Welcome To Rome To Home

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Hi, I'm Alexa.

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And I'm Rory. And together we are the Romies. We're a husband-wife duo and longtime travelers who believe travel isn't just about where you go. It's about how it shapes the way you live when you get home.

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On the Roamies Podcast, we explore where to travel, how to travel, and why to travel. Through our lens of creativity, wellness, and everyday life.

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We're calling it this season Rome to Home. As we travel near and far, we're sharing the ways we bring inspiration home through food, daily rituals, business and design ideas, and the renovation of our historic picture upper.

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It's all about making travel tangible, livable, and meaningful long after the trip ends.

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So whether you're planning your next adventure or reimagining the life you're building at home, you're in the right place.

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And now, let's get into today's episode. Welcome back to season eight of the Romies Podcast. If you are just joining us this season, we are calling Rome to home, where we are sharing how travel doesn't just end when the trip is over, it actually shows up in our everyday lives.

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Whether it's through food, creativity, or as in today's episode, how we gather people together.

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And because there are 26 letters in the alphabet, we're structuring this year around A to Z themes. So today we're hopping on to G with the focus on gather.

Garden Visits That Slow You Down

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Yes, G is for gather or gathering.

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Yes, we gather around our garden. We gather around gumbos. Yeah, we do. So let's start with G for gardens.

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Okay.

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Gardens have always been one of those travel experiences that slow us down in the best way, and they're peaceful and intentional, and they're deeply tied to a place. And so over the years, I or both of us have been able to visit some really memorable gardens. I think one of the highlights for me was the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California. So like mass and elaborate and just absolutely gorgeous. And then because you have the museum attached to it and the library attached to it, you have this really fun, a little, not little, but sexy.

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Microcosm, whatever.

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Yeah, of historic places that you can connect to the whole experience. It's really, really magical. I love visiting the Japanese garden, which is at the Tilman Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys.

SPEAKER_04 2:23

You went there a number of times, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_07 2:24

I love Japanese gardens. The UC Riverside Botanic Gardens. So all these things were like when we lived in LA, we really were able to kind of dive into these quote unquote like local experiences.

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Yeah. Do you remember one of our firsts? It was in San Francisco.

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Remember that?

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We discovered like, what the heck? It's a huge botanical gardens and parks and that was really cool.

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We've been traveling so much with our music, it's not like we get to stop and see gardens. And so they become like something, and we're not big gardeners. Rory's the gardener of the family, but like it's not something that we're all about in our own home is like, oh, do we have flowers and all of that? Right. It's beautiful. But it's not something that we have centered our focus and time and energy into. And so being able to travel and see these things, man, that inspires us to bring that home. I I just want to point out really quick, too, like the burghee house and arboretum that we saw in Murray's Space Side Scotland was so great. That's allowed us to connect with the Arboretum owner himself. And we've been able to kind of go back and forth with like some questions I've had for him about my own garden, trying to procure seeds from the like plants I found at the Huntington Library that I want to bring home to our own garden. He is like trying to help me find how I can do that.

SPEAKER_04 3:47

Yeah, because he planted his whole thing by from seed.

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Yeah. So he's just all about that. So like being able to connect in that way and use our travels from Scotland and Huntington to like influence our garden in Waco is just really cool. And we recently got to see the beautiful Clark Gardens in Mineral Wells, Texas. And of course, that is on a much bigger estate than we have. But again, it was kind of the inspiration of this is someone's home.

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Yeah.

Bringing Garden Ideas Back Home

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And they built the gardens kind of around their home and their property and let people into it. Right. And then and that's where the gathering comes, right? And so all of that is really, really great. And then we want to just like remind you while we're here, we did a little series where we curated some botanical gardens tours across the US for you. So check out the episodes. We have episodes 171 to 175. We take you to gardens in Florida, in the Northeast, in the Texas area, different times of the year, all of that kind of stuff. So make sure you check those out. And we are going to include those episodes again in the show notes so you can reference them easily and link to them easily because they were a good bit ago, but the info is still relevant. So what I love about traveling to gardens is that you don't just see plants, but you see ideas. That's where I get inspired. Like there's layouts, there's stories, and so they help people move through a space. So how we're bringing gardens home is for us with this roamed home moment with gardens, it's not just about recreating a destination, like we went to these and we saw this and we saw this, but it's about translating that inspiration and into your own space.

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Into our own space.

SPEAKER_07 5:31

Right, right. And well, you we want to inspire you to do your own space. So going and traveling, let the gardens that you see and that you experience or just different colors. Let that inspire what you do in your own garden. And, you know, we recently traveled to Belize. Our we did a whole series for you on Belize. We got to meet a gardener and learn some of his tricks for organic farming and just planting fruits and veggies and flowers and all of these things. Like we learned something very practical that might help save our trees. There's just different things that you can do while you're traveling and the different people you meet if you just keep your eyes open and have conversations and be willing to learn. And one of the things that I really got inspired to was just designing the yard and stations and having like a walking story as you go through the yard. And so, like, I would like to create in our garden and in our yard space areas that are inspired by different places that we've traveled, maybe even have like different like scripture or reflection points. There's a lot of plant imagery and a lot of cool scriptures around plants. And so maybe tying those in in different ways throughout the garden. And Rory and I are also collecting different rocks and stones from different places we travel. So we brought some stones home from Scotland and Orange. And that's one way that we're building travel into our home is bringing those home. And we want to make some kind of cool waterfall feature with all those stones.

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Yeah, out in the garden.

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So none of this is finished, or you know, we barely even started. But that's part of the point is like this season isn't about perfect reveals. It's about our process of bringing inspiration home over time.

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Takes the pressure off.

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Yes.

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One of the biggest garden projects we're currently working on is our gazebo.

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G is for gazebo.

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Right. It's the used to be the second floor of that home we talked about in a in a previous episode that now exists as a gazebo in our yard.

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So that gazebo actually came from a historic home here in Waco, it built in the late 1800s. It used to be a room, and now it is becoming the heart of how we want to gather people in our yard.

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Yeah, it's a showpiece. People who drive by down the road when we see them on Halloween or wherever, and they come by the house, they're like, I always see that when I pass by. I've always wanted to look at it.

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So people love the story behind it.

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Yeah, great gathering piece.

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That is the one thing that we have started to renovate on our home that is cosmetic. You know, we have done plumbing and we've done roofing and foundation, but those things you, you know, they don't make your house pretty. And so not only are we restoring this eight late 1800s structure, but it's also getting beautified. And it's something like where we can start to see some tangible results in our renovations. Yeah, and something people want together around. Yeah. Now I will point out in the yard, one of our very first things is that you've painted our fountain. You want to give just a quick update on like as of this recording, where we are with the renovation of our gazebo. We have the roof finished.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

Yeah, we have the roof finished. But the process A lot of the parts had to be made by hand because they were made by hand in the 1800s, and you can't go buy them at stores. It's all crafted. So we had a local company make these items by hand.

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And we chose this company because they are known to be able to really understand.

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History and restoring and stuff instead of just like creating some block that doesn't match what used to be there. Because we're saving as much of the history as we can and reusing what's reusable. But if some of it's rotted, we have to have it remade by hand to match what was there previously. So it looks like it did look, trying to save the history. So we've all these pieces made. Now it's a matter of putting the basically putting the gazebo back together and painting it, uh, doing all the finishing touches on it. But we've got the foundation basically worked out and the roof worked out.

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The structure is now stable because when we obtained the house, the gazebo was starting to kind of like lean a little bit, and Rory was really kind of worried that it was just gonna fall and collapse.

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Yeah.

