Good ole' Crawfish Boil with our Marina Friends and Neighbors

Today was a great day.  Last weekend, Deb and I made salmon for dinner and ate up at the picnic table with the girls (grand-squids).  We invited Keith and Debbie to join us from S/V StarChaser and had a really nice time just relaxing and talking and having dinner.

I think it was Keith who suggested we ought to do a slow country boil and he could pick up some shrimp.  That discussion went on for a few minutes and the next thing you know we had a big ole' crawfish and shrimp boil planned for this weekend (The weekend after we first talked about it)

The planning was pretty smooth, Keith was going to be in Biloxi on Friday so he was going to pick up the shrimp.  He ended up getting about 30 lbs of whole fresh shrimp right off the shrimp boat as it came back to the dock.

I was going to get the crawfish (and it was an excuse to get a cool put and burner) and Charlie was going to pick up the sausage, potatoes and a few other things as well as bring a second pot.  As the week went on we invited more folks and it got to be a bigger gathering.

Dan and Joan brought corn, potatoes and onions, Charlie's brother Dave brought a brisket to boil up in the water after all the boiling was done.

Deb and I were each out on Friday evening running errands and in a lack of communication moment we each brought a sack of crawfish.  So in the end we had about 70 lbs of crawfish and about 30 lbs of shrimp.  On top of all of that we also boiled up potatoes (red new potatoes) Corn on the cob, sausage, mushrooms, artichokes, cauliflower and pineapple, onions, garlic and lemons.

We started cooking about noon and did 2 batches of mud bugs.  Each was 35 lbs or so in a 100 quart pot.
On the other pot we did 3 batches of shrimp in a 30 quart pot and then the brisket after all of that.

We had a great time, ate until we were busting at the seams and still had many lbs for all 12-15 people that were here to take home some.  I figure I have some good potatoes for potato salad or home fries.  Good spicy corn for a corn salsa.  All kinds of ideas here on top of the crawfish, etc that we can make with all the left over mud bugs.

The carnage was pretty phenomenal and I am sure that the turtles and fish below the surface were very appreciative of the carcasses that went into the water for them to snack on down below.