Crab Boil on a Saturday Afternoon

On Saturday morning, Benjamin and Russ and my Dad headed down south on a crabbing trip.  It promised to be good Grandpa-grandson time, and I was very excited for them to go.  We haven't been on a family crabbing trip in a while and need to do it again.  I think THIS POST shows crabbing in action the last time we went.  Benjamin and his roommate in college have been going a lot.  They crab and take them back to their apartment, invite friends over and boil them.  

Bright and early they headed to the coast with string, chicken necks for bait, a net and an ice chest.  Crabbing is easy and fun.  You tie a neck to the string and toss it out.  The crabs grab the neck with their pinchers and the string tightens up.  The person holding the string gently pulls it in.  When the string gets close enough, the person with the net puts the net under the crab and pulls the crab in.  Russ is always good pulling the crabs in and Benjamin is an expert with the net.  In fact, we nicknamed him Benjamin "Net-an-yahoo" due to his prowess!

I called and checked on the crabbers mid-morning.  The wind was blowing hard and the crabs weren't biting like they had been in the past, but they still got about 20.  The crabs were big and pretty.

You don't want to get pinched by those pinchers!  We filled our boiling pot with water and added Crab Boil Seasoning and brought the water to a boil.  We added the crabs, potatoes, garlic, onions, lemons and eggs.

We let the crabs boil for 15 minutes and then cut the fire off and let them soak for 25 minutes.  Then it was time to eat!

The four of us wiped out all the crabs, potatoes and all the other fixings.  It was delicious!  

We will have to plan another crabbing trip again soon before it gets too hot!

Good Friday Crawfish Boil

Good Friday turned out to be a beautiful day!  We got off work shortly after lunch and I made it home by 2 pm.  Good Friday is traditionally a time to reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for you and for me.  It is also a time when families get together and enjoy each others' company.  Growing up, we'd always have a fish fry.

Russ organized our Good Friday meal by obtaining a sack of crawfish from Benjamin's friend, Tanner.  Louisiana crawfish farmers are really having a tough time.  Restaurants that serve them are closed.  It is really a shame.  The price that crawfish farmers are getting right now are very low.  Usually after Good Friday the live price per pound plummets, but the prices have been dropping for a long time now due to the virus shutdown.  We certainly hope all that ends quickly.

We got the sack of crawfish and washed them off.  The size of the crawfish was nice!

Crawfish are not heeding the call to social distancing

Russ, Benjamin, and Tanner opened the valve on the propane bottle and started the fire.  They dumped the bag of seasoning in the water and stirred.  The roar of the propane jet and the smell of crawfish seasoning always brings back great memories of many crawfish boils we've had in the backyard from my childhood to the present.  To the boiling water, whole garlic, corn on the cob, and potatoes were added and allowed to boil in the seasoned water for a bit.

Pinchers gonna get ya if you aren't careful

Once the water came to a rolling boil, the live crawfish were added to the pot and the lid was put on top.  The water gradually came to a rolling boil again, and then the fire was cut off.  The crawfish were allowed to sit in the seasoned water for 15-18 minutes.  Then, the basket full of boiled crawfish was pulled from the pot and ceremonially poured atop a newspaper covered table.

We asked God's blessings on our feast and stood around the table and began peeling and eating.  We had some good cocktail sauce made up by mixing ketchup, horseradish and lemon.  Great for dipping!

The 35 pound sack of crawfish was quickly devoured.  When we thought our bellies were going to pop, we stopped eating and began to peel the remaining crawfish for tail meat. 

We had a pound and a half of peeled crawfish tail meat that Tricia used the next day.  First, for breakfast we had crawfish and scrambled eggs.  Yum!  Then for supper Tricia took the remaining tails and made a delicious crawfish etouffee.  Great weather, great food, and great family time. 

A Crawfish Boil for Russ

When Russ graduated from LSU back in May, he wanted to have a crawfish boil in the backyard and celebrate with family.  That's just what we decided to do.  My Dad was able to get a few sacks of crawfish from the farm and we washed them up real good in a washtub in the backyard.  The weather was absolutely perfect for a boil.

The crawfish were perfect, too.  They were clean and a nice size.  We started up the fire on the burner and waited for the water to come to a boil.

While waiting we seasoned the water, cut up lemons, gathered onions, potatoes, corn, and garlic and visited.

The boys got out the Marlin .22 and set up a target and began sighting it in.  Pretty soon, though, the smell of Zatarain's Crawfish Boil seasoning wafted through the air beckoning hungry target shooters to eat.

My sister, who is a professional cake baker, made purple and gold cupcakes for the graduate.  They looked good and tasted good, too.

The crawfish were boiling in the heavily seasoned water and it didn't take long for them to be ready.

We spread out newspaper on the table and poured the hot, boiled crawfish on the table.  Everyone rolled up their sleeves and began peeling crawfish and eating until their bellies were full.

The crawfish were delicious.  We enjoyed each other's company.  Russ wasn't fired up about us singing, "For he's a jolly, good fellow," though.

We actually had some left over that we couldn't eat.  No worries.  We gathered around the island inside (because the mosquitoes started really bothering us) and peeled the rest of the crawfish, packing the tail meat into quart-size Zip loc bags.

We had quite a few bags when we were done.  Some got given away, some got frozen.  In a few days, Tricia thawed out one of the bags and made a big, delicious casserole baking dish of CRAWFISH FETTUCCINE!

What an enjoyable evening!  We celebrated the graduate with good food and family togetherness.  Let the good times roll!