Not so crabby (crabby) Monday

The awesome pot J purchased.  It is amazing!

This week's tablescape (it's Christmas wrapping paper, taped down!)

The star of the evening, 5 pounds of crablegs!

Going in the boiling pot, which already includes potatoes, onions, corn on the cob and sausage

The pot cooking.  Shrimp included at this point.

All of it dumped out on the table, beach style!

The aftermath of our destruction.  Yummo!

My mom's birthday cake.  The 6 was donated to a homeless shelter.  We used most of the 0 for the cake balls, a very creative way to salvage uneaten cake!

Dessert: Cake Balls with champagne. 

Yet again, we faced another Monday.  However, this Monday was harder than most because it was a Monday after the holidays (a few days off, giving us two long weekends in a row).  It's never easy to get back in the swing of "life".

We decided to do a good 'ole crab and shrimp boil.  We purchased jumbo shrimp and 5 pounds of crablegs.  To go along with, we also purchased (well actually, we didn't need to purchase.  these were items we already had laying around) new potatoes, corn on the cob, onions and polish sausage.  J was nice enough purchase the BIGGEST pot EVER!  It was amazing how perfectly the ingredients fit!  We cant wait to utilize it on future Monday's.

So, we got the water boiling and added in the Old Bay seasoning.  Cut the potatoes in half, as well as the onions.  The potatoes and onions go in first.  Potatoes take the longest, this is why they go in first.  The onions are strictly added for flavor.  After the potatoes get 60% done, you add the corn on the cob.  About 3 minutes after that the polish sausage gets thrown in.  Another 3 minutes, the crab legs go in.  And, about a minute after that, the shrimp.  The shrimp seriously take around 1 minute to cook (when they are pink, they are done).  So, make sure you have everything ready to go once the shrimp go in (butter melted for dipping, cocktail sauce, lemons cut, etc.).

We dumped it all out on the table, and ate "beach" style (barehanded!).  So fun.  We couldn't get over how good it was.  It was all cooked to perfection, and perfectly seasoned.  It was a little like "Something about Bob".  Remember that movie?  The nutcase patient finds the psychiatrist on vacation.  Eating dinner with them you hear a lot of "Oh's" and "Aw's" and "Mmm's".  Hilarious scene.  Okay, back to our "Oh's and Mmm's".  Nothing is more enjoyable than cracking the crab leg, pulling the meat out and marveling at your work.  Then dipping it in the melted butter and savoring it's meaty buttery sweet taste.  Fingers dripping with the butter, life doesn't get much better than that.  It was a definite Monday night treat.  The best part?  The clean-up.  All you do is pull up the disposable table-cloth (or in our case, unused Christmas wrapping paper) and take it out to the trash!

Dessert was interesting, and fun, tonight as well.  I donated my mother's birthday cake to the homeless, per her request; but, before I did that I cut a section for our dessert.  "A" did the most amazing thing with it......she made cake balls!  So, dessert was champagne and cake balls (the cake and icing formed into balls and dipped in melted milk chocolate).  Such a unique way to salvage uneaten cake!

This "thing" we call JAK is great, and even more great on our "Not So Mundane Monday's".  We give each other a break, and accept one another.  And we get to do it while cooking, eating, drinking and most importantly.......laughing.

Until next time.....A la cuisine!