Read It, Make It, See It, Wear It: Date Night In: Gumbo Edition

I have a problem. I go to the grocery and I either start snatching and grabbing everything is sight or I am completely dumbfounded and can't seem to remember what I went for. A few weeks ago, I was a victim of the former. I just couldn't stop filling the cart up with all these wonderful items for recipes I was going to make for him when he came back from a work trip. Life gets in the way and subsequently I'm still working through all of the delights I purchased. One of the lonely lost ingredients I realized was still in my fridge from all of the unmade delectables was andouille sausage.

This weekend I had promised him a weekend of nothing planned. And I delivered on that promise but that did mean I needed to whip something up with what was on hand without making unnecessary errands. Therefore, andouille sausage and Pinterest to the rescue! Or should I say Little Spice Jar to the rescue!!!

I have made a few of Little Spice Jar's recipes before and they have all turned out well so I knew I could rely on her for this gumbo recipe. She goes into great detail about what a roux consists of, the stages of a roux, and tips to getting a great roux (and when to throw it out).

I had to throw out my first roux. I blame the electric coil stove thingys!!! You never know how hot those things are!

The second roux was a success and the rest was easy as pie. Just dump, let it simmer, dump, and let it simmer. I didn't edit these photos at all because I wanted to show the stages of my roux, how dark I let my roux get, and how deep of a color my gumbo actually became from said roux. It seems that people who make gumbo often are very passionate about how deep of a color the roux becomes which will then yield a very deep, dark gumbo.

Here is where I stopped cooking my roux and added my vegetables. I think I could have let it go a little longer but I did have some anxiety in letting it go further and possibly burning the roux again and having start all over for the third time. It took about 20 minutes to get to this stage (exactly what it says in the recipe).