A Real Texas Weekend

We had a great weekend. The weather turned out so nice Friday afternoon. We went to Mike and Dawn's to play Sequence that evening. We beat them.... Dawn and I just slaughtered them. The guys just don't have the psychic abilities that we have. Dawn and I are still working on our Bartender's License. We won't be getting it any time soon. It takes us about 15 minutes to make a Mojito, but we've got the taste down. They were excellent!

Then Saturday turned out to be even prettier than Friday, Jody and I went on a little road trip. We not only left the zip code, we went 2 counties away. Totally unheard of for Jody.

Around 2:00 we headed to Cumby, Texas. We'd been invited out to Freddie's house for Wash Pot Stew. The lakes were really full from all the rain earlier this month and everything was still really green. We're not having much Fall color yet, we really haven't gotten much cooler than the mid 50's so far. But all the rain will sure help the leaves hang on until they do turn all the colors of Autumn.
Cumby is east of Dallas just off I-30. Just a blinker of a town.Freddie lives in this house that was built in 1900. I think it may have been his Grandparents. His parents lived in it after them and now he lives there. It's really cool with 12 foot ceilings, transom windows over every doorway, and the strangest floor plan. They had to add the bathroom on to it, just off the back porch. It's a tired little house and Freddie is renovating it as he can. When you work as an auto mechanic in a town of 200 people it's real easy to work yourself right out of a job.When we got there Freddie was cooking over an open fire just off his driveway in the front yard. I could smell the stew the minute I stepped out of the truck. The pot was about to run over and he was trying to cook it down a bit to add a few more ingredients. That's Jody there watching Freddie do his thing. Freddie's had 4 roasts, 4 sirloin steaks, 20 pounds of potatoes, a huge can of green beans (restaurant size), a huge can of corn, 3 big bags of carrots and some tomato juice in this stew. I only know this because I checked out the trash can. How else are you going to know how to make his stew when he tells you it's a secret recipe?

Freddie asked me do a taste test to see what I thought it needed, and I shared with a couple of older men who were sitting around the fire, one who didn't want to ruin his chaw of tobacco. They were all named Bill... easy enough to remember. The stew really didn't need anything more. But Freddie added some salt and pepper and one small can of Rotel there at the end. I didn't think I'd make it to 4:30 when everyone was supposed to be there to eat. Jody and I had brought 3 batches of cornbread muffins, a huge batch of Brownie Bites and some Black Bottom cupcakes. Who wants to have to scrounge up a knife or a cake server when you are out on the lawn? Not me! I like to have everything where you can eat it right out of your hand.
Soon people started showing up and the instruments came out. Freddie is Mark's cousin... Mark from down on the Square in Garland. You remember....
Then Phillip showed up with his Bass and Chris with another guitar. That's Mark with the Mandolin and Chaw-o-tobacco Bill standing in the back ground.

Here's Dawn and Jody in the background. By the time Dawn and Mike got there we'd, more like me... had already eaten. Jody didn't eat any stew, he had a Sub Sandwich on the way over. He doesn't go for stew that includes anything orange, green, yellow or red. He really doesn't know what he missed. That was the best stew I've EVER eaten. The beef was just shredded and melt in your mouth tender. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
More and more people kept coming. At one point Dawn asked me how many people lived in Cumby. And I told her "about this many. I think this is all of them!" The Mayor and his family were there. That's Freddie's son there on the left, he was down on Fall Break from where he lives in Oklahoma. See that little girl, she's the Mayor's Granddaughter and she's playing the rocks. She was quiet good too. Kept perfect time with the music. And that's Terry there on the right, Mark and Freddie's cousin, Susan's husband. That's Susan, Terry's wife having me smell her beverage. Why would she want me to smell her vodka? Didn't smell like anything.Finally Freddie got to play and sing with the rest of the guys and his sister Judy (on the right) and another friend of the family Sarah (standing behind him.) I guess everyone got their fill of the stew and he didn't have to serve anymore. But not before the girls down at the corner store called and asked him to bring them some stew... they couldn't get off work and couldn't close the store. Then Judy and Sarah wanted me to sing with them, so what else was I supposed to do? I sang a few songs with them. Mike and Dawn standing by the fire....
Jody and I standing by the fire. It was so dark out there that you just had to kind of point and shoot with your camera and hope for the best. I think there may only be 3 street lights in Cumby besides the train crossing lights, and those have only been in place for a year and only because of a state law making them mandatory. They have really nice stars and we could stand in the middle of the street and see the milkyway. Who needs a street light?

About this time was when Judy came to drag me into the house to dance with the girls. Dancing seems to be a popular past-time with all the ladies. I guess when the guys are all outside playing guitars and mandolins and cooking with fire there's nothing better to do than dance in the house.

Later after most of the people had gone home with their bellies full, and Freddie had fed a homeless man who wandered up, the family members all moved into the house because it got a bit too cold outside. Freddie dipped up more stew to bring in the house and everyone had another bowl, it was time for a late evening dinner, 6 hours had past. At this time the stew had taken on a smoky flavor. It was even better!

We've decided Freddie should have a throw down against Bobby Flay, because Freddie Cooks with Fire in the Frontchard (that's going to be the name of his show on Food Network).... real good.

It's going to be hard to top that weekend.