Entertaining Ideas
KatieBride06
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Mardi Gras theme dinner party. help!
i was planning on having a small informal dinner party and it looks like it will fall close to Mardi Gras. so i was thinking of tying it in as a theme. there will be less than 10 people and i want to set my dining room up pretty. the reason for the party is to finally use our new dining furniture and our china that never gets used. but i do want to keep it informal.
so ideas? menu?
Re: Mardi Gras theme dinner party. help!
For the menu you could have jambalaya, po boys, red beans and rice with sausage, crawfish, shrimp etouffee...the possibilities are endless! I love New Orleans style food so I would really like this party.
let the good times roll!
Dinner should have a cajun twist. Think red beans and rice, jambalaya, shrimp etouffe (I totally misspelled that), etc. Mardi gras colors are purple, green, and gold.
Here are some suggestions and menus:
http://entertaining.about.com/cs/mardigras/a/mardiparty_2.htm
Fun! Colors are purple, gold, green. I bet you have something in your christmas stuff that would work even to tie it all together. You can get beads/masks from a party store. If you want to go all out, you could make it a masquerade party but I think you said its mostly dinner party. Food possibilities are endless-Gumbo, shrimp creole, etouffee, beans and rice, dirty rice, cornbread, french bread, corn maque coux, crab stuffed baked potatoes, jelly beans, moon pies, banana pudding (not all of course!), and hurricanes to drink. I have a very easy etouffee recipe that everyone has always said they love more than what is in the restaurants. You'll have to upate with how the party goes!
Crawfish etouffee
? red bell pepper, finely chopped
? green or yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
? onion, finely chopped
1 T garlic, finely chopped
? stick butter
1 T flour
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can golden mushroom soup
1 can rotel tomatoes
Water
Salt, black pepper, red pepper to taste ( or just use Tony Cachere?s)
2 bay leaves
1 pckg frozen crawfish tails, thawed out
Melt butter in med hot skillet. Add onion, garlic, bell pepper. Sprinkle with Tony's (red pepper) and a little salt. Add flour and stir together until vegetables soften and flour turns a tan color. Add cream of mushroom soup, golden mushroom soup, rotel tomatoes, ? can water using tomato can, tony's, salt and pepper to taste (but not too much salt-the seafood is already salty!), and bay leaves. Simmer on med low for 20 minutes. Add crawfish tails and cook for 8-10 minutes. Serve over rice with cornbread.
Fun! When we've hosted Mardi Gras, we've taken purple, green and gold beads and doubloons (the coins that are thrown at the parades) and spread them out on the bar counter and displayed a King Cake on a cake plate, in addition to a platter of pralines. Guests were greeted with beads. Decor was purple, green and gold beads and masks scattered throughout the table. Whoever got the baby from the King Cake, got to wear a crown and bring home a "prize"- one year we did a basket of Zatarain's boxed mixes, and Emeril cookbook, some more Mardi Gras beads, and Pat O'Brian's hurricane mix.
Our menu ideas have varied every year, but like others have posted, the possibilities are endless- BTW, we don't serve ALL of this at the same time
LOL!
Mini-muffellatas (authentic New Orleans-like sandwich of different Italian meats, cheese and layer of olive salad on seeded bread)
Purple/green/gold salad- this isn't a New Orleans salad per se...just incorporating the colors into a salad to balance out the meal (sliced purple raddicchio, sliced yellow peppers and green lettuce of your choice)
Sausage red beans n' rice
Jambalaya
Shrimp Creole
Shrimp seafood boil with new potatoes and corn (just boiled in a stock pot)
Cornbread and slices of French bread
King Cake and pralines
New Orleans/ Pat O'Brian's hurricanes (and non-alcohol mocktail version too)
Abita Beer and Barq's Root beer
*******Other ideas- you can definitely serve po-boys, Cafe du Monde or Community Coffee, and beignets too