Swanky Conservative

This weekend I’ll be doing my 3rd annual Texas MudBug Jamboree, otherwise known as my crawfish boil. It’s a blast and I thought I would share the recipe I use, handed down to me by a crawdad king from New Orleans. It’s Scott’s Swamp Bugs:

Scott’s Swamp Bugs

This is written for someone boiling 3 sacks of crawfish. Really now, if you’re doin’ less than that, you’re not doing something right.

Ingredients

• 18 stalks of celery cut into thirds
• 9 yellow onions cut into halves
• 9 green bell peppers cut into quarters
• 27 heads of garlic
• 36 small (smallest ones you can find) red, new potatoes
• 1 flagon of liquid boil
• 3 bag of swamp boil powdered mix
• 3 large canisters of salt
• 21 lemons cut in halves
• 6 pounds lil’ smokies or sausage
• 3 packages button mushrooms
• 30 small frozen corns ears
• ¾ cup Chinese red pepper mix
• 1 gallon white vinegar
• ice

Fill your pot(s) halfway or a bit more with water. Bring to a boil.

Once at rolling boil - add the celery, onions, bell peppers, garlic, potatoes

When water comes back to boil, let it go for about 5-6 minutes.

Following that, remove all veggies to a picking tray or large platter.

Put your cleaned crawfish into the cooking basket now, return basket to the water - and put all the veggies atop the crawfish. stir to mix up, and cover.

Check to watch when steam starts rising from the pot. at that point, your crawfish are starting to cook, and the boiling time is about to begin.

As it comes to a rolling boil add 1/3 flagon of liquid boil, then add 1 bag of swamp boil powdered mix. Stir, and set cover back on. Boil for 2-3 more minutes.

At this point, add 1/2 or more of 1 large canister of salt. Cut the fire, then add the lemons, lil’ smokies, mushrooms and corn.

Stir, and spike with a 1/4 cup of powdered chinese red pepper mix.
Now, add 1/4 of a flagon of regular, white vinegar, AND, top it all off with a few big scoops of ice. This along with the frozen corn, and refrigerated sausages all help lower
the water temp, and stop the cooking. Return the cover and let soak.

Check taste at 20 minutes. Add salt or additional spice to taste, and you’ll probably want to let soak longer. Taste again in 10-15 minutes. They’re probably done now, but let taste judge.

When you think they’re ready. pull em out, and let them sit in basket on the side on the pot for a sec to cool a bit and so the excess juice will run back to the pot, saving your table from the juice onslaught.

Save the water. You can use this for at least one more boil, probably 2.

For your second boil (if using the same pot):

Bring water to boil, repeat process with veggies, boil 5-6 minutes, add crawdads, return to boil, boil for 5 minutes, you’ll want to add more liquid boil - perhaps 1/4 of a flagon, maybe another 1/2 bag of swampfire, and salt to taste - best bet is to sip the water (let it cool first fellas, just scoop some into a cup, let it cool and dip some french bread in it to taste, or take a sip). If too salty, don’t add anymore.

Again, add lemons, sausage, shrooms, frozen corns, ice at the end. Cover and let soak. Repeat for a 3rd boil.

Have plenty of whole milk unsalted butter on the tables, plenty of saltine crackers - use this as a lil butter, a smack of smashed garlic, a crawfish tail - and bask in the delight of that lil creation of a dish.

Now you might ask, what do you use to actually do the boil? You need a large pot, a basket, and some heat.

My setup is the King Kooker 80 qt aluminum pot with basket. For the flame, I use their jet burner and propane for fuel. It’ll boil 50 quarts of water in 15 minutes easy.

You’ll want a metal washtub and a plastic basket with holes for washing off the bugs. A large laundry basket works well, as does something like a 60 quart plastic basket with holes in it. Dump the sack of crawfish into the basket, submerge most of them in the plastic tub and rock it back and forth to rinse them off. After they’re mostly clean, and you’ve removed any dead ones or non-crawfish items, you’re ready to cook ‘em.

Seems the Clinton / Obama down-to-the-wire primary fight isn’t the only place the Left is fracturing this campaign season. In the Denver Post, there’s a story of one group that’s running away from Recreate 68, the radical group promising chaos at the Democratic convention, and another that’s uncomfortable.

Hah! Put on the popcorn, grab a beer and get ready for a political season better than any reality show.

One of the quick & easy meals I love is this recipe for tomato basil florentine. I started with a recipe I found on a box of powdered tomato basil soup and have modified it over time to something like this.

• One pound of chopped beef. This can be ground, but I prefer cubed beef.
• 1 box tomato basil soup mix
• A few basil leafs, or the equivalent amount of chopped basil.
• One cup pasta - this can be elbow macaroni, bowtie, anything but the long pastas (spaghetti, etc.)
• 1 package frozen spinach (12-16 ounces).
• 3-4 cloves of garlic.
• 2 cups water
• Salt & black pepper to taste.
• 2 Tbsp. Olive oil.

