Maida Gras 2014 (with recipe for Mardi Gras Pasta Salad)

John Maida and Cyndi Corker-Cherry 

Mardi Gras 2010

Our annual Mardi Gras Party, which takes place the Saturday before Mardi Gras, has come and gone. Thankfully, we did not have 3 feet of snow this year (see Nemo Gras 2013). What we did have, though, was a night of revelry but also of remembrance, as we celebrated the life, and mourned the passing, of one of our regular "Krewe" members, John Maida. Mr. Maida died in a car accident late December. His fiancee, Cyndi, who was in the car with him, was badly hurt and her medical bills and living expenses have been piling up since. Thus, we renamed the party "Maida Gras," and made it a fundraiser to help Cyndi out. We are proud to say we made about $600. Speaking of which, further donations can be made HERE.

Gumbo

Chris holding one of several fried turkeys

As always, we supplied the hurricanes (four gallons!), fried turkeys (seven of them!), and Coca-Cola ham (a 13-pounder). We also made chicken and andouille gumbo (K's Semi-Homemade recipe), and "Mardi Gras Pasta Salad" (recipe below). Over 100 guests, ranging in age from 7 weeks to nearly 70 years old, brought a wide variety of dishes such as: jambalaya, shrimp ceviche, jalapeno meat poppers, a plethora of dips and chips, kielbasa, andouille, and so many more. And that doesn't include the desserts, with cupcakes in such flavors as: Mardi Gras margarita, red velvet, and chocolate with chocolate frosting; plus cookies like Mardi Gras meringues, Barb's famous chocolate chip, and inside-out Almond Joy macaroons; not to mention brownies, various other bites, and "Frenchie's" most amazing King Cake.

Frenchie's King Cake

Mardi Gras Margarita Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes and Mardi Gras Meringues

To manage the hostessing and take pictures of all of that is nearly impossible, but here are a few shots to inspire you to "Laissez les bon temps rouler!" And don't forget the recipe for Mardi Gras Pasta Salad, which can very easily be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled to suit your own Mardi Gras Party needs. It was inspired by two of New Orleans' most famous foods - the muffaletta sandwich and Gulf shrimp.

The Afternoon After

And, not for nothing (as C's family loves to say), Amy would like to add that the best part of hostessing is being reminded of how blessed we are to have so many amazing people in our lives. And the second best? Getting to eat the crispy-crunchy turkey wings the next day for lunch. Just sayin'. 

Mardi Gras Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 pound box tri-color rotini pasta

1/2 pound mozzarella "pearls"

1 10-oz. jar salad olives

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil 

1 4-oz. package mini-pepperoni

1 lb. cooked (frozen/thawed) salad shrimp

salt and pepper, to taste

olive oil, to taste

Creole seasoning, to taste

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Toss pasta with remaining ingredients. Chill and serve.

Amy's Mardi Gras Pedi and Flip-Flops

One More Simple Summer Snack: Steakhouse Skewers

Steakhouse Skewers! How could we have forgotten this amazing simple summer snack when we published our last post? Made with only three ingredients, these pack all the flavor punch of a steakhouse salad. This recipe makes a large platter full, but you will want to buy more for leftovers, trust us.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound deli roast beef, sliced

4 ounces crumbled bleu cheese

1 pound green seedless grapes

Fold bleu cheese into a small slice of roast beef, and skewer with a toothpick on top of a grape.

3 Simple Summer Snacks

Having a porch party? Is it girls' night? Need a light lunch, snack or simple summer appetizer? Here are three ideas that have worked well for us recently. Each one is deceptively elegant, utterly easy, relatively inexpensive, and of course, absolutely delicious.

Brie 'n Berry Bites

Ingredients:

1 package phyllo cups

4 ounces brie

1 pint berries

balsamic glaze, or reduced balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 350. Lay phyllo cups on a cookie sheet. Fill each cup with brie, top with a berry and bake for about 10 minutes, until heated through. Drizzle with balsamic glaze and serve warm. 

Idea plus: Try it with apples or peaches drizzled with honey.

Caesar Salad Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

1 head romaine lettuce

1 pint grape tomatoes, diced

1 English cucumber, diced

4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, diced

Caesar salad dressing, to taste

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup croutons

Peel off the outer leaves of the romaine and discard. Wash and allow to dry the remaining leaves of lettuce. Gently mix the diced tomatoes, cucumber, mozzarella cheese and Caesar dressing in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Set the croutons aside for garnish. Place everything on a large platter and allow guests to make their own wraps. 

