Mardi Gras Madness

Happy Fat Tuesday. If you are doing a late scramble as to what to serve for Mardi Gras dinner, here's a reminder of the collection of recipes I recently posted. Earlier today at my gym, I overheard a hilarious exchange regarding the day. One woman (and these ladies were twenty-somethings, not the retired crowd) said to the other, "You have to get some gold beads," to which the other replied, "I need old beets, wha???" At least even in misunderstandings, Boulderites' thoughts turn to veggies.

Mardi Gras Coming Up

Okay, so how much partying can a body take in a week? Besides the Super Bowl tomorrow and Chinese New Year Monday, we have Mardi Gras on Tuesday (plus don't forget Valentine's Day on the horizon). If you are looking to laissez les bons temps rouler, consider these: 31 New Orleans Classics for Mardi Gras from Southern Living magazine (and they should know a thing or two about that), or Mardi Gras Recipes from Allrecipes.com.

Happy Fat Tuesday

Well, happy Mardi Gras, and I hope you've avoided those king cakes loaded with nasty colorings  In any case here's Food and Wine's take on what to do today:  http://www.foodandwine.com/mardi-gras-recipes

Mardi Gras Tomorrow

Happy snowy Presidents' Day, Boulder. Not exactly a big culinary holiday, cherry pie being about as far as one could stretch it, although Thomas Jefferson was quite the gourmand, could be some opportunity there even though his birthday is not one of the two being celebrated. But tomorrow we have Mardi Gras. so look quite a few posts down for the guides I posted about that. In this house, dinner will be Creole chicken and ham fried rice from Food and Wine magazine. Remember to wear your purple, green and gold, and laissez les bons temps rouler!

Getting Ready For Mardi Gras

We haven't gotten through Valentine's Day yet, but it's also time to start thinking about how to laissez les bons temps rouler, with Mardi Gras coming up on the 17th, just a week from tomorrow. If you are looking for a little culinary inspiration, here are a few guides to help you out (and I'll definitely pass on the king cake): Recipes for Mardi Gras from Epicurious, Classic Mardi Gras Recipes from Saveur magazine, and F & W's Ultimate Guide to Mardi Gras from Food and Wine magazine.

Happy Mardi Gras

Today's Fat Tuesday, so don't forget to wear your purple, green and gold, plus your beads, if you have them. If you're still looking around for a culinary way to celebrate, here's a reminder of the post I did a bit ago with some good guides. Me, I've got my jambalaya already made, so we're set to easily laissez les bons temps rouler.

Mardi Gras Tuesday

Once you've gotten through your Oscar's partying tomorrow, it will be time to move on to an even bigger one for Tuesday, Mardi Gras. Here are a few guides to help you laissez les bons temps rouler: Mardi Gras Recipes and Party Ideas from Epicurious, Classic New Orleans Cuisine from Cooking Light, and F&W's Ultimate Guide to Mardi Gras from Food and Wine magazine. And indeed, if you plan to invite friends to laissez les bons temps rouler, please try to spell it correctly, as it is so frequently done using bon not matching the plural les temps, and roulez instead of the infinitive. Picky, I know.

Fat Tuesday Liquor Mart Party Tomorrow

Our Boulder Liquor Mart is set to laissez les bons temps rouler for Mardi Gras with a Fat Tuesday party tomorrow (the 12th) from 4 to 6 pm.  They say they'll have king cake (I'll skip that), crawfish boil, product demos, and much more.

Mardi Gras Tasting In Superior Tomorrow

I'll definitely be busy with my own Fat Tuesday plans for tomorrow, but here's an interesting announcement from the Whole Foods in Superior, especially if you don't have time to do your own celebration and/or don't have a clue about its culinary possibilities.  Here are the details from them:

Mardi Gras Tasting

Tuesday, February 12th


5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Superior Whole Foods Market, Free Mardi Gras Tasting

Join us on Tuesday evening and celebrate Mardi Gras with us! Customers will vote on their favorite dish featured in each department with a Cajun favor and favorite decorated demo table

Weekday Dinner Ideas

My, what a week, with both Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day falling within it.  Always fun to celebrate, but midweek cooking also needs to stay pretty quick and easy, and I think I've got it down.

For an easy start to an easy week, we'll start with something I almost never do for tomorrow:  actual beef burgers.  This is inspired by today being the last day of Sprouts' 72-hour sale that includes grass-fed organic ground beef for the excellent price of $3.99 a pound (the sale price rises to $6.99 after today, which shows you how good today's price is).  I'll try to emulate the excellent Hatch chile burgers I've had from Whole Foods by dicing one or two chiles pulled from my stock in the freezer to mix into the burger.  Sprouts also has five pound bags of organic russets for $2.50 a bag, suggesting microwaved "baked" potatoes on the side, and don't forget their asparagus at $1.49 a pound through Wednesday for something green.

