Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday

Some catching up from February................

February is my favorite month of the year. Besides being my birthday month, it is also the time we have the opportunity to repent and give up our evil ways, all after doing everything bad to excess during Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday! The celebrations happen throughout the world (Carnival) but here in the US, we associate Mardi Gras with New Orleans, where it first started in 1699. Go to these links for more history on the event: http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm
 and http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/history.html

Our friend Nowana, who has a history with New Orleans, threw us a whoopdie-do of a Mardi Gras party out at her place in the woods. Every detail was perfect, right down to the strings of beads, funny hats, traditional New Orleans dishes, music and decorations. Our friends Kris, Bob and Sally were all on hand to celebrate the end of their evil ways too :o)

Of course, the evening was started with bubbly...........

Oh, and traditional New Orleans Sazerac's too! Go here for recipe: http://cocktails.about.com/od/s/r/szrc_cktl.htm
Looks like Rowan is going to have a lot to repent about tomorrow :o)

The food fest started with Oysters Rockefeller, fresh off the grill. YUM!

Sally making something green because it is good for us. We need to have at least one thing that is good for us this evening........teehee.

Jambalaya, red beans, sausage and rice. Authentic fare from New Orleans.

The table.....

......including the crystal king.

Lets hear it for repenting (tomorrow) Cheers! :o)

Oh dear.......now it's on to dessert. Bananas Foster. Here is the actual recipe Nowana used: http://www.brennansneworleans.com/r_bananasfoster.html

A movie of the flambé. This part is always so exciting!

Extremely delicious!.........

....and something that goes right here (guess who?)! But we don't care because we will give it up tomorrow for lent :o)

So, while at Nowana's fabulous country home, she showed us her latest hobby: worm composting.

Yes, she has this fabulous worm condo complex for housing her worm family while they produce the most wonderful composting dirt for her garden. Who knew one could have a farm like this in the comfort of their own home?!  The worm bins can be ordered on-line, and they come with everything one needs to start the farm, even the worms!

 

Just a little shredded newspaper and some good quality vegetable garden dirt (not potting soil), kitchen vegetable trimmings, egg shells, etc. (anything you would normally put in the compost pile), and some red wigglers worms will get you going (don't use night crawlers). Go here for info on the worm bins:     http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Outdoor/Worm-Composting and here for info on how to do it: http://deq.louisiana.gov/portal/default.aspx?tabid=2101 - a hilarious read. You can get the red wiggler worms here: http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/ - this is where I got mine (500), or you can go to a bait shop and get them in smaller quantities. The more worms you have, the faster you get good composting dirt.

Nowana gave each of us a little to-go worm farm as party gifts before we left. The most unusual gift I have ever received and the most sustainable. This gift will just keep on giving and help make our garden produce better everything. We will also be able to feed our chickens worms once in a while. Yes, we are getting some chickens later this spring..........that will be posted in a later blog, so stay tuned :o) Now, have to get that chicken-coop built!