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So also it had a big hole in the top of the roof. And so that was causing, you know, we get a lot of rain and wind in Waco, and so that was causing a lot of rot inside.

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Yeah.

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So one of the big priority, the two priorities were stabilizing it and getting a roof on it. And so over the course of probably six to eight months, that has been happening and it's taken that long for it to happen for multiple reasons. Sometimes it was our schedule, because we really want to be home during a renovation. And and some of the things that we're learning in this process, we'll share with you as we experience them. But one of the things that we learned even from our previous homeowner here is that you want to be in town when someone is working on your home. She came home to her floors in the in the bedroom downstairs, the Airbnb room that we offer that we talked about in episode the first episode of this season.

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She came home and the foundation guys had cut the floor out of her room. She could see straight into the floor. Thrown it away and not repaired it.

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Right. She could see straight into the floor.

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Straight into the dirt.

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So, yes, straight into the dirt, into the ground. Into the ground. So she shared a few stories like that, and we're like, okay, so let's learn from her mistakes and not make that our own mistake. And so be home if you're doing renovation. The other thing to keep in mind with the renovation, like one of the things we learned with our gazebo experience is even though we kind of had many conversations before the project was started, we still needed even more communication to have happened before the work began.

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And so And as the work went along.

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As the work goes along. And one of the things that I feel like was lost in the mix because we're dealing with this historic home, I I think what happened is they were thinking we wanted to replicate instead of restore. I wanted to keep, and Rory wanted to keep as we wanted to restore the gazebo. Salvage as much as possible. We didn't want to replicate it. We didn't want pretty versions of a new version that looked like the old. We didn't want to replicate. We wanted it to actually be the design in the wood from the 1800s. Let's just paint it. Let's just like, yes, let's replicate what has to be, but let's keep what doesn't have to be. And that wasn't really communicated right up front. And I feel like maybe we lost some money in that process or, you know, could have saved here and there.

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And definitely took more time than it should have.

SPEAKER_07 12:11

Mm-hmm. And but we eventually got to that place where we could find a happy medium between what this company wanted to do, what which was more kind of a replicated, and what we wanted to do. And so it's not going to end up being this beautiful, pristine thing. It's going to look awesome when it's finished.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Yeah. But I'm not sure what you mean by not going to be beautiful, pristine.

SPEAKER_07 12:31

No, it's it's not going to be like all brand new stuff because we are keeping it's history. We are keeping the old as much as we can. So if you're renovating or considering renovation, just keep in mind do you want to replicate or do you want to restore? You know, maybe you just need to tear down and start over. You know, we're all in different places with our homes. But that's just kind of our little lesson to pass on to you in our gazebo renovation thus far. But it's been, it's been fun to see it being restored and just following the life of the gazebo.

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The continued life of the gazebo.

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Yes. And we look forward to letting it be a really neat space where people can come enjoy, they can relax, it can be a cool photo shoot site. We are really looking forward to our gazebo being a space where people can gather in our garden.

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Looking forward to it being finished.

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Yes, where they can gather in the garden around food and stories.

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I see what you did.

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Yes. That's just our desire that it's a gathering place.

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Something travel has taught us, because we've experienced it again and again, is when you travel, you're pretty much constantly being hosted in some form or another.

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And you notice what makes you feel welcome and what makes you relaxed and what makes a space feel warm. And we did share a few of those tips on what makes a good host and what makes a good guest in our episode A is for Airbnb.

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Yeah, I think one thing we said is you learn by being the guest and you learn even more by being the host. I don't know. For me, maybe being the guest, I learn more because I see what I do, I don't like, and think, oh, I wish they had this. And then I oh, we'll have to do that.

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Yeah, yeah. But you also get practice, right? When you host at home. So the more you host in your home, the better you get at it, not because you become perfect.

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Hopefully, the better you get.

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Right. But because you figure out like your systems, you know. So who does maybe it's like who does what while you're getting ready. So like one person vacuums while the other is chopping veggies, you know, or if it's like when you chop veggies, they go everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

So you vacuum as you're chopping, well, after you, yeah. Right. Right. You have to vacuum. Yeah, vacuum with the veggies. Yeah. Right.

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Or, you know, like one is setting out glasses and the other wipes counters, you know, and you you have your whole system of you.

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You know, like your hosting system.

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Yeah, who does what. And you know, you learn what serving pieces that you already own, and maybe some that you may need to purchase down the road.

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And there may be something you didn't consider a serving piece, which you go, oh wow, that works great as this. And it's cool because it's something people don't expect.

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Right. It can you can repurpose it last minute and not buy something, but just repurpose something you already have, which is always the way to go. So you also learn whether you're like a charcuterie person host or like a soup and bread host or a tea party host.

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Or if you like dream of being a tea party host like you do.

SPEAKER_07 15:23

Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, and you can always, I think it's a good idea. You can always have like frozen pizza as a backup if you're going to do like a experimental recipe night or something like that. Maybe you have your set recipes, or maybe you like to, you know, experiment.

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So hot dog backup, chili dog backup.

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Or frozen pizza backup. Yeah. So any of those. But none of those things are wrong. You can just kind of learn your rhythm. The more you host, the more you learn.

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And one way to keep your stress down is you just gotta realize it's not gonna be perfect ever. Even when it's perfect, it's not gonna be perfect.

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Yeah.

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So just let go of that.

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And the second that hosting becomes stressful, it might stop being hospitable.

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Yeah. Mm-hmm. It kind of comes across to people.

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Yeah. And so travel has taught us that the most memorable homes aren't necessarily perfect, but just that the people are present.

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Yeah. How cool.

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Mm-hmm.

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And one of the best things you can do to make hosting easier is actually something you do before anyone comes over.

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This is so hard for me, but routinely keeping your home reasonably clean and does two huge things. So, number one, it makes packing for travel much easier when you're decluttered. And we have a whole series about decluttering and simplifying your home. So we will include those in the show notes. You can check those out. But it also makes spontaneous hosting less stressful.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

Well, it makes it possible.

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Yeah. Yeah. It makes you more comfortable to host. Yeah. For me, you know.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

Yeah. If a friend's like, hey, we're on our way somewhere, can we stop by? The answer maybe is yes, instead of, oh, the house looks like poo. So I'd rather I'm not come by, right? You're not scrambling, you're not apologizing, you're not overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_07 17:05

So at the same at the same time, if your house is messy, that's okay. They're not there to see your house, they're there to see you.

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Yep.

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So it's okay to not be prepared and not be perfect. But if you're able to kind of keep a routine of simplifying and decluttering, then you can kind of have the best both best of both worlds to be fairly prepared, but also not perfect.

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And you can be present. So I like that.

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It's okay not to be this should be perfectly prepared.

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Right. What was it? What was it you said? You don't have to be prepared or perfect, but be present for us in our travels. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_07 17:41

Maybe this should be our P episode, Rory.

SPEAKER_04 17:43

Oh, P is for Preparedness. Present.

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See? Yeah.

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We just said it. You didn't even get it. P is for be present right now.

Simple Upgrades For Outdoor Gatherings

SPEAKER_07 17:53

Right here, right now. All right, but we are on the G episode. So let's get back to garden gathering. How can we upgrade our garden gathering role?

SPEAKER_04 18:03

I see. Okay, specifically now. G G.

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How can we up level it?

SPEAKER_04 18:06

How can we up-level it? That's not a word you use in everyday conversation. I do. Uh yeah, I don't. Okay. How come what are you trying to say? How can we bring it up a bit? How can we improve it? Is that what you mean?

SPEAKER_07 18:22

Yeah, like when we're gathering in the garden, what are some like extra fun things we could do?

