Who's Got Crabs?

I grew up camping at the beach with my family. We ate pretty much anything that came out of the ocean and we usually caught it ourselves... clams, fish and crabs. I loved it and still do.

While at the beach this week with my in-laws, we decided to get some string, a net and some fish heads to go crabbin'. Since we have a house right on a canal, we can do it in our back yard. The kids (Kristin - 10, Ross - 8 and Lilly - 5) had a blast. We actually got a few, but they were pretty small. Not wanting to disappoint the kids, though, we decided to cook 'em up. :)

So we had a small bucket full of live crabs...

Now what?!

Yes, I did say that I grew up eating this stuff but I didn't say I grew up cooking it myself! My dad usually caught dinner and my mom usually cooked it.

After a quick phone call home for some instruction (thanks, dad!), we put a pot of boiling water on the stove and threw in the crabs. Five minutes later I was cleaning crabs for the first time and then, the part I knew how to do... pickin' crab. Kristin, my 10 year old niece, helped... well, mostly helped eat them! Lea also loved them. There wasn't much because they were so small, but we sure had fun. :)