A special love for Mardi Gras

We are energized today to work on our Next Pye Sale!! Maribeth and I have a very special love and connection for Mardi Gras! With MB being from Mobile and me spending much of my Graduate school days in New Orleans, we are very exited to try some new experiments in the kitchen. 

Last year, we YouTubed several of the Parades for our kids, ate king cake and dreamt about making delicious Pyes and here we are one year later. 

So the first idea is to a version of the king cake.  MB is attempting to recreate a type of custard. My favorite part of this creation is going to be to decorate with the Purple, Green and Yellow sugar.  So by accident, MB has created a new version of custard that looks and tastes like Creme Brûlée.  OMG - its soooo good. This is what happens with us - we keep on making accidental discoveries.   

I am going to try and represent the ultimate New Orleans Sandwich - the Muffuletta of course - in a pye! So I did a ton of research already and am thinking the foundational elements need to be meat, cheese, olives.  I just tasted Provolone by itself and didn't realize how strong and amazing this cheese can be!  Why do I not usually buy Provolone?  I've decided to make the Olive salad from scratch and I'm going nuts with all the possibilities - Roasted red peppers, olives, marinated artichokes, cauliflower, carrot, parsley... I mean you can really put it all in there but my main worry is to not make this too sour.  I think I need some heat! How about pepperoncini peppers - peppers have 100-500 SHU. While they still create a slight tingle on the tongue when eaten, they are milder than most other chili peppers. 

So here goes y'all. It's gonna be good!!