Joe and Nicole Causey’s Third Annual Crawfish Boil

When I received the Evite, I must admit I did a little happy dance … Joe and Nicole Causey, my former neighbors, were hosting their third annual crawfish boil at a friend’s house in Pegram. Never mind that they have moved back to Louisiana.  Never mind that I miss them so very much.  Never mind that I never tasted even the first crawfish at the annual event one and two.  The only thing I did mind is that they were leaving their little diva Stella (an adorable malti-poo that loves me) in Baton Rouge. Joe and I were definitely going to make this feast.

Nicole and her parents, Jan and Bobby, drove up with two big sacks of creepy, crawly mud bugs. Bobby is an expert at cooking these little critters and he had an adorable little assistant that helped wash the mud off the bugs.

 

 

 

 

As soon as all the critters were clean, Joe and Bobby put them in a big vat of boiling water that already had some other good stuff in it:  corn on the cob, potatoes, mushrooms and lots and lots of spices.

 

All of the ingredients cook together for 30 minutes.  In the meantime, Joe Causey had cooked up his own special recipe of Jambalaya using the biggest spoon I think I have ever seen.  I grabbed a bowl and enjoyed the heck out of it while listening to Bobby tell stories about gators and wild pigs and other swamp stuff. Before I knew it, the 30 minutes had passed and it was time for the fun to really begin.

Joe and Bobby laid out all of the crawfish on tables covered in newsprint.  It was time to get down to business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicole gave a lesson on how to peel like a pro …

 

Nicole finally convinced me to try a mud bug.  She peeled and I ate … okay, I only ate three bites with a LOT of encouragement from my handsome boyfriend, but I thought I did really good!  Before you know it, I’ll be eating gator and wild pigs!  It was a fun feast and everybody dug in and did their best to devour every last one.

Laissez les bons temps rouler (lay-say lay bawn tawn rul-lay) … Let the good times roll!

Now … where did I put that voodoo doll?