It's Leap Day! That special quadrennial date that arrives at the end of February, tacked on to year's second month to "keep the calendar" on track. It has to do with adjusting the calendar periodically to to ensure that annual seasonal events occur at about the same time each year, so an additional day is added to the calendar every four years just to ensure that happens. It actually began in Roman times, so you can thank Julius Caesar...really.

It's also known in some corners as "Sadie Hawkins Day" when ladies ostensibly are given leave to propose marriage to their chosen beaus. To be more politically correct in this 21st Century, it really should be a date when any female has leave to propose to their chosen partner...male or female or somewhere in between., a right they should have th ability to act on any day of the year, and not just on a one that only arrives on the calendar every four years.

In my region, a nice trend began a few years ago called "Leap of Kindness Day" - a day to encourage people within a community to use this extra day of Leap Year to do something kind for someone else. That might just be the best idea of all, not just on Leap Day, but something to keep in mind and act upon every day of the year, every year.  

Go out and make your Leap Day a good - and kind - one!

Mardi Gras 2020 ~ Laissez les bon temps rouler!

No sooner do we celebrate Valentine's Day and President's Day and it's time for one of the most fun cultural holidays of the year - Mardi Gras! While still rooted in religion like Carnival in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Mardi Gras in the US has evolved beyond its purely religious origins to become a wide-ranging celebration of  the marvelous traditions of music, food and revelry found in the deepest part of the South - in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The official poster of the 2020 Mardi Gras celebration was designed by artist Andrea Mistretta and is available to purchase online here: 2020 Mardi Gras Commemorative Poster

I had a chance to visit New Orleans more than 25 years ago and it was a wonderful experience. There is nothing quite like the culture of New Orleans and one should make the effort to visit there at least once, and preferably more often. While I wasn't there for Mardi Gras, I did visit the renowned "French Quarter" and heard some fabulous jazz played at the very rustic but legendary Preservation Hall and strolled around that historic district's marvelous and distinctive architecture.

Over the years, I have picked up mementos of my original New Orleans, including postcards from the original visit and I continue to add few items that I have stumbled upon elsewhere. I always enjoy bringing them out each year to recall those fond memories of that initial trip to the "Big Easy". It's always a treat to see them again. I pulled a few pieces together in the photo below and added them to my mantel to celebrate the holiday this year.

 The postcard at the rear in the photo is of "Mr. Ed", a handsome mule wearing a classic, flower-bedecked straw hat as he pulled a carriage on the streets of the city. Although I expect the Mr. Ed depicted in the postcard is probably no longer with us, such mule-drawn carriage tours are still available for those who wish to see the sights of New Orleans at a slower pace.

I picked up the Mardi Gras rooster mug and the classic purple, green and gold Mardi Gras beads on separate visits to my local Goodwill. They both epitomize the marvelously colorful celebration that is Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras - or "Fat Tuesday" - is the symbolic Christian religious celebration that occurs just before the start of the 40 days of Lent on Ash Wednesday, the next day, that continue until the arrival of Easter Sunday. Mardi Gras marks the culmination of six weeks of revelry that began on Epiphany (January 6 - 12 days after Christmas) and continued until their culmination on Mardi Gras and Lent begins the next day on Ash Wednesday. 

I also think of Mardi Gras as a celebration of all things New Orleans, a city rich with history and culinary traditions combining the best of its original French heritage and the indiginous Creole and Cajun cultures of the region and of Louisiana. Marvelous local dishes like jambalaya, gumbo and crawfish etouffee (stuffed crawfish), and the more recent specialties like blackened redfish popularized by the late chef Paul Prudhomme, and other fine foods.

Among the most celebrated of traditions is the use of dried and roasted chickory to make a special blend of "coffee" or added to roasted coffee beans to create a distinctive and smooth coffee popular in New Orleans and environs. A popular cafe in New Orleans, the Cafe du Monde (or "world cafe"), now with many locations around the city and the greater region, is known for its special coffee blend and its marvelous sweet pastry treat, beignets (or "ben-yays") - deep fried square pastries dusted with powdered sugar. Cafe du Monde coffee and its special beignet mix can be ordered online, along with other New Orleans specialties from the cafe's website here: Cafe du Monde Shop.

It should be noted that New Orleans (not Seattle) was instrumental in the initial importing of coffee beans to the US and remains the country's pre-eminent port of arrival, according to this 2017 article from Thrillist.com:

"Since the 1700s, coffee beans poured into New Orleans from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, and today the Crescent City is the country’s most prodigious java-handling port, with some of the world’s largest silos to store it. In 2015 alone, 250,000 tons of coffee came through the Port of New Orleans, enough to make 20 billion cups of coffee. It’s thought that New Orleans’ historic easygoing attitude is what created the mid-morning “coffee break” in the 1920s, when business owners would skip out of work throughout the day for a cup."

