, I got a slice of rum cake
from them for our trip back.
Later this month we finally got around to cleaning up the last of the tree problems left over from
Katrina. These were minor eyesores compared to the huge mess right after the storm. Del and I
went outside and I cut away the dead trees. I removed the leaning and dead Lombardy Poplar and
the leaning but alive Japanese Yew tree. I was going to upright it, but Del said take it out to
relieve the Meyers
Lemon tree which had been covered over by the leaves of the Yew. Taking
out the Yew was the biggest project. Cutting the roots of the tree with a small chain saw did the
trick, but it required careful cleaning and oiling of the saw afterward. Also straightened a lot of
tilted citrus trees. Then I mended the fence by replacing the two temporary boards that had closed
up the fence temporarily. The Loquat tree leaning against the Garrity fence also went, as did a lot
of overhanging oak and cypress branches. The debris from this extensive pruning stayed about a
week on the front lawn's debris area until I called Jefferson Parish and a large crew came by to
haul it away. One of the workers even used a lawn rake to clean up the area afterward.
Dan Richards, Del's brother, was in town and stayed with us for a few days. We took their mom,
Doris, out to dinner at their favorite restaurant on Friday — it was the place and the night that
Doris and Dick, her husband of 60 years, traditionally went out to eat. Doris is healthy again,
mostly, but moving slow and has memory challenges. We strive to get her outside to do things as
often as possible. Each week she has at least one hair appointment plus maybe a doctor's
appointment. We had her out for Dan's visit, one or two stopovers at Timberlane for a visit after
her hair do got done, and a large gathering of her grandkids at the Red Maple for a Mother's Day
Brunch.
The first Saturday of May was CODOFIL Breakfast followed by our monthly PAY ME! card
party at Timberlane. This month, we ordered some finger sandwiches from Casey Jones for the
card gang and JB Borel, Anna Keller and her friend Marcella, plus Paul, Joyce, Buster and Emily
all had chances to win at least one hand. As soon as the card game was over, Del and I got
dressed for Kentucky Derby Day at our club. I wore my new Brooks Bros. seersucker suit, New
Orleans traditional summer wear, and Del wore white. Del won two of the races, picking
Barbaro to place! I had loaned her money for one of the races and we split that pot, so we both
won. We seldom schedule three events in one day, but this day was worth it. And to top it all off,
that night we had Dan sleeping over and Del's cousin, Lawrence Clark, flying in from his home
in Idaho to stay with us. That meant arranging an inflatable bed for him in the Timberlane
Screening Room and driving to pick him at Louis Armstrong Intl Airport about 10 pm. I was
asleep by the time Dan and Del returned from the airport with Clem — his nickname.
On Sunday we drove to the Gulf Coast for the first time since the devastation caused by
Hurricane Katrina to take Clem to stay at his mother's place. Aunt Lois, Clem's mom, is Doris's
sister, and she lives in an apartment in Ocean Springs, enough blocks from the coast to have
easily survived the storm. But every trace of homes were wiped clean for a block and a half from
the beach road on the Gulf Coast from Ocean Springs to Gulfport, which is only so far as we
drove along the beach. It was an awesome sight. We saw huge motel slabs three stories high that
were naked in the breeze. Only other things still standing were some few posts nearly erect
whose sign age had blown away. It looked ever so much like a three football field wide bulldozer
had cleared the area from the beach road inland as we drove towards Gulfport's downtown area.
With Del's car in the shop waiting for parts to come in she drove a couple of times with me to
PJ's for coffee and found that she liked their iced coffee and the Sunrise muffins which are bran
muffins with raisins, nuts, and other fruit in them. The second week was filled with LSU baseball
games, but not a very game LSU baseball team. They showed flashes of mediocrity mixed with
subdued brilliance. They were bounced out of the SEC Tournament in the second game and did
not qualify for a regional game. The headline in the Picayune said, "LSU Stunned by being
Shunned for Regional." Hogwash! LSU didn't play well enough to deserve a regional. 
