Alright, now let's be honest. How many of you actually celebrate Mardi Gras? And how many of you wish that you did? Exactly. Everyone wants to have a party for no real reason, eat lots of food, and find babies in their cake at least once a year!
After deciding that we were both going to give up things for Lent this year, Jim and I have been eating all the sweet stuff out of the house these past few days. I'm swearing off chocolate while he says he is doing without sweets. It's gonna be a loooong time until Easter...
I thought that it might be kinda cool to seek out a New Orleans-style place to eat dinner tonight, especially since Jason was in town. I found this place-- Bayou Cafe-- in downtown Freehold and made reservations. Their menu looks excellent, with authentic creole-style cooking and reasonable prices. Plus, we've been meaning to try out some more small restaurants in Freehold Boro. They offered an all-you-can-eat buffet for tonight, as evidenced in the picture below.
Trenton was a little afraid of the masks at first, but really liked the idea of confetti. Later, he got some beads to try on and took home a mask of his own.
So at first, Trenton was having NOTHING to do with the band. "Too loud! I don't like it!" he kept saying. I really thought we were going to have to leave with him... but then he got used to it.
Jay took the family picture above--- nice shot!
And of course, the highlight was the King Cake. I had asked the waitress before-hand if she wouldn't mind sneaking a baby into T's piece... sure enough, the little brass behbeh was in there! He saw it right away.
The winner!
2 comments:
We have at least 2 king cakes every carnival season (and that's since we moved... growing up, I think my parents picked one up every, or nearly every, week). mmmmmm!
Next year, we'll have to have y'all over for a real nola meal. We used to host one every year when we lived in Ithaca. We haven't been to a parade since we moved. I don't think any of our family went to the parades this year. ??? But the carnival season does have meaning... it starts with the Epiphany, hence the "King's Cake" ... and is that period of ordinary time in the Catholic litergical calender before Lent. Mardi Gras is just the last big binge before the 40 days and nights of fasting. it's celebrated world wide. I think it's huge in certain parts of South America. We just like to claim it for ourselves. ; )
Happy Birthday to the birthday boy!
See you tomorrow!
M & M
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