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Amy in the News

Klobuchar serves gumbo to Landrieu

(The Hill)

January 27, 2010

By Christina Wilkie

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) made a special delivery Wednesday to Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office following the Minnesota Vikings’ weekend loss to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC championship game.

As had been previously agreed to in a friendly bet on the game, Klobuchar served Landrieu a gumbo while wearing the jersey of Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

Klobuchar stayed up late Tuesday night cooking the Big Easy specialty stew of shrimp, sausage and okra.

This was the first time the Great Lakes lawmaker had ever made the distinctly Southern dish, and she exclaimed to a staffer earlier that day, “I can’t believe I’m going to have to make a roux!” Roux, a blend of wheat flour and butter, forms the base of gumbo.

Landrieu’s office provided the jersey and threw in a few Mardi Gras beads and a Saints necklace, but as Klobuchar was headed out the door to Landrieu’s office, she couldn’t help but don a Vikings hat for good measure.

Not surprisingly, the Minnesotan and the Louisianan have different ideas of what “spicy” is. Landrieu took one bite of the gumbo and whipped out the hot sauce. Klobuchar tasted the sauce and it burned her mouth, which caused the Southerner to burst out laughing.

Klobuchar later told ITK, “While the gumbo was a bit mild, the Tabasco sauce helped. I’m sure I would have won a ‘best gumbo’ award as long as the judges were more accurate than the referees in the Vikings-Saints game.”

Ouch. The NFL fines players and coaches if they criticize referees. But not senators.

The Saints will face the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.