It’s that time again . . .

The figs are ripe up at Camp Dularge and I am battling the birds for them.  I’m sure the guests in the camp thought I was crazy this morning while I was picking figs.  I was fussing at the birds to stay up in the top of the tree and to stop coming down in my half of the tree.  They’re getting too greedy, and all I picked this morning was this small bowl full.  Hardly enough to fool with, but I did anyway, because I love you readers (and my big sister) so much!

This is what every good aspiring Bayou Woman cook has at her fingertips–a laptop cookbook!

For canning, you will need a big boiling pot, about 8 pint jars, new lids (used ones will not seal), bands (can be reused), canning funnel, and canning tongs.  Oh, and a Hershey Bar for a burst of energy–optional!

Here’s what you’ll need for the preserves:
12 cups whole figs
4 cups water
6 cups sugar
4 lemon slices – seeds removed
pinch of salt

Wash figs in cool water.  Remove stems.  I’m using only firm figs for this recipe because I want them to stay “whole” and not smash up.

This recipe calls for an extra step to “set the color” of the figs.  Boil a saucepan of water, gently place figs in and remove from heat.  Let sit 3 minutes and then drain quickly.

Next . . .

In heavy-bottomed pot, combine sugar and water and bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly until it makes a clear syrup.  Do not burn.  Add lemon slices, and then gently place figs into boiling liquid.

After only a few minutes, the liquid is becoming a pretty pink color.

Lower heat to medium and cook figs for about 2.5 hours, or until figs seem soft.  During the cooking process, swirl the pot to stir rather than using a spoon.  We don’t want to break the figs.

While figs are cooking, get your jars ready.

If you have a dishwasher, keep clean jars hot on the “heated dry” cycle.

If not, place them in the sink and fill them with boiling water. Also, place 8 bands and lids in a pot of boiling water.

Also, make sure you have a big pot like this blue one filled with boiling water for your “granny bath” or boiling water bath.

Once figs are done cooking, place funnel on top of hot jar.  Using a slotted spoon, gently fill hot jar with figs, slice of lemon, and then ladle hot syrup over figs, leaving 1/4 inch head space.   Wipe edge with clean cloth, removing any syrup from rim that would prevent a solid seal.  Now, put on a lid, then a band, and wearing an oven mitt or using a hot pad, screw the band on tight.   Do one jar at a time until all the preserves are used.

Using big tongs, place each jar gently into the boiling water bath and set the timer for 10 minutes.  Make sure the water is over the top of the lids.  Using tongs, then place jars on a towel and wait for the “ping”, which is the sound of the lid making a complete seal while the jar cools down.

And if you’re like me–haven’t eaten yet–take some of the leftover syrup and put it on a piece of toast with a side of fresh figs.  Mmmmmm.  Because I had quite a bit of syrup left, I filled a jar and will try it later on pancakes or waffles.

And there you have it.  About three hours of your time and some beautiful, delicious homemade whole fig preserves.

Happy figging!

BW

Posted in Bayou Woman Cooks Tagged: "bayou cooking", "canning figs", "fig preserves", "fig recipe", "fig season", "hommade goodness", "ripe figs", "whole figs" ]]> http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/bws-whole-fig-preserves/feed/ 22 Bayou Woman Figs Laptop Cookbook Canning needs Ingredients Wash figs Pink fig syrup Cooked figs Jars in dishwasher Heat jars Water bath and fig pot Figs in jars Boiling water bath Toast and fig syrup Whole Fig Preserves http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/a-very-fish-story-continued/ http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/a-very-fish-story-continued/#comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:23:21 +0000 Bayou Woman http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/?p=3614 ]]>

This trip was with Diane Huhn, Volunteer Coordinator for Bayou Grace, and their hurricane recovery efforts on the five bayous.  Diane  is an avid freshwater fisherman from Michigan, and I feel fortunate to have made her acquaintance and now call her friend.

Armed with artificial lures only–no shrimp, no crabs–we headed out one morning at “Redfish Breakfast Time”.   And believe it or not, folks, that time is not the  crack of dawn!  That’s another thing I love about reds–they like to sleep in!

Diane was the first to snag a nice red.  What a beauty!  If memory serves, this was only her second time to target redfish.

And then on the same lure, she caught a little bass, which she released.  After catching her second red of the morning, she announced that the score was “2 to 0″.  I mentally asked “who’s counting?”  as I heard myself say “There’s no competing on this boat.”  See, when I’m behind there will be NO competing on my boat!  That’s one of the perks of being a captain–I can make up my own rules as I go!

