ATLien sighting

It's not shrimp and grits but you still need to say...

O-Yeah-yer. ATLians is one of my favorite OutKast songs, it makes me think of home and growing up just outside the Perimeter. Listen to that sweet low groove that just makes you think of soupy heat, cicadas chirping, the sound of a train rolling by in the distance, people sitting out on the porch (or stoop depending on if you country or city folk). It's lazy and smooth with a hint of of the metropolitan polish. A sleepy town that's been eaten by a big city. It's where and how I grew up.

We did not grow up wealthy, we were probably just inside the lower middle class line almost bordering on poor at times. My parents are the most hard-working, blue collar, salt of the earth folks you'll ever meet. Regardless of our political and social perspective differences, I love my parents fiercely. My father would literally give someone the shirt off his own back and my mother, while saltier than a bag of pretzels, will sacrifice anything for her children. I'm not saying we always get along (oh lort no we most certainly do not) but there is love.

Growing up with our finances as they were (don't you dare ever say poor in front of my mother, she will correct your ass in a heart beat), we ate a lot of chicken, hamburger, thin pork chops, and red meats that could stretch (co-cola pot roast in the crock pot was so so good). A real treat was a shrimp boil. We'd pick up a couple of pounds, head off, and devein at home (I hated that task). We would fight each other over that shrimp, my dad will literally stab a bitch over some shrimp (me, accidentally, joking around with a fork but it makes for a great story to tell people my dad stabbed me over shrimp). Mom always bought this season packet that I don't think they make anymore and I have incredibly good memories of the small indulgences we had occasionally and when I close my eyes and think about the love and laughter around that table, I can smell that seasoning even decades later.

Seafood/fish has always been my go to of the proteins. I think the only thing I don't care for much are crawfish/crawdads, they have an odd texture to me. I'll eat 'em but it isn't my first choice. I find lobster to be an excessive extravagance that really is overhyped. I mean, its good and all, but it ain't that good. Hunter had never had a seafood boil until we were on semi vacation in OBX this spring. He loved it. I had had forgotten how much I enjoy them. Seafood isn't cheap and I tend not to buy stuff that the natives avoid so I hadn't made a boil on my own. Our area has started to get a lot of sauce and toss places and I was really considering getting a boil as a surprise but I was a bit off put at the price. I started thinking I might try one on my own. I ran by the local place of gathering (Kroger) and grabbed some snow crab (meh, I like Dungeness better but I bought what they had) and some frozen uncooked shrimp, deveined tail on. I don't mind frozen seafood, I know some people are picky about frozen seafood, but if it is prepared well it doesn't bother me much. As there wasn't any additional seafood that both of us eat that I think goes well in a boil, I bought some mild sausage (hunter isn't a fan of the heat) for a little extra flavor. I seasoned it with Maryland Gold (aka Old Bay) and threw in some red potatoes and corn for good measure.

For my first try, it wasn't half bad. Actually it was quite good. We managed to consume for dinner 2 nights and have enough for lunch about 2 days. That about 8 meals total. We ate late because I left half the food at the store because I was tired, so I had to go back. There was also the added stress of being tired after camping for 3 days, driving back, and unpacking. So it didn't quite have the laughing and joking a boil normally brings back home, but it was a really good meal and I was fairly proud of how it turned out. I might also be wearing my nostalgia glasses when I think about our home boils, I'm sure someone had a tantrum or was tired from a long day or was a general pain in the ass but childhood memories tend to look a little rosier if they were good and a little darker if they were bad. I think I'll do one again soon, maybe even invite some folks over to enjoy it with us...hopefully no one will stab me with a fork lol.