Last Tuesday, at the last minute, I decided to throw a mini-Mardi-Gras party.
I had no other reason except that I needed an excuse to have a "theme" to the day. (Well, that's not completely true: I also was "kicking off" my Lenten observations, but that's for another post...)
The menu consisted of:
Chicken Creole
King Cake
Virgin Hurricanes
The first thing I had to do was find a couple of people to share in the celebration.
Adam/Amber? busy
Mom/Dad? sick/gone
neighbors? all have bunches of kids that I didn't have the quantity of food to support, plus I hate having people's kids over on a weeknight when they'll probably stay way past my kids' bedtime and throw the week out of cahoots... plus it was totally last-minute, which is no fun for parents...
Anyway, struck out on inviting people...
By the time we had supper, Prairie and Jorgen were cranky and Pippa was still feeling the effects of a weekend illness and didn't even join us (she ate Jell-O on the couch instead...). Neil was unexpectedly late (well, he had said he'd be home early to watch kids so I could run to the store, but I should have known better!) and I had to change the menu late in the day to Southern Gumbo on Couscous.
At the table, Prairie picked at her food and finally announced, "Mom, I don't like this food."
"Well," I answered, "you don't have to like it, you just have to eat it. Sometimes we have to eat stuff we don't like that well." To my surprise, Neil then muttered,
"Even as adults..."
He didn't like it either. At all.
So I thought, heck with it, and served the cake.
How could a cake this pretty be so awful?
Turns out, King Cake is really more of a cinnamon bread than anything else. Tastes like brunch.
And Virgin Hurricanes? Well, I had to invent them because, well, let's face it: real Hurricanes are just orange juice, pineapple juice, and lots of rum. So take away the alcohol and... more breakfast. So I made shakes out of orange juice, pineapple juice (the only stuff I had was leftover from shakes, so it had a bit of banana and ice cream in it!), ice, karo syrup and vanilla.
They were as sickeningly sweet as the real thing, but I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Everyone was happy to be done with food and move on to bath and bed!
Oh well, try again next year maybe. And get around to making those Mardi Gras masks and crowns with the kids! (Oh, to have the time and energy...)
I will post soon about my Lenten practices and how they are going. Thanks for continuing to check in on me, everyone!
God Bless!