Idea plus: Add grilled chicken or shrimp to make it a meal.

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta

Ingredients:

1 baguette, sliced

1 garlic clove, peeled 

1 pint grape tomatoes, diced

5-6 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

olive oil, to taste

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Lay out the sliced baguette on a baking sheet and toast until golden brown. Rub each toast slice with raw garlic. In a small bowl, gently mix the diced tomatoes, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Spoon tomato mixture onto the bread and drizzle with additional olive oil. 

Idea plus: Need it quicker? Buy pre-made crostini at your local market.

Cupcake "Red Velvet" Cupcakes

Are you surprised? We readily admit it: we're not known for our baked goods. But when we tasted Cupcake Vineyards' "Red Velvet" wine, all we could think about was making cupcakes with it. So we did. The idea stems from last year's vacation to Maine - last summer, Amy had copied a recipe from People Magazine for "Zinfandel Cupcakes" and we never made them. This recently-discovered wine, coinciding with an upcoming meeting of Amy's book club, was the inspiration for us to try them now. Seriously - doesn't every book club meeting need wine and cupcakes?!? How about killing two birds with one stone?

 

About the wine: "Red Velvet" wine is a blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Syrah. It has a pronounced taste of chocolate/mocha in itself, particularly on the finish. There is also a lot of fruitiness to it, mostly cherries and blackberries, as well as a hint of coconut. Perfect for cupcakes, right? 

 
As we often do, we played with the People recipe (just a little bit) and came up with our own version which we tested on the neighborhood. They were a big hit there, where we heard of couples sharing bites on their porch swings in the early summer evening sun. We'll be making them again next week for the book club. And we probably won't change a thing...

Cupcake "Red Velvet" Cupcakes

adapted slightly from People Magazine, "Trista Sutter's Favorite Cupcake Recipe"

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

24 maraschino cherries, stems removed

1 box devil's food cake mix (we used Betty Crocker Super Moist)

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup Cupcake Red Velvet wine

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 cup mini chocolate chips

For the glaze:

6 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 stick salted butter, softened

1/2 cup baking cocoa (we used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup Cupcake Red Velvet wine

Special equipment: non-stick cupcake/muffin pan with a spike in each cup

Note: We only have the one cupcake pan, so we did this recipe in two batches.

Preheat oven to 325 (350 if your pan isn't non-stick). Place cupcake (muffin) liner in each cup of a regular (12-cup) cupcake pan. Place a cherry on each spike (or in each cup if yours has no spike). In a large bowl, pour cake mix, water, wine, oil and eggs. Mix together as directed on the box. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into lined pan, filling cups about half way. Bake for 20-23 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly, then remove cupcakes from pan onto cooling rack. Cool completely. Repeat process with second batch. In the meantime, make the glaze. In a large bowl, beat together powdered sugar, butter, cocoa and salt using an electric mixer on low speed. Beat in the wine. When cupcakes are completely cooled, cover them with the glaze.

Apple, Raisin and Celery Seed Slaw (Secret Recipe Club)

It's "That Time of Year." We're both teachers in "real" life, so it's cram time  - finishing up curriculum, grading papers, writing and giving exams - not to mention chaperoning and/or attending proms, field trips, end-of-year ceremonies, SATs and graduations after school and on weekends. Add to that all the family stuff, like First Communions, baby showers, birthday parties, and barbecues, graduation parties, etc., and our social calendar is filled to the brim. We haven't been giving the blog enough of our attention already, and then bam! Suddenly we realize it's Secret Recipe Club time!

 

Thank goodness for the wide variety of recipes on our assigned blog for this month, Feast on the Cheap. Feast on the Cheap is a mother-daughter collaboration that offers readers plenty of recipes to choose from, with prices per serving included, figuring in the cost of each ingredient and based on a "well-stocked" pantry (for which they offer suggestions). Their pictures are gorgeous, and their Recipe Index is an excellent source for ideas. We've bookmarked this one, and so should you!

We would have had a very difficult time choosing a recipe, except for the fact that this particular recipe had to suit a purpose. It had to be something that would feed a crowd and would be kid-pleasing, for we were going to take it to the birthday party D and J were throwing for their 3-year-old daughter. And, unfortunately, they had plenty of desserts, so we couldn't go that route.