Tuesday, we'll be ready to laissez les bons temps rouler for Mardi Gras, but unlike some folks in New Orleans, we don't have the whole day available to prepare the celebrations.  I fixed that by planning my big gumbo for this weekend (see the weekend post), so we'll do a quick reheat of it for Tuesday evening.  With some rice to go under the gumbo and a salad to go on the side, we'll have plenty of time to devote to the cocktails and bead-wearing.

Having kind of burned out on cooking recently, I'm continuing my easy week plan for Wednesday with another easy reheat, the comfort food baked rigatoni with ricotta and collard greens from MyRecipes.com.  Some more of that $1.49 a pound asparagus from Sprouts will probably go on the side on the last day of the sale.

I'll need to perk up a bit on the cooking front for Thursday, since that's Valentine's Day.  Since I don't think presenting your sweetie with a butter-topped ribeye steak and a cheese and sour cream potato gratin on the side, with a 1000 calorie dessert is the best way to say "I Love You" (isn't that more like saying "Have you made your final directives?"), we have a traditional meal for the day that's delicious, quick and easy, and probably gets the nod from nutritionists:  salmon, mustard greens and potatoes with mustard-dill glaze from Bon Appetit.  If somebody has something that's more delicious while being equally nutritious, quick, easy, and also reasonably priced, I'd love to hear it.

And that should get us easily through a week that otherwise could have been a lot of work!

Mardi Gras Almost Upon Us

Goodness, what a week we have coming up next week, with both Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day in it.  Since Mardi Gras comes first, on Tuesday the 12th, we'd better get started on that one, so laissez les bons temps rouler!  If you're looking for some culinary help for the celebration, check out some of these guides:  Mardi Gras Recipes and Party Ideas from Epicurious, Classic New Orleans Cuisine from Cooking Light, and Our Essential Mardi Gras Party Menu from Bon Appetit.  I've seen king cakes in Whole Foods already, but I'll save my calories for something with more nutritional merit, or at least something that tastes better.

Mardi Gras Sampling

Our Boulder Sunflower plans to get into the Mardi Gras spirit tomorrow with a Mardi Gras Celebration from 4 to 6 pm. Their calendar encourages you to "while you shop, stop by to try some tasty treats!" And by the way, happy Presidents Day today. So many holidays and events to get us through the doldrums of February.

Rethinking Sunday Dinner

I've already posted plans through tomorrow that include a big fish chowder, smoky shrimp and halibut stew, from Bon Appetit. But duh, with Mardi Gras coming up on Tuesday and no time to compose an appropriate feast on a weeknight, why not replace this weekend's stew with a gumbo that can be a quick reheat on Tuesday? Since my original thinking was inspired by the sale on big domestic shrimp at Sunflower, I'm heading in the direction of a shrimp gumbo. Recipes abound on the web, like sausage and shrimp gumbo from Southern Food. I'm fortunate to have the book, "Talk About Good II: Le Livre De Cuisine Des Acadiens," the second volume produced by the Junior League of Lafayette, Louisiana way back in 1979, acquired on a long ago trip to New Orleans, so what better place to turn for a gumbo recipe? Looks to me like I'll be doing "Mom's shrimp gumbo," a contribution that begins with the instruction, "Fry 4 strips of bacon. Eat bacon and use the fat to saute 1 bunch of green onions..." How could anyone resist an instruction like that??? (Of course, I'd limit the bacon to two strips, to tone it down just a tad, but that's Boulder in 2012.)

Mardi Gras Dinner Planning

If you like to laissez les bons temps rouler for Mardi Gras (next Tuesday, the 21st this year), there are plenty of guides out there to help you celebrate with New Orleans-style cuisine. Check out Mardi Gras Recipes and Party Ideas from Epicurious, Bon Appetit's The Big Easy Made Easy, and Classic Mardi Gras Recipes from Saveur magazine. Just please, spare me the king cake.

Mardi Gras Dinner Ideas

Getting ready to laissez les bons temps rouler on Tuesday? Here are a few menu planning guides for inspiration:

Bon Appetit's The Big Easy Made Easy

Epicurious' A Big Easy Mardi Gras

Saveur's Classic Mardi Gras Recipes

Cooking Light's Classic New Orleans Cuisine

Don't forget to deck yourself out in purple, green, and gold beads, but in my book, you can skip the king cake. What a dull dessert, unless you get the piece with the baby in it.

Mardi Gras Parade!

Count on the Pearl Street Whole Foods to have a good time. They'll be throwing a Mardi Gras parade at 4 on Tuesday. Here are the details from them:

Tuesday, February 16th
Pearl Street Mardi Gras Parade
4pm FREE
It's that time of year again! Make sure you're here when our teams compete for the coveted title of Mardi Gras Master. Customers will vote for the most amazing team float and then we'll march through the store and down Pearl Street. If you're in need of multi-colored plastic beads, do not miss this event!