Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler!

Last weekend, we hosted a murder mystery party, using the boxed game Murder at Mardi Gras: A Big Mystery in the Big Easy by Dinner Games.

The weather was a little iffy that evening, so four of our guests didn't make it, but two of them were scheduled to play "optional" characters and we just covered for the other two.

As the host of the party, I didn't think I ought to play a real role, so I wore Shrike's cop costume from Halloween 05, and played Officer Marie Bon Chance, who was investigating the murder. Shrike played Bourbon DuPre, the illegitimate nephew of the murder victim, and a French Quarter jazz musician.

We decided against a sit-down dinner, but I cooked up some (more-or-less) traditional New Orleans fair for the buffet, including a punchbowl full of hurricanes, muffaletta sandwiches and a king cake for dessert.

I cheated a bit on the king cake, and did it "monkey bread" style, but I think it came out great.

The biggest challenge was finding the "baby" to put inside. Instead of ordering one online (as anyone who happened to be living above the Mason-Dixon line, and having any sense, would have done) I put it off til the last minute, then drove all over town looking for something acceptable.

I was getting pretty desperate, and begining to wonder how offensive it would be for Baby Jesus to be represented by a Bratz Doll, when we finally stumbled upon this:


If you can't read the packaging in the photo, let me explain. Ranger, the border collie-ish dog here, is one of several who run a day care. In this playset, Ranger is also operating an ice cream stand.

The dog. Is selling ice cream. To be-diapered babies. With pigtails.

Well, of course.

So, I snipped off the pigtails, hid the baby in the king cake, and put the rest of the playset in the toybox for our six-year-old niece.

Sidebar:
Our niece and nephew spent the night on Friday. Saturday morning, she found the set and saw that the baby was missing. Aunt Shrike told her that I'd put it in a cake.

The first I heard of this was when she came into the bedroom and woke me up to say "Aunt Whozat, Aunt Shrike told me to ask you if you ate the plastic baby from my toy."

If anyone is interested (Bueller?) I'll be happy to post the recipes that I used for the cake, as well as the muffalettas and hurricanes."Party+Time" Photos"Whozat+In+The+Kitchen"