King Cake

Thanks to my parents, Roxi and I received a King Cake today! My parents bought it at the famous Southside Bakery in Lafayette, LA. Needless to say, it is a very welcome taste of home and the Mardi Gras season. As you can see, we are already really enjoying it!

Happy Mardi Gras!!!

Mardi Gras 2007

Fat Tuesday has finally arrived and as usual, I feel like I did all of my celebrating before today. Roxi and I met some friends last night and perhaps overindulged in the Lundi Gras specials, so neither of us were really in any mood to do too much drinking today. But we still made it out to see a little bit of the Independent Parade that traditionally closes out the Lafayette festivities. All in all we had a very enjoyable Mardi Gras and am sad to see it go, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to a close.

Mardi Gras Weekend

We passed a good time this weekend with family and friends here in Lafayette for the Mardi Gras. My parents arrived on Thursday night and spent Friday getting things ready for more arrivals. After work, I got home to help Roxi and my parents do some last minute work cleaning up the house and we got everything ready just at about the time that Karl, Jan and Jordan arrived with some of their friends from Houston. They had been out at the Friday Night Parade and were cold and ready for some hot gumbo. As we sat down to a huge pot of chicken and sausage gumbo with some fresh homemade potato salad, Travis and Danielle arrived from College Station. We finished off our gluttonous dinner off with slices of a giant King Cake from Southside Bakery.





Saturday started out slowly with most people waking up in waves throughout the morning. After a lunch of leftover gumbo and desert of Blue Bell's King Cake flavored ice cream(!), we organized ourselves to make it out to the Mardi Gras carnival set up at the end of the parade route at Cajun Field. It was a great day to be outside, but rather windy and so made it a little cooler than we all would have liked. After having a some daiquiris I felt the need to indulge in some fresh boudin and a crab burger. They were absolutely delicious. Of course at this point, I was feeling like I was eating a bit too much, but what the hell, it's Mardi Gras aka Fat Tuesday! Roxi and I watched as Danielle, Jordan and their friends rode some nauseating looking rides before we headed home to get my parents for the Bonaparte Parade.





After our rendezvous at the house, we made our way back downtown to the tent that Karl's company had set up on the parade route. Roxi got some great rockstar parking a short walk from the tent and we made our way through the crowd to join our group. Just before the parade started, we had to indulge just a little more and have a bowl of hot chili on the very cold night. Finally, the Bonaparte Parade arrived.













Of course all good things come to an end and everyone has to return to their normal lives tomorrow, but I have a couple of days off of work so Roxi and I are planning to enjoy more festivities on Mardi Gras Day.

Carnival en Rio Mardi Gras Parade

The first parade of Mardi Gras officially rolled tonight here in Lafayette, Louisiana and it really got me into the spirit of the season! My parents are in town this weekend to help Roxi and I get the house ready for Mardi Gras visitors next weekend. They will be back along with my brother Travis and his fiance Danielle as well as her family and some of their friends. It will be a big group but it is a fun group.

Roxi was busy working on her PhD and my mom was just not in the mood yet, but my dad and I made the quick drive down to the tail end of the parade route near Cajun Field and started the long process of the parade to make it's journey through downtown Lafayette. It's been a while since I've been to a parade in Lafayette and I had kind of forgotten how slowly they move. The parade rolled at 6:30 pm so I was certain that when we arrived at the end of the route at 7:30, it would be right around the corner. But it wasn't and it continued to not roll around the corner for another hour and a half. Finally, at around 9:00 pm, the advanced police escort motorcycles made their way down the street and the parade got going.

The Krewe of Carnival en Rio is apparently the newest parade in town starting in 2005 but they did not disappoint with their much locally hyped Grand Marshal, Mr. Erik Estrada. This video I took is a little dark, but it was indeed Officer Francis Llewellyn 'Ponch' Poncherello from TVs "CHiPs."





We had a fun time and it really got me excited about the coming festivities of next weekend. All in all, time well spent and it was a good dry run for planning wait times for next weekends bigger parades.

Mardi Gras Season Has Begun!

Our wonderful neighbors, the Ritters, brought over a King Cake today as a thank you for taking care of their pets over the holidays as well as to usher in the start of the Mardi Gras season. Last night marked the Twelfth Night and the official start of the weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday on February 20. To quote the insert that came with the cake:

The Mardi Gras season officially begins on the Twelfth Night of Christmas, or January 6th, known as the Epiphany - or Little Christmas. Since the third century, the Epiphany has been observed as the day the Three Wise Men finally found the infant Jesus. King Cakes therefore were initiated to celebrate this holy day and a small baby doll is placed in each cake as symbol of "Finding the Baby Jesus."

King Cakes are oval shaped and decorated in carnival colors of green, yellow and purple. As the cake is cut, each person looks to see if his piece contains the small baby. The person who finds the baby brings the next King Cake to the next celebration.

The Ritters happened to bring over my favorite King Cake in town, made by Meche's (pronounced "meshes") Donut King. Although not made from the same dough as traditional cakes, I prefer it because it is moister and usually filled with something like fruit or creme cheese (this one is filled with chocolate!). I love Louisiana festivals, but I've been looking forward to Mardi Gras most of all since I moved back to Lafayette this past summer.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!