There's a baby in my cake...

"It [Mardi Gras] is a thing that could hardly exist in the practical North....For the soul of it is the romantic, not the funny and the grotesque. Take away the romantic mysteries, the kings and knights and big-sounding titles, and Mardi Gras would die, down there in the South. "

-Mark Twain

Thank you, mama! We're Mardi-Gras-ing it up over here in Georgia!!

Mardi Gras at our house

“Being from Louisiana, we understand the Mardi Gras season. It's a delightful party.”
-Lester Duhe

We will not be hosting any Mardi Gras parties at our house any more. I seem to have some awfully bad luck when I plan such an event. We had to cancel our open house this past weekend so that we could travel to Shreveport, but not before I had started decorating the house.

There are lots of wedding and party planning websites and blogs online these days. But few have ideas and inspiration for Mardi Gras. If you have better luck than me, then Mardi Gras is a great excuse for a party. Can't beat a big pot of red beans and rice, a loaf of French bread, and a giant king cake sent from a Louisiana bakery. Here are some other decorations that I created on the cheap:

1. paper garlands hung in the windows with fishing line, 2. after-Christmas-sale ornaments in a glass bowl, 3. clearance gold glitter bouquet from Michael's, 4. leftover beads overflowing from glass vase, 5. more paper garlands, 6. add purple ribbon to Christmas wreath, and voila! you've got Mardi Gras!

Throw me something, mister!

“Mardi Gras is in our soul.”
-Kim Priez

On Saturday after Poppy's funeral, the grandkids had to get out of the house. Too many tears. Too much time indoors. Too many almost relatives. Too many stories heard too many times. Our times together are never long enough. So despite the sad circumstances, we were determined to enjoy our time together, too.

With Mardi Gras just a couple of days away, one of the annual parades was planned for Saturday evening. We parked the car about half a mile from the parade route, and walked the rest of the way. We had two Mardi Gras newbies in the group, so we were determined to do Mardi Gras right. We strolled the street looking for familiar faces. However, the sun had already set, so instead of friends and former classmates, we only found irritating high schoolers and disgusting white trash.

We turned around and headed back the least crowded spot we had seen, in front of a house up for sale. We stood around for awhile, hoping that it wouldn't be too long until the parade wound its way around to Kings Highway. I mean, it was a chilly night, and we really hadn't wrapped ourselves in enough layers.

Just as we could hear the sirens and see the flashing lights of the police cars clearing the streets, a voice called out, "Hey Callie!" Across the street, our good family friends, three generations of the Parker clan, were gathered. We hurried across the street to greet them.

Parade began. Floats passed. Tow trucks blared. Music blasted. Beads flew. Arms waved. Children danced. Bags were filled. Necks were decorated. Photos were taken.

Afterwards we walked away agreeing that just like Christmas, Mardi Gras is much better with little kids around. You could catch the beads in the air, and then throw them on the ground, excitely yelling, "Look, Raina! Look! There's beads on the ground! Get them! Get them!!"

Let's just say no one walked away empty handed. Only at Mardi Gras are you willing to dive in the street to pick up a string of plastic beads lying in the dirt and then hang them around your neck!

A Cake for Kings

“Mardi Gras is in our soul.”
-Kim Priez

Growing up in Louisiana means that the colors purple, gold, and green decorate the world through February. All of the stores display their plastic beads, doubloons, and masks alongside their hearts, lace, and cupids. All of the bakeries and grocery stores sell king cakes alongside their pink and red cupcakes.

King cake—tastes a bit like bread; a bit like cake. Neither too sweet, nor too bland. It’s also kind of a party game. A plastic baby doll (supposed to be baby Jesus) is hidden inside the cake, and the person who “gets the baby” is supposed to bring the cake the next year. In my senior English class in high school, we had king cake everyday for a whole month—the person who got the baby brought the snack the next day.

In Georgia you can’t just run to the grocery store for a piece of king cake. So I pulled out my handy-dandy Junior League of Shreveport cookbook that we received as a wedding present and attempted my first ever king cake-baking adventure.

The recipe is not really difficult, but it does take a considerable amount of time. Perfect for a novice cook on a lazy Saturday afternoon. After mixing all of the ingredients together, the dough was so sticky that I couldn’t lift my hands off of the baking mat I was working on. Luckily Rob was able to lend a hand, pouring the flour and holding the mat to the counter as I attempted to knead it all together.

I left it to rise for an hour and a half, then shaped it in a ring, and let it rise for another 40 minutes. Then as it baked it continued to grow. After 30 minutes in the oven, I had a gigantic cake on my hands. Then the icing and colored sprinkles got a little bit out of hand. But, in my opinion, you can never have enough sugar. There’s no place nearby where you can just run out and buy a 1 inch plastic baby, so we had to forego that little detail this time around. Note to self: stock up on plastic babies for king cakes in our future! We took the cake and the homemade ice cream (that Rob is making in the photo above) to a Super Bowl Party on Sunday night, where everyone loved it.