The dark marsh waters gave up so many reds in such a short time, that we enjoyed a little CNR–Catch ‘n Release–for you rookies out there!  Diane held this red loosely until it got its gills going and swam quickly out of her hands.  What a great feeling!

And then I got to do a little of this. . . fish tagging!

Do you see the white strip about two inches long sticking out just below the dorsal fin?  That tag is marked with a La. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries number.  This tag number is associated with an information card I filled out about this particular fish–its length, weight, species, where caught, what kind of lure, etc.  The measuring and tagging must be done quickly so the fish can be returned to the water alive.

The next person who catches this fish will call LDWF, give them the number and all the new stats on the fish, and then LDWF can compare the new stats with the old.  This gives some idea of growth rate and travel distance.  Pretty cool, huh?  Oh, and they can let me know where the fish was caught and how much it grew so there will be a continuum and hopefully more nerds like me will want to tag fish.

After we reached our limit, with other reds still wanting breakfast, I decided to test a theory.

I took the most raggedy looking plastic bait off my console and put it on the rustiest jighead and tied it to my line.

On about the third cast, the lure produced this nice specimen!

Here’s the theory:  When the fish are biting, does it really matter what you cast at them?  Finding:  In this case, the answer was a resounding NO!  This fish was promptly returned to the water to live to a ripe old age.

We gave the fish a rest on Friday, while we got some real work done at Camp Dularge.  Yes, that’s right.  We did something other than go fishing!

On Saturday, even though the sky was dark and streaked with rain off to the south, we pushed on to the same honey hole to try our luck one last time.  After a week of temperatures that reached 100, it was blissful fishing in cool rain.  That posed yet one more theory to test–whether or not the reds bite in the rain.

Diane tested this theory right away and came up with this gorgeous fish.

Finding:  This day, the reds bit better during the rain than after the rain.  However, this ended up being the slowest morning of the week, with only six keepers hitting the deck.

We had a great time fishing this week, and I’d like to think we were good sports and conservationists.  We left our environment better than we found it.  We kept our trash in the boat.  We retrieved snagged lures when we could.  We let the big ones and small ones go back, keeping only what we knew we could use or give away.

BB took her catch home to feed her family in Mississippi.   Diane took fillets  for a fish fry for her family in Michigan.  Three widows on this bayou had fresh fish this week.  My family ate well and still has redfish fillets in the freezer, which I will share with others.

For me, fishing is the all around ideal sport.  First, there is the challenge of reading all the signs of a good fishing day.  On the boat ride to the honey hole, we are embraced by the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural setting.    There is the mystique of knowing which lure the fish will want under that day’s conditions.  There is the honing of one’s skills and the fun of guessing what kind of fish is on the end of your line by the way it feels.  We take  pause to admire the beauty of the color and markings of each fish, and take a minute to photograph each others catch.  We enjoy the camaraderie of a good joke and the swapping of fish tales.  It’s the satisfying feeling of following good conservation by releasing the undersized or very large fish.

Afterward, there is the reward of bragging rights back at the landing, where a box full of reds puts women and men on equal footing.  The rewards continue on as the fish are cleaned and shared with others, or taken home and prepared many ways for one’s family.

If you’re looking for a sport that is fulfilling on just about every level, you’d be hard pressed to find a sport better than fishing.

Let’s go fishing!

BW

If you would like to see more pics of our fishing trips, please visit Diane’s photo page.

THE WINNER:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

1

Timestamp: 2009-06-28 23:15:00 UTC

That means that Comment No. 1 is the winner of the cute little espresso coffee cups!  And that is Cammy.  Okay, Cammy, please email me your mailing address so Scott at Community Coffee can get these mailed to you this week!

Now, a fishy story.

It doesn’t happen every week, nor can I ever predict when it will, even though I’ve been fishing for a few years, keeping records, and studying tides, currents, winds, and water temps.  But once in a while, we hit it just right and the fish cooperate, and the action is non-stop.

This past week was just one of those weeks, at least for redfish (Sciaenops ocellatus) in one of my favorite spots to fish for them.  Before I go on with the story, how about a little redfish trivia?

A member of the drum family, the “red drum” range in color from a light golden color to a dark almost salmon color, depending on the water they inhabit.  Once considered a “trash” fish, and fished many years by commercial fishermen using gill nets, the redfish was fished almost to extinction as a result of a recipe created by Chef Paul Prudhomme called “blackened redfish”.  Now, gill nets have been banned and redfish have become one of the most sought-after Gulf Coast sport fishes around.  There is even a redfish circuit, much like the bass fishing circuit, and almost every fishing tournament has a redfish category.