SPEAKER_04 18:27

Okay. Because I never understood what that word meant when people use it. I mean, it sounds cool, but I wasn't sure what that meant.

SPEAKER_07 18:31

I'm always trying to up level.

SPEAKER_04 18:33

Okay. All right. Whatever that means. Improve, I guess. So, all right. Create like one intentional focal point. We were talking about the gazebo, for example.

SPEAKER_07 18:42

Yeah, there you go. So you pick one anchor. So for us, that would be a gazebo. For you, it might be just a table or a fire pit. Yeah, fire pit or a single food and drink station. You don't have to decorate the whole entire yard. Just give people a place that kind of it's obvious that that's where they're gonna gather. So that's one thing you can do.

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And don't sweat over decorating.

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Let your space breathe.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Yeah. I mean, the area, let it speak for itself. Let it kind of be its own thing that you can be present in. So don't feel like you have to overdecorate. Don't take that stress on.

SPEAKER_07 19:17

Nature already does the heavy lifting for you. So if you have too many things out there, people can feel like overwhelmed by stuff. Or they might be unsure, yeah, where they're where they could sit or stand. And then you want to like for garden gathering. Again, these are specific to gardening outside. Serve food that can rest. So stuff that can either simmer or stay warm or be self-served. Maybe like something in a crock pot idea or your cold food.

SPEAKER_04 19:50

Like gazpacho. That's what fancy people eat. It's a cold soup.

SPEAKER_07 19:54

Right, because that's G.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Yeah. Get gazpacho, cold soup.

SPEAKER_07 19:58

But who wants cold soup, Rory? People want warm soup.

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That's what fancy people eat.

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That is what fancy people eat. Gazpacho.

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So if you're being fancy in your garden party with your gazebo gathering, then maybe gazpacho is the way to go.

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Yes.

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Just see all those G's I use.

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I did, but you know what else is really good?

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G, right on the street.

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You did so good, but you know what you missed?

SPEAKER_04 20:19

Gumbo. I didn't miss it. I was saving it because it's the best for lights.

SPEAKER_07 20:23

Right. And we are going to get a little bit more into that, but let's keep talking about the garden.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_07 20:27

All right. Your light matters more than the furniture.

SPEAKER_04 20:31

I see. Have you ever been a place in someone's backyard where they had string lights? And like you said. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Magic. You could be there in the daytime and think, uh-huh. And but if you drive by and you see at night with the lights, suddenly, magic. What what's up with that?

SPEAKER_07 20:47

And you know what? That doesn't have to be a super expensive investment to like that is an like a fairly inexpensive way to up-level your gardening.

SPEAKER_04 20:58

Lanterns, gathering, candles like LED candles, whatever, or real candles.

SPEAKER_07 21:02

Or maybe you need mosquito candles based on where season and where you are. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Yeah, that kind of stuff instantly changes the mood of a space. Mosquito candles can change the smell of a space too, so be aware of that.

SPEAKER_07 21:14

Yes. The lighting, even if like you don't have the perfect furniture or the like matchy matchy or whatever, the lighting can just be. Just make it darker.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Nobody will see it.

SPEAKER_07 21:23

Oh no. So and you can have like one one way to kind of keep things easy is to have like your signature dish. Maybe you have like a family recipe that that's what you always make. Like you're you're the person who's always gonna grill, or oh, that's a G grill. Ooh. Um or they're just, you know, you're gonna have dessert. I gotta always gonna have desserts.

SPEAKER_04 21:46

If someone comes over, ton of requests for gumbo and my crawfish at Tuffe, which doesn't start with a G, but gumbo jambalaya at Tuffe. People know that I make these things and we get a lot of requests after. So we'll go with the G for gumbo at this point.

SPEAKER_07 21:59

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

A fall and early spring where it's cold, winter kind of a dish. We don't eat it a ton in the summer because it's a you know hot soup, but right that's what it's always good.

SPEAKER_07 22:10

Right, right. So whatever that one thing is, it simplifies your planning. Maybe you're a pasta girl and you just have your pasta and your jar of sauce on hand ready to go. And ready-baked cookies. That's always there.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

They're gonna have it.

SPEAKER_07 22:29

If someone pops by. So it doesn't have to be fancy, just reliable. So quick ambiance wins are like things you can do, is like quiet music playing in the background. We've talked about candles or torches and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

I know that when people come to our house and it's a last-minute thing, I love to turn on the lights in our living room. There's really no furniture in there, but the lights really make it pop. The floor glows and everything and lighting. So just that's simple. Lighting can make a huge difference in your setting. And as we talked about outdoors, it's like can be the difference between night and day.

SPEAKER_07 23:03

Right.

SPEAKER_04 23:04

Pun intended.

SPEAKER_07 23:05

Right. And you might not really need to rely on lighting during the day. So that's when you can do like the candle thing. Because even during daytime, the candles can set a fun little ambiance. Another thing you can do is just like keep in mind that it could be windy. So if you can find a way to have weighted napkins or clips so the wind doesn't take away blow everything away.

SPEAKER_04 23:30

Maybe something to cover the food so the bugs stay out of it. Right.

SPEAKER_07 23:34

Or drink covers in some way.

SPEAKER_04 23:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 23:38

Keep your drink station simple. People can just self-serve.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

Outside's a great place to keep your drink station so people don't have to constantly get up and go inside to get their drinks refilled. They can do it outside. That can be in a large cooler or it can be in something as simple as like having a good picture with a cover. Exactly.

SPEAKER_07 23:54

Like covers are good so that you don't have like things flicking off of your trees and falling.

SPEAKER_04 24:00

Not to have to go inside to refill your drink if you're sitting outside. You have dinner, you're sitting around having drinks.

SPEAKER_07 24:06

If they spill, it's outside and not on your floor. Right now, if they spill on our floor, it's okay because the house isn't renovated. But once it's renovated, we might care a little bit more.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Not really.

SPEAKER_07 24:18

All right. You know, Rory and I have hosted some people and we've done some things. But y'all, we have an expert here with us today. We have a little sneak peek. We have Robin Tubi with us, and y'all are gonna see her in our next episode. But we want to just give you a sneak peek teaser of what you're gonna hear more of and even beyond, way beyond this, in our next episode. But Robin, thank you so much for being here. You have a book called Gather Together. So we are so excited to just hear from you and see what you have to share out of your book, Gather Together.

SPEAKER_05 24:56

Absolutely. And thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to come and chat about my book and chat about gathering. I I have written a wonderful new book called Gather Together, and it goes all the way around a year of hosting occasions big and small. So that's everything from family games night to tea for two picnics, all the way to Easter and Mother's Day and Father's Day and all those kind of gatherings. And one of the things that we love to do for gatherings in the summer and in the fall, and when the weather is beautiful, is to gather outdoors.

SPEAKER_07 25:29

Yay! So, what what can what advice can you give us for gathering outdoors and or some highlights from your book that we could look forward to when we get your book, Gather Together?