If there's a
National Championship in store for these young and unseasoned LSU baseball players, it will
have to wait a year or two from the looks of things so far. With my subscription to the Geaux
Zone on LSUsports.net, I have enjoyed listening and/or watching the games on one PC monitory
while I'm doing website maintenance, etc, on the other monitor. Next events begin with football
season in late August. Go Tigers!
Speaking of football, Del and Stoney have purchased five season tickets for the Saints football
games for the coming season. Our first ever season's tickets. Season tickets are at an all-time
high for the Saints, and with Brees throwing to Bush in the backfield, the holes for Deuce should
open in the line with regularity. Go Saints!
The following Saturday was filled with activity again. First we attended the last Gretna Art Walk
until the Fall, and met some friends. Bought a beautiful watercolor of the lighthouse which
graced the middle of the Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park when it was open during the past
century. It is shown by the artist, John Goodwyne, as it appeared next to the water's edge before
the amusement park was built, before the midway and the beach extended the water's edge a
football field or more from the lighthouse. He explained that the unique shape of the lighthouse
comes from its having its height extended from its original base. This gave it a profile that no
other lighthouse in the country has. Typically New Orleans. See Photo.
We left the Art Walk and Farmer's market with our framed watercolor and fresh veggies and
dropped them off at Timberlane. We headed out to Houma's Southland Mall to the B. Dalton
Bookstore where Anna Keller and Warren Perrin were doing book signings. We had already
bought a copy of Anna's Belle Terre Acadie, so we bought a copy of Warren's Acadian
Redemption. You can read my review of both these books by clicking on their names.
A curious thing happened on this Saturday — I heard two stories of a car careening and crashing
through someone's kitchen! The first story was told by Amy Belle Duet Theriot from Galiano
while I was at the book signing. She mentioned that Our Lady of the Sea Hospital there was
celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, and I commented that my daughter Carla was born in that
hospital. It would have been only 8 years old at the time she was born. I asked Belle if she knew
what happened to Dufrene's Bakery and she said that a Duet relative of hers, who had worked at
Dufrene's, was now working for Duet's Bakery in Galiano and making the same great French
bread that Dufrene's was famous for down the bayou. Imagine a French bread so light, crusty and
delicious that you could eat an entire large loaf with nothing else but a few pats of butter on it.
Now I know where to get some again.
The subject of that bread brought up Randolph's Restaurant who made delicious Po-Boys using
most of a loaf of Dufrene's French bread. She told me that a woman drove her car at high speed
into the kitchen of Randolph's and the son who was running the restaurant at that time wanted to
get out of the business and closed it forever. Cher Pitié! That's an expression I heard my mom
and many aunts say often as I grew up. It's a Cajun expression which means "dear pity" and is
pronounced "Sha pee tyah!". Mary Perrin reminded of the expression and told me what it meant.
I was still unsure as I left the book signing exactly how to use it. That was to be resolved soon
after I heard the second story of a car ramming someone's kitchen.
This time, it was my Aunt Carolyn, my dad's youngest sister, who told the story. Seems that
some teenager with no license turned onto the Texas Gulf Road at high speed and crashed into
the back porch outside her kitchen and knocked the house slightly off its foundation. In the
process all of the glass in the kitchen shattered and landed on the floor. He tried to get away by
driving into her backyard and hit her garage before he sped off. Luckily the neighbor saw what
happened and identified the truck he was driving and the local police picked him up.
A few minutes after she had told the story, I asked her to give me an example of how one might
use the expression, Cher Pitié! "Well," she said, "when I saw all that glass lying on the floor of
my kitchen, I could have said, Cher Pitié! " Later she told us that she'd heard that her 83-year-old
brother, my Uncle Purpy, may have open-heart surgery.
