Crawfish is a Louisiana novelty; in season in the spring. Traditionally, this fresh-water crustacean is boiled in a large pot with plenty of spices added. Then peel the tails, eat the meat and enjoy. There are other ways to prepare the crawfish meat; one of my favorites is crawfish pie–shown here in an individual phyllo shell.
When visiting Louisiana you must try a Shrimp Po-Boy. It is one of our specialties. New Orleans is filled with small neighborhood restaurants and many offer po-boys. Here is a small store in a filling station in Mid City, New Orleans, close to where my son lives. It makes 32″ po-boys to order and the shrimp po-boy is delicious.
Spring is crawfish season in Louisiana and the mudbugs are becoming more plentiful as the weather gets warmer. While boiled crawfish is probably the most popular way to prepare crawfish, the peeled crawfish tails are very tasty when prepared in other ways. Crawfish Cardinale is an easy and elegant recipe. 
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Incredibly, we’re headed into several more days of freezing sleet and snow here in Louisiana. Haven’t seen this much icy weather in several years. Schools and businesses are closed; so we’re basically on lock-down. At least it would be wise to stay home and warm today and tomorrow. Start a fire in the fireplace, do some cooking, check the blogs.
Looking around my kitchen for things to cook in this cold weather, hearty stews and gumbos come to mind. Gumbo is uniquely Louisiana; every cook probably their own recipe variation. It’s origin really isn’t know; to me it represents a melting pot of all the cultures and foods that were brought to Louisiana. Gumbo is served in southern Louisiana at about every social event–weddings, parties, church gatherings, buffets lines–I even went to a funeral in a very rural area for an deseased employee and found gumbo served at the wake!
Gumbo is essentially a dark brown meaty, flavorful soup/stew served with rice; some cooks prefer thin soups, some like thicker. It’s adaptable to many ingredients that a person may have on hand in their kitchen. My favorite is Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.
beyondgumbo 