And for those of you who watch Iron Chef America, redfish was a secret ingredient used by two of the competitors in an episode this past March.

It just so happens that the marshes here are teeming with the fantastically beautiful and strong fighting fish.  If you are vegan, please click away now, as the following photos may offend you.  If you are a sport fisher person, stay here, because the following photos are going to make you green with envy!

BB is one of the first women I had the honor of teaching to saltwater fish.  A trout was her first proud trophy several years ago.  But this time, I promised her she would catch a big red . . . but she got distracted by this big sheephead.  I’ve never heard anyone scream so loudly as she did when this fish took her bait.  I thought she was going to jump out of the boat with excitement!  This was the biggest fish she had ever caught in her life!

but then she caught the promised big red . . .

and then she caught another . . .

As a matter of fact, on just two fishing trips, BB boated 10 keeper reds and left them biting each trip!  She will tell you it was worth every drop of sweat!

Later in the day, we tried a sunset trip.  We could see the fish swirling, but we could not get them to bite.  There were also five alligators in those waters near her.

Of course, she insisted on taking photos of me and my fish.  How do you think we got any fish caught with all these photos ops?

I caught this little bass early on . . . and I love how it blends with my shirt!

And I caught an occassional unintentional baby trout.

In between, I caught some of these.  This one has 8 black spots rather than just the one on its tail.

BB insisted on taking this action shot . . .

which produced this nice red!

And what fishy story would be complete without the dreaded “box shot”?  That is what our ice chest looked like at the end of both mornings.  Even though we took photos, caught throw-backs, and changed lures, we managed to catch limits of reds in under two hours.  That, my friends, is what you call “red hot red fishing action”!

To be continued with Diane Huhn on board the Wetland Tooner!

Get your comments ready for this week’s Community Coffee prize!

Comments from both days will be considered!

Until next time, I will be busy teaching teenagers about the wetlands and taking them out to tour!

BW

And I’m not talking about crawfish, either!

My good friend BB came down this week, after our first of two wonderful fishing trips  (post and pics later, Tar Baby, et. al.) we were starving, so we drove down the bayou and bought some shrimp fresh off the boat.

Don’t want to make you folks jealous, but all we could find were 15-20’s, which I think are WAY too big to boil.  And to not make you further jealous, we paid $2.75 per pound.  Yes, folks, that’s right.

But we had an envie (ohn vee`) so we had to boil some, regardless of the size.

There are just about as many personal touches to boiling shrimp as there are to making gumbo; as I’m sure we’ll all find out before the end of the week and this week’s prize drawing.

But I’ll show you what we did with what we had on hand (town is about 20 miles away, and I don’t run to town very often).

Ingredients:

fresh shrimp with shells and heads ON!
small red potatoes (or large ones cut in half)
Powdered boiled seafood seasoning
Liquid boiled seafood seasoning
Salt
Special dip and saltine crackers

(Smoked sausage optional)

Usually, we would boil these outside on a big butane burner in a huge pot, but our burner drowned during Hurricane Ike and was never replaced.  So we pulled out my two largest pots and put them on the stove to boil.

While that is going on, make some delicious side-item dip, pictured in the little bowl above.  Oh, and pick out some small potatoes.  If all you have are large ones, then cut them in half (caution:  they will cook faster and absorb more seasoning that way).

Just to keep it simple, follow the directions on your favorite seasoning blend.

We put half of the above bag in each pot.  And then we put about 3 Tablespoons of liquid crab boil in each pot, along with lots of salt.  At this point, you should cover the pot and turn on the vent hood because the fumes WILL CHOKE YOU once the water boils.

Once water reaches full, rolling boil, add the shrimp and stirl well.  Bring back to a quick boil and boil for about 5 minutes.  Take a shrimp out, peel and taste.  If  it’s hard to peel and chewy, boil another five minutes.  Taste and repeat if necessary.

Once they are done, strain and serve on individual trays or spread out in center of newspaper-covered table.  Keep a big roll of paper towels on hand, too!  Some of our family likes to split the potato open and cover in butter, salt and pepper.  I like to dip them in the sauce and eat them just like that.

Break the heads off, peel the shell off, and enjoy the unique flavor of the Gulf of Mexico bursting forth in your mouth.  I promise you it’s better than swallowing saltwater while swimming in the ocean!

