happy Mardi Gras!...

Fat Tuesday...that's how I felt today after our big lunch(fat and lazy)!

Ughhh...

My kitchen is slowly getting back to normal and cleaned up after all the homemade goodness and HUGE mess today. What the heck was I thinking? Oh...let's have some Steak soup...oh and fresh corn bread...oh and in celebration of Mardi Gras let's make King Cake! Oh yea such a good idea!
It was ALL so wonderful though. Everything was very tasty and enjoyed by our little family.

If you've never had King Cake before, it's similar to a cinnamon roll type cake with a simple icing and colored sugars. It took about 4 1/2 hours total to make. Yeah I know crazy! The reason for the long preparation is because you have yeast setting, dough kneading, dough rising(for 2 hours). Then you make the filing, roll the dough, sprinkle the filling on the dough and roll it up tight. Then let it sit another 45 min. after which you pop it in the oven for 30 min. Next comes the simple icing and then the colored sugar. A long wait I know, but hey...it's Mardi Gras and I wanted to give it a try. And it was really good. The recipe I used was for a serving of 16, so I cut it in half and found no problems(no way did we need that much left over cake just laying around). I even stuck in the little baby that is tradition. I believe the baby is put into the cake and whom ever gets the slice of the cake with the baby makes a wish(or something like that). I also read somewhere that the person that gets the baby hosts the following years' Mardi Gras party.
Anyway, I made it so Hunt got the little baby and he was excited until he noticed that I had amputated the babies little arm. Then the whining came on. Yes...mama accidentally cut the babies arm off while cutting our cake pieces. While eating our cake Hunt kept bring up the fact that the baby needs a "fixed arm". So thank the Lord I have another little baby that I replaced the handicap one with. Hunt never knew the difference. I simply told him I fixed her.
See, mama IS a miracle worker!!! I saved the day!









*I think the cake combined with the icing and colored sugar gave Hunt a sugar rush. He was running around the house like a mad man not too long after eating his cake* *Just a word of caution*

Along with the King Cake Hunt and I made Mardi Gras masks. We painted them yellow last night so that they would be dry today. Then this morning we glued on, buttons, sequins, pom poms and feathers. Added a string and ta da...Mardi Gras masks! I was unable to find those darned beaded necklaces that Mardi Gras is famous for. And, I know we have some. I swear any other time I would have found them without looking, but not last night. Oh well, we managed without them.
(I'll spare you the photo of mama wearing her mask)...






Hope you enjoy your day like we enjoyed ours...