No-TV Fat Tuesday

Yesterday was the end of Mardi Gras, culminating with Fat Tuesday, a chance to let it all hang out one last time before Lent.
One of my (CE)2 students is from New Orleans. Lindsey's family moved to Oregon in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina, the most destructive hurricane to strike the U.S., hit her home town.
Lindsey and her mom, Yolanda, decided that we needed to experience some Mardi Gras festivities in (CE)2. Sounded like a great idea to us!!

Yolanda ordered a ton of decorations, beads, cups, hats, masks, bubble gum coins and other goodies to create a festival atmosphere. She even designed this sweet banner:
And then they cooked. And cooked. And cooked.

Yolanda, Lindsey and Junnie spent the holiday weekend preparing our feast.
We were treated to gumbo, red beans and rice, potato salad and baked zucchini. It was amazing!

And we ordered some king cakes from New Seasons for dessert.

It was so cool to experience something from their culture... and to eat such awesome food!
Ladies... thank you so much for sharing your tradition with us!
You can come back and cook any time you want :)

After work, I ran some errands, heated left over Mardi Gras food for dinner, built a fire, read my book and discussed running strategy and plans with my husband :)