So tell me, please, how you boil your shrimp and how you like to eat them.  Do you eat them one by one?  Or do you peel a big stack and then pig out?

Scott over at Community’s feeling very generous this week.  Guess what this week’s prize is?

It’s the cute set of espresso cups and saucers!  Okay, run out and tell your Aunt Clothilde, and your Cousin Matille, and your maw maw and your paw paw and everyone that has the internet because these cups are just too cute to pass up!!!  I might have to order me a set so I won’t be too jealous of the winner!

So, let me hear from ya, okay?

Coming soon:  Limits and limits of reds.  Reds?  Red what?

BW

Last week, the photo of fresh, ripe peaches brought a couple of comments from family members regarding a certain peach ice cream my father used to make to cool down the scorching hot summer days.  Danno told me he walked past an ice cream freezer in a local store this week and immediately thought about “PaPa’s peach ice cream”.

I know we’re not officially into summer here, but I guarantee you it is hot enough for ice cream–and time for a new family tradition: Father’s Day Homemade Peach Ice Cream.  Daddy is no longer with us to make the ice cream or celebrate Father’s Day, but what a marvelous way to remember and honor him.

I’m not sure what happened to the ice cream freezer we used to have, but it’s high time for a new one.  After an online search, I decided to get an electric  one at Target.

On the way to town, I called my big sister, and she gave me Dad’s original recipe over the air waves.

Ingredients for PaPa’s Peach Ice Cream
6 eggs, beaten
2 cans evaporated milk
1.5 cups sugar
pinch of salt
3 Tablespoons vanilla
2 cups ripe peaches, peeled, cut up, and sweetened with 1/2 cup sugar
(I used some Truvia to sweeten them AND I pureed about 1/4 cup to add color to the ice cream.)
homogenized milk to the “fill line”
2 small bags of ice
1 small bag of rock salt

First, put the ice cream canister in the freezer to get it good and cold.  Put the cans of milk in the frig.  Prepare peaches, and put them in frig. also.  All ingredients need to be as cold as possible to promote freezing of the cream.

Pour cold ingredients into the cold canister in order listed, stirring to mix well.

This recipe is for a 4-quart electric freezer, so follow the directions that come with your freezer.  When you put the milk in, do not go past the fill line, as the ice cream will swell as it freezes.

Once you get the canister positioned in the bucket, the motor on top, plug it in and begin to layer 2 inches of ice, sprinkle with rock salt, 2 inches of ice, sprinkle with rock salt and continue until you’ve reached the rim of the canister.  Do not cover the lid with rock salt, as it might leech into the cream.

When motor starts to labor and slow down, unplug immediately.  Carefully remove motor and then the canister.  Drain saltwater out of bucket, reserving ice.  Carefully open the canister, remove the dasher, replace the cover, put the cork in if it came with one or cover with plastic and rubber band.  Replace canister in bucket and layer once more with ice and rock salt.  Then insulate the whole thing with towels and let the ice cream “set up” for a couple more hours . . . IF YOU CAN WAIT!!!

But as you can see above–we can’t wait.  We like ours “soft serve” and I think everyone had two bowls, guilt free.  And I’m sure somewhere out there, Daddy was smiling that big old toothy grin of his and talking about how it doesn’t get much better than this.

What I want to know from this brilliant readership, is just how many containers of ice cream is 4 quarts anyway?  I mean, would that be two half gallons?  Or one whole gallon?  I really am volume challenged!

Doing the drawing the old-fashioned way with names on strips of paper and drawing from a bowl . . . . the winner is . . . .

YOU”VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!  This is hilarious!!!!  Take a look . . . .

Boy oh boy, Steffi, how will you explain this one?  She pretty much publicly bribed the kid via this blog.  He drew her name fair and square, though, right here in front of me.   I just love it!!!!

With the next post, I’ll let you know what we’re giving away this week.  So, stay tuned!  And be thinking of your own personal bribe!!!

Steffi, please email me your home address and indicate whether you would like whole bean or ground, and it will be on its way Monday.

I’m going to get me some more guilt-free peach ice cream. Mmmmmmm.

BW

Okay, so I haven’t been blogging every day or even every other day.  I’m here, late at night, before I lay my weary head down, to ask your forgiveness.

. . . and to report just a glimpse of what I’ve been up to this week, besides managing Camp Dularge.

