This Easter my family and I spent the weekend at the beach. Some super generous friends loaned us their condo, so we drove down and spent time together, cooking, eating, and wishing it would stop raining long enough to sneak out to the beach to let Wagner play in the sand. We had some sun at the end and almost 2 hours of clear weather each day, so we “got our beach on” just enough for Wagner to know that the ocean is his favorite thing in the whole world, and somehow I’m still going home with a super attractive knee-sunburn. Geez Louise.
Our beach trips usually revolve around seafood cooking and eating (no suprise) and we get crazy excited when my dad goes to Joe Paddy’s in Pensacola (more on this later).
This time, Daddy brought back jumbo lump crabmeat and made a version of a recipe that his mother made that she got from her best pal, Jo Russel.. and it is so fine, so delicious, so amazing that when Brett had it for the first time he ate his entire plateful in about 2 minutes because he was worried someone else might try to eat it directly off his plate before he could.
Basically, the recipe is kind of a version of the West Indies salad that they serve down on the Gulf coast and in the Florida Keys, but probably better. (also, when I mentioned to my family that it seemed like West Indies Salad to me, I was corrected indignantly). It’s SO simple that the crab meat really shines through, and you just get lost in the perfect texture and flavors. The next time you’re down this way, or get your hands on some jumbo lump crab meat, I hope you’ll give this recipe a whirl. …
