A Different Christmas Dinner
By Nikki Pelezo / Dirt Roads
Last year we were given an invitation to have Christmas dinner with a very good friend of ours living in Louisiana. He is Cajun through and through. We were so excited, as we just knew he would be deep frying a turkey, and knowing Boudreaux as we did, he would stuff it with a crawfish dressing. Our friendmakes a mean etoufee and his gumbo is superior to all others.
His mother-in-law was visiting from Monterrey, Mexico for the holidays and I think his invitation was given to us in hopes we could get his mother-in-law out of his kitchen so he could work his magic. Since Charlie and I don’t speak Spanish, we were unable to get her out of his kitchen. As we peeked in we saw Boudreaux throw up his hands and throw in the towel. For four hours we had a wonderful visit with Boudreaux and his lovely wife. Boudreax commented on the fact that this was the first Christmas dinner he didn’t cook since leaving his parents house, 48 years ago. His wife did mention that her mother’s cooking was not the best in the world, but she had to bow to her status in the family.
Mamma Rosa called us all to the table and right in the middle was a huge roast of beef, and the table was laden with side dishes galore. The smells were different, not exactly Christmas dinner related but we were starved. Momma Rosa carved the roast beef and put slices on our plates and passed them down. I looked at my slices of roast beef and saw several cute little pink medallions. What could this be in the middle of roast beef? It didn’t take too long to figure out that Boudreaux’s mother-in-law inserted six weenies in the middle of an expensive roast.
Charlie and I have had some crazy holiday dinners but we’ve never had roast beef with weenies, ever! The next time Boudreaux asks us for Christmas dinner and his mother-in-law is visiting, we’ll both sit on her until the deep fried turkey is done.
May you all have a wonderful Christmas and be wary of those little old mother-in-laws that can’t cook.