Last week, my Mom and I were reminiscing about cousin Francis.  He was special to both of us, and we have many fond memories of him.  My Mother and Francis grew up together in Mobile as children.  They were like best friends.  They attended the same schools from elementary through high school.  Francis worked at the Seafood business that Our family owned.  He would go with my Mom to pick up the fresh seafood from the Mobile Bay and bring it to the restaurant to sell.  Francis also delivered groceries for the business.  Francis was my father’s best man at my parent’s wedding.

I knew Francis while I was growing up as a child.  He was always the one that loved to have fun and cooked some of the best gumbo around!  The gumbo had big pieces of crab, shrimp, sausage and rice with seafood seasoning.  Unfortunately, no recipe on this one folks!  Francis combined his fantastic food with drinks  and dancing at his parties.  In Chicago, we called them “house parties”.   My sisters and I had a house party one night, and one night only.  Perhaps I will share that story in a future post.

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