European Cutie ♥: mardi gras! ♥

i have many memories of mardi gras and trips to new orleans, I love new orleans here are some decorating ideas, recipes and pics from my mardi gras special edition! enjoy! :) ♥

hurricane recipe ♥

1 oz Smirnoff® vodka
1/4 oz grenadine syrup
1 oz gin
1 oz light rum
1/2 oz Bacardi® 151 rum
1 oz amaretto almond liqueur
1 oz triple sec
grapefruit juice
pineapple juice

Pour all but the juices, in order listed, into a hurricane glass three-quarters filled with ice. Fill with equal parts of grapefruit and pineapple juice, garnishwith pineapple and cherry and serve.

crawfish boil ♥

30 pounds live crawfish (one sack)
2 cups salt, for purging
2 (3-ounce) boxes crab boil seasoning
10 small onions, peeled and halved
2 pounds cocktail smokies or sliced Boudin sausage
5 pounds small red or new potatoes, unpeeled
4 heads garlic, sliced in half
10 ears of fresh corn on the cob, shucked and broken in halves

To purge the crawfish, place them in a large plastic tub or a large ice chest and rinse them in enough changes of water for the water to run reasonably clear. Then add more water to cover the crawfish and add 2 cups of salt. Stir for 3 minutes, then rinse crawfish. Keep the cleaned and drained crawfish uncovered until ready to cook.Fill a large 18- to 20-gallon pot three-quarters full with water. Add the crab boil seasoning. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Boil 2 to 3 minutes to allow the spices to mix well.
Using a large wire basket that fits into the pot, add the onions, sausage, potatoes, garlic and corn. Maintain a boil and cook 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add the crawfish, stirring them a bit. Cook an additional 7 to 10 minutes, being careful not to overcook the crawfish. Remove the wire basket from pot.
To serve, line a table with newspaper. Lift the basket from the stock and drain. Dump the basket ingredients directly on the newspaper. Serves 10 to 12. enjoy!

mardi gras cookies! ♥

1/3 cup margarine
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Mix margarine and powdered sugar together thoroughly.

3. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until blended. Add dry ingredients and blend well.

4. Shape dough into 24 one-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Crisscross balls by using fork prongs.

5. Bake until lightly brown, about 10 minutes.

icing recipe ♥
Ingredients

1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
assorted food coloring

Directions

In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.

The only modification for this recipe is that you will not use any water to thin out the flooding icing. In other words, it tells you to scoop some icing into a piping bag then thin out the rest with water. The piping bag is used to outline cookies, and the thinner is used to fill in, or flood, the inside.

In this case you will place some of the icing in a piping bag, and the rest in a condiment or icing bottle. No change between the two parts.

Tools: ♥
- purple, yellow, and green food or icing coloring (I use Americolor)
- toothpicks
- piping bags with couple and tips, and condiment bottles or icing bottles (as mentioned in the royal icing recipe)
-bags of Mike and Ike candies (purchase the varieties so that you have purple, yellow, and green candies)
- a knife (serrated is best)
- large heart-shaped cookie cutters

You will first cut out your cookie dough into heart shapes.

Then, make icing and separate into three portions. Use the coloring/dye to make yellow, purple and green icing.

Then separate into piping bags
I am going to show you how to make the fleur-de-lis, a symbol sometimes associated with Mardi Gras.

I suggest practicing first on a sheet of parchment or wax paper.

I found that a small, sharp serrated knife works efficiently. I would hold down the candy and slice on one side. Turn it around and cut through the other side. Otherwise it would crack if I attempted to slice all the way through.

Glue the little tips onto your cookies so that they form a necklace.
To practice, I poured and spread the base color I selected with a spatula. Right away, I used the other two colors to pipe out designs on top of the base before it dries.
The yellow would be my base. I used green and purple to pipe onto the base. You want the piping tips for the designs to be very thin/small, FYI.

On the top I created the design out without the base so you could get a glimpse of how it is piped before it flows out into the base.

1. Pipe out two C’s, the first backwards. Sort of looks like the Chanel logo.
2. Used a toothpick to drag each end of the C’s towards one another.
3. Pipe a line down the middle. I held my piping bag longer at the top and the bottom, so more icing flowed out to create little bulbs at the end.
4. Use a toothpick and drag through the top of each bulb end. Drag out on each side of both as well.
5. Finish by piping a “belt” across the center line.
used little arrows to show the direction to drag the toothpick in steps 2 and 4.

So, you will turn your heart cookies upside down (The curves will sort of be the chest, but don’t get your panties in a twist. They will be totally covered.)

You will use the piping bag of your base color to outline where you will cover the chest to create a shirt/blouse. Use the bottle of you base color to fill inside of the top you have outlined. Use a toothpick to push the icing into any empty holes.

RIGHT AFTER YOU FLOOD YOUR BASE, you will quickly flood the C’s all over, then drag them with a toothpick. Then flood all of the middle lines. After, drag the middle lines with a toothpick. Finish by piping the little “belt” over each fleur-de-lis.

If you work too slowly, the designs will not flow into the base. They will pop up above it. You don’t have to rush around like a crazed maniac. I just suggest practicing on parchment/wax paper so that you know the process first.

Cover the blouse/shirt base with several of the fleurs-de-lis. Allow cookies to sit and dry for hours. I let them dry overnight.

This is what mine looks like: see above pic..
the meantime, grab your Mike and Ikes.

You will carefully slice the tips off of each end.

I found that a small, sharp serrated knife works efficiently. I would hold down the candy and slice on one side. Turn it around and cut through the other side. Otherwise it would crack if I attempted to slice all the way through.

Glue the little tips onto your cookies so that they form a necklace.
enjoy! supercute! :)

table decorating ♥
here's some cute ideas for at home parties for mardi gras!