I like to keep our crawfish boil simple, traditional, and comfortable. What that means is we pitch a tent in the corner of the parking lot, throw some tables and chairs under it, decorate it with all sorts of mudbug thingys, invite a bunch of folks, and have a party. I start preparing for the shindig a couple of months in advance just to make sure that all the vendors are available on the chosen date. Here’s what happens leading up to the event.
• I make sure my crawfish boiler is available on my chosen day. That’s pretty important since he is the star of the show. There are a bunch of folks that do crawfish boils out there, but I’ve always used Kelly James. He owns the Red River Icehouse. The Icehouse is his real job, but he has always done a great job for me with my crawfish boils. He keeps it simple…boiled crawfish, spicy sausage, corn, potatoes, and mushrooms with a keg of beer.
• I secure the tent and tables and chairs. That’s pretty important too, since you want your guests to have somewhere to sit and eat their bugs, and you want them to have a place to get out of the sun or the rain, heaven forbid.
• There are a lot of things that one can do for entertainment, but I’ve always booked a DJ. We have him start the party with a lot of zydeco and Cajun tunes, and let him throw in some more lively stuff as the party gets going.
• I go online and secure the decorations and the giveaway items. Some of the items I get are Mardi Gras beads with crawfish, plastic crawfish, crawfish table covers, crawfish centerpieces, specialized crawfish plastic cups…are you starting to see a theme here?
The day of the event can get pretty busy leading up to the start of the party.
• We typically offer beer, wine and soft drinks. Kelly brings the beer, so I have to purchase the wine and make sure everything is iced down and nice and cold for the first guests.
• The tent and tables have to be decorated which consists of throwing a whole lot of crawfish “stuff” all over the place.
• I set up a little makeshift bar in the corner of the tent to serve the beverages.
• Believe it not, not everyone loves crawfish so on each table I put a big bucket full of all kinds of snacks.
• We boil the first batch when our first guest arrives and it’s party on after that.
• As our neighbors to the east like to say “Laissez les bon temps rouler” or “Let the good times roll”!
