Cooking Claire: Mmmm...crawfish

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Mmmm...crawfish

I know I've mentioned before that the husband is from Louisiana. I think one of the things he misses most is the crawfish boil. You just don't really have them in Arizona because, well, we don't really have crawfish here. Sure you can have them overnighted but it costs a pretty penny (trust me, I've checked). Somehow at some point I stumbled upon the Cajun Cactus Foundation and their annual events. They're basically a group of Louisianans (wow, I wasn't sure if that was a word, but apparently it is) who miss all the awesomeness that is Louisiana, so they have events here to make it feel more like home. In the fall we went to the Great Cajun Cook-Off and Food Fest (which I'm debating entering this year) and had a BLAST. Their spring event is the Great Cajun Crawfish Boil which we went to last night.

I'd had boiled crawfish before (I guess that's what you call the resulting crawfish from a crawfish boil?) but had never actually been to one. It was AWESOME. Along with copious amounts of crawfish there were all sorts of tasty Louisiana/Southern sides...dirty rice, red beans and rice (so tasty), hot links, mac and cheese, potato salad, green olive cole slaw, Krispy Kreme bread pudding, Snoballs (similar to what the rest of the US knows as snow cones), catfish tacos. I worked my ass off at the gym Friday morning so I could really go balls to the wall and indulge...and yet I still ended up over calories. But that was probably more from the beer than the food. Anyway...we had a great time, had great food, and we can't wait for it again next year. The husband always has New Orleans withdrawals this time of year because of Jazzfest, but he said the crawfish boil last night made him hardly miss it at all this year.

I took a few pictures that I thought I'd share.

Crawfish...lots and lots of crawfish. Frankly the potato is just taking up space that could be held by more crawfish.

The husband enjoying his mud bugs

Our friend Steve...he looks angry at the crawfish, but I don't think he really was.

Boy #2 having some of the corn from the boil. I think my kids pretty much had Snoballs and Krispy Kreme donuts for dinner. What can I say, sometimes I'm an awesome mom.