Mardi Gras

This past fall, our stake at church did a ton of redistricting of the wards, and we were put into a new ward where we know next to no one. On top of that, we were both put into new callings where we don't really have the opportunity to meet anyone new. So Marshall and I have been wanting to have some of the people in our new ward over, to get to know them better. I finally decided to have a Mardi Gras party. 

There are a lot of things from where I grew up that I think are totally normal and things that I think everyone should know because it is just common knowledge. I am learning more and more, being married to Marshall (from California), that what goes on on the East Coast is not necessarily what goes on in the rest of the country. The part of Maryland that I grew up in had a lot of different religions, with ours being one of the smallest. So to me, other kids coming to school on the first Wednesday of March with ashes on their foreheads (for Ash Wednesday) was just what happened. Every year. I was actually a little jealous (mostly because they got to miss school for Mass). 

We invited a bunch of people to our store, had Mardi Gras themed decorations and food, and played some fun games, including Mardi Gras trivia. We had a blast! 

For the Mardi Gras inspired food, we had a pasta dish called Crawfish Monica, Banana Fosters Cupcakes, and a Kings cake. We also had non-alcoholic hurricanes to drink. My best friend from home has spent a lot of time in New Orleans and has a lot of family that lives there, so when we decided to have a Mardi Gras party called her and these were what she recommended. Everything turned out great. I am going to put the recipe for the Crawfish Monica at the end of this post because it was so good! Probably the most fattening food I have ever had, but so good. 

The Kings cake is a Mardi Gras tradition, where an oval shaped cake is made, with a small plastic baby hidden inside. Tradition is that whichever guest at the party gets the baby, they have to bring the Kings cake the following year. The cake is more of a praline filled pastry bread, so it's not as sweet as a cake, but very good. I hid the baby under a piece of the cake (which you can see in the picture) because I didn't feel like it was very safe to put it inside. 

 We had party hats, beads and masks for everyone as they walked in.

 I went to a store here called World Market, where I found a bunch of Louisiana inspired food and drinks. We had two prizes for the party, which consisted of Swamp Pop, Dirty Rice and Cajun Chips. Instead of following the tradition of the Kings cake, we just gave our guest that found the baby one of the prizes we had. For the second prize, we had a raffle. We also had little bags of chocolate coins (to represent the doubloons they throw at Mardi Gras parades) for the winning team of the Mardi Gras trivia game we played.

We had so much fun at this party and glad for our new friends that were able to make it. 

 I found this recipe through Pinterest (of course!), on a blog called Bless Their Hearts Mom.

  Crawfish Monica
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 pint half and half

1 cup whipping cream 

6 green onions, chopped 

1 stick butter 

1 pound peeled Louisiana crawfish tails with fat (or you can use shrimp)

salt and pepepr to taste

pinch of thyme

2 garlic gloves, crushed 

Tony Chachere's or Cajun spice to taste

1 lb cooked rotinii or fettucini, cooked

1 3/4 cp fresjly grated parmssan cheese

Directions:
1. Combine half-and-half and cream in a saucepan and reduce slightly, about 10 minutes. 
2. Saute onions in butter. Add crawfish, seasonings and cream and reduce a little more until creamy. 
3. Pour over cooked, hot pasta. Add cheese and toss.

(I put mine in my Crockpot just to keep it warm for the party) 

And now, just because I had to....

Last week was my sister-in-laws birthday, so I had the pleasure of watching my niece, Laela, all day so her parents could go out. I am such a proud aunt and just had to share a few of the cute pictures we took that day.