A Ghoulish Time Pinching Heads Off

The weekend has come and gone, and for that I am one thankful wife and mother.

10 lbs. of shrimp was about 2 lbs. too much for 17 people.

As I said earlier, we hosted our first shrimp boil on Friday night and everyone seemed to have a pretty darn good time. No one got food poisoning, no one broke a thing, and no one needed a designated driver.

Slicing the beef sausage for the pot

For the main course we served 10 pounds of huge shrimp bought for $65 and caught fresh from the Gulf that morning by "Dong The Shrimper." We divided them up into two batches - one spicy and the other one with more kick. For the shrimp, we boiled them in a heavy dose of Zatarain's Shrimp & Crab Boil and added several heads of garlic, sliced onions, some salt and pepper, lemon wedges and cayenne pepper. We also added to the pot beef sausage and frozen mini corn-on-the-cob ears. Put the sausage in first, then the corn, and lastly the shrimp. For those really adventurous, we had hot sauce on the table for extra seasoning. Then we dumped it all on a big platter and let people peel the shells and pinch the heads off.

Served with the shrimp were cornbread muffins, potato salad and two desserts one being my grandmother's blueberry pie with a heap of fresh whipped cream on top.

My little monsters.

The next evening we attended a country/western party. I even got my husband out on the dance floor for one song! Then of course, last night was Halloween. The schools were closed yesterday (I've never seen that before) so all day I heard, "when can we go out?" It was enough to turn me into a monster. To help tame my beasts, I called my friend Winnie and asked if the kids could go to her house to swim with her golden lab.

But a funny thing happened along the way to candy overload. About 30 minutes into door knocking, my daughter returned home saying she was bored and wanted to hand out candy instead. Then my husband returned home about 30 minutes later with our son who wanted to hand out candy and hide in the bushes to scare kids. "You may, but don't scare the little kids," I cautioned him.

Hum, wondering if Trick or Treating is becoming a thing of the past for them.

The Wondering Texan

Quotable Quote:
Over the weekend the little old lady across the street went to the hospital after she fell. This is the second visit by EMS in about three weeks. Her family came down after the first one to help straighten things up with their mom but they don't want to put her in assisted living or a retirement home. Our daughter was listening to my husband and I talk about this situation when she blurted out, "Why don't they put her to sleep?" Before my husband or I could respond, our son said, "She's not a dog!" To which our daughter said, "But, she's a lot of trouble." She was being totally serious.

I told my daughter, "I'm very afraid to grow old around you!" But we still love our little Kevorkian.