living across the country makes you feel like a 6 year old for the holidays again. the excitement of coming home for the holidays was overwhelming! getting to see my family and friends ... and the city i love so much was the best christmas present this year. christmas day was low key at our house. we spent christmas eve at my aunt's house eating, opening presents, trying new drinks and laughing a lot. christmas day was just us four and we cooked a huge pot of gumbo together. cooking with my family is simply my favorite thing to do! we had some marinated crab claws and then we all got to work. peeling shrimp, making a huge roux, and chopping veggies. then it cooked for hours and at the end of the day we all sat down with our bowl of gumbo and tea ... and critiqued. the gumbo was fantastic but after any good meal, we take it apart ... maybe we could have added this, or it was a perfect amount of that, or maybe next time we will try this or that. we do this with our cooking and at restaurants. i love this process ... it both drives us all crazy and yet we all love it.
