Sunday, March 3, 2019
Today Patrick and I held a Mardi Gras party at our home. In attendance: Phil, Drew, Romy, Scott, Andy, Chris, Andy, Chris, Nate, Alan, Mitchell, Ray, Quyen, Dave, Richard, Michael, Paul, Wayne, Peter, Phillip H, Eric R, Stephen, and Richard. Patrick prepared 16 quarts of gumbo, spiced pecans, a punch bowl of brandy milk punch, shrimp dip with two extra long baguettes of French bread, sliced. I prepared three cups (before cooking) of white long grain rice to pair with the gumbo. To drink, Patrick prepared sweet iced tea with mint and unsweetened iced coffee with vanilla and almond with optional simple syrup. From the store: mini Coca-Colas, mini Perriers, and two kinds of beer. Patrick had previously ordered three New Orleans king cakes, two from Sucre, one from the Randazzo family. One of the Sucre cakes included tabasco. Beads, crown decorations, and paperware were from Cliff's. A few hours before the party one of the hanging lamps fell, so I installed a ceiling hook instead of relying on 3M Command Strips, and it turned out to be an easier install than I had expected. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and have a good time, and we unexpectedly ended up with a lot of extra liquor and wine that everyone had brought. We ran out of rice and French bread and tabasco king cake. Only one piece of the Sucre regular king cake remained as well as about half of the Randazzo king cake. After everyone had departed, we both did some party cleanup followed by a long nap. I woke at night and tried continuing to sleep but failed. Got out of bed and began reading Dune. Read two chapters. Late snacks: hot water, one mandarin orange, three unsalted cashews, three salted cashews, apple-blueberry granola with milk. Pantry organization. More party cleaning.