I managed to get in a visit with the Swamp Dwellers . . .

and met this wonderful 84-year-old who was spilling over with history of his swamp-dwelling ancestors.  These two men are first cousins.  Though there is 30 years between them, they are still very close.  I found that very refreshing.

The Old Cousin gave me a history lesson while the bass teased these two.  Diane and The Milkman took turns trying to snag them.  No luck.

Time flew by and it was almost sunset and past time to leave before Diane and I realized it.

These lucious peaches from Alabama came along for the ride with an old friend, whom I haven’t seen in 12 years.  It was good to reaquaint with her and talk about old times.  My, how things change in 12 years!

And baseball.  Termite’s been playing and I’ve been watching and cheering.  He is in the midst of the final tournament of the season and won his game tonight.  He plays again tomorrow night–single elimination.  I hope we win.

So, my friends, I’d like to know what you’ve been doing, because I have barely had time to eat much less write and read emails.

Leave me a newsy comment and you’ll be entered in a chance to win a bag of Community Coffee’s Private Reserve House Blend.   Winner will be chosen, the old fashioned way (by popular request by the Squeaky Wheel!) this weekend.

Okay, let her rip!

BW

Well, it’s been a long week.  Many of you read the post about Redneck Gumbo and you had a lot of good comments.  Some of you even rushed out and bought the ingredients, which is AWESOME!!  And then a couple of you even came back and said how deelish it was!   I’d like to say thank you for taking the time to do all of the above.  The internet is an amazing tool, isn’t it?

I had a great day today with reader Diane Huhn.  Hope she doesn’t mind me tattling of her whereabouts.  We took off in the Wetland Tour tooner boat to parts unknown and ended up visiting with the swamp dwellers!  Diane is from Michigan and has lived down here in a motor home for the past nine months acting as the volunteer coordinator for Bayou Grace in organizing the ongoing recovery effort from Katrina, Rita, and now Gustav and Ike.  She deserves a day off, so I gave her one!

More about that later or on her blog at Blue Dog Nights.

Now it is time for the drawing done by Random.org for the coffee canister.

And the winner is:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

26

Timestamp: 2009-06-14 02:03:43 UTC

The person who made the 26th comment (not counting mine) is Melanie!  Melanie just experienced beginner’s luck, because this is her first time to visit Bayou Woman and leave a comment!

Okay, coming soon, a new post and a chance to win something else next week!

BW

This accident occurred just down the road from Camp Dularge yesterday.  The below photo and a brief story were printed online yesterday afternoon.

Photo by Matt Stamey/The Courier

Dead frogs lay on the shoulder of La. 315 in Dularge Thursday afternoon after a Dodge Charger crashed into a Dodge pick-up while trying to turn left off Brady Bridge.

The driver of the Dodge truck was traveling south by himself and had been frog hunting earlier.  (By himself? Are you kidding me?  Witha bucketfull of frogs as passengers? Frog hunting earlier?  Wouldn’t that indicate using a gun?  We went “frogging” night before last and all I used was a light and my bare hands.  Let’s get the facts straight here people!  You don’t catch frogs in the daytime, either.)

There three passengers in the Charger and both drivers were transported with only minor injuries.  Great.  But what about the frog fatalities lying on the side of road?  I mean, did somebody at least give them a decent burial?  Or did someone take them home and clean them for supper?  Let’s not consider this road kill, folks, nor should we let these frogs die in vain.

I know this seems like a ridiculous story, but it really did happen.  There were EMT trucks there and a Med-Evac helicopter.  It had the potential to be a horrendous tragedy for the humans involved. But BW is here to tell you if those frogs went to waste, it was indeed tragic.

Coming soon:  How to keep frog legs from jumping out of the frying pot!

Ribbit!

BW

This is a recipe with a story behind it.  And it’s a wonderful story.

First, let me remind everyone that here at Bayou Woman, we’ve cooked shrimp stew and chicken and andouille gumbo, both pretty good representations of down-the-bayou cooking. But today, I’m going to make it easy for all of you who hail from places north, east and west to make a surprisingly tasty gumbo without having to make the (in)famous roux.

Okay, now, the rest of you just stop with the head shaking and jaw flapping because I can already hear your outrage, complaints and objections.  But bear with me, because this dish has a special place in my heart and is at the top of the list of our family favorites, including The Captain, who’s been eating genuine bayou cooking his whole life.

The Story.  Back in the mid eighties, my father was forced into early retirement at the age of 55 and decided to invade Mom’s kitchen by trying new and adventurous recipes.  And this is one of those recipes.

