Gumbo City

Chicken gumbo is for those of us that just aren’t into seafood. Most you will see this style of gumbo in the mid west. It is still full of flavor and is by no means a lessor version of seafood gumbo its just different.

• 6 cups water
• 1 cup light roux
• 2 cups beer
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
• 2 carrots, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup uncooked wild rice
• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half - cut into cubes
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked rotini pasta
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
DIRECTIONS
1. Bring the water to a boil. Add the garlic powder and the hot pepper sauce. Put the carrots into the pot of water. Cook for five minutes.
2. Add the roux, rice, and chicken cubes. Turn heat to low, and cook for three hours.
3. Add the spiral pasta, and cook for ten minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, garnished with green onions.

With “MARDI GRAS” coming fast and Gumbo is sure to be cooking up, so i thought i would share some history of Mardi Gras from Wikipedia with you.

Wikipedia

While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations. Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a sedate French Catholic tradition with the Le Moyne brothers, [4] Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, in the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France’s claim on the territory of Louisianne, which included what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.[4]

The expedition, led by Iberville, entered the mouth of the Mississippi River on the evening of March 2, 1699, Lundi Gras, not yet knowing it was the river explored and claimed for France by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1683. The party proceeded upstream to a place on the west bank about 60 miles downriver from where New Orleans is today, where a small tributary emptied into the great river, and made camp. This was on March 3, 1699, Mardi Gras day, so in honor of this holiday, Iberville named the spot Point du Mardi Gras (French: “Mardi Gras Point”) and called the small tributary Bayou Mardi Gras.enlou. Bienville went on to found the settlement of Mobile, Alabama in 1702 as the first capital of French Louisiana,[5] and in 1703 the Mardi Gras tradition began with celebrations by the French settlers in that city.[4][6][7] By 1720, Biloxi been made capital of Louisiana. The French customs were introduced there at that time.[4] In 1723, the capital of Louisiana was moved to a new town, founded in 1718[5], called Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans),[4] and the tradition would take root there also. In more recent times several other U.S. cities without a French Catholic heritage have instituted the celebration of Mardi Gras.

More to follow about the main cities that have Mardi Gras celebrations.