CRABS!

Last night we had one of my favorite foods- boiled crabs! Actually, I love any kind of seafood boiled. . . crabs, shrimp, crawfish, it really doesn't matter what kind of crustacean, I love them all. Boiled in Zatarain's crab boil with whatever else happens to be around. Potatoes and garlic are my favorites, but it's also common to throw in corn on the cob, sausage, and onions.

We also make a concoction that we call a seafood dip made of mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, tobasco hot sauce, Tony Cacheri's seasoning, and a dash of ketchup. It's a great all-purpose dip and goes well with any type of boiled seafood.

Boiling seafood is a fairly easy process- they go in with blue claws and come out red! You just put the crustacean of choice and water into a 30 gallon pot on top of a propane burner and bring to a boil for 12 minutes. Then you let it sit there soaking up the sasonings for another 3-5 minutes. The length of time required to soak in the seasoning depends on how "fat" the seafood is. Depending on the season, crabs might be "skinny" inside the shell, so fluid can seep into it with lots of seasoning easily. That's when you find every cut on your hands and mouth, because if it's really seasoned, the spices will cause a burning sensation on any open wounds!

After the crabs are boiled, we drain the water out and then pour them over a table covered with newspaper. It's our best place setting, so if you're ever invited to a Cajun's home for boiled seafood and you're presented with a newspaper-covered table, you should be honored!!! The only utensils required are your hands and a butter-knife for cracking claws. Growing up, we would get fussed for breaking off the pinchers (claws) and not eating the rest of the crab. It appears that grandchildren are not subject to this same rule since they seem to get this choice meat without much ado!

We bought the crabs from a crabber in Leeville on our way back from Grand Isle the other day ($8 per dozen). We wanted to buy 6 dozen, but the old guy was generous and threw in an extra three dozen. I'll shell whatever we don't eat as leftovers this week and freeze it to take back with me to Colorado! The old crabber didn't say much. He apparently lives right at the boat landing that he runs because as we were leaving, his wife stuck her head out of a doorway right next to the warf and yelled something in French. She ended the string of French words with "come get your coffee!" My dad confirmed that she told him the same thing in French before saying it again in English. I don't know if she reiterated her command in English for our sake or if he just didn't usually listen to her so she tried two languages!!

As you can see from this post, I am very much enjoying my visit home, especially the eatin!!! My niece and nephew are here today, so with 70 degree weather, we'll enjoy the outdoors again until the rain comes this afternoon.

This last picture is of the Louisiana state bird- the Pelican. I don't remember seeing very many when I was a kid, but apprently they were put on the endangered list a while back and have made a come-back over the years. They were everywhere! My dad says that sometimes they cast their lines when fishing and will snare a pelican flying by. These birds are huge and according to him, put up a decent fight when you're trying to unhook them from your line!