Fall is nice -
Just like [red] beans & rice.
The leaves fall down,
All the way to the ground.
And that's why fall is nice.
a classic: AABBA
That may have been a second or third grade poem. Let's hope second. I've come a long way from whichever year that was - emotionally, spiritually, physically, and intellectually (whew). Speaking of coming a long way, recalling that lovely bit of verse I wrote at seven or eight years of age made me want to see if the grammar school I attended had a web presence. Sure enough: St. Benilde School is on line. Back in the day, I don't even know that we knew what "on line" (or "online"?!) might have meant.
But I digress.
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| MS counties declared federal disaster areas |
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| Atchafalaya Basin floodwater travel times |
Gichi-ziibi (or misi-ziibi) continues to grow, crest, surge, and overflow its levees, inundating towns, homes, and people in the Mississippi Delta and southeastern Louisiana. Feeling nostalgic as I often do, especially in times of regional crisis, I decided to make red beans and rice this Monday.
Monday is traditionally red beans and rice day, as pretty much anyone in New Orleans can (hopefully) tell you. In short, the story goes like this:
- Sunday your family eats a ham.
- Monday is laundry / wash day. While you're slaving away doing the wash, beans simmer away without much fuss in a pot for a few hours, accompanied by hocks and other hunks of ham left over from the day before.
... a New Orleanian "set it and forget it" meal.