Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Junior Auxiliary Charity Ball 2014

My provisional class - Jenny Bolster, Allyson Thompson, Jennifer Clark, Kelly Childress, Lucy Blair, Julie Russum, Kim Pittman, me:), Allison Freeman, Misty Smith, Malisha Siders, Summer Eades, Cherie Whittington

My handsome date!:)

Sweet friends! Brooke, Maurie, Lisa, Joanna

O'Keefe Family Gumbo Challenge 2014

The Sun Herald writes...

O'Keefe siblings battle for gumbo supremacy

By CAMAL PETRO

Special to the Sun Herald

December 16, 2014

BILOXI -- For the O'Keefes, cooking is not only a family tradition, it is also a sibling rivalry.

One brother and four sisters took to the stovetop last Sunday to decide who makes the best gumbo.
"This is a little internal, family competition," said John O'Keefe, who helped put the competition together. "Everybody thinks that they can cook the best gumbo, so this has been brewing for the last couple of months."

Siblings, Justin O'Keefe of Biloxi; Mercedes O'Keefe-Huval of Lafayette, La.; Cecilia O'Keefe-Neustrom of Lafayette; Kathryn O'Keefe-Kaye of Madison; and Susan O'Keefe-Snyder of Ocean Springs, battled it out for gumbo supremacy.

"They are all very good cooks," John O'Keefe said. "They've all been cooking for most of their lives, and I can honestly say they all have very unique talents as far as creating something special."

The O'Keefe's cooking tradition goes back many generations. They've had members of the family own restaurants and have published a family cookbook called "Cooking on the Coast" that the late Rose Annette O'Keefe complied.

As far as the competition, Justin O'Keefe's seafood gumbo with a kick won the inaugural O'Keefe family cookoff, and he praised the freshness of local seafood and his sisters for teaching him how to cook. "I believe my gumbo is the best, because it has the best flavor, it has the best seafood, the freshest seafood from right here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I believe it has the best okra," Justin O'Keefe said. "Actually, my older sisters taught me how to cook so it came back to haunt them today, because I've learned a little bit from each one of them."

Justin O'Keefe was so confident in his gumbo recipe that he wore a "Gumbo Champion" T-shirt during the competition.
"We were basically looking for two things: appearance and taste," said Dave Duhon, one of the judges. "The winning gumbo had the combination of all the things that we look for in good gumbo."
According to Duhon and fellow judge Martha Reichard, owner of Martha's Tea Room in Ocean Springs, the competition was extremely close.
"Very close," Reichard said. "We had two judges that were for one and two judges that were for the other."

"They were all excellent," Duhon said. "Based on (Reichard's) experience that gumbo needs to have okra, and only one we knew had okra in it and that was the one we picked."
Justin O'Keefe said his winning gumbo comes from the gumbo recipe found on pages 52 and 53 in the "Cooking on the Coast" cookbook and that he varies the Worcestershire sauce, Louisiana hot sauce, salt and pepper as he goes according to his personal taste.

"The competition was one of the toughest ones that I've ever had," Justin O'Keefe said. "I had to go up against four of my sisters and two of them are from Lafayette, La. But I had my wife here to support me, and we brought home the victory today.
"(My sisters) are going to really suffer for that over the next year."

Here is Justin O'Keefe's winning recipe, found on pages 52 and 53 of "Cooking on the Coast"

FLORENCE'S GUMBO

5 pounds of fresh shrimp, peeled
6 large crabs, cleaned with back removed, then halved
1 cup flour
1 cup oil
6 quarts water
1/2 bell pepper, minced
1 onion, minced
3 stalks celery, minced
1 pound chopped okra
1 can tomatoes chopped
1 small can tomato paste
Kitchen Bouquet
Bay leaf
Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
Louisiana hot sauce
Salt
Pepper

Make a roux of oil and flour, 1 cup of each. Cook on stove at medium heat until golden brown. Set aside. Chop finely and sauté in oil 1/2 bell pepper, 3 stalks celery and onion. Add to seasonings, chopped okra, tomatoes, tomato paste. Season to taste with salt, pepper, Kitchen Bouquet, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, hot sauce and whatever else you can find. Add water to seasonings and then add roux. Cook for about 15 minutes and add crabs. When the gumbo is starting to look like it might want to be ready, add the shrimp.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2014/12/16/5972819/okeefe-siblings-battle-for-gumbo.html#storylink=cpy

Les snacking it up and waiting on the big announcement. Who will win!?

Jonathan, Les, Papa & Mam-ma went. Ceci & I had the Teddy Bear Tea the same afternoon! I hate we missed this FUN!

WLOX news even showed up for the action!

The Judges Table!! Papa was one of those! He also had the pleasure of announcing the winner!!

PER MY DAD who wrote up the descriptions:)...

JUDGE #1

David "Professor Gumbo" Duhon

"Professor Gumbo" hails from Lafayette, LA and also happens to be Justice's father in law. The legend has it that as an infant "Professor Gumbo" drank gumbo from his baby bottle, and when the gumbo juice was gone would bite the nipple off and suck out the shrimp, crab, gator, chicken, and andouille sausage and munch till his little tummy was full. Also, has been hailed for giving more Gumbo Scholarships in the nation to thousands of qualified candidates at the University of Southern Mississippi............

And the winner is.... My DAD! Poppy!! Way to go!!

