Mardi Gras Celebration

So most people who know me also know that I'm originally from Louisiana. Needless to say, this is one time of the year that I miss being there...not for all of the raucous fun and crazy bead throwing that I wouldn't even want to be a part of but because I have great memories of Mardi Gras.

I remember watching the parades on television at my grandparents' house. When growing up, I collected dolls and one year I got the King and Queen of Mardi Gras from Santa - it was awesome! We always had king cake and whatever Cajun food was on tap at the time - jambalaya, gumbo, etc. When we first moved to Texas, my mom made king cakes for my class and we decorated shoe boxes like floats and had a little parade through the halls. That's the kind of wholesome goodness I want to share with Taylor.

So this year we've decided to bring a little of that fun to Waco, Texas! Thanks to my Mom, who painstakingly compiled a "family" book of recipes a couple of years ago, I was able to quickly get my Paw Paw's famous jambalaya recipe. I also got a good one for king cake but, I must admit, we will be cheating a little bit by starting with canned biscuits instead of making the dough from scratch. You see, I learned about a month ago that active yeast and I are NOT friends.

We're doing our biweekly grocery shopping tonight and will be raiding the Mardi Gras decorations. When we were there last week, they had masks, beads, hats, dubloons, etc. Taylor is super excited and I've almost convinced Dave that he will like jambalaya. You see, he thinks my family and I are a little bit crazy because 'everything y'all eat has rice in it.' Personally, I don't see that as a problem but I guess it could be odd to someone who's not used to it :-)

Just in case you want to have your own Mardi Gras celebration, the recipes can be found at bowersfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com.

Have a great weekend, everyone and Laissez les bon temps rouler!