When some restaurants are closed, some groceries close early, roads are treacherous — and besides, who wants to get out when temps are in single digits — what do you eat?

Monday was a chili, soup and gumbo kind of day. And sure, it’s Mardi Gras, but it’s not like too many folks would be out dancing in the streets this year even if they weren’t covered with snow.

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A pot of gumbo was right for the weather and happened to coincide with the holiday for Desi Franklin.

“Oh, that’s right, it’s Mardi Gras. I was just cooking gumbo because it’s something to do,” she said. “I thought it would be something good to share with the neighbors.”

In her case, the neighbors helped it happen. She had andouille and chicken, but she didn’t have bell peppers or okra.

So she posted on Facebook to see if her friends thought the streets were safe to drive., was told no, found out that The Fresh Market on Union had already closed, and didn’t want to venture farther than that from her Midtown home.

As it turned out, a neighbor had bell peppers, so Franklin and the dog walked down to get them. When she realized a bit later she didn’t have filé powder, another neighbor came through and she retrieved that.

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In the end, she had everything except okra and she went ahead, using this Gumbo Ya-Ya recipe from Mr. B’s in New Orleans. 

“I figure you can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” she said.

Franklin was one of dozens of people who shared what they were cooking with us on Table Talk. Other impressive meals include a creamy Indian saag, a couple of versions of vegetable beef soup, chicken pot pies, red beans and rice, pot roast, and of course, chili.

Kelvin Gates, who lives in Lakeland, looks for any reason to be in the kitchen, whether he’s cooking at home, tailgating for a big group or showing out for his church. During COVID he’s been hunkered in and has started making YouTube videos.

“My college friends and my church group follow it,” he said. “I do it because it’s fun.”

On Monday, he made a pot of chili, though he had other things on his mind first.

“I’ve been out and about in the snow, acting like a big kid,” he said. “I don’t remember it snowing like this the whole time I’ve lived here.”

Gates likes spicy and over-the-top food. He’ll make Dagwood sandwiches to eat and share on Facebook, and a few years ago even enticed Elwood’s Shack owner Tim Bednarski to introduce Eggs Kelvin to the menu when he suggested that eggs and ribs were a match made for Memphis.

His snow-day chili is aptly named, as it’s one he created for last year’s Polar Bear Plunge & Chili Cookoff. Like much of what he makes, it’s a mashup dish of ingredients that Gates says just work together.

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“I like using chorizo with Italian sausage,” he said. “You get the Italian for the sweetness and the chorizo for the spiciness.

“Then you know I love peppers. I probably like way more bell peppers and onions than the average person does in my chili. They sweat down a lot, but still it’s two green bell peppers, two red peppers and two onions.”

The key to any chili, he said, is blooming the spices at the bottom of the pan instead of adding them on top of the ingredients. He also adds a jar of spaghetti sauce.

“I entered a chili contest last year and I found out that people really like a tang, and the spaghetti sauce gives it that. It also makes it thick,” he said.

But Angela Williams wowed us with something a little different: Blueberry turnovers that she says were easy, even if they were impressive.

“They could’ve been even simpler because the recipes I looked up just called for preserves, but I had blueberries I wanted to use so I cooked them down,” she said.

So here’s what she did. She made the filling from the blog whatmollymade.com, used an icing she found on pillsbury.com, though she substituted orange juice for the milk.

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“And I always have puff pastry in the freezer, so I was ready to go,” she said. “I’ve never seen a glaze that uses butter, but it was so good and that orange juice made it so good,” she said.

She brushed the puff pastry with a little egg wash after she filled and folded the pastries (simply, one diagonal fold in the middle), and baked them at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

“I’m telling you, they were so good,” she said. “(My husband) has already eaten two and I ate one. They’re great.”