THIS is why I stick to SIMPLE meals!
I have just attempted to make "Gumbo Ya Ya" (only because it said "YaYa" in it, one of my fav restaurants). You must know that I am more of a Chef Boy R Dee/ Fishsticks & Macaroni kind of girl. I was really going out on a limb when I decided to make this because Ive heard Gumbo is one of those "High Maintenance" meals, the TOTAL opposite of the Chef Boy. I read all the reviews, all the tips, rolled up my sleeves and took step one. Well 159 steps and 2 hours later, my broth was ready. Then I moved on to the chopping. I have never in my life chopped so many vegetables. By the end of it I had tears rolling down my face. Not happy tears, but tears from the fumes of 2 cups of onions I had to chop. When cutting onions, how in the world does it get all the way up to your eyes and burn the daylights out of them!? Now time for the ROUX! Ive heard its ALL about the roux. After switching off and on with Jason "stirring continuously" for 45 mintues, the Roux was done. In those 45 minutes, sweet little Jason spilled water in my chicken broth that took 2 hours to make, our stirring got a little out of control and spilled ALL over the burner, and now I have carpal tunnel from all the stirring. **Just for reference, I think were at 3 hours here** After burning the roux all over my stove top, I had to get it cleaned up. Im feeling a little lethargic at this point. I should have had a high carb meal for this cooking marathon. I get out my special stove top cleaner that takes ANYTHING off! At least thats what the bottle says. I put an ungodly amount of it on there. I guess I should have stopped pouring it on when I saw it starting to boil. Needless to say, my stove top has 3 black burners and one white one now.
Its 10:50 PM, it has 10 more minutes to cook. I have to go chop green onions, parsley, peel shrimp and de-bone the stupid chicken. Unless Jason literally falls out of his chair and almost passes out because this is so good, Im probably going to mark gumbo ya ya off my list.
