Crawfish Boil - Easter Cajun Style

For Easter Dinner (actually lunch), we went to Uncle Paul's house. Here is what crawfish boils in Louisiana looks like. I have actually tried crawfish, and they were OK, but I really don't mind if I don't ever eat them again. I did, however, enjoy the yummy corn & red potatoes that were cooked with the crawfish & the HOT Louisiana spices. Ummmm...those were really yummy.

Since Paula, one of Kevin's cousins, doesn't eat crawfish either, Uncle Paul made some BBQ for us to enjoy. :)

OK, so my pictures are out of sequence, but here's how it all went down.

Below, is a picture of some of the crawfish as they were being purged. Yes, they have to be purged because otherwise, you might eat the dirt (mud) that they have in their bellies. Oh, I though the purging process was rather interesting. As you can see, they are in a cooler of water. They then poured LOTS and LOTS of salt into the water.

After they sat in the salted water, they purged & the water was drained. At that point, they were ready to be dropped into the pot of boiling water (which had hot Louisiana spices added to the water).

Oh....here are a couple of pictures of the girls playing with the crawfish.

Below: Megan & Kelsey

Below: John Paul (Paula, Kevin's cousin's, son) putting all the crawfish in one cooler.

Ahhh....checking out the crawfish.... They are so creepy; they remind me of scorpions!

Kevin, sampling a one of the first crawfish after the first batch was cooked.

Megan & a half a craw daddy!

Below: Kelsey

Below: Nicole

Below: The cooks...minus Uncle Paul

Kevin, Seth, Uncle Paul & John Paul

Below: Tim's baby (Blase), Savannah & Kelsey

John Paul & Blase

Savannah, Tim & Blase

Below: Mitch

Below: Aunt Earleen & Kevin

Below: Kevin's Cousins (Paula & Tinsey)

Below: Uncle Paul & Blase

Below: A very sweet couple - Mitch & Tinsey

Below: Everyone eating the crawfish. Notice that they don't use plates. Everyone just grabs, sucks & eats.

Kevin just COULDN'T wait to eat the craw daddies! It had been six years since he had been to a crawfish boil in Louisiana. Oh, and if you ask me, and he ate SIX year's worth of crawfish!!

Chowing down....

Louisiana Bound

Kevin called me at work the other day & told me that he was scheduled to attend some training at Fort Polk, Louisiana for the week of 5-9 April. It just so happened that the girls were having their Spring Break that week, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to accompany Kevin on his trip. We thought it would be neat to go back to Fort Polk for a week & see what all had changed since we were there. (We were stationed at Fort Polk from 1999-2004, and we LOVED our time there.) I requested to take a week of vacation, and we hit the road on Saturday so that Kevin could be there on Monday morning. We actually arrived in the Fort Polk area about 3:30 p.m. or so on Saturday. We visited with Kevin's family for a bit (Kevin is from that area), and then we went to the Easter Vigil Mass later that afternoon. By the time the VERY LONG Easter Vigil Mass was over (around 9:00 p.m.), we were beat!

We were super excited about the following day, as we were going to spend the day at Uncle Paul's house for a crawfish boil on Easter Sunday. On Easter morning we got up, rejoiced that it was Easter Sunday, and headed to the family's house.

**Since my camera was packed up, I used my cell phone to take the picture at top. The other pics that I took weren't really good.

Ahhhhh Friday, at Last

There's something about Fridays that makes me oh so happy. :D

We are all ready to start the weekend & our Spring Break (OK, the girls' Spring Break).

The weather was simply beautiful! We spent a little time outside in the warmth after we all came home. Even Charlie (not pictured here) was running around enjoying the heat.

My babies and I were...

...loving the outdoors.

Below, is the movie star I found in the back seat of the car.

Walk in the Park

We had dinner at La Parilla (mine & Nicole's fav), at Ashley Park. Nicole & I got our grub on, while Kevin drank a beer or two, and Megan went with a friend to Five Guys (hamburger place) in the same area. The weather was perfect to hang out at Ashley Park. (Ashley Park is what I call an outdoor mall. Actually, it's more like a mall strip.) We ate, then walked from store to store, just looking and enjoying the day's warm weather.

Here's are some of the pretty flowers & plants we saw while we walked around outside in the warm evening.

Here's a picture of me and a lady I met in the park.

Goodness, I'm so happy to be able to walk outside & not have to wear a COAT!!