When I was growing up, the Jayne family tradition for Christmas Eve dinner was Oyster Stew. It was something I did not particularly care for. Okay, I despise Oyster Stew. I did not look forward to dinner on an otherwise wonderful time of year. I did everything I could to get out of having to eat it, but always was forced to choke some down every year. Once I was old enough to realize I would not live with my parents forever, I told myself that this tradition was ending with me. I have not eaten Oyster stew in a very long time and am sure I never will. But now that we have a family, we decided a while ago that we needed a tradition of our own for Christmas Eve dinner. We have tried several things over the years, but nothing had stuck. Until last year. On Christmas Eve 2008, we had Dungeness crab and shrimp. I only had the crab, but the girls all had shrimp also. We decided that was now our tradition. So here in 2009, we had the 2nd annual Christmas Eve Crab and Shrimp feed. The one improvement this year was a result of our trip to Seattle in November and eating at The Crab Pot. I cut some Oak cutting boards and built some little wood mallets for breaking the crab just like we used at the Crab Pot and now we have our Jayne family Christmas Eve dinner tradition with its very own hand made utensils.
Here is the table just before serving the crab.
Here is a close up of the cutting boards and mallets.
Here is the shrimp and the utensils.
Now just like at the Crab Pot, we just dumped all the crab and potatoes out on the table and had at it.
Doesn't it look yummy? I am going to like this new Christmas Eve dinner tradition.
No more Oyster stew!
No comments:
Post a Comment