A Cajun Crawfish Boil

Saturday morning mom and I went to the quilt show. Dad and Vince went looking for something for dad's tractor. The quilt show was very nice, saw some old friends and lots of pretty quilts. Didn't buy a single thing . . NOTHING! Can you believe it. After the quilt show mom and I met Vince and dad at Cotton's to get my favorite hamburger in the whole world! No place like Louisiana! My niece, Kristy, is married to a real cajun, Wayne, and they're so funny. I love to be around true cajun families. The crawfish boil was at Kristy & Wayne's house. They have three little girls. Wayne's sister, Toni, and her husband and three little boys were there. Wayne's brother and his girl friend were there. Wayne's mom and dad (I went to high school with them) were there. Mom and dad, Vince and I and Chad were there. I think that was 19 people there and there - 13 adults and 6 kids. They boiled 100 pounds of crawfish and we ate them all! So, here's the pictures of the crawfish boil. First you put them all in a kid's swimming pool and wash them off. Sometimes they purge them using salt water but I will spare the details of that process. Here they are taking a bath before going into the spicey hot water. Damon is braver than I am . . I wouldn't stick my hands in there with those live crawfish! In the second picture, the ladies are sitting patiently waiting for crawfish, potatoes and corn to be done. While some of the men are working getting the crawfish done, some of the men are taking it easy . . like dad and Vince! Once the crawfish are almost done, they pour them into an ice chest for a few minutes to finish cooking. It's really easy to overcook the crawfish and then they're mushy and not too good. Wayne is a fantastic crawfish cooker .. probably been doing it since he was knee high to a duck! Last of the pictures for today is a picture of my niece, Kristy, with her baby. Kristy is just so cute (maybe I'm a little biased but she really is pretty!). You'd never believe she has three girls, the oldest one is 8-1/2. Today we went to mom's for gumbo for lunch, hung out there til mid-afternoon, came back to Lake Charles and I was hoping to eat boiled crabs at my favorite crab dive (Crab Palace but now it's called Seafood Palace) but they are closed on Sunday. Decided we'd go to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Casa Manena, and they closed at 3 so we missed them. Ended up eating Chinese buffet! :( Came back to the room and one of the larger suites was available so we changed rooms. Now I have plenty of room . . a huge table with 8 chairs. Wish I had my sewing machine, rotary cutter, etc. Judy