SPEAKER_05 25:39

Absolutely. So, my book, Gather Together, it's gonna have a lot of different visual helpers to kind of show how to entertain outdoors and how to set up outdoors. But one of the things I did in this book that I hasn't been really explicitly explained anywhere inside of it is all of the sections from outdoor uh alfresco dining or the picnic, I've chosen recipes that weather really well. So something you want to think about when you're doing an outdoor gathering is the fact that you're gonna need to be bringing your food from an indoor sort of confined location to the outdoors where you may, it may be windy, it may be humid. So you don't want to be putting things outside that are gonna get sticky, that are gonna melt, that are not gonna weather the elements very well. And so, for instance, in in my picnic in the sun, I have sees a little beautiful picture. I've got beautiful berries, I have pavlovas, I've got custard, I've got all sorts of things that you can sit outside in the sun on your little picnic spread and not have to worry about it. When I have my alfresco dining, which is beautiful outdoor in the garden, what I've got is things like grassini breadsticks. See, we got a G for Grassini. With the G theme. The grassini breadsticks are a wonderful addition. So a regular breadstick is gonna be kind of soft. And if you leave it sitting out for any length of time, they could get stale, they can get soggy or sticky. Grassini breadsticks are kind of crunchy. And so it's just a wonderful thing to serve with like a whipped feta dip, which also weathers really beautifully. Um, so you know, doing things like that, skewers with pineapple and pork. So if this doesn't stay super hot, it's gonna be fine. It's not like, you know, something like a steak where if you're not getting it right off the grill, you're not gonna be, you know, loving it as much. I've got a beautiful chickpea salad that I make with chimichuri sauce, which is absolutely phenomenal. Again, a pasta salad. You can serve it outside warm. If it cools down, no big deal.

SPEAKER_07 27:51

Right. Love it, love it. Well, I love these sneak peeks. And where can we find your book?

SPEAKER_05 27:58

So Gather Together is available literally everywhere books are sold. So if you want to go to the bookstore and find out at Barnes and Noble, if you want to go online to your favorite bookstore or on Amazon and just get it quick delivered to your door, it is available all over. Love it. And I'm sure you would love book reviews after someone. A hundred percent. I would adore to hear what everyone thinks of my book. And I put a lot of time and all of the photography, all of the styling, everything is mine. I did every single page, photo, you name it. All right.

Gumbo Basics And Cajun Traditions

SPEAKER_07 28:28

Um, and it's all from my house. Oh my gosh. Well, and your Instagram page is beautiful, and so I can see how you doing your own book would have so much beauty. So great job, great job. For those of you just listening, she has shown us a picture of the book, but you'll you can check it out on our socials and on Robin's socials. We're gonna tag all of that in the show notes, and y'all, you're gonna see more of her in our next episode. So stay tuned. So Roy, let's get back into like the food and the gumbo. You know, if people are gathering, and they're you said they were asking for gumbo, and that has definitely been the case.

SPEAKER_04 29:06

Yes, yes. If we're gathering uh around the holidays, especially with my family, gumbo's a big thing, and it's something that we always know that we're gonna have.

SPEAKER_07 29:14

New Year's Eve is always gumbo. People expect that's the tradition.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

Yep, that's right, that's right. Good gumbo doesn't take a whole lot of time. I mean, you don't want to rush it, but it's something that takes a few hours to cook. Well, and you're not standing there over it the whole time. It can cook after you're done putting it together. Another thing about gumbo is you want to talk to somebody who knows how to make it to learn to make it, because we really don't measure when we make gumbo. We just kind of know. And so it's it's an easy dish to make, in my opinion, but maybe it's my opinion because I learned to make it from my mom, and you know, it's just part of who I am, a part of our heritage.

SPEAKER_07 29:47

So can you dive into a little bit more what makes a good gumbo? Well, the foundation I have to say, you mentioned that it doesn't take long, but it does take long.

SPEAKER_04 29:56

Well, it depends. Yeah, it takes a day when you make it. If you're making your own roux, which uh now you can buy a really good roux in jars that's made in South Louisiana, it's really excellent. Uh so there's a couple that I recommend. But if you're making your own roux, uh if yeah, Savoie's roux, I think, is my favorite right now, their dark roux.

SPEAKER_07 30:14

And so it just comes in a jar.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

So you just open the jar, spoon it out, spoon it out into your into your water, or in the case that I like to use, my chicken broth as my base instead of water for chicken and sausage gumbo. So your roux is key. If you're making your roux, you're gonna have to take a couple of hours set aside to make your roux. So in that case, gumbo is gonna take you a good while to make.

SPEAKER_07 30:36

For those of us who didn't grow up in Louisiana and never heard roux till we met you, do you want to explain what a roux is?

SPEAKER_04 30:41

It's just flour and oil. That's all it is.

SPEAKER_07 30:43

And it makes a little base for your.

SPEAKER_04 30:45

Yeah, it's basically just flour and oil. And you mix them together, you can cook them stovetop or in the oven. But after you get to a certain point, you got to constantly check it and stir it and be babysitting it. And it's gonna take a while. If you're cooking something for like a chicken and sausage or some other kind of a game gumbo that's a non-seafo gumbo, you can want a dark roux. And in my opinion, that roux needs to be somewhere around like dark chocolate, golden dark chocolate, just before you cooked it too long. And one thing to keep in mind too is when you put your roux in the pot, your roux gonna keep cooking, especially if your water's hot. So you might want to consider, or or your chicken broth, you might want to consider having cold or room temperature chicken chicken broth or water in the pot when you put your roux in so as to stop it from cooking. Because if you take it to that perfect point and then you throw it in boiling water, it's gonna cook longer and it's gonna burn it longer. Just saying.

SPEAKER_07 31:38

So the way to make gumbo easier is to pre-do just by the Savoie's roux. Yeah, Savoir's roux, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

Or make your roux the day before. Even then it's gonna take more time. But don't give yourself three hours to make roux and gumbo because it's not gonna happen. At least not a really good thing.

SPEAKER_07 31:55

It might be a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 31:56

Well, if you're gonna make a roux, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 31:59

All right. So so the rue's done. Either we jarred it or we made it from scratch, like you just said. So then what else makes a good gumbo after that?

SPEAKER_04 32:08

Uh well, the seasonings. I mean, obviously. We have seasonings that we use. Obviously, you got salt, black pepper, cayenne. Uh, depending on the gumbo you're making, you might want to use some garlic, a Tony Satries Creole seasoning, or now Slap Your Mama's real popular. That's the name of a brand of seasoning, by the way, Slap Your Mama. That's real popular. You got onion, celery, bell pepper. You use the Trinity in there. I also like to use it.

SPEAKER_07 32:30

See, he acts like these things are just common knowledge. But the Trinity is a very Cajun thing. And it is, like he said, onion, bell pepper, and it can be red and green.

SPEAKER_04 32:43

Yeah, it could be colorful bell peppers, yeah, yeah. And celery.

SPEAKER_07 32:46

Right. And so you can buy seasoning blends.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

But if you're a cook, you know what the Trinity is. Come on.

SPEAKER_07 32:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

Okay. So that's really.

SPEAKER_07 32:54

But it can have parsley in the seasoning blend. Yeah, you can have some parsley.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

It's technically four, but you don't want to do a lot of parsley though, because it has it's gonna have strong flavor to it. But I also like to add at the very end uh green onions or chives, basically the same thing. Yeah, green onions on top, or just put them into the gumbo and have some filet handy so people can add filet to their gumbo afterwards if they want, if they want to. A lot of us don't add filet, at least nobody I know really cooks with filet in the gumbo. I have before, but I generally don't. Uh you put the filet in afterwards where I'm from.

SPEAKER_07 33:28

Now, you have taken your gumbo sometimes and went a little Creole direction with it.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

Yeah, a Creole gumbo will often be reddish. So you'll it has some tomato in it. A Cajun gumbo, you don't put tomato in. But in a Creole gumbo, you might um have red and tomatoes. I saw a picture just a couple days ago online about oh, cajing gumbo, and it looked like an Italian dish. It was all red with vegetables and stuff, and I was like, I didn't curse, but in my mind there was a curse going on. Your heart was you don't make caging gumbo that way. Stop saying cajun if you're gonna make it look like that. It's not cajun. So I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_08 34:12

Right. It might be a gumbo, but it's not gonna be sort of a gumbo. People might call a gumbo.

