Hi Everybody!  How Ya’ll Are? Spring is slowly working its way into my brain.  By late February and early March, I am getting pretty desperate for the winter to end.  I’m tired of gray skies and brown landscapes. I’m tired of my winter clothes and being cold.  I’m even tired of the fires in the fireplace. I am just over all of it. When Valentine’s Day has come and gone, I finally begin to see the glow of the coming Spring on the horizon.  The promise of Easter is in the air but before that comes Fat Tuesday. Now, when I was a kid, my family did not celebrate this day. I actually did not really know much about it until I was an adult and working at Illinois College.  I knew about Mardi Gras, of course, but was unfamiliar with the concept of feasting on Fat Tuesday. I have always been drawn to Cajun and Creole cooking. Actually, I have always been interested in anything with French American or French Canadian aspects.  I once took a Canadian Culture class in college and we sampled some wonderful foods that were prepared by my professor. The dishes were such that this Midwestern farm girl had never experienced and I loved them.

After I started work at IC, my boss at that time, Steve, decided to introduce the idea of a Fat Tuesday potluck in our department.  Steve always made a crockpot Jambalaya to share. It was so good and he was nice enough to give me the recipe. Steve has since retired but I have made that dish for our Fat Tuesday potlucks several times.  

My current boss, Patrick, and I will use any excuse to have a potluck or celebration, so we still carry on the Fat Tuesday office event.  I am a huge advocate of sharing a meal with people and I love, love, love making something delicious to contribute to the meal. For these late winter soirees I have also made Bananas Foster and King Cake.  This year I will be making a King Cake again. Hint – my King Cake is really my Cinnamon Sugar Tea Ring with Mardi Gras colored sugar as decoration and a little plastic baby inserted inside. Check out that recipe here.  I want to bring a side too but I can’t decide what that will be. I am leaning heavily toward hushpuppies or crawfish cornbread. One of my co-workers (Kelsi) will bring Mardi Gras chili so I think I will skip the Jambalaya this year.  

However, I still wanted to have something warm, comforting and Cajun this weekend at home so I decided to make some Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.  I am no expert on Cajun cooking and so I don’t really know what the differences are supposed to be between gumbo and jambalaya and I think that what I make is a combination of both.  It doesn’t matter to me as long as it is delicious and warming to the tummy and soul. This weekend it was bitterly cold here in Illinois so we definitely needed it. We always enjoy this wonderful soup that is full of chicken, bacon, sausage, veggies and tomato spiked broth.  It has a huge amount of flavor and a little bit of spicy heat. It makes you want to say Ayeee!