Sixty never looked so FIERCE.!!! As Tina Knowles, rang in her birthday on January 11th in a celeb filled New Orleans masquerade ball at Muriel’s Jackson Square restaurant. The night was filled with dancing, a live jazz band, and an enormous nine-tier golden cake topped with a feathered masquerade mask. Mardi Gras also known as The Feast before the Fast is one of New Orleans biggest celebration it is a time to celebrate and indulge in rich food before you give it all up for lent. Mardi Gras revelers dress up in masked costumes and take to the streets with food, drinks, music, and parades. The main colors are purple, gold, and green. You can take it from there with beads, flowers, balloons, and streamers. The motto "Why decorate when you can over decorate?"
So how to throw the perfect Mardi Gras party just like The Knowles. Well with food, Live Band, Signature Cocktail drinks and a King Cake your guests will have an experience to remember.
Signature Cocktail Drinks Recipes
1 - Fat Tuesday
3 slices of radish 2 oz. New Amsterdam Gin 1 ½ oz. cranberry juice ½ oz. agave nectar 2 oz. ginger beer Dash of bitters Garnish: radish slice
Muddle radish in bottom of shaker. Add all other ingredients except the ginger beer, and shake vigorously. Strain over ice into a lowball or rocks glass. Top off with ginger beer, and garnish with a radish slice.
2 - Cajun Sensation
2 oz. Appleton Estate Reserve 1 oz. mango juice ¾ oz. Velvet Falernum ¾ oz. simple syrup 1 oz. lime juice Chili pepper Garnish: mint leaves
To make simple syrup, combine equal parts sugar and water in a sauce pan over low heat. Remove from heat and chill. Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice, shake, strain, and pour into a glass. Garnish with mint leaves.
3 - Chocolate Cherry Rosè
1 oz. Courvoisier Rosè 1 oz. Effen Black Cherry Vodka 1 oz. DeKuyper Crème de Cacao 2 oz. cream
Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass that has been drizzled with chocolate.
4 - The French Quarter
2 oz. New Amsterdam Gin Dash of Absinthe 1 oz. orange juice ¼ oz. lemon juice 1 oz. thyme syrup Garnish: Lemon slice
To make thyme syrup blend 3 sprigs thyme with 1 cup hot water and 10 tsp. sugar and strain. Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice, shake vigorously, and strain into a classic coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon slice.
Sweet tooth no problem just make a King Cake for your guests.King Cake is shaped into a ring and decorated with green, purple, and gold sprinkles-the colors of Mardi Gras.But there's more a tiny plastic baby is baked into the cake, and the guest who gets the piece containing the baby has to host the festivities the next year so the tradition continues.
Don’t forget the food; you can make Cajun Crawfish, Shrimp Etouffe, Jambalaya, Boudreaux’s Zydeco Stomp Gumbo and Bananas Foster dishes as a main course meal or simple finger foods.