SPEAKER_04 34:17

Well, we also get offended if you make a gumbo and put corn in it. Because we're like, I don't know what you're calling a gumbo. Putting corn in a gumbo. No, you don't do that.

SPEAKER_07 34:25

Okay, and so what about okra? Where do you land with okra?

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Well, I like okra. Some people don't like okra, so they don't use it. Okra, you gotta cook the slime out of it before you put it in your gumbo, or your gumbo is gonna be like snot. It can be. If you boil it long enough, you can boil all of that snot down and so it's not as thick goopy, but uh you want to cook the snot out of your okra before you put it in your gumbo.

SPEAKER_07 34:46

Okay, I'm gonna try to settle my stomach after you say that. Um so speaking of my stomach settling before it does, you want like we can talk about seafood gumbo versus you always make chicken and sausage.

SPEAKER_04 34:59

Well, I'll just say this seafood gumbo, you want to use a lighter roux generally. So you'll want to cook your roux less long, or you can get Savoy's lighter roux or some other brand. I'm sure there are other good brands out there. I just I like Savois because I've used it for so long. Saving me, what, two hours on having to cook my own. Unless I'm making one that is gluten-free, which I've done before.

SPEAKER_07 35:19

Gee, for gluten-free.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Yeah, which I've done before using buckwheat, which is not really a wheat, using buckwheat to make it, and that that worked out really well. It's got a heartier flavor to your to your gumbo because it's using that as your roux. I've also used uh arrowroot. What do we call that stuff?

SPEAKER_07 35:33

Corn starch?

SPEAKER_04 35:35

No. Uh that that other tapioca. Yeah, but there's what are we cassava, yeah, yeah. I've also used cassava, uh flour flour and stuff like that to make it instead of white flour in your roux. Yeah, and that worked out pretty well. But that was when we were trying to do gluten-free stuff, and it actually worked pretty well. It's just you just got to pay close attention to it when you're making the roux, because it's not going to cook the same.

SPEAKER_07 35:57

Now, what's great is gumbo is served with rice, which gives you a gluten-free kind of companion.

SPEAKER_04 36:03

Yeah, most every Cajun dish is gonna have rice with it.

SPEAKER_07 36:06

So, yeah, right. Just yeah. So now you do something weird. I mean, you do lots of weird weird. But one of the extra weird things that I've seen in observance of your gumbo ritual is that there is a thing.

SPEAKER_04 36:18

That little dance I do?

SPEAKER_07 36:20

The little potato salad.

SPEAKER_04 36:21

The potato salad dance, yeah, that's special. Yeah. I'm glad that's not on camera. Uh potato salad. Yeah, this is the thing. I I always assumed it was all a Cajun thing, and I'm guessing it still is, but in Southwest Louisiana, something that you always have with gumbo. Well, it's always paired with gumbo, always often for the most part. Potato salad. Now, not talking about a mustard-based potato salad. It's gotta be a mayonnaise-based mayonnaise-based uh salad. And you put your potato salad right in the bowl with your gumbo in the side of your bowl. So you're not like stirring it all, mixing it all together. You just you've got your bowl of gumbo, and you put the potato salad on the side of the bowl with the gumbo and you eat it together.

SPEAKER_07 36:59

Now, we had a recent gathering.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

We did, and they didn't they didn't believe me when I trained them that that's what you do if you're real. But every single person that tried it was like, this is really good, I'm sure. Like, yeah, we're not dumb. We don't eat it because it tastes bad.

SPEAKER_07 37:13

Right.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

Why would we keep doing it over and over again if it doesn't taste good? Cajuns, we know how to make things taste good.

SPEAKER_08 37:20

See?

SPEAKER_04 37:21

Trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Cajun food than to trust and obey a Cajun.

SPEAKER_07 37:32

Happy and Cajun.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 37:34

And when we have these gatherings, I usually make some red beans and rice so that we have a vegan option too. So speaking of the rice thing, that gives you another gluten-free and vegan option that you can make for your counterparts for the vegan versus Cajun thing. We Rory and I have going on. All right. We are actually going to film Rory making some gumbo this week.

SPEAKER_04 38:01

But we're not going to put that potato salad dance in there.

SPEAKER_07 38:03

No, no, we're not. But on our socials, you can watch Rory like in his process of making gumbo. So make sure you check out our socials at the Roomies.

SPEAKER_04 38:13

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 38:14

All right.

SPEAKER_04 38:14

It's always sexy to watch a Cajun man cook his gumbo.

SPEAKER_07 38:17

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. One of Rory's favorite products to use in his gumbo is Slap Ya Mama. And so we are really excited that they are sponsoring today's episode. And we have with us Jack Walker of Slap Your Mama. And so, Jack, thank you so much for joining us. We're very glad to have you.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Of course. Thank y'all for having us. And Rory, thank you for your support all these years. I really appreciate you know utilizing the product. So thank you.

SPEAKER_04 38:46

Bro, absolutely. It's funny. My whole family has made the switch from, you know, the kingdom of Tony to Slap Your Mama. It's really, I mean, it's uncanny. Seriously.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

Like uh that's awesome. Yeah, it's very cool.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

I love to hear it. I you know, we hear we hear that a lot from a lot of our fans and customers uh making the switch, you know, from whatever else they may have had before to ours now. And I think it's pretty cool, you know, it just goes to show how versatile the product is. So it uh it's definitely converted a lot of people from various different, you know, uh backgrounds and different types of seasonings that they like to use.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

