Mardi Gras 2019

There are three holidays that are regularly celebrated here in Studio Arrabbiata.  There is Christmas, and if you look back through the whole blog you can see the cards I created for each Christmas.  Another is St Joseph's Day, coming in just two weeks.  On that day it is things Italian of course, and I show that year's filled zeppole (purchased) and maybe a pasta dish (made in my kitchen), when available. The third holiday is Mardi Gras, the last day before Lent begins.  Versions of the holiday exist all around the world, but I am most interested in the New Orleans approach, and in that case less for the excessive drinking, and more for the music and food, which in the latter case is traditionally spicy, which should not be surprising for a studio named Arrabbiata.  So last night I cooked up a batch of Jambalaya, which makes enough for three meals.  (couldn't find the written recipe I had developed years ago, so I did it from memory, which seems to have worked)  Had some last night, and then a nice meal of it tonight, as I enjoyed recordings of cajun and zydeco music (built up a collection in my radio DJ days).  The rest will be saved for Thursday, as there are a number of reasons I can't eat it on Ash Wednesday.  Alas, no crawfish in it, as I have never seen them for sale at any supermarket I shop in, but in doing research years ago I saw so many variations of the recipe and learned it isn't required.  (sometimes I will throw in some shrimp, but didn't have any this year)  The only rules seem to be a rice dish that contains pork (the name is based on the French word for ham) and I had those covered.