Fat Tuesday

Well we’re back to that time of year again, Mardi Gras. Unfortunate timing this year that Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day are backed up so close together, but we couldn’t resist doing some fun New Orleans recipes for you.

First up, let’s get our cocktail game started. We made our very own Hurricanes. We simplified some of the more detailed recipes usually found. All you need is mango passion fruit juice, lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice, white rum and dark rum. These are strong drinks, fit for anyone ready to party Mardi Gras style!

Starting with our appetizers we decided to do scallops with a sweet chili sauce. A very simple dish, you thaw the scallops and simply dry with paper toweling, sear both sides, then serve with sweet chili sauce.

Our main course was Jambalaya, though instead of Andouille Sausage, we used Festival’s Cheddar Chicken Fajita Brats. It’s a fairly simple recipe that doesn’t take very many steps to complete. First you cook your chicken in a large pot. Once cooked, you toss in your chopped onion, celery, green pepper, and garlic. After mixing those together, add in your spices, cayenne pepper, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Next you add chicken stock, Worcestershire, hot pepper sauce, diced tomatoes, and uncooked rice (we used Zatarain’s Jambalaya mix). After heating through, we added our Cheddar Chicken Fajita Brats, already cooked and sliced, to be heated with the rest of the ingredients. It was a amazing, and I definitely went back for seconds (and thirds).

Our Chihuahua, Bear, always has to keep an eye on kitchen activities.

Laura had the most important role of dessert duty. We made our own King Cake using cinnamon rolls and sugar cookies with Mardi Gras themed sprinkles. For the Cinnamon Roll King Cake, you simply coat a bundt cake pan with butter and cinnamon/brown sugar. Then you lay your cinnamon rolls down, slightly stacking and layering them next to each other. After baking, you remove from the pan, then add your icing and top with purple, yellow and green sprinkles!

For the Mardi Gras Sugar Cookies we used Pillsbury Ready to Bake refrigerated sugar cookies and Pillsbury vanilla creamy ready-to-spread frosting. Bake the cookies as instructed on the packages. Once done, add your vanilla frosting and top with purple, yellow, and green sprinkles. Simple and delicious.