Gumbo Pot It is a warm but breezy summer day and my cousin just turned eleven-years old. My Great Grandpa Dudley always makes some kind of food for his grandchildren on our birthdays. My cousin Adam is eleven now, and his all-time favorite food has always been gumbo. We have always watched Grandpa Dudley cook, but today he is letting us help. First, he pulls out his most treasured item, his gumbo pot. This is not just a plain old pot purchased at Wal-Mart; this beautiful, heavy and dented pot is really old and it has been passed down generation to generation. The pot was given the name Gumbo Pot because gumbo always tasted better if it was made in this pot. As we stand near the stove, we listen to each little detailed ingredient. There are so many different spices that fill my nose as I lean over the stove to sniff the spicy gumbo. The pot was filled to the tippy top so there was not enough room for one more piece of chicken or sausage. Even though this pot could fit a whole pig inside, we could not sprinkle even the tiniest bit of spice, I imagined the pot leaning over to spit out some of the gumbo like confetti because it was too full, like a child stuffed with cake. Standing near the rice pot I get a really good look at the huge orange peel metal pot. I guess it is just me, but I feel like the pot gets bigger every time I see it. My grandpa puts the pot cover on and lowers the fire to let it all cook down; while we wait, my cousin and I decide to go and sit on the porch to swing. A few minutes after I walked outside, my grandpa came to sit right next to Adam and me and told us how that pot joined our family. He told us that the first owner of the gumbo pot was his great, great grandfather who bought it at a little store Downtown in New Orleans. It was a handmade pot and all of its parts hammered together. He tells us that one day we will have to decide who gets the pot next, but I really hope I will be the one to inherit the Gumbo Pot. If I inherit the treasured Gumbo Pot, I swear to make the best seafood or chicken and sausage gumbo any Cajun has ever eaten. Well, maybe not quite as delicious or as special as my Grandpa made when it was his Gumbo Pot. Jacob LeBlanc
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 00:59:20 +0000