I can't seem to get motivated today to do anything beyond sitting on the couch, drinking a coffee and downing a batch of chocolate rice krispie squares, so I figure the least I could do is fill you in on the bizarre dining experience we had this weekend.

We had been talking with Dan and Lisa (of the Secret-Secret Geography Club) about having dinner together. The more we talked, somehow we got on the topic of Krayfish. How? I dunno. But we got into this big discussion about catching krayfish in the lake and then cooking them up for supper. Dan swore they tasted like lobster (they are actually the lobster's closest cousin), so we were definitely up for the experience. Other people eat these things right? How bad could it be?

Steve and Dan went out krayfish hunting on Friday night after it got dark. One of them shone a flashlight on the water, while the other one would catch the krayfish with a pair of tongs. After two hours of hunting they came home with these:
A big bucket of about 75 krayfish was plopped down on my kitchen counter at midnight.

"We're cooking these up tonight Kin" they both said. We got out two big pots of water and boiled them in batches of about 7 or 8.




Once they came out of the boiling water, they were shocked with cold water to stop them from cooking and make them easier to handle...


...and then they were drained so the meat could be taken out of the shell.


I wasn't part of this peeling process. I figured if I was going to be able to stomach eating these, then I probably shouldn't be involved in cracking their shells open and scooping out the flesh.

So after 2 hours of catching them, and 1 1/2 hours of cleaning them, here's the amount of krayfish meat the boys got:
Yep. A whole half a ziplock bag. And here's the wasted shells:


Dan and Lisa had a brilliantly delicious idea for stretching that amount of meat for 4 people....they made homemade tagliatelle (HOMEMADE!) and homemade alfredo sauce and turned it into a sort of Lobster-esque Alfredo Pasta. DELICIOUS!! I couldn't get enough. Krayfish (or Krawfish as they are called when they are cooked) do taste surprisingly like lobster.



Man I love eating dinner with this couple! I always walk away eating something I've never had before, feeling totally satisfied, and later emailing them for the recipe. I'm going to get my hands on Lisa's homemade alfredo sauce recipe and you can bet it will be showing up on the food blog soon enough....although, it probably won't have krawfish meat in it. Not unless you are up for spending 4 hours catching your dinner ;)