On the way to Carolyn's house — she's only three year older than I am, so I hardly ever call her
Aunt Carolyn — I took Tunnel Boulevard and got lost on the outskirts of Houma. In finding my
way back, I drove right past the foundation of the ten-story high WWII Blimp Base which
dominated the bayou-side along Bayou Terrebonne when we drove to our grandparents house in
Bourg as young children. Even after it was imploded, the large inverted U-foundation slabs stuck
up into the sky until recent years when even they became hidden behind the airport and industrial
park buildings. I was close enough to throw a rock onto the base and had my camera so I took a
photo of the remains of the base. You can see the photo I took right below a file photo of a blimp
of the type it stored there during WWII and for almost fifteen years afterward.
After our visit to Carolyn, we stopped by Aunt Clarice and caught her right as she was entering
her house from four o'clock Mass at St. Ann's in Bourg. My cousin Danny Barrios was taking
his mom, Clarice's twin sister, Clara to dinner for Mother's Day and we just missed them. Aunt
Clarice said that she is scheduled to get her knee operated on and is hopeful of being able to walk
very soon without pain. I phoned my cousin Gaton Clement up the bayou and he said to come on
by, everyone's outside. As we drove up, Gaton was finishing up painting the foundation under a
porch and Helen was driving up from the back of their 15 acres on a golf cart with her
granddaughter. We had a nice visit on a beautiful late afternoon, filling each other in on our
children and siblings lives post-Katrina. Gaton's IGA grocery fared very well through Katrinadue to a large generator he had rented for the storm. No food lost at all. No flooding in the
Chauvin area of the store. But along came Hurricane Rita a week or so later and after he had
returned the generator. Plus the southerly winds of Rita pushed up the bayou into the store about
six inches or so and due to lack of a generator, they lost all their meat and some of the
refrigerated cases. His daughter Michelle runs the store, but Gaton is still very much involved
when problems arise.
Mother's Day brought our two of our sons, John and Stoney, and their families to Gretna to have
dinner with their mother Del and grandmother Doris. We had a large table reserved at the Red
Maple for eight plus the two small grandsons, Kyle and Collin. Sam, the other grandson qualifies
as an adult. We all ate very well, including Doris, who truly enjoyed her Mother's Day with
family.
That night Del felt really bad, and her symptoms indicated a gall bladder attack from all the food.
On Monday Del ate only a little bit, but felt bad all afternoon. She began drinking only water and
soon she had an enormous sinus headache in addition to a caffeine-withdrawal headache. She had
for weeks before been suffering with pains in her left should and the gall bladder exacerbated that
and she was a basket case. I finally forced her to accept a wet face cloth to put on her chest and
she insisted she wanted it on her head, so I got her two more: one for head, one for chest, and one
to let cool off. With that she was able to be comfortable enough to watch a movie with me before
she went to bed.
The next day she woke up with a splitting headache, but in much better spirits. Her stomach felt
better and she dug out her healing book to find out what to do for her gall bladder attack. Primary
thing is to avoid over-eating from now on. She's on a water diet for the several days, and then
will begin fruits and juices. During the afternoon when Del took a shower, she called me to look
at some rash she had developed on her body, several areas of several square inches were
inflamed, almost like spider bites, but no central lesion. I put some Dr. Tichenor's antiseptics on
a couple of the large ones and within minutes they seemed to go away. Later that night when we
got ready for bed, the areas had expanded into bands around her waists, large belt sized, but were
lighter in color. The next day they were almost all gone. She went to the doctor who did an
ultrasound and said all her organs, gall bladder, etc, were okay. Doctor confirmed what we
suspected: the rash was likely due to the fast she was on. She suggested Del continue her fast and
gradually add light foods. This worked well for her. I was planning my conference in Houston
which required me to leave Thursday morning, but wouldn't leave unless Del was feeling better,
and by Wednesday, after the doctor's visit, my trip was a go.
