homefries

If you’ve got the post-holiday blues, The Table Set has a solution for you. Mardi Gras isn’t just one day in February, the party lasts for weeks. To get you up on all things Mardi Gras, the Gents bring in a Mardi Gras veteran, Lisa of the podcast The Nerd Out: Girls Gone Nerd.

You know you’ve got a first-rate holiday when it comes with its own special cake. King Cake: the cake with a plastic “Baby J” inside. Lisa reccomends Manny Randazzo’s or Sucre’s King cakes. Or maybe you could bake your own!

King Cake isn’t the only sweet thing we’ve got going on. Fried dough covered with mountains of powdered sugar? Sounds like a recipe for fun! Or a recipe for powdered sugar all over the floor.

Beignets can be a part of your home Mardi Gras too, set up a block of time at your party for fresh-fried delights. Greg shows you how!

Soup is great for winter parties, so stew up a giant pot of Gumbo for a quintessential Mardi Gras treat.

The next best thing to a crawfish boil, Creole-style BBQ shrimp, or pickled shrimp.

Now that you’ve got the food covered, how about some NOLA drinks?!? The Sazerac is the classic, the Pimm’s Cup (below) claims NOLA’s Napoleon House as its second home, and The Hurricane is kitschy rum-packed red punch fun! (Bookmark Chuck Taggart’s blog for all things NOLA, especially the cocktails!)

Lisa votes for NOLA beer at your home party. Abita is distributed to many parts of the country and they even make a beer called “Andygator.”

The last day of Mardi Gras is Fat Tuesday. Andy tells us about how in Polish tradition, Fat Tuesday is also know as Pączki Day. Pączkis are jelly donuts! Nathan tells about the time he searched LA to find them and ended up at a Nursing Home.

High-brow/low-brow or low-brow/low-brow? Decorate for your Mardi Gras party with colored beads, or maybe class it up and use the purple-green-gold combo with flowers instead.

Yeah, we’re into the cheesy Mardi Gras beads.

Finally, what would your party be without music. Lisa has made us a Zydeco playlist that will make you want to “climb the walls.”