Category Archives: Travel

Crawfish Boil, Houston, TX

Coming from Vermont, I can’t say that one of our “specialties” is crawfish. Here in Texas it seems like everyone has gone to a crawfish boil and no one has anything bad to say about them. I have friends that have talked about crawfish, how good they are, I’ve even seen them sit there and eat a while tray of them (that’s you Matt) and the entire time all I could think of was – that is just plain disgusting. I mean lets think about this, you are essentially breaking these little guys in half and “sucking head” (drinking the juice that’s in the top portion of the crawfish) and then eating the meat in the tail. All I can think of is I am NOT eating the intestinal organs of these guys – that’s disgusting.

This past Saturday, I found myself going to Houston to attend one of these said “Crawfish Boils”. “How disgusting is this going to be?”, “What if I don’t like it, what am I going to eat?”, “I am not eating the innards of these things and I am not “sucking head”.

Well turns out crawfish are pretty darn tasty. Not only did I like them, I LOVED them. Let me explain the process.

First the crawfish were cleaned (salted really)…

Next, in the pot they go!

Here they boiled for a few minutes, mixed in with some good ole spices and such.

Then they came out looking like this…

…and this! 200 pounds of these little guys were cooked.

And once they were in the cooler, we put a little more Cajun seasoning on them.

A boil isn’t complete without sausage, corn on the cob and potatoes!

The final touch is to make yourself a box.

Now came the part I was nervous about – eating them. The key is to twist (the tail off), peel (the first couple “scales?” of the tail), pinch (the end of the tail), and pull (the meat out of that tail!). They weren’t so bad.

OK – so they were pretty darn delicious! So good, oh so good.

If you have a chance to find a Crawfish Boil (if you are in the South, finding one should be easy) – check it out. I’m sure you won’t want to miss it!

Thank you Brown family!

Longhorns, Part 1

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I drive by these guys almost everyday on my way to work…

yes, I realize they are cows…

sometimes I wave and say hello…

ok, everytime.

They make my day.

I think they are gorgeous. So relaxed. They don’t have a care in the world. Their days consists of grazing, resting, and ignoring photographers who are trying to get them to look in their direction.

Just sending a little bit of the Texas I see everyday, your way!

Houston Weekend

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This past weekend we went to Houston. I’ll have more posts about this later on this week. To sum up the weekend, it was pretty fun but I am quite exhausted (especially with the time change).

We took Route 6 again on the way down to Houston. The more I travel down this stretch of highway, the more I love it. After we passed thru College Station (and after I woke up from my short nap – we left at 4:30am, I was allowed a cat nap, haha) we went thru an area that was just so picturesque and well, perfect. Large ranches, windmills, oil wells, lucious green pastures with horses and cattle with the morning sun. Straight Texas. I really wish that we could stop and take some pictures along the way but it would take us twice as long to get there and Sy had a tee time that he had to make. Just picture driving down the highway with a large ranch on the right side of the street. Wooden fences line the property with a gate at the front entrance, the ranch name over the entrance of the gate in cast iron plating. There is a large red barn and a smaller shed not far from the house (insert the picture of your ideal home – mine is a medium-sized, one story home with a huge wrap around porch with a porch swing, of course). An old windmill sits in the front yard. Horses can be found in a pasture near the barn along with the dog (or two…every ranch needs a dog!). Oak trees everywhere (as we are in Texas). Across the street you see a lucious green pasture filled with black angus cows. PERFECT! I think we drove by one place and as soon as I saw it, I said “SOLD!” and kept repeating it until I couldn’t see it anymore.

Enough with my daydreaming (it could go on forever)… while in Houston I went shopping, attended my first crawfish boil, played with some pretty cute puppies and met some awesome people. I’m going to have a guest contributor – Mr. Sy who is going to review golf courses (including a course he played at over the weekend). Keep an eye out for that.

While shopping I made a purchase which was purely “Texas” inspired. I’m quite proud. When I first moved to Texas I noticed some stylish differences. Texans bedazzle everything… everything. The bigger the jewlery the better. Crosses are a must. One thing I did agree with from the beginning though is – tourquiose. I love it.
So here is my Texas inspired purchase. It’s a mustard yellow, yes, but I doubt I’ll see anyone else with it! 🙂

So for today, lets just try to recover from the weekend.
Did anyone else take an adventure this weekend?