Chris Rose was on the Newshour earlier this week and said "Of course we're going to celebrate Mardi Gras. We celebrated Christmas, New Year's, so why wouldn't we celebrate our own holiday?"
I celebrate Mardi Gras. It's important to me. Always has been. It's part of my Louisiana heritage. I don't even think about it, it's just something I do. I threw a big party last year, but I'm taking this year off. That doesn't mean I don't celebrate.
Tomorrow, I'm making a king cake and a big pot of duck and sausage gumbo for work. My staff is hosting an afternoon social on Monday for the newest justice and her staff. Today I cooked the duck for the gumbo and made a compilation cd of Mardi Gras party music. It totally rocked! Anybody that wants a copy, just let me know. I'll be happy to loan you one of my personal copies. Wink. Wink.
I'm so funny about recipes. I believe in them but never follow them. I have used the same recipe for duck and sausage gumbo for 30 years. I couldn't find it. I went online and searched. I found plenty of recipes, but none of them even approximated my recipe. I found one on the L.A. Times website, but it's the most awful, untested recipe that you'll ever encounter. I don't really need a recipe for gumbo, I just like to have someone else's opinion.
For the king cake, I'm doing a devil's food cake from a mix that has a praline type sauce and then is covered with whipped cream. I'll write Happy Mardi Gras in purple icing on the top and put a decoration or two on it, and then slip a plastic baby in one of the pieces. Works for me. I don't know if you've ever had a New Orleans style king cake, but they're not very good. They're basically a sweet dough pastry with yucky sweet icing dyed purple, green and gold--the Mardi Gras colors. Mine will be ever so much better.
Happy Mardi Gras, all.
are king cakes the ones where you hide a doll inside or something?
that scares the shit out of me.
Posted by: Crys | February 27, 2006 at 09:20 AM
I'll have some gumbo and a very small piece of cake please,
I gained the weight just reading about it so I may as well
eat it now. :)
Posted by: Vickie | February 27, 2006 at 09:30 AM
I use a little rubber gorilla that's about the size of an acorn. I tried a bean one year, but we never found it, leaving me to believe someone swallowed it. You got to be careful putting foreign objects into food, y'know.
Posted by: Houston | February 27, 2006 at 11:13 AM
I can't imagine anyone who would be more fun to celebrate Mardi Gras with, than you.
Posted by: ellen | February 27, 2006 at 12:32 PM
Duck and sausage gumbo... that sounds SO GOOD.
Posted by: Peter | February 27, 2006 at 05:02 PM