So yeah, yeah, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_07 39:21

I would love to talk about what sets you apart from other brands, but first can we dive into kind of like the backstory and why is it called Slap Your Mama and what's kind of the background of the brand? And I know we you have got a you have a brother that's involved, so we'd just love to kind of hear your story.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Sure, yeah. I'm sorry uh Joe couldn't make the call today, but um yeah, Slap Your Mama is a family-owned business. We're out of Ville Platte, Louisiana originally. We've since then kind of moved closer to the Lafayette area, but yeah, so Slap Y Mama was born in an effort to satisfy our customers' needs. Back in the in the 90s, we used to have a gas station, and as you know or you're familiar with in Louisiana, most gas stations have food or delis, or they're frying up some kind of food or they're serving something. So uh naturally we had a deli, we had fried chicken and everything else you can think of to fry. And uh people were kind of complaining about our food being a little salty. So, in an effort to fix that, my dad's like, you know what, we're gonna we're gonna make our own seasoning, it's gonna help us cut cost as well. And uh so one night, you know, we just uh dad got all the ingredients from you know, kind of the seasonings that we use here and there. And uh we sat at the kitchen table, and he and mom, myself and my brother Joe developed our first seasoning, our original blend seasoning, the yellow canister seasoning sitting right there at the at the table. And uh we started using it in the store to season our food with, and people were raving about it. They were like, oh Mike, this is like you know, this is good stuff. What are y'all doing? You and we tell them we we made our own seasoning now, and uh they wanted to buy it. So we were like, oh man, all right, so what are we gonna call this seasoning? You know, people were loving it, people were enjoying it. And if we were gonna make the product, my mom was gonna be the one that kind of ran the business. Uh my father was a is a district attorney by trade, so he was you know busy doing doing the legal stuff. So my mother was gonna be the one operating this business if we decided to go to the down this venture. And uh when we were trying to sit up, think of a name, she goes, you know what, we should call it Slap Your Mama. And uh we're like, man, I don't know. That's kind of you know it's a term that we it's yeah, it's kind of a bold little brand name, but it's a term that we used a lot. My dad, you know, he makes this dish called uh world famous slap your mama atomic potatoes. And uh you have to really get to know him to understand the dishes that he names and things like that. He's just a really fun Cajun guy, and she kind of pulled it from that from that dish from our world famous Slap Your Mama Atomic Potatoes, and uh that's kind of where the name came from. We kind of rolled with it, and honestly, that was probably the best decision you know we've made was to do that. So my brother and I started making little like um pill and stick labels on our home computer, and we started filling salt and pepper shakers with the seasoning that we made, and uh, we started selling it over the counter in our gas station for a dollar a jar in the beginning. And our mom eventually we got it to where it was packaged by a manufacturer, and uh, she started selling it to the little gas stations, not gas stations, but like little grocery stores around the you know, Acadiana area on consignment. So she'd give it to them, you know, a little cute Cajun lady walk in, she'd have her cans slap to mama, and you know, something new never no one's heard of that brand before. So people were excited about it, and she's like, hey, look, um this is my seasoning. Can I put it on your shelf? You know, you don't have to pay me for it, but if it sells, you know, pay me for it, and then I'll put some, you know, restock you. And uh that's kind of how it started off with with with that, and it kind of snowballed, snowballed from there. That was probably we started making the first seasoning in 1996, and we started putting it in stores in 2001, something around there. That so you mean that that's when your mom was selling it, or when you guys had more distribution, or so from 96 to like 2000, we were mostly just had it in our little gas station. It was called the Express Lane, was the name of the station. But we had it over there, and you know, we were just using it on our personal food, using it on that food, giving it out to friends and family, selling those little tiny jars, you know, nothing too big. And when we finally decided to make the jump, we went get, I think, I think we had to buy like 10,000 cans start. And yeah, we had a whole whole like warehouse full and we didn't know what to do. Like, how are we gonna go through 10,000 cans, you know? But yeah, that's kind of how it all started off. And you know, my mom ran with it. She she had a little she had a van that said slap your mama on the side, and she kind of had a little route that she ran in South Louisiana. You know, hitting all the little gas the little grocery stores, yeah, the markets. I mean, she'd go to all the farmers' markets, anything you can think of where she can meet people and put product in people's hands. That's what she was doing. So my brother and I were in college at that time, and we started running our online business from our from our college home. So he and I would uh you know, we'd wake up in the morning, we'd do school in the morning, we'd do slap your mama online orders for around lunchtime, and then we'd go bartend at night, and that's kind of how we put our way through school.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

And yeah, I wanted to be a doctor, my brother wanted to be an attorney, and we started you know doing this slap your mama stuff, and we're like, wow, this is actually pretty good. This is you know a fun business, it's a viable business. We get to travel a lot, you know. So we stuck with it. We stuck with it. My brother and I took over in 2007, and around that time we probably had regional distribution, probably, you know, Louisiana, East Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, some into Florida. And he and I started hitting all the food shows around the country, you know, traveling to these big, big international events in San Francisco, New York, DC, and just trying to do business that we had no idea what we were doing. Like it was the most insane learning curve I've ever been involved in in my life. Um but that's how we learn. We got thrown into the mix and you know, we learned from there. So it's been quite an adventure, I have to give you, I have to tell you that. And it's been a lot of fun. So and uh my brother and I still operate the business. Both of my parents are retired now. My brother and I operate it, and my brother's wife is in the business as well. So we're still a very close-knit family operated business. So it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 45:46

Well, I love it, man. Grew up in the family business myself. I totally have three brothers and a sister, so everybody was involved.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Oh, yeah. Oh man, that's that's a lot of chiefs, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Yeah, that's that's the truth. Yeah, I was a black sheep, so uh I kind of didn't become a chief, but more of a sheep.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

Okay, okay. That's not bad.

SPEAKER_07 46:07

He's not in like Charles anymore where his family is, he's in Texas.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

My brother's wife is actually from Grossbeck, so not far from where you guys are right now, I believe.

SPEAKER_07 46:16

No, not far at all.

SPEAKER_04 46:17

That's why I'm gonna be able to drive to a Grossbeck every time I go home.

SPEAKER_07 46:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 46:21

My sister went to Baylor and her roommate was from Grosbeck. That was the first time I had heard of that bizarre city name. Some people might say Vil Platt wasn't a bizarre. Because his mom is from Turkey Creek. Do you know Turkey?

SPEAKER_00 46:38

Oh, okay. So I I I actually grew up in Bayushico, Louisiana, just right below Turkey Creek. So I went to Bayushico High School, Bayushico, like elementary school there. I'd ride I could ride my bike to the uh to the to the little stores in Turkey Creek. So yeah, I I definitely know where Turkey Creek's at.

SPEAKER_07 46:57

But that's one reason that I feel like Rory's family, especially, you know, I'm I'm from New Mexico, I'm not a Cajun-born person, but I feel like there is such a close-knit, tight feeling about the food and how the food should be prepared. Oh, yeah. And so, okay, so my cousins are from Louisiana, but you see, they're like northerners. And they're like from Alec and stuff, and so that's real different. So our cousin came to visit us. Just we were having a conversation with him two days ago, and um, he was talking about how his boiled crawfish and you know, they season it on the outside, and I could tell it was pushing Rory's button because that's not how you're supposed to cook it. You're supposed to season the meat. You know, but I could tell it was pushing a button. So, and he always says he's from South Louisiana, you know, he's not just from Louisiana. I can't say my husband's from Louisiana. My husband's from South Land.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

It's definitely two, it's definitely two different states. If I if I mean we could have a North Louisiana, South Louisiana easily. Absolutely. But uh I do agree. I do agree. Uh Louisianians are very opinionated when it comes to to cooking, no matter what the dish may be. But I think especially crawfish, the way you ball crawfish here in Louisiana is a definitely a coveted thing. And if you don't do it my way, it's the wrong way, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Right?

SPEAKER_00 48:27

I have a funny story. We did my Joe and I did a uh we did a uh crawfish ball event for Academy Sports, where we did like their a marketing thing for them for Academy Sports, and we balled crawfish. Oh, we got so much flack from people because we didn't ball crawfish like they may have balled crawfish. We got beat up so much online, it was unbelievable, you know. But it's the way we've been bawling crawfish all our life.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 48:55

And I said that's what I told him. I said, Well, look, I'm from I'm from South, you know, southwest Louisiana. Uh we uh my tastes are a little bit different than middle Louisiana. They are. We season different, we cook, it's amazing. It changes in the middle of Louisiana, North Louisiana something. It really does.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

And I was like, so look, that's it's a hard line between there's a hard line between South Louisiana and North Louisiana, and it's not just the food, but it's the accent, it's everything. I mean, it's yeah, it's the way of life, it's it's everything. It's a really hard line. Um I think to your, you know, we talked about Turkey Creek, and it's kind of like it's almost like right there between Hill Platte and Turkey Creek.

SPEAKER_04 49:30

It's not far above that. That's the truth. I grew up in Moss Bluff just across the river from Lake Charles, and our family over there in y'all's area, I mean, loads of family in that whole area. Uh, of course, I got family in Baton Rouge in New Orleans, you know, they all spread out as time goes along. But uh man, it's it's very different when we have um Thanksgiving down in South Louisiana versus Thanksgiving with her family.

SPEAKER_07 49:52

Man, the food is the the Louisianans in my family on my side.

SPEAKER_01 49:57

Yeah, it's like night and day. I mean, is it?

