Cooking Lesson #1,000: Mardi Gras Punch

…from the Perspectives’ Happy Hour Bar

image: solo.com

How you doin’? This is our 1,000th recipe blog. We started publishing at the beginning of the Covid scare when people were locked away in their homes with their families. We started getting phone calls from friends and family who asked us for recipes. For many they never had to cook 3 meals a day for their families.
 
Joan said, “It will only be 14 days, we can certainly write recipes for our friends after all we have over 30,000 recipes in our recipe archive, we’ve written for our clients over the years.” Well, 14 days came and went and still we were stuck in our homes. We had nothing but time and we continued to go to the office—we added some recipe history and Happy Hour on Fridays—what’s life without a great Happy Hour cocktail?
 
Every time we have missed an issue or when we went from 5 to 3 issues per week, we had our friends demand (sometimes in not such a friendly way) that we continue. I thought once we hit #1000 it would be a good time to stop, but after talking to quite a few people they told us they love the contact, so we are now starting on the next thousand.  
 
I am so excited for our 1,000th that falls close to Mardi Gras. It’s time to celebrate and this festive time is all about music, parades, picnics, floats, excitement and, of course, our 1,000th. It’s one big holiday in New Orleans, but you don’t have to live in the Big Easy to partake in the celebration!
 
Throw your own Mardi Gras party and celebrate our 1,000th with your friends and family with this delicious Mardi Gras Punch Bowl!   You can blow this recipe out depending on how many people are celebrating.
 
Prep time:  15 minutes
Yield: 16 to 20 servings
 
Ingredients 
2 sliced blood oranges
2 sliced limes
2 sliced lemons
16 maraschino cherries
16 ounces of red fruit punch (I prefer Hawaiian Punch)
16 ounces blood orange juice
6 ounces frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
6 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1-2/3 cups light rum
1-2/3 cups dark rum
4 to 6 large ice spheres (molds available on Amazon)
 
Directions

1. Slice the blood oranges, limes and lemons set aside with the maraschino cherries as a punch bowl garnish. 
2. Combine all of punch ingredients in the punch bowl.
3. No matter how you celebrate, do so responsibly!

ChefSecret:  If you want to be totally fancy, create a really neat special effect with dry ice placed in your hurricane punch bowl!

Quip of the Day:  Q.  What do you call a hamburger covered in beads? A. A French Quarter pounder.
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.

#Cocktail #MardiGrasPunch #MardiGras #Rum #BloodOrange #FebruaryCocktails #HappyHour2025 #PerspectivesOnFood #Cheers #Recipes2025 #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #SamaritansPurse #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup  

                                                                                   ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2025

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