This makes me sad for the Packers, but happy for Kuhn

John Kuhn, the only football player from Shippensburg State College in Pennsylvania ever to make it to the NFL, is no longer a Green Bay Packer. He signed the other day with the New Orleans Saints after nine years with the Pack. Everybody knew it was coming -- last year, the Packers drafted a new fullback who looks awesome -- but I don't think anybody actually likes it:

Kuhn's departure from Green Bay comes as little surprise. The Packers invested a draft pick on Oklahoma fullback Aaron Ripkowski a year ago with the express purpose of succeeding Kuhn in the upcoming season. Still, Kuhn's experience and willingness to play on special teams made him an attractive free agent to other teams.
Perhaps the most recognizable fullback in the NFL, Kuhn has spent nine of his 10 seasons in Green Bay after entering the league as an undrafted free agent from Shippensburg. Kuhn spent his early years participating mostly on special teams, but became the Packers' featured fullback around the time Aaron Rodgers replaced Brett Favre under center.]

The Packers are one of the few teams in the NFL that still use a true fullback, and Kuhn was a fan favorite. Folks loved his grit and willingness to do anything -- block, special teams, blitz pickup, whatever -- that the team asked of him. Anytime he got on the field on offense during home games, the Lambeau crowd in unison always cried out, "Kuuuuuuuuuhn." It sounded like they were booing, but nobody on the Packers was fooled. Lambeau loves John Kuhn:

Kuhn — or, as Packers fans know him, Kuuuuuuhn — was a Pro Bowler in each of his past two seasons but had yet to find a team as a free agent this offseason. He will turn 34 years old next month.

I'm glad Kuhn gets to continue his NFL journey, and I understand that he couldn't do it as a Packer. It's a business, and Packers GM Ted Thompson likes to draft and develop, meaning Ripkowski taking over was inevitable, and sooner more likely than later. Still, I'll miss Kuhn and wish him well with the Saints. This is a terrible video, but you can hear the crowd's cry of "Kuuuuuuuhn:"

Hell, you can hear them yelling "Kuuuuuhn" in Chicago:

And in New York:

I love that guy.

Saints-kick-some-Eagle-butt game food porn

It would appear that everybody who says the Saints suck on the road and thus would lose to Philly were wrong. There was a lot of that going around, but not here at Chez Wolves, where Marrying Into Wolves is a Saints fan and, thus, so are we unless they are playing our beloved Packers. As it is, the Saints win tonight means the Packers don't have to go to Seattle next week if they beat the 49ers tomorrow. I'm good with that.

Be all that as it may, we had game food tonight. First of all, we had skins, because that's what we do:

Because this was a night game, the game food represented a late dinner and thus needed to be something more dinner-like than we sometimes might have. Since we were watching -- and rooting for -- the Saints, gumbo seemed like the natural choice. So gumbo it was. The benefit to you, dear reader, is that I am now going to share with you how to make gumbo. Lucky you, huh?

You will start with some vegetable oil, flour, 2 pounds of okra (fresh okra is expensive this time of year, so two cans of okra is acceptable), 1 large onion, 1 bell pepper, two stalks of celery, one quart of tomatoes (recipe says two cans, I use one quart of my own jarred tomatoes -- feel free to use the canned), 1 pound of shrimp, peeled and deveined, 1/4 teaspoon of thyme, 1 tablespoon of basil, 1 tablespoon of parsley, 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, one pound of polish sausage, and two quarts of water.

I realize not everything is pictured here. It was getting crowded. Live with it.

OK, so first, slice up your kielbasa -- that's the polish sausage, people -- and brown it in your pan:

Put the sausage in some kind of container and set it aside once it is browned. Into your pan, put four tablespoons of flour and four tablespoons of vegetable oil. Mix them up right, and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly:

Keep stirring and cooking this roux until you get a nice golden color, like so:

You will now slowly add the two quarts of water:

Keep stirring as you add the water about a cup at a time. The roux-water mixture should get pretty thick at first:

By the time all the water is in, it won't be so thick, but roux is a thickener, so it will contribute to the eventual proper thickness of the gumbo. Next, you should chop up your vegetables. I used two medium onions instead of one large, so first I chopped up the celery and one of the onions:

Then I chopped up the bell pepper and one of the onions:

It adds flavor to sautee the vegetables in butter before adding to the gumbo, so I did that:

Meanwhile, add the okra to your aspiring gumbo, which right now is pretty much just roux and water:

Cook over medium heat while the vegetables sautee, then add the vegetables to the mix:

Add your tomatoes to the mix:

Add your seasonings, including Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning to taste. The recipe calls for salt and pepper to taste, but you should use Tony Chachere's if you want this to taste like gumbo. If you don't have Tony Chachere's, I'm not sure what's wrong with you.  Anyway, also add the sausage your browned and set aside earlier, then mix it up right, cover that sucker and simmer over low to medium-low heat for about an hour:

While that's simmering, peel and devein a pound of shrimp. The recipe calls for 2 pounds, but I substituted a pound of kielbasa for one of the pounds of shrimp. You can do what you like. It's OK to use frozen shrimp. I won't judge you for that, since I did. I will, however, judge you for not using Tony Chachere's. What the hell is wrong with you people? If you did use Tony Chachere's, never mind. Anyway, peel the shrimp and put it into the refridgerator until I say so.

Once the gumbo has simmered for at least an hour, turn up the heat a little bit and add the shrimp. Give it about 10 minutes (don't overcook unless you like tough shrimp) and then serve the gumbo over rice:

Yeah, it's pretty damn good. Bon appetit.

Yeah, we got non-Packers playoff game food porn coming

Hey, it's the playoffs. I can't limit myself to the Packers, even though we are, for the moment, in the playoffs. (Yes, I own two shares in the team, so I can say "we." The rest of you who root for other teams that don't sell shares -- which is all of them -- can suck it.) Anyway, Marrying Into Wolves is a Saints fan, so tonight for game food we will be having, among other things, gumbo. Seems kind of New Orleans-ish, doesn't it. So stay tuned. Who dat say day gonna beat them Saints?