Mardi Gras, Eyes of March and St. Patrick's Day

We've been away for a while but just because we're quite busy. Last week, I made two gumbos in one week and was crazy busy. At work, we had a Mardi Gras day where folks were asked to bring a dish in for lunchtime. I rarely ever do this but I decided to bring the gumbo in. It was a huge hit winning the best dish prize and received some heavy accolades from the bosses, one of which used to work at Exxon in Baton Rouge. When I was making this gumbo, Heather made a homemade King Cake using John Besh's recipe. This turned out really good and much needed since we didn't order a cake this year from Haydel's.

We played Second Line and taught Julia the napkin dance. She now requests the song as well as a napkin.

Next, we have the Eyes of March, mis-spelling intentional. Actually, this goes back to late February when Julia effectively stuck her index finger in my right eye, Three Stooges style, damaging the cornea and sub-layer tissue. It hurt the day she did it, but the pain subsided and I was fine until it flared up on the following week. My eye got red, swollen, light sensitive and very painful. So, I went to the doctor and he treated me for pink eye with an antibiotic and the eye was fine again. Last week, it flared up again big time just one day before we were to have some friends over for a dinner. Great. This time, the doctor got it right that it was a eye injury. So, I'm being treated for that and the doctor wants to do a laser procedure to fix the problem next week. We'll see.

Next, we had some friends over Saturday night for a small Mardi Gras party. These were parents of kids in Sophia's kindergarten class, one of which I work with at BP. The main course was gumbo again but I swear we just didn't get tired of it. The dinner was a lot of work but it turned out just great. We made bread pudding and had a Gambino's king cake for dessert. Here are some pics of the second gumbo and dinner. At least an hour was spent cutting up the goods.

Getting that roux started.
Nice color.
Cool down and cook down.
Simmering.
The adults table.

Things They Do/Say

Below is a pic of Sophia's leprechaun trap that she built. She seriously wants to catch a leprechaun by luring him with a gold coin on a false paper bottom over a popcorn bucket. I think it might work.