Potluck at Julian's

As I mentioned in my last post, we were invited over to a potluck dinner at Julian's. He's a former coworker of Andrew's who's also an avid cyclist. During our last gathering, someone had cracked a joke on whether dinner at Julian's would also require all attendees to wear "kits" - the tight jerseys and shorts that Julian wears while cycling. That's why it was funny to arrive at his place in Brighton and see that each place setting came equipped with it's own jersey:



Julian provided the main meal of spaghetti with homemade meatballs, that a kind friend of his had made for him just for the occasion. Jeanne and Mike brought a green bean casserole (one of my favorites) and another surprise that reflects their Lousiana roots - a King Cake!

I was really excited to see and taste a King Cake as I've heard of them and read of them, but never thought I would get to try one for myself.

Keep in mind, the King Cake below was baked in LA and shipped overnight to Boston - it got banged up a bit in transit, and in fact, the UPS guy that delivered it was holding the box by its side. So don't judge the cake's taste by it's appearance:



As Jeanne and Mike described it, a typical King Cake is more like a sweet bread with a filling, topped with frosting (in this case, the Mardi Gras colors of green and purple). They chose a pecan praline filling (one of my absolute favorite flavor combos) and it was delicious.

In another interesting twist, King Cakes also feature a little plastic figurine of a baby that is baked in. Whoever gets the baby in their piece of cake is supposed to buy the next King Cake that is eaten (as King Cakes are eaten throughout the official Mardi Gras period, starting on Epiphany on January 6 to the end of Mardi Gras this month). With this in mind and trying to avoid the potential choking aspect of this tradition, whoever serves the cake tries to slice it in tiny one inch portions, which ensure that you will most likely "feel" the baby figurine in the cake and know which slice it will end up in. I know this sounds a bit disturbing but I found it to be a charming tradition all the same.

We made it through half the cake but alas, no sign of the baby. Sensing our disappointment, Mike sliced up the rest of the cake and made sure his next slice would have it so we could see it.

Here's Mike pointing out the baby with his fork - no matter how many pictures I took of it, it came out looking this blurry:



Here's the baby after it's been cleaned up a little more:



In another amusing highlight of the night, my earring ended up getting caught in Andrew's sweater as I was leaning against him. I had to unhook it from my ear before I could work it Andrew's sweater without causing a large snag in the wool:



Finally, here's a group shot of all the potluck dinner attendees (minus Julian's roommate Brett, who kindly took the picture for us):



From L to R, Andrew, me, Jeanne (whose 7 months along and still tiny!), Mike, Julian and the new girl who he's dating, Katie.