the crawfish boil.

I am 1/2 cajun. 

My mom was raised in southern Louisiana.

This means that even though I have lived in Oklahoma all of my life, I have still experienced the ultimate cajun cookout....a crawfish boil.

My First Crawfish Boil :: 1982

Now, Britton is NOT cajun.  

But he's been to a few crawfish boils since we first started dating many moons ago.

Britton's First Crawfish Boil :: 1999

A "meat & potatoes" kind of guy, he surprisingly LOVED crawfish at his first crawfish boil.  

We were surprised indeed.  

My grandma had even prepared a steak for my Oklahoma boy because no one figured he would eat them.  

2001

These events have been a very special part of my life.  

Each memory is rooted in time spent with family at my Grandparent's house.

And we haven't had one in a LONG time.

Until Mother's Day weekend...

2011

Britton told me we were going somewhere, but did not give me any details.  

He asked if I would empty my big metal bucket so we could take it.

I said "for what"?  

He said "what do you think"?

I said "to put drinks in"?

He just grinned.

He and our friend Troy, who works with Britton at OBU, snuck away on Friday afternoon and went to a fresh fish market in OKC.  The market receives fresh-from-Louisiana-crawfish every Tuesday & Friday.  

So 32 lbs. of live crawfish awaited me at Troy & Julie's house the next day. 

32 lbs of live crawfish is kind of a crazy thing to see for the first time...

Miles was very cautious.  This is about as close as he would get to them.  

And this is the face Ella made when she got sprayed with the water and had to back up... 

She wanted to stand closer and get in on the action.

When it came time to drain the water while rinsing the crawfish, I was the one who showed them the trick with the bag.  It's not rocket science, but I think they were impressed I knew such a trick.  I really am 1/2 cajun, you know!

PS - It is a bonus to have homemade ice cream churning while you prepare the crawfish.

Britton was very careful about all the details of the crawfish boil.  

He wanted it to be just like at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

So this piece of paper with the recipe on it...

...was printed off our family's recipe website.  He and Troy made sure all the ingredients and spices were precisely what my Uncle Justin would use.

The one thing they couldn't find was the Tex Joy red pepper called for in the recipe.  It's only available in Louisiana/Texas and my mom and I have bought it in bulk in the past so we always have some in the cabinet.  Britton wouldn't know this because he's not really into spices.  But, the night before the boil he reached into our pantry (the only place he and Troy had not looked) to find a snack and saw...

He was so happy to have everything he needed to make this crawfish boil authentic!

So, once all the spices/flavor are in the pot...

You add the corn & potatoes...

You go pet the crawfish for a bit.

Because, let's face it, these are their last moments... 

And when it's time to eat, you put newspaper down on the table and dump them out in all their bright-red-delicious-glory.

And if it's the first time you've ever seen such a thing, you might look at them like this...

Does this face look familiar to anyone else?

Oh yeah...

He was fascinated.  

She was too.

I forgot to take a photo of them, but Britton even made sure we had giant trays to eat off of (as opposed to plates).  That's the way we did it at Grandma and Grandpa's after all.

He's just so awesome.  

Thanks honey!

Thanks Troy, Julie & Jaden!

It was perfect.