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.


Boy #1 post-Snoball


Crawfish remains


A rare photo of me with a crawfish. The rarity comes from me being in a picture, not that I'm posing with crawfish.

Jazzfest Crawfish Bread

I went back through my blog and didn't see this recipe, so that means you can hear the whole background story behind it. You're thrilled, aren't you? This is one of the husband's favorite dinner. Tomorrow is his big 3-0 birthday, and this is what he picked for dinner. Now, on to the story.

The husband and I met in February 2001. In April of that year, I got laid off. Oh, if I haven't mentioned it before, the husband grew up in New Orleans. Well, a suburb of New Orleans but close enough. I got laid off on a Monday, and while we were out that night drinking away my sorrows about being unemployed, I suggested we go to New Orleans for a few days. He had his own consulting business at the time and didn't have any real committments, so we figured what the heck. By the way, my parents were none too pleased I was setting off cross country with some guy I'd only known a few months. Not that it plays into the story at all, just a random side note.

We set off for New Orleans on Saturday morning, stopped in El Paso for lunch at my parents' house, and then drove on to San Antonio to spend the night at my in-laws'. I don't advise driving from Phoenix to San Antonio in one day if you can avoid it. It was horrible. Awful. One of the worst days of my life. There is absolutely nothing except one little town between El Paso and San Antonio. I take that back...there's lots of dirt.

I don't remember how many days we stayed in New Orleans, but while we were there the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (or Jazzfest) was going on, so we went. The husband was excited because it was one of the things he missed most about living there. It was awesome--we saw great music performances including BB King, but the food was amazing. We had some crawfish bread that was one of the best things I've ever eaten. Ever. Seriously. And I think I've eaten a lot. Here's what it looks like:



DOn't you want to dive right in to that bad boy? Mmmmm...looks tasty. To be perfectly honest, most of that trip is pretty hazy. Hey, we were in New Orleans with no responsibilities, so we were free to imbibe as we wanted. We did go to Mississippi and drink at a bar called Bubba's with John's best friend. We toured a plantation. I can't tell you a whole lot past that. I maybe could, but my mom reads this (just kidding Mom...it wasn't anything bad). The point is, it was an awesome trip, we survived a drive across Texas (880 miles on I-10 if you were wondering...and that was just across TX) which pretty much proved we'll be together forever, and I came back wanting to make all things Cajun.

So when we made it back to Phoenix, the husband (or I guess at the point "the boyfriend") and I were reminiscing about the awesome crawfish bread. I did some searching and found a recipe online. We were probably back less than a week before I made it. I switched it up some because the recipe called for making your own dough, and I didn't dig that back then. Actually, this may have been when I found out about the husband's love for cheese. The recipe listed is how I make it, not the one I found online. Emeril has a pretty good recipe for it, too, but it's a lot more time consuming. I don't like time consuming.

By the way, the picture above I found online when I was trying to see if I could find the actual official crawfish bread recipe. It was listed as one of the top five foods to eat at Jazzfest. Man, how I want to go back there!!

Jazzfest Crawfish Bread
1 container Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried sweet basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste (or Cajun seasoning)
1 pound crawfish tail meat, coarsely chopped
1 4-ounce jar pimientos, drained and chopped
3/4 cup chopped green onions
3/4 cup grated monterey jack cheese (or jalapeno pepper jack cheese for a bigger kick)
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten

Roll out pizza dough until it's a nice rectangle shape, about 10"x14". In a large bowl, mix together the cheeses and spices (obviously I use way more cheese than is called for in this recipe). Scatter the crawfish lengthwise over the center third of the dough. Top with pimientos, green onions and shredded cheese. Fold sides of dough over and seal down the middle of the bread. Fold ends up so none of the cheesy crawfish awesomeness leaks out the ends. Brush loaf with egg wash. Bake in a preheated 400-degree oven until done and golden brown, 30-35 minutes.

*****

Mmmmm...doesn't it sound yummy? I stopped making it because all the cheese and crawfish wasn't good for the husband's cholesterol. Actually when I first started making it, I used shrimp instead of crawfish because I just couldn't find crawfish for a somewhat reasonable price in Phoenix. I've since discovered that Walmart sells it. It's not really cheap, but every once in awhile it's fine. I think it's $6 for 12 ounces of crawfish tail meat.

Tomorrow night we're going out for the husband's actual birthday, and Friday night is his boy's night celebration, so we're having his dinner request tonight. Actually Saturday we're going out just him and me as a combo birthday/anniversary dinner. Oh, and then Sunday we're going to dinner at my aunt's because there's an insane number of October birthdays in my family, so we're having a family dinner to celebrate. I gues I'm off the hook for dinner until Monday! Woo hoo!! Although I am making an amazing cake for the birthday dinner, so I'll post the recipe for that for sure.

