I forgot to take pictures of the salads. I promise, we did eat our veggies. And our boiled peanuts. And the table crisp bread with a cheesey pimento-y ramekin next to it. None of those things had any calories in them, of course.
And then we dove into the Shrimp Po’Boy, the Jambalaya, and the Red Beans and Rice.
All delicious, flavorful, and generous in portion size.  Share plates or prepare to be extremely full.

Then we shared King Cake – the traditional Mardi Gras Cake – without the hidden plastic baby for choking hazard and other liability reasons (I’m not making this up!) and Beignets. And coffee.

Fat Tuesday: Sharing good food with good friends since 2011.  With many happy returns. (For context, pictures and thoughts on what we’ve done on many of our Fat Tuesday forays this year go here).

*Did you know that ‘Mardi Gras’ actually means ‘Fat Tuesday’ in French? – I didn’t, having taken Latin and Spanish as my high school languages.

Here’s yesterday’s photo…with an explanation. And a bonus chart. See below for details.

‘Wait a minute’ you’re saying – aren’t there a lot of sewing and quilting things that involve needle and thread on this blog? Yes, there is. But when it comes to things I hate to do, threading needles is one of them.

In fact, I find that as my eyesight has gone downhill, my hatred of threading has gone uphill. Here’s a graphic representation.

Fortunately though for needle and thread, I dislike fusing and gluing even more. And I like finishing projects every now and then, so I’ll keep on squinting and threading.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/freemotionquilting/sets/72157625110573627/

I love that it’s so many free motion patterns all in one place.

Leah Day – the creator of all those free motion swatches – is also author of a blog of the same name at FreeMotionQuilting.blogspot.com. There’s lots of helpful advice on machine quilting here – not just patterns.