Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Editor’s Note
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Review
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Summer 2019 Road Taken

Cooking with Dad

Tips on crafting Southern cuisine, handed down from father to son.

By Jake Guth ‘19
Illustration by Joe Ciardiello
July 26, 2019
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

“Just a little buttah . . . ” Dad’s mellow Southern accent melts his pronunciation. He hunches over the stainless steel pot, grinning as he stirs in a quarter stick of butter. “You don’t need the butter.” Mom always gives him a hard time about the healthiness of the Cajun food he cooks. “I put hardly any in!” Dad’s response is as convincing as a kid who, unaware of the smear of chocolate in the left crease of his lips, swears he didn’t sneak a cookie from the jar.

“I put haahdly any in!”

Dad’s response is as convincing as a kid who, unaware of the smear of chocolate in the crease of his lips, swears he didn’t sneak a cookie from the jar.

“He’s a lost cause,” Mom sighs, half critical but mostly loving, as she heads downstairs to work out. She tries to hide her endearing amusement so as to not undermine her ongoing effort to get Dad to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Dad grew up in Louisiana but moved to New York City in his 20s. My friends consider him extremely Southern, citing his accent as evidence. “You should meet the rest of his family,” I laugh. Their lifestyles—Bible-toting churchgoers who hunt, raise livestock, and serve up overflowing platters of rich comfort food at huge family gatherings—are mostly childhood memories to him.

Despite her health-related concerns, Mom occasionally lets Dad cook his favorite Southern meals. Shrimp Creole, jambalaya, and gumbo are the classics, but when Mom’s not home, it’s a free-for-all. “Dad doesn’t eat any vegetables when I’m gone, even if I stock the fridge with them,” she complains. I shift my gaze to conceal my growing smile as I recall a weekend filled with homemade fritters and fried chicken, the perfect nourishment after a late-fall afternoon of golf. Mom never fails to notice the spattered oil left on the stovetop after our subpar cleanup job, but I like to think of our endeavors as secret.

Last year, in place of traditional family Christmas presents, I suggested we give one another a task to do that we valued and thought could better the recipient. I asked my parents to meditate for 40 days; Mom asked me to floss my teeth; Dad gave me a card. His familiar scribble haphazardly covered the left side, occasionally crossing the crease, encroaching on the generic Christmas message printed on the right. “As a gift this year, I’ll teach you my version of Louisiana gumbo. No meat! No sea creatures! Roasted veggies and a rich veggie broth.”

I had recently gone vegan, a choice constantly contested by friends and family.

“How are you going to get enough protein?”

Mom loves that one. My response cycles between defensively citing pro-vegan research, a sigh of resignation, and frustration.

Any Louisianan will tell you sausage is the most important ingredient in gumbo. It enriches the broth and accounts for the defining heartiness of the soup. To a Cajun food connoisseur, vegan gumbo is an absurd paradox—the exclusion of meat jeopardizes the integrity of the dish.

Prior to cooking, we always golf. Each of us carries one club and ball. Last Christmas, walking the course, Dad asked me about school, postgrad plans, and relationships, and shared with me his experiences with these timeless uncertainties. I asked him about his business and aspirations for retirement. The conversation continued into the kitchen as we chopped an assortment of vegetables, the steam produced by the roux thawing our hands.

Later, I scraped the final grains of gumbo-infused rice from my bowl and smiled at our success. Between spoonfuls, Dad suggested future fine-tunings to our creation. As the soup warmed my still-chilled body, the time spent with my dad warmed my soul.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
Illustrations by Yevgenia Nayberg
March 2, 2022

Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
Illustration by Anna Gusella
March 2, 2022

Cult Fiction

With absurdist, yet endearing dramedies dominating popular culture, a couple of recent Midd grads have added a new title to the canon with the wonderful Youtube series The Deli People.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photographs courtesy of L.T. Stenello Productions
February 4, 2022
Abstract illustration of a person with correspondence letters floating in the wind surrounding them.

Dear Friends . . .

On writing through grief.

By Bianca Giaever ’12.5
Illustration by Nicole Xu. Photographs by Paul Dahm
May 11, 2021

Dispatches

Sonic Art

What began as an attempt by Matthew Evan Taylor to collaborate with fellow musicians during the isolation of the pandemic ended up being a yearlong project that culminated in an evening performance at the Met.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Josiah Bania
April 15, 2022

Poetry, In Exile

After fleeing civil unrest in her native Venezuela, a Middlebury Institute graduate student turned to poetry to help make sense of it all.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustrations by Anonymous
January 21, 2022

Inside the Ant Chamber

A visit to a Bi Hall lab affords an up-close encounter with an extremely social cohort of insects.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Clint Penick
November 12, 2021

Twenty Minutes, Twenty Years

Reflections on 9/11 as a New Yorker and Muslim American.

By Daleelah Saleh '23
Illustration by Davide Bonazzi
September 23, 2021

It’s in the Wash

Moyara Ruehsen separates fact from creative fiction in the world of criminal finance.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Elena Zhukova
September 9, 2021

From Stage to Screen

Doug Anderson has plenty of experience directing opera. But with his latest production, he faced new and unusual challenges.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Erica Furgiuele
September 2, 2021

Film Feast

The seventh season of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival includes films from talented members of the Middlebury College community.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photo by Mia Fichman ’19
August 19, 2021

Rock On

NASA has grand plans to collect rock samples on Mars and eventually return the material to Earth. And Drew Gorin '16 is part of a team tasked with figuring out where to collect the bounty.

By Andrew Cassel
Illustration by James Yang
July 15, 2021

A Close Study

How an art history course dedicated to an 11th-century masterpiece concluded with an unusual assignment.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Andrew Cassel
June 30, 2021
View All

Pursuits

Public Defender

On becoming one of the country's foremost cybersecurity experts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by Neil Webb
April 14, 2022

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

Wired for Service

Examining the myriad ways Middlebury students and alumni continue to engage in an enduring tradition: giving back to others.

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
November 11, 2021

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

Editors’ Picks for March and April

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
April 4, 2022

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2022 Middlebury College Publications.