Saturday and Crawfish!

S is for Saturday

I know! That was too easy, but hey, it’s been a busy week. Saturday is the day we get to catch up, to do the things we haven’t had time or the energy during the week to do. Sometimes we even get to do things we want to do. I know! What a brilliant idea! A very good friend of mine is having a crawfish boil today. Realizing that this may be read by people from other states or perhaps other countries, I feel the need to explain what a crawfish boil is, and why we eat these small crustaceans that burrow into the mud (also called mudbugs).

It’s actually a Cajun tradition. Us Texans, especially the ones living close to the Louisiana border, are smart to catch on to a good thing. So, what we do is get a couple of sacks of these live ‘critters’, a few sacks of red taters, maybe a few onjons’, as the Cajuns say, and definitely a passel of corn-on-the-cob.

First thing to do is get a BIG pot of water boiling over a propane burner. Add at least a large bag of spicy seasonings. As the water boils, it will dissolve the pepper and spices to create a powerful elixir for the crawfish, one that will darn near have the little buggers dancing on your plate! Okay, I’m embellishing here. The point is, it’s how much of this pepper-spice mix you put on your crawfish that determines how Cajun you really are. Me personally, I like them middle of the road, with just a good kick to-em. I know plenty of people who like em so spicy, their sweat turns red! Honest!

Crawfish really are good on a Saturday afternoon, chased down with a cold beer, with a bunch of friends trying to forget the work week. By the way, I have a friend who does large crawfish boils for large groups, companies and plant workers or corporate big guys. He usually does THOUSANDS of pounds at a time. Bon’ appetit.