Which brings us to our choice: Apple, Raisin, and Celery Seed Slaw, which costs a mere $0.85 cents per serving, went well with burgers, and pleased both kids and adults alike. At once both sweet and savory, slightly tart and delightfully crunchy, this slaw was a hit. We followed the recipe exactly, so we'll save the typing and direct you to go HERE, where you can also see a photo of the finished product, which (in our chaotic mindset) we neglected to take. Oops!!!

 

Mardi Gras Madness

Saturday night was our 9th Mardi Gras Madness party. Amy used to live in New Orleans, and misses it very much, especially around Mardi Gras. In an attempt to ease her (second)-homesickness, we started having a Mardi Gras party when we moved into our house. It has grown so much over the years that on Saturday night, we had (by our count) 101 people attend (including the two of us). And our house is only about 1400 square feet, so...yeah.

Mardi Gras consumes our lives for about 2 weeks every year. It's a lot of work to have that many people over! There's the buying and the prepping and the decorating and the cleaning, and since it's winter here, there's the building of "Tent City" - one assembled insta-tent under which the turkeys are fried, and one giant tarp covering our back deck to provide heat and warmth since not everyone can fit inside the house. Luckily, we have plenty of friends, family and neighbors who pitch in. Those that do are known as the "Krewe" and are given special krewe-beads, different ones each year, to honor their efforts. Special thanks to Krewe 2012!

But since you're reading our blog, you're probably more interested in the menu. Chris is in charge of the fried turkeys (this year, 90 pounds of it) and spends most of the night in the driveway where many of the guests watch in awe as each perfectly seasoned crispy fried turkey is lifted from the vat of hot peanut oil (right). It is quickly brought into the house to the carving station (a cutting board set on top of our washing machine) where one hard-working guest volunteers to do the honors. (Thanks, Chipper!) 

Amy makes a few other dishes, some appear each year, and others depend on her mood. One traditional dish is the Coca-Cola Ham, a spiralled ham cooked in cola and topped with a molasses-brown sugar-mustard glaze. Then this year she also made Pepper-Jack Gougeres (left); Bacon-Walnut Pralines; Muffuletta Pasta Salad with steamed shrimp; and in honor of our local moonshiners, Drunken Piggies in the Blanket (andouille sausage marinated in garlic mustard and Onyx Moonshine and wrapped in crescent dough). As we do every year, we provide the hurricanes (made with Pat O'Brien's Hurricane Mix of course) (this year, about 15 gallons' worth) and a little bit of beer and wine, soda and water. And enough Mardi Gras beads to go around. "Throw me somethin', Mister!"

You're probably wondering how that is enough to feed everyone? Well, it isn't, of course. That's the best part about our Mardi Gras party. Just about everyone brings a dish, and just about every dish is homemade. On Saturday, there was jambalaya, deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, jalapeno-meat poppers, Cajun nacho dip, three-bean dip, Cajun meatballs, regular meatballs, mashed potato-stuffed tomatoes, chili cheese dip,     veggie pizza, stuffed peppers, American chop suey, stromboli, stuffed mushrooms, spicy mac-n-cheese, Buffalo wings, and much, much more. Then there was the desserts, which included paczkis, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, anise cookies with Mardi-Gras-colored frosting, brownies with walnuts, and plain brownies, among others.

People brought beer, wine, and liquor to share, consume, or offer as gifts. Awesome neighbor J, saint that she is, made 400 (that is not an exaggeration, but an actual number) purple, green and gold (well, yellow), Jello shots. Which are all gone. And her daughter, B, made us a delicious quiche for us to heat and eat the morning after.

There's always room for Jello shots!

Where are all the rest of the pictures, you wonder? Where's all the "food porn"? Amidst the chaos of prepping, cooking, cleaning, decorating, serving, hosting, drinking, eating and enjoying everyone's company, there just isn't any time for that. So, enjoy the few that we have, but you'll have to use your imagination (and yes, you can let it wander - it's Mardi Gras after all). Maybe next year we'll hire a photographer. Until then, laissez les bon temp rouler, and Happy Mardi Gras to all of you!