Somehow we managed to get out Tuesday night for our good friend, Rosie Harris's election to
post of President Emeritus of the Les Amis du CODOFIL River Ouest Chapter [Council for
Development of French-speaking in Louisiana]. Del and I got dressed and drove to the Marrero
Senior Center right across from Immaculate Conception Church. Her son, Ronnie Harris, Mayor
of Gretna and his wife Donna, came, as did Rosie's daughter, Cathy, from Slidell. Councilman
John Young from Jefferson Parish also came and did the installation of new officers. Rosie was
promoted to President Emeritus of the Les Amis du CODOFIL River Ouest Chapter and she
received proclamations from the Chapter, City of Gretna, and Jefferson Parish. JB Borel was
reelected as President, Anna Keller as VP (to replace Rosie with someone who could take over as
President), and the other officers I didn't have the names of. Tom Verret was there. I took a lot of
photos for JB at his request. As soon as it was time to eat and I had nibbled one egg salad
sandwich, Del's head was splitting. I hated to leave without sampling the rest of the food and
without a group family photo of the Harris family and the rest of the guests, but I needed get Del
home to bed. I was glad she was able to attend the function at all. I did get lots of photos for
President JB Borel on the inauguration of himself, Anna Keller as new Vice President, and the
rest of the officers, honored guests, and members. It was a wonderful celebration and the Center
was packed with people.
On Thursday morning I left for Houston at 4 AM and arrived at my daughter Yvette's house in
Bellaire at 11 AM. She was busy finishing up a quilt with her friend Sandra when I arrived. I
took a short nap and then she drove us out to the Intercontinental Hotel which is only a few miles
away. She took the side streets which confused me a bit and made it exciting when I had to drive
by myself there on the freeway later in the day. We had lunch at Taco Milagro — she had a
"miracle taco" with sweet potato in it and I had a strange-looking and tasting chile relleno. At 5
PM I drove into the IH and registered for the FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
Conference and attended the opening dinner and lecture. Met a lot of interesting people, such
Carl Jarvis and Rich Katona. Richard Ebeling gave the opening address. His wife Anna was born
and raised in Moscow of parents who ensured that she was taught to read French and English
("So you may read something of the truth that you won't find in Russian.") and at 13 she was
given a handwritten copy of Bastiat''s "The Law" in English to read which changed her life
forever. She could no longer believe the lies she had been taught about the USA.
The first full day of the conference didn't begin until 11 and the hotel was only ten minutes away,
so I went with Yvette to Starbucks to meet Katie Woods (formerly of New Orleans). She
brought along her two-year-old son, Brady, who has suddenly developed legs and who ran
around Starbucks exploring every inch, over and over while we three adults tried to talk. Brady
took coffee bags off the shelf and placed on the floor. He broke the arms off a cup, which Katie
then bought for him. We enjoyed our visit and then I drove myself to the conference. Met several
more people. Max, Bernice, Kevin, and Jack Calvert who teaches economics at a local college.
Jack wanted to know about Andrew J. Galambos, as a friend of his used to talk about him a lot.
Anna Ebeling poured out 2500 years of an express train of economic and freedom history. I
thought that she needed to add Dr. Galambos to the bottom of her list, as his Volitional Science
adds onto those of the other innovative thinkers she had listed. Richard Ebeling taught Monetary
Policy, Trade Barriers, and even more in the afternoon. He was followed by Sheldon Richman
who talked about other stuff. All good. Breaks were too short to complete all the conversations
which arose between me and others.
I left at almost five to get to Yvette's to change my shoes and take off my tie and put on a short
sleeve shirt. I drove to Joe's Crab Shack off 518 St off 288 (Nolan Ryan Expressway) south of I-610 to meet my nephew, Sean Matherne, his mom, Marlene, and her husband Bob Hunter for
dinner. I found out that Sean is going to Texas A&M, Marlene is enjoying take care of the house,
yard, and Bob who is working for a small electronics company, helping them retrofit modern PCs
into their antiquated control systems. I enjoyed the food and the visit.
