addisonbeck.com

Gumbo

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 11:12:00 GMT

Makes one big pot

Ingredients

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (250ml) canola or vegetable oil, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour(4 1/2 ounces; 130g)
2 large yellow onions (about 12 ounces; 340g each), cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 green bell peppers (about 7 ounces; 200g each), cut into 1/4-inch dice
4 large celery ribs (9 ounces; 260g total), cut into 1/4-inch dice
8 medium cloves garlic, minced
2lbs of protein (shrimp, grilled chicken, etc.)
1 1/2 pounds Cajun-style andouille sausage (680g; about 8 links), sliced crosswise 1/2 inch thick
1 1/2 quarts (1.4L) chicken stock
2 dried bay leaves
2 large sprigs fresh thyme
1 pound (450g) frozen cut okra, thawed
1/2 teaspoon filé powder, plus more as needed for serving
Warm rice, thinly sliced scallions, and hot sauce, for serving
Seasoning. I recommened a Cajun mix, along with thyme and bay leaves.

Instructions

To make the roux: in a small oven proof vessel combine the flour and oil until homogenous and pasty. Place in an oven set to 350 and stir occasionally for about 4 hours. The roux should be chocolate brown when done, with no scrotching or black flakes. You can do this on the stove for about an hour, whisking constantly, for the same result - but there is a higher risk of burning. The slow oven cook is much more consistent.
In a seperate pot over medium-high heat cook the sausage for about 6 minutes until brown. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
Add onion, bell pepper, and celery and season lightly with salt. Add all of the roux and cook over medium-high heat, stirring and scraping, until softened, about 10 minutes. Lower heat to medium if any of the ingredients threaten to scorch.
Stir in garlic and season, stirring, for 2 minutes longer.
Add stock, bay leaves, and thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer, then allow to cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1.5 hours.
Add okra, if using, along with sausage and shredded chicken, and gently simmer, uncovered, for 25 minutes longer. Add any shrimp and simmer for 5 more minutes. Skim any fat from the surface as it accumulates.
Remove from heat and add filé powder, if using, stirring well to break up any small lumps. Season gumbo with salt. Discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves.
Serve gumbo with warm rice, sprinkling sliced scallions on top of each bowl. Pass hot sauce at the table, as well as filé powder, if desired, to lightly shake on top of each serving of gumbo and rice.

Sides

Cornbread

Notes

Add the okra in the last 30 minutes of cooking to help thicken the stew.
Add any shrimp during the last 5 minutes of cooking to keep them from overcooking.

Make ahead & storage

Gumbo can be refrigerated for 5 days or frozen for 6 months

Addison Beck

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 16:34:00 GMT

My name is Addison. Myself, my wife of 11 years, and our young kids are from the Piedmont region of North Carolina. I'm a software engineer doing really exciting platform development for Bitwarden. Nearly every contribution I have made for the past 5 years can be judged by checking out my Github. I can be reached by email at hello@addisonbeck.com.

RSS Feeds

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:07:00 GMT

The site publishes Atom-compatible RSS feeds, one per tag. Every page on the site is tagged with at least one tag, and each tag gets its own feed.

To find a feed for a specific tag, visit /rss/<tag>.xml on this site — for example, rss/all.xml covers all public notes, and /rss/blog.xml covers notes tagged "blog". If you are not sure which tags exist, browse the notes on the home page and look at the tag listings.

To subscribe, copy the full URL (e.g. https://addisonbeck.com/rss/blog.xml) and paste it into any RSS reader.

To follow notes across multiple tags, subscribe to each feed separately in your reader. I wouldn't recommended subscribing to all. Try blog, recipes, and quotes 😄

Platform Proritization Handoff Meeting Notes

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:33:00 GMT

At work right now I'm moving in to a management role. Today I met with my current manager to discuss how to think about prioritization for a platform team. The biggest take away for me was that one of the most challenging and important part of managing a platform team is defining and implementing on a strong vision for what your team makes and why.

addisonbeck.com

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:06:00 GMT

addisonbeck.com is a web view into my Org Roam document store. I use org roam to organize all sort of things. Personal writings, technical specs for projects I work on, recipes I cook for my family, etc. I work with all the text in Emacs, and use the website as an easy place to share the writing inside with others. It has three main components:

An elisp script that exports my org-roam database to structured json
A bespoke rust renderer converts that json into html
An astro static site wraps, styles, and enhances the rendered html

Source code for each piece is hosted on my Github.

addisonbeck.com Post-Rewrite Review Notes

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:26:00 GMT

After carrying around the idea for over a year I've converted this website into a platform I can write in (hopefully) forever. I wish I had taken a screenshot of the way it looked before (bad) but here is what it looks like right now!

I took these notes during code review. The site came together pretty quickly once I finally had a good pipeline for the data. Previous attempts at this were not satisfying to me, but I like this one.

I'm excited to see how this looks in a month or two!

Cornbread

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 23:32:00 GMT

Makes about 6 servings

Ingredients

140g (1 cup) yellow cornmeal
125g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
100g (1/2 cup) white sugar
2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
1 teaspoon (6g) kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon (2g) baking soda
180ml (3/4 cup) sour cream
120ml (1/2 cup) buttermilk
2 large eggs
45g (3 tablespoons) melted butter, cooled slightly, plus 15g (1 additional tablespoon) for pan
30ml (2 tablespoons) canola oil
170g (6 ounces) Pepper Jack cheese, grated
75g (1/2 cup) finely chopped fresh jalapeños

Instructions

Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet on middle rack in oven and preheat to 425°F (220°C). In a medium bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, buttermilk, eggs, 3 tablespoons melted butter, and canola oil. Pour wet ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients and whisk until completely combined. Stir in cheese and jalapeños.
Using pot holders, carefully remove hot pan from oven. Place 1 tablespoon butter in skillet and swirl to completely melt and coat inside of pan. Pour in cornbread batter and place in oven. Bake until skewer inserted into middle of cornbread comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 5 minutes, then carefully turn out to wire rack and let cool an additional 10 minutes. Serve immediately. Reheat any leftover cornbread before serving again.

Make Ahead And Storage

Dry mix can be put together at any time and stored in an airtight container indefinetly.
Batter can be made and frozen for 3 months, or refrigerated for 24 hours.
Cooked cornbread can be frozen for up to 3 months.