Mardi Gras! Crab Dip & Gumbo

Well our Fat Tuesday dinner was delicious! We had a few friends over and enjoyed feasting on crab dip, a chicken and sausage gumbo and, of course, KING CAKE. Finding the baby was so much fun!

Here are the recipes:

New Orleans Style Crab Dip 

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4 ounces cream cheese, softened (I used Neufchatel)

1/2 cup mayo

1 (8 oz) package imitation crab meat, chopped

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper

1 garlic clove, pressed

1 1/2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

Mix it all together in a bowl. I said to refrigerate 3 hours, so I just did it the night before. I served it with crackers. SO YUMMY!! Even the Siscos (who don't like seafood) ate it up!

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

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This may not be the 'real-deal' gumbo, but for something quick and delicious, this works great!

*I doubled the recipe below and ended up with about 10 servings

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 1 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup coarsely chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 2 large garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 medium-size green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
• 4 cups chopped cooked chicken
• Hot cooked rice

Preparation

Cook sausage over high heat in Dutch oven 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels.

Add enough oil to drippings in Dutch oven to equal 3 tablespoons, and whisk in flour; cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, 5 minutes.

Add onion and next 3 ingredients; cook 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in broth and next 2 ingredients. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add sausage and chicken; simmer, covered, 5 minutes.

Serve over white rice.

**I think this was a lot better after a couple of dashes of Tabasco in my bowl!

As you can tell from my previous post, I love King Cake. I've had one every year for as long as I can remember. Growing up, someone inevitably would bring one to my Dad's clinic and he'd bring it home to us. In college, my Tridelta roommates and I had a yearly tradition of sharing a Rick's Bakery cake. I'll never forget the year when all 5 of us ate the whole cake searching for the plastic baby... to only find it was taped inside the box lid and never put into the cake!

So, I was excited this year to share the tradition with our Memphis family! The Siscos and Lauren Trammell came over and enjoyed the whole meal with us.Travis had never had a King Cake before, so he was very intrigued by the whole thing. Before we sliced it up, he wanted to establish a few rules for what "getting the baby" meant. Traditionally, the person with the baby has to provide the King Cake next year and host the party. But, we decided that the easiest 'prize' would be a year of good luck.

We sliced and handed it out, and after poking around we thought we'd have to get seconds to find that dern baby. Travis got into a story and a few of us realized that the fork he was holding, and the bite he was getting ready to take, had the baby on it! He had no clue and was just waving it around! So funny!

Trav was so excited, he apparently wore the baby around school today. Hilarious! Beginner's luck, I guess!

I'm already looking forward to next year's Mardi Gras!

Are you giving up anything for Lent? I'm giving up sodas!