Booya

Today I reconnected with the St. Paul side of me by traveling to Frederic, Wisconsin.  I went to a booya.  In St. Paul we had booya every fall.  Booya is a soup cooked in a kettle so large the soup is stirred with a wooden paddle the size of a row boat oar.  It's delicious, as I remember.  I don't eat it anymore because I don't eat meat but it looked delicious.  At this particular party, the booya is from a famed recipe obtained (for a price) from the Sylvan playground near St. Bernard's Church.  With several kinds of meat and lots of vegetables, this booya is not as rich with tomatoes as the booya I remember from the B-Dale Men's Club.  Along with the booya they served bear sausage, chips and tortillas, and about 17 kinds of bars and cupcakes.  I had a great time listening to the live band and reconnecting with family.  My hostess lives on 80 acres of woods in Wisconsin.  Her place is in Wisconsin on the downward slope toward the St. Croix river valley.  She has a lovely place.  She says she is not comfortable walking in her woods anymore because of the high number of bear on her property.  I guess she and her husband must have been good stewards of their land if more bear have decided to claim it as their home.