Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

As I am mainly Danish and English, while AJ's family hails from Germany and Wales, we don't have many celebrations or traditions tracing back through the generations that we practice. When kids come into the picture, I’ll do my research into our own backgrounds and incorporate the traditions of those countries into our lives; but until then, we've decided to celebrate holidays and rituals of others, even if it means simply making Kung Pao chicken and reading Amy Tan for the Chinese New Year. (By the way, it is on Thursday, and I'm a rooster while AJ is a rabbit. Based upon those animals, we are NOT a match, but JayZ and Beyonce are both roosters, while Blue Ivy is a rabbit, so WE WILL SEE.) I don’t look at this as cultural appropriation, but cultural APPRECIATION. It’s a great way to explore different customs and beliefs and learn more about others. So don’t come at me, HATERZ. It’s the Year of the Goat/Sheep, during which there are three lucky signs, including my Rooster. Hurrah! I’ve been advised to not sit around selfishly enjoying my good fortune, but to use it to help others, being generous with my time and attention. I should build relationships, as these very well could help me in the future. Also, serving others is important just for the sake of serving others. Obviously. (All Chinese New Year information comes from Elaine Lui of Lainey Gossip, the source for all my biased opinions regarding Tinsel Town.) But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The last time I did a themed event was years ago, in celebration of Harry Potter’s birthday on July 31st. I’m telling you, I BROUGHT THE WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA. Character costumes, homemade butterbeer, cockroach clusters, pumpkin pasties, the works. (Henceforth, Neville Longbottom will be included in Harry's party, because I NOW KNOW THE TRUTH.) 

AJ was in the Big Easy a couple weeks ago for a national baseball arbitration competition, so we are now basically experts in all things New Orleans: beignets, jazz, beads, you name it. He did Cafe DuMonde, clubs on Bourbon Street with his new Teach for America friends from the hostel, caught a Pelicans game, the works. I thought it would be fun to use the opportunity of this week to try my hand at some traditional Mardi Gras dishes while studying more in-depth the religious background of Lent. Fat Tuesday on Arlington Boulevard was a more low-key event, but a celebration nonetheless. 

Growing up, I remember my Catholic friends observing Lent, and I admired the practice of fasting and renewing their commitment to God. (I was also secretly jealous of the Confirmation process and wanted the chance to choose my own saint’s name. Something else I thought was cool? How they would cross themselves with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. I obviously had a very immature grasp of the religion.) So as Fat Tuesday dawned in Charlottesville, freezing and snow-covered and very un-New Orleans, I hit up Chef Emeril Lagasse online for my jam-ba-laaay-uh recipe (say it in the Elaine voice from Seinfeld), which included making my own Creole seasoning.

Look at the layers, it’s like those bottles filled with multi-colored sand from childhood.  Ahhh, a simpler time. Note the peeling label on the jar. This is an eco-conscious/ultra-frugalista habit of mine in which I save any and all jars, which I then turn into storage containers. Any food AJ takes to school is usually transported in an empty sour cream or cottage cheese container, so I’m sure his classmates think he has some very interesting eating habits.

The recipe is as follows, including directions for the seasoning, courtesy of the Food Network:

CAJUN JAMBALAYA

For the King Cake I got creative, basically eschewing anything remotely close to the traditional dessert. The final result was a stack of multigrain crepes layered with a lemon glaze, topped with rainbow sprinkles because they’re my favorite on everything, with fresh whipped cream on the side. Custom calls for a tiny plastic baby nestled somewhere inside the cake, and whomever receives the bambino in their slice has the honor/duty/drag of hosting next year’s party, but I just put it on top. Because it’s creepily adorable and it was just the two of us. Also, it was conveniently acquired this past weekend during a trip to Philadelphia when my pal Kaeleigh dug it from the depths of her purse while we were sitting in the café of the Fabric Works Museum, soaking up the weird art while trying to thaw from the single-digit weather happening outside, wind chill -22. Blessed.

My two main reasons for going with the stack o’ crepes were 1) crepes cakes are so very tasty and I first encountered them at the 09.08.07 wedding of Meghan Hoetker, who does not mess around in the culinary department and had multiples of this dessert rather than the traditional wedding cake; and 2) I had the necessary ingredients on-hand and was trying to avoid going to the store, because driving a half mile was just too much to ask. (I would have been a terrible pioneer and would’ve definitely told my family to cross the plains without me. Sorry, covered-wagon ancestors, you’re the realest.)

Multigrain Crepes

½ c Trader Joe’s Multigrain pancake mix

½ c whole wheat flour

1 ¼ c water

2 eggs

2 T butter

Mix ingredients and pour into buttered skillet, just a dollop at a time-about 30 seconds on each side. Repeat and stack.

Lemon Glaze

1 ¼ c powdered sugar

3 T milk

½ c lemon juice

Whisk together and drizzle between the crepes.

Cup of heavy whipping cream, sprinkle of sugar, whip it good.  Put all over crepes…and everything.

Next time around, I’ll buy a jar of lemon curd from Trader Joe’s to layer in the crepes. I had it in my basket the last time I was there and questioned whether I would use it. Never doubt your lemon curd instincts and just do it! Trader Joe’s is heaven on earth and any inspiration received there is sent from the angels above.

Light the candelabra, drape beads around the table, and serve up your Fat Tuesday dinner.

May I also recommend Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington music in the background? 

Louis Armstrong's "Dinah"

It was AJ’s contribution, because his true calling is a DJ and he WILL take over the AUX cord and we should really look into hiring him out as a wedding singer. I’ll totally be the Drew Barrymore to his Adam Sandler. (Confession: I was obsessed with Drew back-in-the-day, cutting her pictures out of magazines-YM and Seventeen and Jane!-and even putting daisies in my hair for senior prom [theme: MARDI GRAS!], following her styling at everything in the late nineties. Photo evidence is on my Instagram. Cheers to high school in the late nineties! Preeeetty sure glitter lotion was also involved in my look.) 

The plan was to follow up the meal with a viewing of The Pelican Brief, a great New Orleans-based film, but AJ had papers and monologues to prepare and headed up to the library to do real law work; thus, I indulged in the John Grisham caper solo. It’s like we’re both in law school, amirite?! And if you haven’t seen this movie, I highly recommend it. I first fell in love with Grisham’s tales in 7th grade, when I pulled The Firm and A Time to Kill off my grandma’s bookshelves, two pieces of literature very inappropriate for a 12-year-old, but enjoyable nonetheless.

A pre-Sex and the City Cynthia Nixon to the left

So as of today, Lent (Latin: Quadragesima; English: Fortieth) is upon us and, although I’m not Catholic, I look at it as an opportunity to incorporate some of its tenets into my life. Because truth is everywhere. In modern times, observers give up an action considered to be a vice, add something that will bring them closer to God, and donate time and/or money to charitable purposes. Done, done, and done. Well, doing it.

I’ll leave you with a fun fact regarding the impact of this observance on capitalistic enterprises. Until the 1960s, practicing Catholics were not supposed to partake of meat on any Friday. Pope Paul VI loosened the rules in that decade, applying it to only Fridays of the Lenten fast, but a few years before that occurred, Lou Groen, a McDonald’s franchise owner in a predominately Catholic part of Cincinnati, was trying to find ways to drum up burger business on Fridays. The result? The Filet-O-Fish. (Source: npr.org)