Zatarain’s House Party 2012

I wanted to write a bit about a Zatarain’s House Party that we recently had for Mardi Gras. Connor crowned himself the King of Jokers and JT was just a Joker.

There is a website, www.houseparty.com, and you can apply to host parties. If you are selected as a host they will send you a party pack with various items to help you with your party. I applied for the Zatarain’s Brings Mardi Gras Home House Party and was selected. I was sent a party pack with some rice mixes, Creole seasoning and Creole mustard, a branded spoon and hot pad, Root Beer Extract, and coupons.

The boys were really excited about the party and had a fun time. They were of course mostly excited for the games. I purchased some super cute crawfish from Oriental Trading and we played a Crawfish Boil game which the boys had been practicing for. We tossed the crawfish into their toy pot and whoever got in the most won. This proved to be harder then expected and there was a tie with one of the winners being Connor. The winning number was 2…2 out of 10.

We also played Musical Caps which was suggested by Zatarain’s and House Party and we were also going to play another game that was their suggestion called Spoon the Balloon but somehow I lost the balloon. Musical Caps is like musical chairs except you stand in a circle and pass around caps and then when the music stops whoever doesn’t have one is out. For Spoon the Balloon you toss aroud a balloon on a spoon. We tried substituting an toy egg for the balloon but it was too easy and only JT dropped the egg.

I had also purchased some Mardi Gras doubloons from ebay and hid them around the house. Whoever found the most was the winner and everyone loved this. Whoever had the oldest coin was also a winner. I gave out beads to all the winners and at the end of the night whoever had the most beads won a prize. Everyone also received Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning and Zatarain’s coupons, a mask, a Mardi Gras straw, a crawfish, a Mardi Gras mug, and they kept their beads and doubloons.

Zatarain’s and House Party also give you a suggested menu and supply you with recipes. The recipes which I used, were Jambalaya Maque Choux, Red Beans and Rice Tortilla Casserole, and King Cake Cupcakes with a Root Beer Cream Cheese Filling and a Root Beer Frosting. I also got a recipe off of the Zatarain’s website for Sweet and Tangy Creole Wings. Everything was delicious and super easy to make. I spent the most time making the Cupcakes. I wasn’t too sure about how the cupcakes would come out but they were really good. The rice mixes are really easy to make and ingredients can easily be added to them to come up with some really delicious meals.

The boys and everyone else had a really great time at our Zatarain’s Brings Mardi Gras Home House Party. I hope everyone else had a great Mardi Gras as well.