SMF

My wife can't resist the joy of having the whole family over for an amazing dinner whenever possible. Of course, she jumped at the chance for Mardi Gras. The guest of honor was grandchild #6, just 5 days old and still working on finding her voice among the high-decible roaring chorus of all the rest of us. With our family ties to south Louisiana, you can bet we had an amazing feast. She made a huge pot, about 4 gallons, of chicken and sausage gumbo with okra and rice, and an enormous platter of cajun chicken with red, green, and yellow pepper fettucini pasta, whole grain chiabata bread on the side, with a nice green salad. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. Of course, there were plenty of cold beverages and fruit of the vine, for those so inclined.

Never had gumbo before in my life -- but the meal and the company sounds wonderful.

Gary, you make my mouth water. When I worked in Houston I had a few clients in New Orleans and environs and thus developed a real taste for Cajun and creole cooking. I still love a big pot of boiled mudbugs/crawdads, a whole deep-fried catfish, a big bowl of gumbo, jambalaya and a platter of raw Gulf Coast oysters. Now I'm going to have to make myself something to eat, but it won't be any of that unfortunately; probably a toasted sardine sandwich.

Oh, I forgot to mention we had 2 King cakes. The 10 year old grandson managed to "find" the baby. (The one hidden in the cake, not the one with diapers!)