Have your King Cake and Eat it too!

Ok, so I'm a bit behind on this, but I'd like to welcome everyone, officially, to Mardi Gras season.

See, despite the boob-flashing, bead wearing pictures you see on TV, Mardi Gras isn't just one weekend of drunken debauchery.

The brief history lesson is that Mardi Gras celebrates the season between the feast of the Epiphany on Twelfth Night and Ash Wednesday. The party is meant to be a pre-Easter Lenten extravaganza. As the date of Easter changes from year-to-year, so does the date of Mardi Gras.

Technically speaking, Mardi Gras translates to Fat Tuesday, so Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday. But only real sticklers will ever correct you on that, so use Mardi Gras to refer to the whole season.

Go here to see a list of FAQ about Mardi Gras. And here for all kinds of info, from flambeaux to balls.

This year will be the first time in 7 years that I have not attended Mardi Gras. It's been 2 years since I've left my beloved city of New Orleans.

So this year I'm doing the house up (a bit) in Mardi Gras style, strutting the official colors of purple, green and gold.

But in order to officially be Mardi Gras, you have to have some King Cake (which is pictured above.) The long history of King Cake is here. All you need to know is that it's more bread-like than cake, the traditional flavor is just the cake and cinnamon, though you can get them filled, they're fabulous and it's not Mardi Gras until you've had your first King Cake.

You can order King Cake online from any number of places. This one was my favorite when I lived there.

Ordering is fine and dandy, but I'm broke and I figured, why not make my own. There are any number of recipes out there, but many required a stand mixer, which I don't have, so this is the recipe I went with. Many of the recipes I found by Google search were for filled King Cakes, but I wanted the Traditional.

Anyway, they turned out fabulous and I'd suggest it to anyone . It's a great way to bring Mardi Gras wherever you are.