Gouda Crawfish

I forgot to post this yesterday! This was the dinner we were going to have Monday night for the BCS National Title game, but since we were both under the weather we didn't want to waste it on a night we weren't even really hungry. So we had a mini date night last night and had this yummy dinner after the boy was in bed. It was so tasty! Except I didn't drain the crawfish first, so there was a bit of excess crafwish juice in the pan, and I think the crawfish got a bit over-cooked while I was trying to cook off the excess liquid. Oh well, it was still tasty!! Who can resist anything that has puff pastry and cheese?!

Gouda Crawfish
2 Tbsp butter
1 pound crawfish tails
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp parmesan cheese
1/2 cup dry Vermouth
1 Tbsp seafood seasoning
1/2 package frozen puff pastry
1 pound round Gouda cheese, cut into large slices
Melted butter

Simmer butter, crawfish, onions, parsley, and garlic until crawfish are tender. Add cream, parmesan cheese, vermouth, and seasoning. Simmer until liquid is consumed. Set aside to cool.

Defrost 1/2 package of puff pastry to room temperature. Place one pastry on baking sheet. Add gouda cheese in center. Add crawfish mixture on top of cheese. Fold pastry over cheese and crawfish. Seal edges. Brush with melted butter. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serves 10.


*****

The 10 serving thing is a bunch of BS, if you ask me. John and I ate all but one piece of this. I guess it would be 10 servings if it was an appetizer? I just don't see ten people eating this and all being satisfied. I think the package of crawfish I had was 12 ounces, too, so it was a bit shy on that. We still enjoyed it.

Anniversary Dinner

So we're officially celebrating our anniversary tonight after Will goes to bed. We always watch our wedding video on our anniversary, but last night we had our Thursday shows, so we figured we'd watch it tonight when we have our official celebration.

I have to say, I'm really excited for this dinner. John is from New Orleans and introduced me to the drink, Hurricanes. And if you're drinking Hurricanes, you have to use the offical Pat O'Brien's mix, from the bar in New Orleans. We ordered some last week, and it's supposed to get here tonight. We haven't had it in awhile, so it will be good. Of course, there's a ton of alcohol in them so one or two will knock you on your butt! Anyway, we figured we needed something that went with that so I turned to my "Best of the Best from Louisiana" cookbook. But, before we have dinner we're having baked brie. So, my friends, you get two recipes for the price of one today!

Hot Baked Brie
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup almonds or pecans, finely chopped
Small round brie cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter over medium heat. Add nuts and saute for 5 minutes. Using a sharp knife, carefully remove top rind from brie. Press nuts into soft part of brie using back of spoon. Bake in covered ceramic or glass dish for 5-7 minutes. Serve immediately with crackers or french bread.

*****

Gouda Crawfish
2 Tbsp butter
1 pound crawfish tails
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp parmesan cheese
1/2 cup dry Vermouth
1 Tbsp seafood seasoning
1/2 package frozen puff pastry
1 pound round Gouda cheese, cut into large slices
Melted butter

Simmer butter, crawfish, onions, parsley, and garlic until crawfish are tender. Add cream, parmesan cheese, vermouth, and seasoning. Simmer until liquid is consumed. Set aside to cool.

Defrost 1/2 package of puff pastry to room temperature. Place one pastry on baking sheet. Add gouda cheese in center. Add crawfish mixture on top of cheese. Fold pastry over cheese and crawfish. Seal edges. Brush with melted butter. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serves 10.

*****

Okay, so this is a new baked brie recipe for me, but it sounds really easy and yummy. I love baked brie, so I'm totally excited for it. I may slice up some apples to have with it as well.

Now, the crawfish recipe has me salavating. I'm actually halving the recipe because we just don't need 10 servings, and if it's as good as it sounds, we'd sit there and eat the whole thing. Plus half a pound of gouda was $5, and I couldn't justify spending $10 on a pound of cheese, even though it is a special occasion. The package of crawfish I got is only 12 ounces anyway, so I was shy on that to begin with. It actually sounds like another recipe I make, Jazz Fest crawfish bread. We'll see how this compares. Oh yeah, I didn't want to have to buy vermouth, so I looked up substitutes and found white wine vinegar can be used instead, so that's what I'll be doing. I'm also using fat-free half and half instead of the cream. I hope it turns out okay. I should have splurged on the calories and fat, but I already have the half and half.

Oh man, I just can't wait. I figure I can get the brie all ready to go, and John can pop it in the oven while I put the kid to bed, then it should be ready and waiting for me once I come back downstairs.

Oh, we're also having a salad. Spring mix with feta, walnuts, craisins, and balsamic vinagrette. I know I spelled that wrong, I always spell that wrong. It's my grandma's vinagrette recipe, and it's so good. If I remember, I'll post the recipe for that when I get it out later. It's the perfect mix of tangy and sweet.