Happy Mardi Gras, Y’all

Since Mother and Daddy-O were in town and Sister and her littles were over for the day, we went ahead and celebrated Mardi Gras a day early.  It was an exact replica of last year’s celebration, with a divine jambalaya, crusty garlic bread, Throw Me Something, Mister cocktail and a King Krispie Cake to finish us all off.

 

Last year’s tablescape was a little prettier and definitely more photogenic than what I was able to get amidst the doom and gloom of today’s monsoon.

I slightly altered my jambalaya recipe to be better suited to the littles and a little healthier.  See the original here.

 

“Skinny” Tuesday Jambalaya
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large onions, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
4 celery stalks, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (16-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne
1 teaspoon browning sauce (Kitchen Bouquet brand is in a small bottle near condiments)
2 cups brown rice
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, shredded
3/4 pound smoked turkey sausage, cut into slices
- Warm the oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, peppers, and celery and sauté until they are soft and tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 5 minutes more.
- Stir in the tomatoes, broth, bay leaf, cumin, thyme, cayenne, and browning sauce and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the rice, chicken, and sausage, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Cook the jambalaya until almost all the liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Stir it occasionally to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Remove the pot from the heat and let the jambalaya stand until all the liquid is completely absorbed, about 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and serve.

Find the King Krispie Cake recipe here.  This year I used colored sugar sprinkles from Michael’s and I definitely think the sugars I colored myself last year worked better. I’ve also decided that you can leave off the powdered sugar icing and just mold your regular rice krispie recipe into a ring and then douse with colored sugar.

Find the Throw Me Something, Mister cocktail recipe here.  It’s inspired by the requisite Mardi Gras king cake and is really quite delish!  I’m going to have to make this one more often.

Per usual, the littles were super silly.  I’m not sure sweet CeeCee has much of a shot at being normal with the loons keeping her company most days :-)

 

Mother was a doll to clean up after supper so that I could end my night looking at this sweet face…

Happy Mardi Gras, ya’ll!

xoxo

 

See all of my Mardi Gras ideas, treats and printables here!!

Find me at: My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Tatertots and Jello, A Stroll Through Life, French Country Cottage, No Minimalist Here, The36th Avenue, It's Overflowing, Shine on Fridays, DIY Show Off, House of Hepworth, 52 Mantels, I Heart Nap Time, The Frugal Girls,Six Sisters Stuff, One Project Closer, Jennifer Rizzo, Le Chateau des Fleurs, Common Ground, Liz Marie Blog, Not Just a Housewife

Fat Tuesday

What’s not to love about Fat Tuesday, the last hurrah before the commencement of Lent!?!?  We celebrated over jambalaya, crusty french bread, our signature Throw Me Something, Mister cocktail and a King Krispie cake.



I picked up the beads, coins and festive glasses at the Dollar Tree (you’d think I was earning some sort of kick back based on how often I reference that place.)  For napkins, I repurposed the set of four fleur de lis dish towels hand made by Mother. 




Jambalaya
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large onions, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
4 celery stalks, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (16-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon browning sauce (Kitchen Bouquet brand is in a small bottle near condiments)
2 cups long grain white rice
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
3/4 pound andouille sausage, cut into slices
- Warm the oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, peppers, and celery and sauté until they are soft and tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 5 minutes more.
- Stir in the tomatoes, broth, bay leaf, cumin, thyme, cayenne, hot sauce, and browning sauce and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the rice, chicken, and sausage, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Cook the jambalaya until almost all the liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Stir it occasionally to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Remove the pot from the heat and let the jambalaya stand until all the liquid is completely absorbed, about 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and serve.


*My littles eat pretty much anything, yet it was just a tiny too spicy for Whit.  I recommend cutting back or excluding hot sauce and perhaps substituting a regular smoked sausage for the andouille if your kids don’t like spicy foods.

King Krispie recipe here.
Throw Me Something, Mister Cocktail recipe here.

As all revelers should do on Fat Tuesday, we lived it up...donning our silly glasses, dining on delish food, chatting about our days and regarding the coins and beads as if they were made of solid gold.


