Celebrating Mardi Gras during Wintertyde 2015

Moving right along in our whirlwind tour of Wintertyde holidays, we reach April 17th. In 2015, Mardi Gras, amazingly, falls 2 days after Saint Valentine's Day. This concurrence makes for a busy but festive week of banishing any lurking Winter blues. OK, we start with decor. We get our supplies at Dollar Tree: a pack of Mardi Gras parade beads, a packet of King coins, perhaps a mask. Try to incorporate these items into your exterior and interior Wintertyde wreaths. Suspend the King coins from branches in the Wintertyde tree. Drape or suspend the Mardi Gras beads from the wreaths and the tree. All done. Familiarize yourself with these protocol items:

Courtesy www.mardigrasoutlet.com

Courtesy www.costumecraze.com

Courtesy www.photo-disctionary.com Mardi Gras cuisine is next with Zatarain pepperoni jambalaya, beignets {"bane yays"), coffee, and a king cake We make Zatarain's pepperoni jambalaya although rice and beans is good, too.

Courtesy www.zatarains.com

Courtesy www.cafedumonde.com

Courtesy www.betterrecipes.com For pepperoni Zatarain, stir in 1/2 package of thinly sliced pepperoni. Beignet mix can also be used to make a beignet cake rather than individual doughnuts. Finally, some music to set the festive mood: Some dixieland jazz:

Some brass band music:

some Neville Brothers:

All three albums available from www.amazon.com OK, that takes care of your Mardi Gras 2015 basics.