Shrimp Boil

I've said it before and I will say it again: one of the finest things about the Gulf Coast is access to cheap, local, delicious, and totally fresh seafood. My Mom works in an heirloom sewing shop (more on her particular talents later)and has a customer who regularly purchases her seafood directly from a local fisherman straight out of Bayou La Batre, Alabama. Sometimes he catches more than he expects and when he does, my Mom's customer will call up the shop and the staff will sop up some of the surplus (the disturbing side to this is the reckless spoiling of certain felines in this household who are accustomed to this abundance and get hand fed shrimp at the table...my parents cats-gorgeous and nuerotic-live truly high on the hog). When that happens, as it did the other day, my Mom will buy 10 pounds of shrimp at $3/lb and have a good 'ol fashioned Southern shrimp boil.

It's fast, easy, simple, and satisfying. Add a couple tablespoons of shrimp boil to a pot of boiling water with potatoes. When approaching desired softness, add corn on the cob and boil for about 5 minutes.

Remove the veggies to a colander(reserving the liquid)and add the unpeeled shrimp until they shine with that customary pinkish hue, no more than two minutes. Whip up some cocktail sauce, throw some newspaper on the table to save your linens from shrimp spooge, and dive in.

Again, shrimp is one of those things I don't usually care too much for, like crab, but my palate seems only to reject the stuff when it's of the shipped across vast oceans variety. When I am here, I love it!