I was supposed to attend TravelCon in New Orleans in May 2020. Then it got bumped to September 2020…then to April 2021…and now it’s been bumped all the way out to April 2023.
New Orleans has been on my bucket list since high school, so having that trip rescheduled has been a bit of a bummer. But have no fear, date night at home is here! (Too cheesy? Yeah, I kinda thought so.)
Mark and I decided to go all out for Mardi Gras this year, and you can too! But just because Mardi Gras has technically already passed this year, we’re all still stuck at home for the most part. Who cares if you celebrate it at a different point in the year? The whole point is to have a fun date night at home!
Dress Code
Option 1: Dress in your Mardi Gras Best! The sky’s the limit. Tux, ball gown, mask, face paintings…whatever you’d like!
Option 2: Bayou casual – Prepare for a day of gator huntin’ or fishin’ in a crawfish hole!
Beverages
- Abita Mardi Gras Bock
- Sazerac Cocktail
- The Sazerac is known as the “First American Cocktail” and it was born right in the French Quarter in a saloon that was disguised as a coffee house. The original Sazerac was actually invented in 1838 a little ways down in a pharmacy owned by Antoine Peychaud, who created one of the key ingredients in the cocktail, Peychaud’s Bitters. But around 1873, a bartender added a sugar cube and a bit of absinthe and the Sazerac cocktail we know today was born.
- Hurricane
- The Hurricane, which is now often associated with beach or poolside vacations, was first created in New Orleans in the 1940s (during WWII) at a nightclub called Pat O’Brien’s. During that time, there was a surplus of rum coming in from the Caribbean islands and a shortage of whiskey. In order for bar owners to purchase cases of scotch or bourbon, they would also be required to order multiple cases of rum. After some experimenting, the owners of Pat O’Brien’s ended up with what we now know as the Hurricane. It got its name because it supposedly was originally served in hurricane lamps.
Menu
- Red beans and rice
- Red beans and rice used to be a Monday night staple in New Orleans. This is because Mondays were typically laundry day, back before laundry machines existed, which meant that the women of the house needed their for washing and therefore needed a meal that they could set and forget. Eventually, for added flavor, they started adding in a ham bone for the lavish Sunday dinner they often had the day before.
Supposedly the best red beans to use for this are by a brand called Camellia. You can order them directly from their website or you can order the beans + any other ingredients you may need from Cajun Grocer. I ended up finding red beans at my local grocery store by Goya and they worked fine enough for me.
*One thing to note about the ham bone: I find it pretty hard to find a ham hock around here, so if you can’t find one you can substitute the ham hock in the recipe for 1/4 pound of bacon or smoked ham.
- Red beans and rice used to be a Monday night staple in New Orleans. This is because Mondays were typically laundry day, back before laundry machines existed, which meant that the women of the house needed their for washing and therefore needed a meal that they could set and forget. Eventually, for added flavor, they started adding in a ham bone for the lavish Sunday dinner they often had the day before.
- Creole crawfish and crab boil
- What’s a New Orleans date night without some crawfish??? Crawfish are only in season for the first half of the year, so keep that in mind when you’re planning your Mardi Gras-themed meal. Mark and I had planned on making our own for date night, but our someone got to our local fish shop before we did and bought out all their crawfish. Instead we ended up ordering out from a chain near us called Cap’t Loui’s, but I’ve linked the recipe we were going to use anyway.
- Beignets
- You can’t think of a New Orleans date night without dreaming about those pillows of fried deliciousness at Cafe du Monde. I used this recipe, but instead of deep frying the beignets I made them in the air fryer.
If you would also like to do that, preheat your air fryer to 350 for 5 minutes.
Brush the beignets with melted butter.
Put as many into your air fryer as you can without crowding them and set the timer for 3 minutes. Flip them over and do another 3 minutes.
If they still come out doughy, you can try doing your next batch at 4 minutes on each side, but they really shouldn’t need any longer than that.
- You can’t think of a New Orleans date night without dreaming about those pillows of fried deliciousness at Cafe du Monde. I used this recipe, but instead of deep frying the beignets I made them in the air fryer.
- King Cake
- This is where Mark and I failed with our Mardi Gras-themed date night. I hadn’t even thought to order a King Cake from New Orleans, and when I looked up recipes they all seemed to be totally different. I would recommend ordering one from Cajun Grocer, they have a huge selection of King Cakes and all the cajun food you could possibly want.
Activities
- Learn to play Bourré
- Bourré is a card game that was brought to southern Louisiana from France in the 1800s and is still widely played in Louisiana today. It’s a pretty fast moving game that is similar to Hearts, but you definitely need something to bet with. It’s pretty easy to lose money in this game, so I would recommend just playing with poker chips and not real money.
- Mardi Gras Bead Toss
- This is a game I came up with, and it is basically a Mardi Gras-themed ring toss. The set up includes two short poles (I bought two metal toilet paper holders from the dollar store) and a few sets of beads. One player stands on each side and tries to get as many strands of beads around the “pole” as they possibly can. Because the beads are so light and hard to get around, we only played to 11 (but house rule is that you need to win by 2!)
Decor
You can go as elaborate as you want with the decor! We went pretty simple and just had beads, a couple masks, and strands of paper puff ball things (I’m not sure what they’re actually called).
If you want to keep it as simple as we did, you can probably find everything you need at your local dollar store. Or, if you want to be more earth friendly with your purchases, you can make the paper decorations out of coffee filters and buy recycled beads from ArcGNO, a non-profit in New Orleans that “works to secure for all people with intellectual disabilities opportunities to develop, function, and live to their fullest potential.”
Laissez les bons temps rouler! (Let the good times roll!)