Fat Tuesday Feast

One of my favorite things about Ethan and my "dating story" was our Dinner Date Nights each week.

We had a show we enjoyed watching on Tuesday nights.  We thought it would be fun to make that a night where we would try to cook a new recipe together and then watch our show later on.  We had a lot of fun browsing websites and cookbooks trying to plan out what new recipe we were going to try.  And I will say, that we rarely failed.  We have many recipes that are now in the rotation that we found during this time. 

One of those favorite meals is our "Fat Tuesday Feast."  And what a feast it is.  (Especially that first year we made it where everything on the menu was a new recipe). 

• Blackened Pepper-Jack Chicken
• Dirty Rice (with andouille sausage)
• Creole Sauce - From scratch
• Deep Fried Corn Fritters

We have carried on the tradition of making this meal every year before the start of Lent.  Ethan and I get into the kitchen and spend at least an hour juggling almost every pot and pan in our kitchen (as well as a deep fryer), using over half of the spices in the spice cabinet, and laughing and joking through the preparation of the meal.

I would love to say that we actually make and eat our Fat Tuesday Feast on Fat Tuesday, but the last couple of years just haven't allowed for it.  This year we had our meal on Thursday after Lent had already begun.  The kitchen was a complete mess, we were both exhausted after dinner was over (me being 8 months pregnant and he having just ran 3 miles), but the entire time we are enjoying ourselves and exclaiming over and over how we should really make this dinner more than once a year. 

And as we were eating our meal, Ethan looked at me and said...

"I hope our kids like this meal, I want to keep this tradition going."

Made my heart smile!