Sunday, May 23, 2010

Mardi Gras in May?

Happy Mardi Gras everyone! What, you say it's not Mardi Gras? You'll have to tell our Gourmand Club, because last night we definitely thought it was.

We had crayfish, red beans and rice, collard greens, and King Cake for dessert. I've never had King Cake, heck, until last week, I'd never even heard of King Cake, but I made one anyway. It's not really a cake at all. It's sweet yeast bread that's slathered in cinnamon and braided. Kind of like stollen or cinnamon rolls, but iced and sprinkled with colored sugars.
And what a mess I made. I actually laughed out loud at this stage, but when I put it on the fancy platter it looked pretty good. And folks who'd had it before said it tasted good too, but what a lot of trouble just to hide a little plastic baby. Unless I go to another Mardi Gras party I don't think I'll be making this again. If I'm going to go to the trouble to make a sweet yeast bread, I think I'll just finish it off as cinnamon rolls.

But that's what I like about our Gourmand Club; it forces one to try new things, experiment with new recipes, and experience different cultures. Laissez les bon temps roulez!

2 comments:

Gillian said...

I like the effect of the coloured sugars. At first I thought how lucky you were to be able to buy them and then I realised that we are all lucky to have access to almost anything via the internet.I can probably get them too, even though I live in a fairly out of the way place.
Your pictures of your roses continue to amaze me!
Cheers Gillian

Anonymous said...

Your king cake looks great. . . and I love tradition, but let me tell you, I grew up in South Louisiana, and no one balks if you stuff the king cake with cream cheese, marmalade, pralines, or other sorts of goodness. The plain flavored king cakes are always the ones left over after the party. . . and that's crawfish. Tsk. Yankees. . .