After dinner, I called Yvette and she guided me by cell phone to Kent and Raine's house off
Avenue B on Mayfair. Kent is a large guy with a double-screen monitor who builds web-sites
and knows how to do Style Sheets and promised to send me software and info on how to use
them for all my web-paged reviews. I taught them to play Pay Me! and they learned it quickly.
After we left there, I called Del and she said she had dinner with Dave Roberts, a friend of ours
in from San Diego.
Only problem I had during the seminar was during the lunch the next day. Some gal took the seat
I was holding for Rich Katona by placing her food dish on the empty place setting and only then
looking down at Rich's briefcase reserving his spot. "Whose bag is this?" she asked obvious to
her faux pas. Since there was an open spot on the side of me, I simply moved the bag so she and
her friend could use the two open seats to my right. It was a mistake I was to rue for the rest of
the lunch. The guy who sat next to her was a pain, an obtrusive boor. He said he'd like to ask my
opinion about something, but it turned out to be a pretext for giving me a sales pitch about
wireless PC connections and "free telephony" using it. I told him how after Katrina, it was only
the phone line, the hard wired lines around for 150 years or so, that got through when nothing
else worked. I explained how the first Atlantic cable used not transistors, but vacuum tubes
because vacuum tubes had been around longer. Nothing fazed him - he was more monomaniacal
than some activist at the conference who was also trying to convert folks to his views. Finally I
asked him outright, "Do you want my opinion or do you want to make a sales pitch?" That
slowed him down only a tad. I finally told that I was perfectly happy for the time being exactly
the way I was and there was nothing he had said so far that could change my mind and I didn't
want to discuss it further. He had shot his wad so far as I was concerned, so I turned to my left to
ask Rich, who I had been unable to talk to all lunch and said, ""Let's go outside for a smoke."
Now, neither Rich or I smoke, but it gave us an excuse to leave and a chance to actually talk to
each other finally.
On Sunday, the day I was heading home to Timberlane, I got up and talked to Yvette and read the
paper before leaving about 8 to drive to Carla's house in Beaumont along the way. Carla said her
van was in the driveway and I pulled in alongside it. Her house looked good. I went inside and
saw everything all arranged. Lots of furniture, so I asked her where were the rooms with no
sheetrock on it, she smiled and said this was her mom's house. Okay, we walked down the street
one house over to where her home was obviously still under restoration from the storm damage.
She had made several changes to open up the living room and the kitchen. A beamed ceiling has
been added to the living room and a patio and french doors leading from kitchen area to it. Nice
touches. Walls were floated and ready for painting. Nice size house for a single mom with two
small children. I could tell she was proud to show off her hard work and that she was ready to
move in as soon as it's done.
The last full week of the month was a full one for me. Our fourplex needed a new shower stall
and faucets installed. The plumber called and said I needed to come over and seal up the wall
around the shower. That took me on a trip to Lowe's on Elysian Fields which was jampacked
with people. Had to install some backer board behind the shower. I was exhausted by the time we
got home and just wanted to take a nap. Del invited me to go to a local PoBoy shop with her and
Clem for supper, and I acquiesced. "Would you drive?" she asked as we got to the garage. Again
I acquiesced. We had a pleasant meal and as we left, and just as I got ready to back out the large
Cadillac from its parking slot, a large SUV passed behind me, pulling into the place I was going
to back out into, I kept looking at the SUV, modifying my path to ensure that I wouldn't hit it
backing out, and I backed into a large pickup truck that I hadn't seen. That re-busted the tail light
we had just a week earlier taken to be repaired! No scratches on the large truck's grille, but I felt
even worse than I had earlier. Then when I got home, the tenant from the apartment with the new
shower called to say the rainstorm caused water to be dripping into the front room of her
apartment. That was the low spot of the month for me. I fixed the leak with some concrete
caulking a few days later to replace some twenty year old caulking that had peeled away causing
the leak. Seems a shame to be selling a place if I'm fixing stuff that will last another twenty
years. But selling the fourplex will be like my second retirement. I lost two days of writing at
least while worrying about and repairing the items at the apartment.