Laissez les bon temps rouler!
xoxo

Throw Me Something, Mister Cocktail

I'm pretty certain that a Fat Tuesday fete without a cocktail is, in fact, NO Fat Tuesday fete.  Which is precisely the reason Mother, Sister and I created our very own signature Mardi Gras cocktail last weekend.  (Those of you that know Sister will not find it surprising that what truly happened was that she busied herself tasting and naming the cocktail while Mother and I measured, mixed, squeezed, stirred and then cleaned up from said mixology session.  Semantics, right?)

Anyhoo, Mother received rave reviews on it at her Mardi Gras affairs this weekend and, I must admit, it is some of our best work.

Throw Me Something, Mister Cocktail
4 oz. vanilla vodka
2 oz. amaretto
4 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 tsp. coconut extract
Juice of 1 – 1 1/2 limes
Ginger ale to taste
- Rim glasses with tinted sugar (more on that here) and fill half way with crushed ice.
- Mix vodka, amaretto, juices and extract.  Divide between two to three prepared glasses, depending on how strong you like them and how big your glasses are.
- Add ginger ale to taste.

* I estimate we had 4 oz. of the mixture in each glass and then another 2 oz. of ginger ale and they were perfect!!

Cheers, y'all!
xoxo

PS. THANK YOU for your support of our Chili & Beer Tasting party in the Party Party Contest.  We took THIRD PLACE!!  And our April Fools Day Dinner received the "Most Fun" Award.

King Krispie

Bestie B hails from New Orleans and ever since our first year in college when her momma mailed us a King Cake straight from the Crescent City I’ve been smitten with the convivial confection.  Over the years, I’ve tried my hand and baking King Cakes the traditional way…and, I tell you what, it never ended well. Once the real deal has crossed these lips, there’s just no turning back.  So, rather than spending hours in the kitchen this morning to be left with a disappointing imposter, I turned out a new creation for our Fat Tuesday supper.  Let me introduce you to the KING KRISPIE!


I am SUPER DUPER ExCiTeD to present this festive fare to the littles.  And I’m thrilled with just how easy it is to throw together!

King Krispie Cake
You’ll need:
A full recipe of Rice Krispie Treats according to your preferred directions
Powdered sugar and water for glaze
Purple, gold and green tinted sugar
Cooking spray
A plastic baby (optional)

- Lightly grease a large cake plate.  Form a ring out of aluminum foil (this will help get the shape right) and grease with cooking spray
- Spoon your fresh/warm batch of Rice Krispie Treats onto prepared plate.

- Remove the foil ring.  Lightly coat your hands with cooking spray and form the Rice Krispie Treats into the King Cake shape.
- Prepare glaze by mixing powdered sugar and water.  I probably used a cup of powdered sugar and just a little bit of water.  Stir until you get a consistency that is easy to drizzle.  Pour on top of the Rice Krispie Treats.
- Decorate with tinted sugars.

Tinted Sugar
- In a sandwich size zip top bag, add a cup of granulated sugar.
- Add 4-5 drops (or more or less as desired) of food coloring to the bag.  I tried both paste and liquid food coloring and the liquid mixed much better for me.
- Thoroughly mix by shaking, grinding and rubbing the sugar against the counter.  This is a great job for the littles!

Before I let you go, I have to mention how thrilled I am to have our Den Before & After featured over at Remodelaholic today!!! I first met Cassity when we were working on our basement reno last year and am super honored to have her feature another one of our projects.  Pop over and take a peek!!

Happy Mardi Gras, y’all!
xoxo

DIY Mardi Gras Bracelet

Daddy-O fashioned festive Mardi Gras bracelets for his gals a while back and we all look forward to donning them when February rolls around each year!

We happened on the vintage doubloons from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s in Savannah’s 37th and Abercorn Antiques & Design shoppe. Daddy-O used his Dremel tool to make small holes in the top of each coin.  He crafted the three bracelets from one long sterling silver chain and three lobster claw clasps, all purchased at Michael’s.  We were all just as pleased as punch with his handy work – I mean these bracelets are colorful, festive and have the best clink-clanking of any charm bracelet I’ve ever had. 

I'm so flattered to be a finalist in Me and My Insanity's Party Party, and I'd be thrilled if you'd hop over there and give my Chili and Beer Tasting Party a vote.  It only take a few seconds and you don't have to join, sign up or give any personal information.

With that, Mother and Daddy-O are headed back down South after a week long visit, the baby and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first batch of Girl Scout Cookies, the PCP has his first baseball practice of the season and I’m headed out to celebrate bestie F’s birthday this evening!!

xoxo