The Crawfish Boil

This past Saturday, my cousin, Patrick and my Aunt Cheryl flew in from Dallas.  We had a crawfish boil planned.  Dad got 120 pounds of crawfish and we had some corn and potatoes to go along.  It was the perfect day for a boil!  The weather was nice.  My brother and sister-in-law came in from New Orleans.  My sister and her crew were there.  Mom & Dad and Tricia and I and our three were there as well.  Before the boil we spent some quality time visiting.

We put the first of four sacks in the heavily seasoned boiling water and set the timer once it returned to a boil.  Five minutes later, they were done.  We let them soak for 20 minutes and posed with the first batch of crawfish.

(L-R) Benjamin, Laura Lee, Cheryl, Mom, Patrick, Tricia, Emery, Kristian, Russ, and Dad

We poured the first 30 pounds of crawfish across the table and folks began peeling and eating.  We got the second batch boiling.  The way we timed it, when the 30 pounds on the table were just about eaten, we had the next boiled batch ready to pour on the table.

A ravenous crew of crawfish eaters demolished those crawfish!

In between each new batch, we emptied the table of the heads and peelings.

There was visiting going on, too.  Aside from eating crawfish, there was corn and potatoes, jalapeno poppers, cookies, watermelon, blonde brownies and all sorts of other snacks.

Kristian brought his potato gun and my sister's kids shot potatoes into the woods with a loud BOOM!  They had lots of fun watching potatoes fly hundreds of feet.

And then it happened.  Like a Biblical plague, the horseflies descended on us, swarming, stinging, harassing.  Like ants at a picnic, they thought they were going to terrorize us into submission.  But they were wrong.  We fought back.  Armed with fly-swatters and rolled up newspaper, we waged war.  Slow progress at first.  It seemed like if we killed one, three more would appear.  The battle went on for 30 minutes or so.

At last we could visit and eat in peace.  When I tell you we killed over a hundred horseflies, I'm not exaggerating.  In fact, my sister swept them up and like hunters posing with their prey, we took a photo to capture the memories.  Look at all the dead horseflies at our feet!

Visiting, laughing, eating crawfish and killing horseflies.  Louisiana Saturday Night!