Here's a recipe ethat is absolutely delicious, any time of the year!!

NEW ORLEANS BARBECUED SHRIMP

2 Sticks Butter
2 Tablespoons Minced Garlic
� Teaspoon Fresh Thyme
� Teaspoon Fresh Oregano
1 Teaspoon Minced Rosemary
� Cup Amber Beer
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Crystal Hot Sauce
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon Freshly ground Black Pepper
3 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Parsley
1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
Cayenne Pepper, to taste
2 Pounds shell on Shrimp

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Melt 2 tablespoons of the Butter in a heavy frying pan and saut� the Garlic until lightly browned. Add the Thyme, Oregano and Rosemary and cook for until fragrant. Deglaze the pan with the Beer, reduce heat and reduce liquid by half.

Add the remaining Butter and the rest of the ingredients except the Parsley and the Shrimp. Stir until Sauce comes together, taste to correct seasonings and add the Shrimp, tossing to coat with the sauce. Transfer to a baking sheet where the Shrimp can bake in a single layer. Place in the oven for 10 � 15 minutes. Be careful not to overbake.

Pour into a large bowl, sprinkle with the Parsley and enjoy!

Steve

Here's Penzey's Etouffee recipe:

* 1-2 lbs. 30-50 count fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined; 1-2 lbs. frozen crawfish tails; or 1-2 lbs. alligator "bites"
* 2 TB. CAJUN SEASONING, divided
* 4-8 TB. butter, divided (Jim uses unsalted), the second 4 TB. is optional!
* 1/3-1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2-1 Cup finely chopped onion
* 1/2-1 Cup finely chopped celery
* 1/2-1 Cup finely chopped red bell pepper
* 2 TB. PENZEYS MINCED GARLIC
* 1 tsp. THYME
* 2-3 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
* 1 tsp. hot sauce
* 3/4-1 Cup fresh tomatoes, diced
* 11/2-3 Cups water mixed with 1-2 tsp. CHICKEN or SEAFOOD SOUP BASE
* 1/2 Cup thinly sliced green onion
* 3 TB. minced fresh Italian parsley
* 1/2-1 tsp. salt, to taste
* 1/2-1 tsp. PEPPER, to taste
* 1/4-1 tsp. CAYENNE PEPPER, to taste
* 2 TB. lemon juice, optional
* 5-6 Cups cooked rice

Season the shrimp with 1 TB. of the CAJUN SEASONING and set aside to marinate. Melt half of the butter in a large cast iron or heavy duty skillet over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the roux is the color of peanut butter, about 10-15 minutes. Add the onion, celery and bell pepper and cook until translucent, stirring regularly, about 5-10 minutes. Stir in the remaining CAJUN SEASONING, GARLIC, THYME, Worcestershire and hot sauce. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes. Add a small amount of the CHICKEN/SEAFOOD stock and stir well to form a paste. Add the remaining stock gradually, stirring constantly so it is nice and smooth. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer for 30-60 minutes. Boiling will insure the roux does its job and thickens the sauce.

You may need to add a little more stock after the simmer stage to insure the end result is the consistency of a gravy�not too thick, not too thin. Add the shrimp/crawfish/alligator, green onion and parsley and simmer for 10 more minutes or until the shrimp/crawfish/alligator is cooked through (shrimp or crawfish should take about 10 minutes, alligator will take about 60 minutes). Stir in the remaining butter if desired and salt, pepper and CAYENNE to taste. According to Louise's son Jim, "A little lemon juice may add a little 'Je ne sais quoi' (I don't know what) flavor!" Serve over rice.

Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 11/2 hours, plus 50 minutes if using alligator
Serves: 6-8

Nutritional Information:
Servings 8; Serving Size 1 cup (280g); Calories 340; Calories from fat 60; Total fat 7g; Cholesterol 115mg; Sodium 400mg; Carbohydrate 31g; Dietary Fiber 2g.

I've been celebrating for 3 weeks now...I'm tired of king cake. Fat Tuesday I'll be locked in my house...we have second largest Mardi Gras in the State of Louisiana next to New Orleans. Whew, it get's crazy out there!

I'll cook my recipe of BBQ shrimp with a nice fresh loaf of french bread. We may have a few people over on Tuesday. People must leave their homes by 2:00 p.m. to get anywhere in the city. So I'll do appetizers and drinks in the afternoon then the BBQ shrimp in the early evening. The parades are usually over by 11:00 so I'll also serve coffee with a dessert of some kind around 8:00. Our guest can probably leave around 11:30 p.m. and get home around midnight. The traffic is crazy and I worry about drinkers on the road...sigh!

We only have to deal with Bike Week. Sounds about the same without all the OBVIOUS parties. Dangerous out on those roads for the next week! Picture bikers in town for 10 days--most don't know how to ride well. Sunburned. Drinking. It ain't a pretty sight!

Ugh, sounds awful, beachlily and RR, I don't think I'd like that at all.

No Mardi Gras celebrations go on here at all, not a King's Cake in sight. The local Wesco gas station is taking orders for Paczki's, though, for Fat Tuesday. That's about as wild as it gets here.

Annie

Stay safe Riverrat! The etouffee turned out well! DH even liked it (sometimes he's fussy about "new foods.") I think I figured out the secrets to a local restaurants spicy pepper sauce they put over squid in the process of making the etouffee.
:)

Dh & I love the spicy pepper sauce!

We don't do Mardi Gras, but do celebrate Shrove Tuesday (known in the local restaurant trade as "National Pancake Day"). While the kiddoes prefer ordinary buttermilk pancakes with faux maple syrup, they don't seem to realize the concept of "cook's choice", so will be disappointed come supper time. I can't face such sweet fare that late in the day. My plan is to make savoury pancakes with sweet potatoes, topped with a bleu cheese mushroom sauce. My recipe recommended a roasted tomato sauce, but tomatoes are pretty woody and pricey here this time of year.

Boo, you said "stay safe" to RR. I had to reread the posts to get the meaning behind your comment as a tornado hit close (really close) to her and I'm waiting to hear from her.

Oh geez, I hope she's OK, I'll watch and wait to make sure everything is fine, and that she checks in soon.

Annie

I just shot off an email to Karen and she is OK. Didn't even know about it, just had some wind -

'We are fine. We had some scaredy cat moments of bad wind but this is typical for this time of year. I didn�t even know that a tornado had landed in LC until this morning. I knew one landed a little east of us.'

:-)

We usually go BIG on Mardi Gras. DH will be out of town, so I'm not even making the standard dinner fare this year. All the kids want is King Cake. I'm trying out a recipe from AllRecipes. I usually have cakes shipped up form Randazzo's or Haydel's...but not this year. I'm making it from scratch. I think, actually, I have made one before, years ago, but it wasn't tasty. I hope this recipe I found is okay!

Glad Karen is ok. Kind of puts a damper on the Mardi Gras celebration. Then again, when I lived in Boston, we used to have hurricane parties. Gave us an excuse!

All is fine! Freaky weather we have been having.

The roads are already blocked off and people have their campers, buses, motor homes and trucks all set up along the parade route...allready!! They BBQ out the back of their trucks and sleep in the buses just waiting for the big parades on Tues. This is a standard holiday and all children are out of school Monday - Wednesday. Business have to shut down all along the parade route. I'm locked in my house hoping the cleaning lady can get here! LOL!