That is not the title I would have chosen, but if I put Gumbo and Cornmeal in the title, I would be inundated by people looking for my recipe.

Like many of our inspirations for a meal, I was reading a book where the character was in New Orleans and had a great Louisiana Gumbo. We decided to make it the feature meal of the week. A gumbo made with chicken, shrimp and chorizo sausage. I should have been Andouille sausage, but Chorizo is what we had in inventory.

We have made New Orleans Gumbo in the past, but rarely. One of the problems is obtaining the required ingredients. As it happens we have a jar of Creole File (ground sassafras) We chose shrimps instead of crawfish and, as I said, subbed the sausage. But where do you get Okra?

Now when we lived in Ontario there were so many food stores that carried unusual or ethnic foods. Here on island with all the old white people from Alberta, the selection is less diverse. Cannot find Catfish no matter how much you try. Anyway it took three grocery stores but we found Okra, and not frozen but fresh. Very nice Gumbo and enough for a repeat on Saturday.

With the meal I made cornbread. I do not do this often because I find cornbread good for one meal but too dry for the next. As it happens I was searching on UTube and a lady in the Appalachians was demonstrating how she makes cornbread 3 days a week. I did not use the pig lard that she used, but otherwise followed her directions and it turned out great.

I guess that part of isolation life, is where preparing an interesting and time consuming meal becomes the highlight of the day.