Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Celebrating with food



We had quite a series of thunderstorms this morning, and there was even a waterspout. Unfortunately, I was in the shower and missed it, but John took pictures for me.

Have you ever noticed that people use food and eating to socialize, communicate, commiserate - celebrate every event and transition in life? That is surely a truth, and, I guess, has been since the beginning of human interaction. It seems like when we're not eating, we're talking about the next meal, or the last meal, or a memorable meal from years ago. Maybe I'll get some pictures of the dinner table tonight, and/or breakfast tomorrow.

The blue crabs we get are the kind that you get in restaurants whole, and you have to crack and peel the whole shell to get at the delicious meat.

When I was a kid, and we caught our own crabs and brought them home to eat, we partially cleaned them before cooking them. We'd pull off the claws to cook; cut off and discard the 'walking legs"; pry off and discard the carapace; clean out and discard the "innards". We then steam the claws and denuded bodies and chill them until dinnertime. We pick out the meat at the table - time-consuming, messy, and delicious - with a little lime or lime-butter sauce. To me, it's the best shellfish of all!

Two pictures today - one of the waterspout and one of food. I forgot to take photos before we cleaned them, but this is what they look like on the plate, ready to be attacked. Of course, there's lots of other stuff on the plate, too.

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