The very next morning, I was at work as the Maintenance Man for Timberlane this time. As Del
left to get some garden soil and mulch for the Center Garden, the spring holding up her garage
door broke. I heard the noise from my desk where I'm typing and stopped to determine what
might have happened. Sure enough, I saw a broken lift spring hanging down. It was the same
spring which broke shortly after Katrina — only this time it was the other end from the one I
spent several hours banging a new hook for. At the time, the Overhead Door Co. had not re-opened and we needed the spring for the door opener to work. When Del arrived back with Clem
I invited him to drive out to pick up a new spring. Bought a complete set and installed the two
new springs. Now Del's door no longer makes the obnoxiously loud noises going up and down as
it did previously. "It will work good, last a long time," as my friend Manuel O'Canas liked to say
when he fixed something.
On the next Saturday, I forgot to take my camera along when we went to Gretna Farmer's Market
and missed a chance to get a photo of a cousin of mine. First we picked up our friend Rosie, then
stopped for double latte and muffin at PJ's, then drove to the Market where we ran into JB Borel
and my first cousin, once removed, Sheila Bonvillain Blair, her husband Jack, and daughter
Leslie. Asked Sheila if she knew where the name Bonvillain came from and her husband
interrupted to say, "Good and twisted" or "Good and ugly." He said he got it from her
grandfather. I explained how words evolve from descriptive to evaluative and that villain
originally meant merely a person of the village and only much later devolved into its current
derogatory meaning of dastardly person. "Thus," I told Sheila, "you can rest assured that your
maiden name really means 'a good person of the village.' " I think she was glad to gather a better
understanding of her maiden name.
Also met our next door neighbor, Domini, there. Her brother runs a Landscaping Place over next
to the old Becnel Fruit Market before the Tunnel to Belle Chasse. He said that they have some
small Purple Dawn camellia bushes for sale there. We need to get one to replace the one I just
dug up that died after Katrina. Also bought some Creole Cream Cheese from Kathy's Creamery,
actually from Kathy herself, who says she will be there every week with her delicious and
authentic creole cream cheese, made the way my mother used to make it. Well, actually I'm sure
that they don't make it by putting spoiled milk in an old pillow slip which they hang on the
clothes line as Mom did. But it tastes like hers and has a similar texture.
One more problem arose: my cell phone stopped working. Early Monday I scooted over to
Verizon and bought a new battery for my LG2500 phone. It seems that my phone was set up to
try one of two NAM's and when I inadvertently lost one NAM, it switched to the other and after
that would never place a call since I had only one NAM. (NAM is something like Network
Address Mechanism, one for phone, one for emails, etc.) The new battery solved my problem for
only $25. Then later that day, I noticed a tire on the Maxima was low and had a nail in it. Back in
maintenance mode I brought it to TwinTire for fixing and they found a nail in the side of the
other front tire and that one had to be replaced. Lucky for the Road Hazard warranty, it only cost
me half as much as a new one. And the low-profile, sporty tires on our Maxima have a maxima
cost of $248 dollars. Hope this completes the maintenance work before we leave on Sunday, June
4, for our week on the beach in our Orange Beach condo. Only blue skies, emerald green waters,
white sandy beaches, and a rainbow of skimpy bikinis to punctuate the view for a week. We had
28 of us in various condos year before last, so we're looking forward a rather peaceful week of
mostly me and Del enjoying the beach and each other with no maintenance or yard work to
distract us from our relaxing week.
Del and I would like to ask your prayers for two special people in our lives: Uncle Purpy and our
friend, Battle, who are both suffering from cancer. Pray with us that they will be healed, with
God's help.
Enjoy your month of June. Till next month . . . Bobby and Del
Melt butter in a large frying pan and add the chopped leeks, garlic, and parsley. Saute for 5 minutes, allowing a few small pieces of leek to char (adds color to final dish).
Add peeled crawfish and continue to stir for about five minutes on medium heat.
