Gatorworks | Baton Rouge Web Design & Development

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Mele Printing’s 7th Annual “Krewe of Kookies and Kakes” where I had the opportunity to make my very own king cake! The day started off with a quick meet and greet with the 20 or so other business professionals participating in the king cake class. My friends Trammie Anderson and Mendi LeBlanc from Lamar happened to be in the class as well, so it was great seeing them. After knocking out a cup or two of coffee, we were ready to tour Mele Printing’s impressive 33,000 square-foot facility where we learned about their state-of-the-art prepress as well as digital and offset printing equipment. One of the things that really stuck with me was the cleanliness of their facility. I’ve been in a few other printing warehouses in the past, and they weren’t nearly as clean and organized as Mele. I felt like I could eat my lunch right off the floor!

Mallery Mele leads the king cake cooking class

After the shop tour it was time to make our homemade king cakes. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Mele Printing bakes thousands of cookies each month for their clients. Many of their clients plan to receive their printing order on a Monday or a Wednesday so they’ll be sure to also receive a nice batch of fresh cookies. Anyway, each of us was given a log of dough with cinnamon rolled in the middle. We worked our dough in the form of a circle and threw it in the oven.

Once we took the cakes out of the oven, we dug out a few holes with our fingers on the bottom of the cakes to create a canal to insert fillings. I put strawberry and cream cheese in mine. Then, we flipped the cakes over and drenched them in hot icing and topped them with sugar. It was a masterpiece!

The event was an innovative way for Mele’s clients to learn more about their company all the while celebrating the rich history and culture of Southern Louisiana. We’re proud that Mele Printing is one of our vendors, and we look forward to fostering a long-term relationship with them!

Brian Rodriguez bakes his first Mardi Gras King Cake

I am a person that likes a challenge. This year, for Thanksgiving, my sister and I decided to get as close as possible to having a no-waste meal (i.e. buying fresh produce from a local Co-Op and using as little pre-packaged food as we could). A daunting task, but if you think about how much tinfoil, paper goods, styrofoam and leftover food are thrown away, to spend many, many years in a landfill, it’s not as inconvenient as you initially think. The average US family wastes $600+ worth of food annually, and that doesn’t include holidays.

On the way to our parents this past week, we decided to document the amount of food we made and compare it to the amount of packaged waste we had. The prepping and cooking were the hardest parts. But the culmination of thought and preparation when the meal hit the table made it all the more special. The results are pretty awesome. As seen here:

Feast and packaging pre-recycle.

So, after a long day of chopping, cooking, eating, and cleaning up, I felt really good about the small amount of waste, which was all recyclable, and the money we saved by buying local and organic. Next year I am going to attempt a NO WASTE Thanksgiving. Despite the traditional waste-ridden thanksgiving, you can easily accomplish an eco-friendly thanksgiving by attempting to reduce waste and save money in the process. Or not…

For a sustainable Thanksgiving reference:

http://coolfoodscampaign.org/thanksgiving/ten-cool-thanksgiving-tips/