Food! (the gumbo recipe)

Dinner on Tuesday night was quite yummy. We've been eating the leftovers for the last two nights, and it's still delicious! I made this up and tinkered with it to get the desired taste:
Mild Italian sausage, cut into large pieces (I used a package with five links -
ground sausage would work just as well)
Boneless chicken breasts, cut into large pieces (about 1 lb - to save money, cooked
and deboned meat or darker cuts would work well)
Two cans of chicken broth
One large sweet onion, chopped
Ten lovely cherry tomatoes from Big Girl's garden
Two bags of frozen gumbo mix vegetables
One cup rice
Three cups (guesstimate?) water
Half a bottle of beer (I used a dark brown ale)
Salt to taste

I browned the sausage and chicken together and then added the chopped onion, and cooked that on medium heat until the onion started to get slightly caramelized. Then I added the cans of chicken broth and the cherry tomatoes. I let this simmer uncovered for a while (30 minutes?), and during this time I also poured in half a bottle of homebrewed beer. Then I added the frozen vegetables and some water, so that everything would be covered nicely. This simmered for about 30 minutes more, and then I added the rice, a bit of salt, and more water. I covered the pot at this point and played with the kids for a while. When the rice looked done, I served up a few dishes and we tried it out.

The first night, it was good, but the second night it was even better, as the flavors had time to meld together a little more by then. I think next time I'll make some cornbread muffins to go with it. I also plan to use sweet Italian sausage instead of mild on my next attempt, since the spices of the mild sausage overpowered the undertones from the beer.