Falling From Trees

Happy Fat Tuesday

About a year or so ago I decided I wanted to be intentional in celebrating yearly events which included the Christian calendar as well as other American holidays. I read a book by Gertrud Mueller Nelson called To Dance with God and another one by Jennifer Trainer Thompson called The Joy of Family Traditions.  I wasn't at this point so much doing this in preparation of having my own family as much as wanting to celebrate with those that make up my community. It is already February and with all the transitions it has been hard to start this year with these new traditions. 

Will and I got the chance to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras last year and fell in love with the city. I think people move to New Orleans because they love to celebrate, sing, and dance. If you have ever been to any kind of Mardi Gras celebration then you have probably had a king cake. People usually eat king cake starting from Epiphany up until Ash Wednesday which is known as the Carnival season. It is the cake with a baby or a bean buried in it. I have read two different accounts of the reward of winning the baby or bean. One is that the winner gets to be king/queen for the day. They get to choose the meal and make the rules for the next 24 hours. The second review is that they are the host of the following year's Fat Tuesday Feast.  

We decided at the last minute to try and make our very first king cake to celebrate Fat Tuesday with our roomies. The history of the king cake has been that everyone would gather all their sweet and decadent foods right before Lent and indulge one last time before fasting and introspection. 

Ingredients to make our colored sugar sprinkles.

A little green.

A little shaking.

All the ingredients you will need to make a simply King cake.

Our bean.

Unroll the cinnamon rolls, fold them in half, and twist.

Ymmm! Our King Cake

Will found the bean and is king for the next 24 hours.