Start with the olive oil to the pan, warm to medium-high heat.
Add the beef, cooking till evenly brown without overcooking.
Add everything but the pasta and spinach to the pan, stirring to mix evenly. If necessary, add additional warm water till everything is just covered.
Bring to a low boil.
Add the pasta and the spinach.
Bring to another low boil, adding water, if necessary, to barely cover everything.
Once at a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Test the pasta. If necessary, simmer for an additional 5 to 7 minutes till pasta is cooked.
Remove from heat, let sit for 2 minutes.
Serve.

I enjoy this meal with a nice wine. Your choice as to the grape. I’ve enjoyed Fall Creek’s Merlot, Louis Jadot’s Beaujolais, and Spring Mountain’s Sauvignon Blanc with this dish.

Support free trade. Even New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is for the Columbia Free Trade initiative.

hat tip to Glenn.

I went to the first of my annual crawfish boils this last weekend. My boiling pot and burner arrived from Amazon the day before, so I took it along in case we wanted to use two. We did, and I am amazed at the difference between the older, 35,000 btu burner we used and my new 105,000 btu jet burner. 120 pounds of crawfish went pretty quick with two pots going.

Each boil, I pick a cocktail to make. There’s been the Mexican Martini, one year, and Mojitos, another. This year, I opted for the Sazerac, since we had some good friends coming in from New Orleans. I’ve tried a couple of recipes, but the best, by far, is Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s Sazerac:

If you’re new to this, there’s a couple of things to note. You can get a very bad excuse for a Sazerac if you don’t follow the directions closely. This is a strong drink. You’re basically drinking rye whiskey with some flavoring from the bitter, lemon, and Herbsaint.

Speaking of Herbsaint, don’t do more than rinse the glass with it. The flavor will be overpowering and you’ll ruin your drink if you go nuts with the Herbsaint.

Note the whiskey used. Rye whiskey, not bourbon. Different whiskey, different flavor - don’t substitute here. Jeffrey prefers the Buffalo Trace Sazerac rye, but I opted for Wild Turkey’s rye since my local liquor store doesn’t carry Buffalo Trace’s whiskey. I thought the Wild Turkey made a great cocktail.

Be sure to check out Jeffrey’s do’s and don’ts of Sazeracs, then go forth and make one!

So how many five-year-olds can you take on?

29

Here is how ABC News’s Cynthia McFadden introduced tonight’s post-Clinton / Obama Philadelphia debate:

Good evening. I’m Cynthia McFadden, reporting tonight from Philadelphia. Over my shoulder here, Independence Hall, where 220 years ago, the founders crafted a Constitution that would not have permitted either of the democratic candidates vying for the presidency in tonight’s debate to vote.

What? How is that nugget of information relevant? Franklin, Washington, Adams et al wrote the Constitution with no allowance for women and black men to vote? And if so, why is that important in 2008 America?

I may be wrong, and if I am, please cite where, but the US Constitution has no provision for the right to vote, saving that for the States. Article 1, Section 4 reads:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Place of Chusing Senators.

In the Constitution and the original 10 amendments, I can’t find anything that mentions the right of a citizen to vote, nor can I find anything that excepts black men and women. It’s just not there. I think McFadden was wanting to make some point of how progressive and enlightened we’ve become since those dark days of the 1780s. Her delivery sounded forced, like she wanted to say something witty. Thanks to the historical gaffe, she comes across desperate and dumb.

Inspired by one of Stephen’s posts:

Ed Morrissey has the best breakdown on Obama’s aloof, elitist statement at a San Francisco fundraiser last weekend:

Spot on analysis. Obama wants to paint small-town America as out-of-touch xenophobic gun-toting religious racists. Instead, he paints himself as an elite snob, and he’s got a pattern developing that supports my opinion. He remarked about the price of arugula at Whole Foods while in Iowa - where there are no Whole Foods to be found. He tried connect with the common man by showing off his bowling skills - and scored a 37. Then, while campaigning in Philly, he opts for rare imported Spanish ham instead of the traditional cheesesteak.

Now he bags on small-town America, making an emergent picture grow ever more clear of Obama as yet another Limousine Liberal claiming to know what’s best for the rest of us.

From Babalu, Venezualan thug-in-chief Hugo Chavez announce he’s gonna nationalize Sidor, the largest steel company in Venezuala.

I predict two things: Sidor won’t be the largest steel maker in Venezuala for long, and Chavez will blame everyone but himself for that outcome.

Note to Senator McCain’s campaign: This is a point that can be exploited, and rightly should, when it comes to Senator Obama:

The junior Senator from Illinois has a particularly tricky balancing act when it comes to the subject of the Olympics: Chicago is vying to host the 2016 games and one of Obama’s top campaign advisors and close friends, Valerie Jarrett, is the vice chair of Chicago’s bid committee.