Dad and the competition... his sisters Kathryn, Susan, Mert, Ceci

Poppy is #1!!!

Les knew who the winning team would be!:)

...And another sweet baby!! Jules Renee Jones!!

Our sweet friends, Jonathan and Paula, celebrated the birth of their first baby, Jules Jones! We love her! She has tons of black hair and looks just like her Daddy.:) She's so sweet, and we are SO happy for them!! I had three people dear to me have babies within weeks of one another, my sister-in-law Leah, and friends Molly... and Paula below! Congrats to them all!!

Celebrating Maurie!!

We had a dinner party for Maurie's birthday, and it was so so fun and just perfect!! We were so glad to be able to celebrate HER since she does so much for everyone else!

Teddy Bear Tea 2014

Ceci and I went to our first annual Teddy Bear Tea at The Roosevelt in New Orleans. It was so so fun and absolutely gorgeous during Christmas time! We went with our precious, sweet friends. We will definitely be back!!

Brooke & Vera, Maurie & Ella, Justice & Ceci, Leslie & Lucy Kate, Lisa & Shelby

We ate brunch at The Roosevelt before the tea. Ceci & Lucy Kate were palling around.:)

The girls with the ice princess!

And Mrs. Clause!

Inside the tea!!:) Ceci had a really fun time and sipped on her tea. We also saw Santa (for the 5th time this year) and Rudolph and elves!

She is SO silly!! Too many cookies and tea!:)

The sweet, little ladies - Ceci, Shelby, Lucy Kate, Ella, Vera

Daddy in Dubai!!

Jonathan went to Dubai with JJ and Joel for their first International Pipeline Conference. I think they had a good time!! Apparently, it was an amazing place with many gorgeous buildings and structures. I'm glad it was nice after a 16 hour flight to get there! Eeeek. I wasn't feeling too sorry for him though. The Ritz in Abu Dhabi for 7 nights... while I was at home with the kiddos which felt like 14 nights.;) It wasn't too bad.:) He said the trip was great! He is adventurous and insisted on eating some local food. He reported back that the traditional Emirati food was pretty good, kind of like lamb pot roast. The people were very nice. There was English and Arabic on all street signs, which was nice and neat. Another thing he noticed was that the Arabs have statistics on everything. Everything is the "some number" tallest or largest whatever in the world. He said they passed a flag pole and the tour guide said it was the seventh tallest in the world. He wondered how high they would count... We were glad he came home in one piece!!!:) Daddy gets to travel a LOT. Poor ole Mommy. All I do is sit at home and do laundry!!:):) Not my "season" I guess.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. This is the only mosque (that's what they told us at least) that non muslims can go in.

This is the largest chandelier in the world, located inside the Grand Mosque. It is all Swarovski crystal.

Another view. How gorgeous!!

Jonathan taking in the sites!

The Burj Kalifa --- a skyscraper in Dubai. It is the tallest man-made structure in the world. Good stuff!

Another view (tall skinny structure on left)

From the road...

At the top!

Another view from the top!

And another...

View from Jonathan's room. TOUGH LIFE.

And finally... Dad came home with THIS! He's officially become his father!:) When in Rome...

Anyway, he wore it to his office on Halloween as well as out that night to trick or treat. Oh my! He bought me a black one, but I haven't found the time to try it on just yet (or ever:)).

Monday, December 29, 2014

Babymoon in Savannah, GA!!

Jonathan and I had a date weekend in Savannah, and it was a BLAST!! We stayed at The Mansion on Forsythe, took trolley tours, bicycle taxis and took walks along the river. The food was AMAZING. Every restaurant we tried was FAB. Our favorite was The Olde Pink House. YUM. We even got to see my cousin Jacob, who is in pharmacy school there, and his girlfriend, Laura. It really was a fun, relaxing vacation. Much needed!

My man!

Jacob, Laura, Justice & Jonathan

The Olde Pink House.

These crazy kids!!

Ceci & Les... they are a handful. But oh so sweet and soooo funny! Today, Ceci was on the phone with Mam-ma and was chatting up then said "Les broke my tiara, of course." :) She's gotten to be quite the little diva! And Les... he's just the sweetest too. He has such a tender heart but a mean right hand. He likes to roughhouse... a LOT. He loves when Daddy gets home so he can tackle him, push him, jump on him, etc. He attempts this during the day, but Ceci and I just aren't as fun.

Below are a random assortment of pics!

The kids wait for Daddy to get home. This day was Christmas party day at school (Mother's Day Out), so they were pooped and just wanted to rest with Daddy.

Les wanted to hop in the shower with Daddy. Typically, we let bathe them in our big bath tub, so this was a treat.:) Les loved it... I think??

Cutie in her new Sofia jammies from Mam-ma!

Yes, that is Jonathan in the middle for tacky sweater day at work. His pose is hysterical!!

Spring pictures at MDO.:)

Ready for his Thanksgiving party!!

Little Indian!:)

And Ceci had fun too!!

We took them to their first tailgating experience with a group of friends. It was SO much fun and wore them OUT. They weren't quite ready to rally for the game, but tailgating was sure fun. Maybe next year we will be ready for a game!

Look at that priss pot crossing her legs. My little lady!

Les and his MDO pals:)

Mary Starks & I! She is soooo sweet!

Ceci & Les being silly! This is Les' evil face that he makes (where he puts his head down and makes these crazy eyes... all while he tries not to smile.:))