Seafood Boil

This weekend we had our first annual Seafood Boil here at the house.  I seriously need to sleep for a week to recover from these last few weeks (remember, just the week before my son had his Willy Wonka party and we had 18 people staying at our house!).  I'm wiped out!  Originally we had invited a group of people (30-50 people) from church, but unbeknownst to us it was announced to EVERYONE that they were invited.  If everyone would have come, that'd be like 200+ people.  Luckily since it was last minute, we had a decent turn out of about 100.  Ya, we kinda freaked out inside, freaked out a little more, then somehow with some AWESOME help, it all pulled together wonderfully!  An AWESOME couple totally pulled through for us and did SO much work...the shopping, brought in some extra bbq's, manned the bbq's and worked their tales off!  The best comment of the day for me was when he commented to me, "Sorry we ever doubted you, this is SOOO good!  I'm gonna go home and make this!"  Mission accomplished! :-)

• 4 lbs seafood (you can add whatever you want!  We tried tiger prawns, whole dungenous crab, king crab legs, clams, mussels, and a seafood medley of calamari, clams, and shrimp.  By far the biggest hits were the tiger prawns, followed by the king crab legs, then dungenous crab.  Next time we do it, I think we'll just stick to those 3)
• 2 lbs kielbasa, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 4 lbs red potatoes
• 6 ears sweet corn on the cob, halved, frozen or fresh (figure 1/2 to 1 cob per person)
• 1 to 2 boxes Zatarain's crab boil (you should be able to find it in the spice section of the grocery store by all of the Creole seasonings)

You'll also need:

• 1 large stock pot, 10-12 quarts (best if it has a strainer in it...makes things easier in the end)
• 1 large slotted spoon or a large metal strainer

Prepare all of your ingredients (cut anything that needs to be cut, etc so its all ready when it comes time to put them in the pot).  

Fill your pot about 1/2 full of water and bring to a boil (can do on a bbq, stove top, whatever). 

Add Zatarain's crab boil (we used the kind in a bag, so you just throw the bag in) and red potatoes.  Cook for about 10-15 minutes.

Add sausage and sweet corn and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Add seafood and cook for about 5 minutes (or until the seafood is done, but be sure not to overcook it!).  

Poor out the water / strain the food (either with a strainer or ladle it out with a slotted spoon).  Arrange food on a serving platter or pour out onto newspaper laid out on tables.

Enjoy!

Serves about 12 (or 6 REALLY hungry guests)