The Cafe du Monde website also provides this fascinating history of the French Market in New Orleans and the French Quarter:

 

The location of the French Market and of New Orleans dates back to the Choctaw Indians, before the Europeans settled the New World. The Choctaw Indians used this natural Mississippi river levee location to trade their wares to the river traffic.

The early European settlers came by boat to this location to sell produce and dairy products. The City of New Orleans was established on this location of the Mississippi River in 1718 by Jean Baptiste LeMoyne. This old New Orleans is called the “Vieux Carré" [Old Corner] or French Quarter.

The French Quarter has a collection of old buildings that exhibit the architectural styles of the countries that once held power in Louisiana. At one time or another, Louisiana has been under the influence of the French, Spanish and British governments. The first French Market building was put up by the Spanish in 1771. This building was destroyed by a hurricane in 1812. The following year it was replaced by the building which now houses the Cafe Du Monde. Back then it was known as The Butcher’s Hall. In the 1930’s the Works Progress Administration renovated and added to the French Market buildings. The French Market now comprises of seven buildings anchored at the Jackson Square end by the Cafe Du Monde and on the other end by the Farmers and Flea Market sheds.

Enjoy this annual celebration of Mardi Gras and all things New Orleans and Laissez les bon temps rouler (Let the good times roll) on this most colorful, tasty, wild and crazy holidays of the year!

Vintage Valentines and a Tasty Treat

I thought I'd written here previously about vintage Valentine cards, but in reviewing the posts I've written in the past 11-plus years of blogging - yes, 11 years! - I only did a few February posts in total, and only one of those specifically featured a Valentine card, but it was 10 years ago! So, I am compelled to make treasured Valentine cards the focus of this post.

The one Valentine card that I did post back then was this classic, multi-layered vintage card (above) that I've had for years. I think my late mom gave it to me about 35-40 years ago or more, because she knew how much I liked those old-style lacy, Victorian-inspired cards, even if this one was newly printed at the time. It doesn't unfold, but it is three-dimensional, which makes it intricate with a lacy, gold filigree on the bottom layer, stylized flowers - lilies, mostly - on the middle layer, and cherub cupids with arrows and birds in a heart-shaped top layer.

This tapesty design, on a card made by Caspari, is inspired by a historic, circa 1500 French tapestry titled "La Dame a La Licorne" ("The Lady and the Unicorn"). This portion is part of a group of six tapestries woven of wool and silk in Flanders that are considered among the greatest European works of art from the Middle Ages. It's exquisite as a card, so I'm sure the real thing must be simply stunning. I think I purchased this card myself, but that, too, was at least 30 or more years ago.

Pre-dating both of the cards pictured is this image of one of two boxes of Hallmark Make-Your-Own Valentine's Kits that I've kept for more than 50 years. This one is the newer one of the two as the cover of other one suffered some damage over the years, but I did tape it back together. Both of them were sold in the 1960s and I used most of their contents - honeycomb hearts, feathers, plastic "rubies" and other ornaments and textured papers - to make Valentines myself. I remember I used glue from a bottle of amber-colored LePage's glue for paper to stick the various bits and bobs onto the cards to create unique Valentines for my friends and family. My creative crafting life started early! Note that the cover of this box shows a price of $1.50! Although they're no longer made by Hallmark, one can occasionally find a box of Valentine components from the company, but you'll pay far more dearly for them now. I saw one more recent box than mine priced online at $20 plus shipping. No surprise there given how scarce they are now, but they were great fun to make!

Finally, I had to share these wonderful French porcelain "coeur a la creme" molds. (Coeur a la creme means "cream heart" and is pronounced: "kur ah lah krem".) The perforated heart-shaped molds hold a cheesecloth wrapped chunk of softened and sweetened cream cheese - a classic French chilled dessert. The cheese mixture is folded into the mold, which is lined with cheesecloth, and placed in the refrigerator to drain (hence the purpose of the perforations) until it is chilled and the shape set. That results in the beautiful heart-shaped mound with the distinctive texture of the cheesecloth's impression when un-molded onto a pretty plate to slice and serve with berries or a drizzle of whatever sauce one desires. I have these molds in two sizes and discovered, when I took them out of the box the other day, that my set of pretty, red wicker heart-shaped baskets happen to be just the right size for each mold. Aren't they fun?!

For a straightforward and tasty recipe for coeur a la creme, I recommend this one from the inimitable Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, from her Barefoot in Paris cookbook.

Barefoot Contessa's Coeur a La Creme Recipe

I love that the treasures and keepsakes in my Valentines storage box always bring back such wonderful memories of childhood and the many years since.

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P.S. If sweetness isn't your "jam", you also can tempt your beloved by making a savory version of coeur a la creme. Just eliminate the sugar and vanilla and add scallions and some fresh herbs, including dill and chives, coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Ina offers this tasty version - topped with Major Grey's chutney (from a jar - no need to make your own), that's perfect as an appetizer served with crackers:

Ina Garten's Savory Coeur a la Creme

Enjoy!