The Pork Boys Do Mardi Gras 2015

Or, How them evil homosekshuls are destroying Western civilization, one meal at a time.

Your Head Trucker has just returned from a visit with his best friend M.P. and a week of good food, good company, and good cheer, with some guidance from our beloved Julia Child, as shown.

La table de fête, all set for Mardi Gras with lace and beads and glitter - naturellement!

Notice the perfect fleur-de-lys napkin folds that M.P. cleverly devised.

Masks and beads make the fireplace festive too.

Above and below, crepes filled with julienned ham and asiago cheese, covered with Hollandaise sauce; at the side, wilted baby spinach leaves with bacon and chopped sauteed onions.

Above and below, fresh hot beignets, just as yummy and irresistible as those from the French Market in the Vieux Carré.

Evening photos of the table, with masks M.P. made.

Candlelight always adds a lovely, festive glow to the evening.

Crunchy fried eggplant, a Southern delicacy - cooked up by your Head Trucker, as it takes no particular culinary skill.

Aubergines en Persillade, Gratinées - chopped eggplant baked with parsley, garlic, béchamel sauce, and breadcrumbs - yummmm.

Baked onions stuffed with rice and Parmesan cheese - so sweet and tender.

The main course:  Boeuf en Daube à la Provençale - top round larded with pork fat, braised in a thick sauce of red wine, beef stock, dark roux, scallions, tomatoes, and herbes de Provençe.  Melt-in-your-mouth good.  I tell you what.

Fresh out of the oven, M.P.'s perfect croissants, made entirely from scratch - flaky, crunchy, and buttery, far better than anything you can buy in stores.

Above and below:  a King Cake, made from featherbed biscuit dough, was of course the pièce de résistance, drizzled with melted butter - oh my!

So with plenty of good food, good wine, Marlboros, and music, we had a fine time - couldn't have been better if we were in Jackson Square or on the Champs-Élysées. And when the day's work is done, is that not the point of living - to savor and enjoy it?