Add flour, stirring all the while for another five to ten minutes. If mixtures balls, add a bit of stock, and keep stirring.
Add the hot stock and stir until the mixture boils. Reduce heat to a Simmer and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. See Photo of étouffée in Pot.
Add the cream and return to a simmer.
Serving Suggestion
Can be served immediately. Best served over wild rice/long grain rice mixture as show above and here.
Other options
Add chopped mushrooms for a special savor and texture. See photo here of it in the pot with mushrooms.
Warren Perrin has brought the story of the peace-loving Acadians to life within the covers
of this book. He describes how our mutual ancestors only wanted peace with their neighbors and
whoever claimed to be "governing" them, the French or the English. Unfortunately both the French
and English disliked the Acadians and made life tough for them. After the Acadians had been
promised to be allowed to remain peacefully settled in Acadia, a Governor of the region, without
authority from the Queen, decided to deport all the Acadians, stripping them of their land, their
farms, and most of their possessions. How this came to be is the heart of this book.
When I stood in the green grass of Grand Pré in June, 1975, it never occurred to me that I was violating a law of the Crown specifying that Acadians would be subject to punishment, even death, for returning to Acadia! That law stood unchallenged on the books until Warren Perrin, a Cajun and a lawyer, challenged the Queen to issue a proclamation to undo the law and apologize to the Cajuns, among other things. In December, 2003 the proclamation was issued.
This book of Hopkins' poetry sat on my desk at arm's length unread until one day I was
studying Nicholas Humphrey's book Seeing Red and read therein the poem As Kingfishers Catch
Fire by Hopkins. This prompted me to read about this Anglican turned Catholic priest, Jesuit,
mystic, and poet of the last half of the nineteenth century, and the selection of his amazing poetry.
For example, read these Thoreau-ic lines from "Inversnaid":
Hopkins will likely inspire any earnest reader to write as lyrically as he does. For example,
take what Rev. Thomas Ryan, CSP, writes about mystical experience as having two paths, a day
train and a night train.
Let's look at how one "gets in another's way." It requires that one infringes upon another's life, thoughts, ideas, or anything that derives from one's thoughts and ideas. If one has the idea of buying the rights to a piece of land upon which to build a prosperous and long-lasting business and handing that business over to one's children, and grandchildren, what are the various ways that others may get in the way of this goal?
In the United States, the so-called "freest country in the world", there are many ways this may happen. In less free countries, one suspects the various ways are multiples of the ways here. Frederick Bastiat said there are in general only two ways: legal and illegal plunder. Let's look at a few ways and characterize them accordingly.
"What kind of government have you given us, Dr. Franklin?" a lady asked. Ben replied, "A republic, dear lady, if you can keep it."
The best way to keep it is for you to use the plural when you think of or say the words, "United States." And a change to the Pledge of Allegiance would be appropriate. Here is a version I call the Pledge of Freedom, which I wrote about twenty years ago when I first began seriously thinking upon the issues of freedom:
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“Paradise Now” (2005) about two young Palestinian men who volunteer to become suicide bombers and replace the dull lethargy of their world with “paradise now.” Their contact doesn’t show up and one of them has the bomb removed and the other is suspected of collaborating with the Israelis, so the bombers move to a new hideout. The one without the bomb attached looks for his friend with the bomb to help him out. Once he locates him, he finds his friend ambivalent about getting the bomb removed. A close-up look at the issues of suicide-bombers in Israel from both sides. 
“White Countess” (2005) Ralph Fiennes in another film like “English Patient” and “The End of the Affair” where he is disabled in some way, this time, as a newly blind man who looks and acts for all the world like a sighted man most of the time. His paths cross pre-WWII Shangai with a family of displaced Russian countesses, including the two Redgrave sisters and the eponymous countess played by Natasha Richardson. These woman evince Russian royalty with every syllable they utter. He opens a lavish dance emporium called the White Countess and strives through the Japanese invasion to survive and love.
