Sunday, March 06, 2005

Broussard's Black Rice

Everyone should discover a tribute Web page like this (link below) somewhere, posted by an old friend. This one, dedicated to my family, has been up for a long time, thanks I guess to the stability of the Geocities community. It looks like the site hasn't been updated in a couple of years. The author of the page, Nancy Garrett Brown, was one of my best friends, growing up. She was pretty, funny, smart, talented and kind -- all in equal measures. Not to turn this into a mutual admirational society, but Nancy's own family (at least her brothers and her kids) always resonated with a spunky grace and a recognizable vibe. They were (probably are) all musical and brilliant and so inherently curious about people and things that in their presence you felt like your soul was drawn in, admired and tickled.

The recipe that Nancy uses to lead the page is one of three or four meals that defined the Broussard household at the farm. Two of the others were a savory lemon chicken and an incredibly rich beef stoganoff variation that my mom made. My sister still knows the secrets (though she's become a vegetarian) and my brother was the chef heir apparent after my mom died, but I'm getting more interested in cooking lately. I may have to attempt to recreate a few of these great meals from the past.

broussard

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... must be at least some of those near-mythic stories you tell are true...

E.

Anonymous said...

After all these years, the Broussard-Garrett connection continues, through music, oddly enough--since none of us Broussards were terrifically musical. On a whim I invited Bill and Jim Garrett to our barn party last year and Jim now plays bass in the band, Forty Dollar Mule, with my son Matt.
Candy Broussard Miller

Anonymous said...

E. wrote

"Hmmm... must be at least some of those near-mythic stories you tell are true..."

"near-mythic"? He must be watering them down.

Bill Campbell

Rick Broussard said...

Bill, as one of the myth-makers from the farm (and before) you should get the ball rolling on putting one or two of them down into scripture.

~margo~ said...

wow! I should know you! Billy& Nancy Garrett, Bill Campbell are pals of mine. Like your blog.
Marguerite Brainerd in FWB

Rick Broussard said...

Marguerite, Inspired by your contact, maybe I'll actually update my blog. I've been ignoring it since I've adopted the fluffier social networks of Facebook and Twitter. Anyway, nice to hear from you. We should figure out if we do know each other and from whence. My recollections are pretty sketchy but I've been wanting to reassemble them to write a semi-fictional history of that era. Also, I've been trying to find Bill Campbell, so if you've got any contact info, please share it.