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Mardi Gras Reflections


Sorry about the silence here on the blog for the past few days, but it's hard to type with my eyes rolled so far back in my head from watching the antics of our Congress and the new occupant of the White House.

In other news, a good friend invited us to do rural Louisiana Mardi Gras with him again this year and I really wanted to go because he's a local, but things didn't work out.

Unfortunately Fat Tuesday is next week and I have to be in Newport, TN working on my never ending forensic engineering project on Monday, and we already had an epic ten day swing planned through the South Georgia coast, the Florida Panhandle, and lower Alabama starting the following week so we had to decline the invitation.

With that trip already on the books for some time we just couldn't justify the time and expense of adding a separate trip to Alexandria, Louisiana and other points on the Bayou.

It's not like I haven't seen a half million drunks stagger down Bourbon Street before, but I hear that the festival of Lent leading up to Ash Wednesday is quite quaint and different in the smaller villages that it is in the Big Easy.

My first visit was Mardi Gras 1978 as a member of the Georgia Tech NROTC band. I didn't just GO to Carnival, I was IN Carnival as we marched and played in three or four of the major parades like Edymoin, Bacchus, and Proteus. What a great experience, and we stayed for free on a Navy ship which was berthed right on the river by Cafe Du Monde.

I've been back several times in the 1980's and again about 1996, but the whole thing has grown so much and gotten out of hand to the point that at my current age I don't enjoy walking around in streets filled with an inch of other peoples barf and urine yelling "show your tits" and scrambling around for bead necklaces and other worthless trinkets.

Call me a Curmudgeon I guess...

What I am gaining by missing Mardi Gras this year is the opportunity to be the guest Chef with my fellow GT alumni John Howton, owner of Blackwater Grill on our little Island, in the 2009 Chili Cookoff.

I've been cooking chili for the past week in small batches to further refine my recipe and get the ingredient list together to cook TWELVE GALLONS of Chili in three hours on a Saturday morning in a 12'x12' booth with no running water.

Did I mention there'd be a few hundred people stopping by to taste and judge the results of my efforts?

I spent fifty bucks on the Penderys website on giant containers of fancy Coumin and two kinds of chili powder to support my efforts.

After last nights efforts, I've got time to cook one more batch this weekend before delivering the final ingredient list for purchase.

I'll post the recipe and some photos of the event here on the blog for your enjoyment after the final results are in.

I really want to do well in the event because John's reputation is at stake, but in the end the event raises money for charity and it's supposed to be FUN, so I might have to put my slide rule and calculator away and just have fun and COOK...something I get better at every day.

Wish us luck...If you will...