The original recipe was formulated by two little old women in Shreveport, Louisiana, and they called it “Oven Jambalaya”.  In case you don’t know, jambalaya is the South Louisiana rice dish comparable to fried rice, but darker and more spicy.

So Daddy proceeded to make it according to their recipe, but he wasn’t really crazy about it. Rather than trash the recipe altogether, he decided to make it on top of the stove, cook the rice separate, and serve it over the rice.  That is the way I first tasted it, and it was delicious.

I then brought the recipe home to bayou country and made it for my family, including The Captain, who suggested I take some to his dad, “The Old Man”.  At this point, I must remind you of a slight language barrier between me and the bayou people back then.  They spoke better French than English, and I spoke almost no French at all.  The exchange went like this:

Me:  “Here, I brought you some  jambalaya to try.  It’s a recipe my daddy makes.”

The Old Man:  “Dat don’t look lak no jambalaya mais, cher!”

Me:  “No, it doesn’t, because Daddy decided to cook the rice separate.”

The Old Man: “La Vieux, donner un cuillere pour assayer ca ici.”  (”Old Lady, give me a spoon for me to try this.”)

He tastes.  I wait.  He indulges.  I wait.

He breaks into a huge smile and says, “Mais I know what dis is.  Dis is a Redneck Gumbo!”

Every time I cooked this meal, I sent him a plate, and he lovingly shortened the name to “Redneck” and we still call it that.  MuzicMan, my son-in-law, recently tried it for the first time and loved it, too.

The Recipe:

1 pound shrimp, peeled
1 pound andouille (or smoked sausage), sliced
1 can French onion soup
1 can beef broth
1-2 cans water
1/2 stick butter
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
small can sliced mushrooms (optional)
pinch of ground cayenne pepper
serves 4-6 (easily doubled)
caution:  do not add salt,
as the soup, broth, and sausage make this recipe salty enough

The bell pepper is not in the photo because sometimes I cheat and buy the “trinity” already chopped and in containers.

Saute` vegetables in butter until starting to soften being careful not to burn the butter.

Add sliced sausage, stir, and simmer a while longer.

Now add the shrimp and let them simmer until slightly cooked . . .

like this . . . a pretty salmon color.

Now, add the liquids, with one can of water (and add more water later if the sauce tastes too strong for you).  Stir until all elements are blended well.

Now add the cayenne pepper and drained sliced mushrooms, if you desire.

Cover, and simmer on low for about half an hour.

Serve over cooked rice, with a side of creamy bayou potato salad, and French bread.

So if you haven’t tried to make gumbo because the roux was too intimidating, I just set you free from that fear!  I’m looking forward to reports from those of you who rushed right out and found the ingredients to make this easy and pleasing dish!

The Prize:

Every comment (except mine) on this post will be entered into a random drawing for this Community Coffee canister!  Winner will be announced Saturday!

Bon apetite!

BW

Bayou Woman reaches

100,000 Hits on Blog!

Bayou Woman (I’m speaking in third person now, for what reason I have no clue) would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited her blog over the year and a half  helping spread the word about Bayou Life, Bayou Food, and the Louisiana Wetlands!

No kidding, y’all.  I really do thank you from the bottom of my bayou heart.  When I went to bed last night, the count was 99,945, and the blogging elves rounded up about 100 people while I was asleep to be the key players in making the counter turn over 100,000 hits!

I had no idea when I started this lowly little blog with a handful of hesitant readers that it would go anywhere; but I had a vision, and hopes, and dreams.

And I have you, THE READERS, to thank for that.

For now, it looks like Community Coffee is on board as a sponsor, did you hear that?  BW has a sponsor!!  Can you believe it!   They have graciously offered to ship one item a week to a lucky reader of this blog.

So, if your friends like Community Coffee, tell them about the blog so they can have a chance to win, too!  Unless you’re really selfish and want to be greedy, then don’t tell them!

Entered into this weeks’ random drawing is everyone who commented on the Shrimp Camp Dularge recipe post.  I hope you took time to look over the neat travel mugs they have to offer.

Now for the drawing . . . . . and the winner is

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

9

Timestamp: 2009-06-06 17:20:12 UTC

Comment Number 9, and that just happens to be . . . Mrs. Coach!!!!

Please email me your mailing address, and Community will ship your mug on Monday!  I hope you have one all picked out!

Coming soon . . . . is any body’s guess!

Your Bayou Woman is off to clean Camp Dularge AGAIN!!!