SPEAKER_00 50:00

I bet. I bet. But it's fun to experience that too, you know. It's fun to see how everyone does it differently, you know. It's yeah, because sometimes you never know what you might find. You know, you know, I married uh married a Persian girl, and like I had never really been exposed to you know Persian cuisine. Uh, but now I mean I eat it, I love it. It's incredible, you know, something that I wouldn't wouldn't maybe have tried before, but yeah, the exposure to it is just a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

We love that stuff. We travel around the world and and being able to experience cultures and their food, and coming from a culture that is so deep in South Louisiana, and our food is so important, it's really great to experience that with other cultures as well and see what we can adopt and bring home.

SPEAKER_07 50:40

We have this thing that's this season we're calling it room to home.

SPEAKER_04 50:44

So we we go around and find things and learn them and adopt them and bring them back. So even the way we season our food between the two of us is different than if my family in Louisiana now, either.

SPEAKER_07 50:54

And we do because I'm from New Mexico, we end up doing a lot of things that combine Cajun and New Mexican flavors, you know. So I'm sure at home you have Persian and Cajun flavors mixed together in some.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Oh, yeah. Definitely. We call we call it Persian.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 51:13

But yeah, I agree. You know, we travel, we travel all over the world now with Slappy Mama, you know, try and we sell all over the world now too. But uh I do a lot of traveling to all the food shows and things like that around the world. And it's really cool to see people embracing the Cajun culture and wanting to learn more about it. And really, a lot of times what we find is a lot of people experience it for the first time, you know, using our seasoning, which is so cool to see because we have such a unique culture in Louisiana and South Louisiana, whatever it may be. It's so fun to share that with people and spread that culture around the world.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

So it's it's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

That's one of the that's one of the things I love most about what I do with uh Slappy Mama.

SPEAKER_07 51:54

So Yeah, I love that you have a job traveling.

SPEAKER_04 51:58

Yeah, we we have in Europe obviously French friends, whether it's Belgium or France or Switzerland, wherever they're from. And they love the fact that I'm from South Louisiana. And one of the first things over the years that I've heard them do when they introduce introduce me to their new friends is that they tell my French, he's from Louisiana. And they look at me like, oh, wow, yeah, he's speak French to him. And so they we were having dinner one night, and they said, Hey, you have somebody that we can call? They wanted to call Louisiana and talk to a friend of mine so they could he could speak Cajun because my French, you know, we grew up more Parisian, you know, more the uh proper French, proper French. And so I called Proper French, yeah. Yeah, I called a buddy of mine so they could try and have a conversation between Cajun and Cajun and French. They were just outside of man.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

I mean, it's a big deal, you know.

SPEAKER_00 52:46

That is a big deal, yeah. I bet it's cool for them too, because it's such a different dialect compared to what you know they're accustomed to. It's real cool.

SPEAKER_04 52:53

And and and look, we're all proud of our heritage. I mean, in South Louisiana, whatever that is, right? We're I mean, it's a very deep culture. We love our music, we love our food, we love the culture of us being a friendly, outgoing, hospitable people. Man, it's fun to take that around the world and export it. I mean, really.

SPEAKER_02 53:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

Well it really is. It is, it is, and and and like I said, people are so they love it too. They embrace it, they they want it because it's such a unique thing. You're not you really can't find it anywhere else except for that little pocket in the world. Yep, that's right.

SPEAKER_07 53:26

It's fun too that you get to bring part of yourself to the different areas. And I also love that, you know, we have listeners mostly in the US, but we have because we tour in Europe every year, we have followers in Europe and UK. And so you guys, even y'all, can go out and get you some slap your mama in your stores and things like that. So we're gonna put links in the show notes to where y'all, you know, do you have a store locator on your site or something like that?

SPEAKER_00 53:56

We do, we have we have one, but it's only for um United States. It doesn't do our international yet, but people can definitely find it internationally for sure.

SPEAKER_07 54:05

So yeah, okay, fun. Can I digress real quick while we're on the travel subject since our we our podcast is basically travel podcast? Any kind of just travel tips that you have run across. I'm just I'm chasing a rabbit over here, but things that help you travel more efficiently, or maybe just a little travel hack that you've run across. You're having to look things for expo, you're having to, you know, business differently than we do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

I know one thing I've learned over the course of my travels is it's very important to pack um the essentials in your carry-on. I've had so many, so much lost luggage and lost so many of the essentials where I'm left with nothing. I'm going to these shows, no shirt, no, you know, none of the things that I need to be as successful as I'd like to be. So that's one of the things. Another thing is, you know, bland food in airports is just absolute, it's the worst. I don't have any on me, but we have like little seasoning packets, and uh I take those with me when I travel. And I I bust those like little sugar packs, you know, I bust those open wherever I'm at. So I'm always trying to eat good. So I'm not gonna let a little airport food keep me down.

SPEAKER_07 55:23

Yeah. I love it. It's great, man. Well, okay, so solution number one, we're actually gonna address that in our next episode at IS for Innovation. Where we have a very cool suitcase we're gonna be showing you guys that will help exactly what Jack just talked about. And then with your product, I love that you have these on the go. And you have so you have the on-the-go seasoning packets, but you also have the on-the-go hot sauce, right?

SPEAKER_00 55:47

Yeah, so we have the on-the-go hot sauce as well. It's like, I wish I had one with me too. It's a 1.7 ounce, they're pretty small, but easy to put in your pocket or in a bag, take with you. Uh, you can travel with them with TSA with no issues. So that's a good thing. But yeah, nice and convenient. We have some something else coming out too, which is cool. We have these little snack size pecan, yeah, like a spicy pecan. So that's a really cool one. We have a uh kiss your mama one too, where it's like a sweeter version, and those are you know, it's cool. It's good. If you need to stay up for like some type of travel stuff, eat the spicy one.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

Yes, I love it. Kiss your mama instead of slap your mama because they're sweet.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

Because it's sweet, that's right.

SPEAKER_07 56:26

That's right. And you can go to their socials at at kiss your mama.

SPEAKER_02 56:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 56:31

So that's so cool. That's right. All right, so let's you've got your uh kiss your mama line, but let's dive into the line itself. What do you feel sets you apart? You mentioned maybe less salt or something like that. Like, why would we want to be slap your mama versus another brand?

unknown 56:47

Besides.

SPEAKER_00 56:48

So when we initially cre when we initially created the the product, our original blend, which is you know, our original blend is yellow canister. When we originally created that, it was um, you know, to create something that had less salt. So that was our number one driving factor when we first developed the seasoning. What we find now is that obviously people are still looking for great flavor, looking for less, you know, salty seasoning, such as that. But we're also finding that people love the brand name and they love the fun that it brings to the kitchen or to their cooking. And that really helps, you know, drive the drive the uniqueness and the differentiation between other brands. And then just the quality of the product keeps people coming back for more. Definitely people that are unfamiliar with with the Slappy Mama brand are are captivated by wow, can't wow, there's really a seasoning called Slappy Mama. Like, I gotta give this a try, you know. So they give it a try and they realize, like, oh man, this is super versatile, not super salty, and I can, you know, it's delicious. So yeah, it's a good easy choice whenever you're looking for something that can satisfy a lot.

SPEAKER_04 57:52

Yeah. Well, an encouragement to anybody who's thinking, man, that name, my mom, she loves the name. She's uh 89 years old. And every time she says that, and look, for someone who's in their 80s to switch from a one that we you know that's ruled South Louisiana, right? To switch over, that's a big deal. She switched like five years ago, and she every time she says the name, it's like she smiles. Your mama. Yeah, she loves saying it because she's my mama, right?

SPEAKER_01 58:20

Four boys, one girl. Yep, right. Let's say it.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

She loves chuckling back. I love to hear that. I know. Look, when we were when we were uh naming it, we actually went to my grandma grandmother's and were like, hey, are y'all okay if we create this item and call it?

SPEAKER_08 58:34

Are we offending you?