“The New World” (2005) Imagine a slow ballet with no music, only sullen looks, mumbled soliloquies, and primitive babbling — all this set in a muddy swamp being trudged through by guys in armor. Every scene brings new things to puzzle over. Imagine watching a normal movie and the sound disappears for 15 minutes at a time and comes only for a minute or so. That’s the adventure awaiting anyone attempting to watch this DVD Stomper. Keep this one out of the hands of your loved ones.
“Jarhead” (2005) A long walk through a desert for a Marine platoon with smoke-filled skies raining oil. Our hero, a sniper, never gets to pull the trigger, but becomes a hero anyway just for surviving the inhumane treatment of his basic training and subsequent assignment in Kuwait for Desert Storm. For the masochists among you, have at this one — it’s your call.
“The In-Laws” (2003) had the working title “Till Death Do Us Part” referring to the imminent marriage of a young couple. Her father is a phobic podiatrist (Albert Brooks) and his father is a loose cannon CIA agent (Michael Douglas). Douglas is his “Romancing the Stone” best in this rollicking adventure which never seems to stop. Can he save the world? Can love conquer all? Is it really possible to bake muffins in a Lear Jet on autopilot? Fasten your seatbelts and put your trays in their upright position for this one, folks.
It is as if both men and Humphrey are saying that the questions raised by consciousness are more interesting than the answers provided to date. And yet Humphrey seems to have adopted this as the theme of this book: to provide some answers to the questions of consciousness, especially the perplexing question of does our individual consciousness survive after death. Two questions came to Humphrey from Joe King (page 1, 2), a country and western singer, in 2003, “I have been concerned lately that when I die this crippled body might be all I have. My question is. Do u(sic) believe consciousness can survive the death of the brain? Is there good scientific evidence for this?” King asks two questions 1) belief about survival and 2) good scientific evidence. It is clear to me that any good scientist, such as Humphrey is, would give the same answer to both questions, namely, “not a chance.” And that is the answer that Humphrey will give King on page 133 at the end of the book. By giving that answer, Humphrey is confirming, to my mind, both Sutherland’s dictum “that nothing worth reading has been written” about consciousness and Nagel’s observation that the perplexity of consciousness contains more insight than any solution to it.
The above verse from the song O, O! Acadie! by James Peter Louviere [page 53] speaks to the hearts of all people of
Acadian descent. At age 35, I didn't know I was such a descendant — until that day I stood on the
ground impounded from the sea by my ancestors in Acadia over 350 years earlier. Luxuriant green
fields stretched out in every direction with only the Church of St. Charles in Grand Pré punctuating
the view, and a feeling welled up inside of me that brought tears to my eyes, tears which yet arise
today as I type these words. This land, stretching as far as I could see, belonged to my ancestors
and it was rudely and illegally wrenched from them in the eighteenth century by an agent of the
British crown. I felt as if I had returned home to a place that I had never been before. 
Professor Arnold Weinstein of Brown University said in a lecture on Moby Dick, that Melville talked about fast fish and loose fish in the novel. Fast fish are those that were held fast on a line, and loose fish are those still running loose in the water. It occurred to me that Captain Ahab was a fast fish when Moby Dick was still a loose fish because his destiny seem held fast to that loose fish until he turned it into a fast fish. But when he got the harpoon into Moby Dick to hold it fast, it was Ahab once more who was held fast literally to Moby Dick, who was remained a loose fish roaming the sea with Ahab held fast upon his back.
Thus it can be seen that the so-called government of the United States of America acts as if it operated under Abba Eban's motto: "You can't achieve anything without getting in someone's way." Through income taxes, tariffs, excise taxes, imminent domain, inheritance taxes, and volumes upon volumes of onerous regulations, the State, the "one Nation, indivisible" gets in all of its people's way, every day, in numerous ways, up until now. To lay claim to the title "the freest country in the world" and yet foist all these and more kinds of interference with the everyday lives of its citizen is lie in the face of reality.