Louie and Newfie enjoy the festivities

Chow Chow Phyllo Bites

One of the most simple appetizers we've ever made were a big hit at our Christmas Eve party, mostly due to the awesome product we found at the CT Food and Wine Festival - Mariah's Chow Chow Relish. Amy had a nice chat with company founder and CEO Phyllis W. Haynes who takes a lot of pride in her amazing relishes and who created her company's tagline, "Relish What You Eat." Available in four flavors, Mariah's Chow Chow Relishes are made with fresh vegetables and plenty of savory spices for a Southern style relish that packs a flavorful punch. They are an all-natural product made here in CT without preservatives or artificial coloring. One taste of the "Sweet and Hot" and we knew we had the perfect ingredient for one great party bite - "Chow Chow Phyllo Bites." We filled phyllo cups with plain goat cheese and topped them with a spoonful of Mariah's Sweet and Hot Chow Chow. No baking necessary, done in five minutes, and they flew off the plate. Plus, the red and green colors in the relish were very festive. Here's to easy appetizers!

Chow Chow Phyllo Bites

Ingredients:

2 packages Athens brand phyllo cups

6 ounces plain goat cheese

1 jar Mariah's Sweet and Hot Chow Chow Relish

Remove phyllo cups from package and set out on serving tray. Fill phyllo cups with desired amount of goat cheese and top with spoonful of relish. Enjoy!

Halloween Hummus Bites

Amy writes:

Chef Dave, the culinary teacher at school, started up a cooking club for students this year. I decided to join in on the fun, and once every couple of weeks we have a great time cooking up food that is easy to prepare, and then, of course, we eat up!

Being the excellent teacher he is, Chef planned the first meeting as an introduction to the kitchen and to the club. So, instead of club members doing the actual cooking that day (as we do now), he did a demonstration on how to make red pepper hummus. Many of the students had never tried hummus, and when they saw how easy it was and tasted how delicious, they were hooked. Meanwhile, I now had my plan for a simple appetizer to serve as our neighbors came around on Halloween night! Notice the festive colors, perfect for Halloween, and sort of spooky looking, too!

Halloween Hummus Bites

Makes 24 "bites"

Ingredients:

1 16-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice, to taste

1 1/2 tablespoons tahini

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon salt

1 7-ounce jar roasted red peppers

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 packages mini fillo shells (found in frozen food aisle)

24 whole black olives, pitted

Place chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, salt, and all but one roasted red pepper in a food processor. Pulse a few times to mix, then slowly drizzle in olive oil while processing until smooth. Take fillo shells out of package and place on a serving tray. Carefully spoon red-pepper hummus into fillo shells. Chop remaining red pepper into small pieces. Stuff the red pepper pieces into the hole in the olive. Top each filled fillo shell with the stuffed olive and serve at room temperature.

Cheesy Pancetta Hash Brown Bites

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, we were sent two coupons to try Simply Potatoes brand products for free. When we saw their Shredded Hash Browns in the refrigerator section, we knew we would look no further. Those shredded potatoes were headed straight to our muffin tin where they would soon become our "Cheesy Pancetta Hash Brown Bites."

What's yummier than potatoes mixed with pancetta and cheese? Not much other than not having to share! This recipe made two dozen individually-sized "bites" which were both easy to make and to serve. Having the potatoes already shredded was a huge time-saver. Browning nicely in the muffin tin, they have that crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside texture that everyone adores. These are the perfect accompaniment to any meal, and are particularly delicious as a "bed" for a fried egg. Since the recipe makes so many, they'd be great for entertaining, or can be frozen and reheated for another time. 

Mix together shredded potatoes, shredded cheese and diced pancetta...

Place mixture in muffin tins...

Add half-n-half, and bake.

Go ahead and give them a try. And experiment a little! Try a different cheese, throw in some sauteed onions and peppers. Let us know how you like 'em!

Coming out of the oven, nicely browned and crispy!

Cheesy Pancetta Hash Brown Bites

Ingredients:

1 package Simply Potatoes Shredded Hash Browns

4 ounces diced pancetta

1/2 pound gouda cheese, shredded

2 1/2 cups half-n-half

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the potatoes, pancetta and cheese. Fill the cups of two muffin tins with this mixture. Place a pinch of both salt and pepper into each cup. Then pour 1 1/2 tablespoons of half-n-half into each cup. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes, or until nicely browned. Allow to cool for five minutes before removing from pan. Serve hot.