SPEAKER_00 58:37

Yes, exactly. And they were like, No, it's all good. So, but like I said at the beginning, that's one of the best decisions we've ever made was to call it Slappy Mama. People really enjoy it and have fun with it. You know, it's a fun brand.

SPEAKER_04 58:49

So it's super clever with the kiss you mama thing. I mean, yeah, you guys are on it, man.

SPEAKER_00 58:53

Oh, thank you. Yeah, we have a cinnamon sugar item with the kiss you mama, and then like I said, we have the pecans, and then uh we actually have some fun items coming out shortly here in the spring, too. So I might have to uh send y'all some of those samples once we have them come out.

SPEAKER_07 59:07

Yeah. Now, do you have any like certifications or anything that are added to your brand? Like, is it kosher fair?

SPEAKER_00 59:15

Yes, our seasonings and our hot sauces are gluten-free, they're kosher, you know, no MSG, no GMOs. We try to keep a pretty, pretty clean product when it comes to our ingredients. You know, we just want to make quality products, yeah. And the obviously, like with our dinner mixes and stuff, to really get the flavors down, they're not as clean. There's some stuff in there, but you know, that's where you get that's where that's how you're able to create those flavors. But with our seasonings and our hot sauces and those items, we keep everything as clean as we can. So it's it's you know, we want a quality item out there, a quality product that people can use. I mean, we use it, you know, and I try to eat healthy as uh as possible. So yeah. We try to create things that we're gonna we'll consume ourselves as well.

SPEAKER_01 59:57

Right. Yeah, yeah. And you wouldn't feel bad asking your grandmother to consume it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:01

Exactly right, exactly right. That's actually how we we, you know, when we're developing new new products, we uh, you know, we we have to get taste testers out there, and so what we do is we just invite all of our family and friends over, and everybody comes over, and you know, we're not gonna feed anybody bad stuff or stuff that's not quality. So we're making quality stuff and we're that's how we're testing it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:21

Anywhere in that Lafayette area. I mean, that's like you're not gonna get much better palates for tasting what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

Oh, yeah. That's the truth. Exactly right. Yep. And people are people are excited to come taste test too. Let me tell you. There's a people knocking down the door to come taste test. I bet, dude.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:41

So you mentioned like some meal prep. So do you want to just give an idea of like your you have a wide variety of things. You have your new pecans you mentioned. So you've got your seasonings, your hot sauce, your pecans, and then uh folks can go to your website and find quite a bit of other options, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:59

They can they can go to slappymama.com. We have, like I said, our seasonings. Uh we have our hot sauces, we have a buffalo wing sauce, we have like a jambalaya, a dinner, you know, uh ribbings and rice, we have etuffet, different dinner mixes, fish fry, the pecans we have that you mentioned. And then we have a lot of fun merch stuff too, you know, different slappy mama, kissy mama gear, uh, whether it's mugs or some wooden spoons or cutting boards. You know, everything's a slappymama.com, but yeah, different things. We're always trying to create new things too. So there's always new things being added as far as uh fun items. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:33

Well, we love really like promoting and sharing brands that make life on the go very easy. And so your prepared dinner mixes and stuff like that, that makes it an easy dinner. You're running all day and you don't have time to spend hours in the kitchen. So it's really nice that you have our gonna taste really good. Yeah, you're gonna get a tasty dinner.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

Oh, yeah. We try to keep we try to keep that authentic flavor true, you know. So man, I love that.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:02

Yeah, I was saying, you know, how we like to share our culture. When we find something that that we like that is a part of our culture that we integrate into our lives, it's just super fun to share, man.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:11

So speaking of sharing, yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:16

Well, speaking of sharing, we are gonna be doing a giveaway. Slap Your Mama is doing a giveaway, giving y'all about a hundred dollar value care package of like just a nice fun assortment of goodies from Slap Your Mama. So thank y'all so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:33

Oh, yeah. Um yeah, you're very well. I'm not sure what's gonna be in it. I just know there's gonna be, you know, a lot of the food items, some merch, different things like that. So uh it should be a pretty good basket. I'm just I'm not sure exactly what's in it, but it'll be it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:46

Well, I'm sure it'll be awesome, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:48

A Slap Your Mama surprise. So, y'all to enter, we're gonna we're gonna put a link to the giveaway in the show notes. And so you can go to the show notes, click that link. We're also gonna have a pinned post on our Instagram at the Romies, and you can enter uh there. You'll just comment, gather, and uh we'll send you a DM with that link so you can connect with the giveaway, get you some free stuff. If you are listening, you know, in three years from now, then the giveaway is no longer available.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:24

So now is.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:26

I mean so uh we are going to we are recording this in 2026. The giveaway will end on April 20th of 2026. No, on the 19th. Sorry, we're gonna announce the winner on April 20th of 2026. So if you are listening down the road, you can always just go to our socials and see who won.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:45

Yeah, just go buy yourself some slappy mama.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:47

Just go buy some slappy mama. You just visit it. There you go. Go buy some Snappy Mama. Easy. Come on, man. Easy peasy, bro. If you can't win it now, buy it later. Buy it now anyway.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

That's right. Buy it now and later, and keep on buying it. That's it.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:01

Jeff. We've we've talked about your family, your brothers, how it all started, the history, and all that. And uh, we just want to congratulate you on your new addition to your family. You just had a new baby, and we want to thank you. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

Man, congrats, bro. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I'm in the middle of uh learning how to do how to deal with two under two, so it's it's it's a fun adventure over here for sure. Man, no doubt.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:28

You're always on the move and always on the go.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:30

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

There's a lot of kissing mama on your house.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:35

There is a lot of kissing mama going on in the house right now. You're right. You're cooking with a lot of slap, but there's a lot of kiss going on, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:44

The slap and it'll start next years.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

Yes, sir. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:50

Get them in their toddler years. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:53

Oh man. Oh man.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:56

Well, hey, congrats. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for joining us. Thank y'all episode. And uh, we look forward to having people hop on and join us and continue the journey.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:06

Awesome. Thank y'all so much. It's been a pleasure. It's a pleasure meeting you guys as well. Thank y'all.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:11

You too, bro. You too, man. Have a good one.

Final Takeaways And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_00 1:05:13

All right. Y'all too. Bye.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:15

This episode is all about what makes gathering easier, especially outdoors and/or especially in your garden area.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:22

Whatever you define as your garden area, when we go overseas, their yard, they call their garden. And it's just a yard. Yeah. So that's your garden.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:29

There you go. Anything that helps people spend more time outside connected and comfortable is something we are paying attention to this year. So whether it's gardens you visited, gatherings you're hosting, or recipes you're known for, making G is really about creating spaces where people feel welcome.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:49

Making people feel connected, a part of something. And this is specifically about letting travel shape how you live in gatherings, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:00

Just where you go.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:00

Not just where you go.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:01

Right, but how you can bring it home. So, as always, follow us along on our socials for the gazebo progress, the gumbo cooking, and everything we're building slowly and intentionally. This has been G for Gather.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:19

Gathering, yes, and gumbo.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:21

And good.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:25

And gear.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:27

Gazpacho.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:32

And gluttony. We hope we've inspired you this episode.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:43

So join us next time.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:44

Please subscribe to, rate, and share our podcast with your friends.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:47

Or, you know, whomever.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:49

And please like and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:52

We are also on X and on all social platforms. We are at The Roamies. That's T-H-E. R-O-A-M-I-E-S. And our main hub is our website.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:03

At www.theromies.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:06

That's right, that's T H E.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:08

R O A M I E S dot com. We'll be there until next time. Yeah, thanks for listening. Bye.