Cookie Dough & High Heels: Time for a Recipe.....sort of

Hello my lovelies!

This will be another quick one today, but I have to brag about my amazing half birthday! I wasn't actually setting out to celebrate my half birthday, but it turned out to be pretty dang amazing anyway! I woke up IN MY BED which was amazing in itself! Sorry airmattress, but I'm over you for a hot minute. Did some online window shopping in bed, then made coffee in my coffee pot!! Oh how the little things make me happy. It has been over 5 weeks since I've slept in my own bed and used my own coffee pot. FIVE. July 19th,was the last time I slept in my bed. CRAZY! While I was window shopping, not buying, K texted me and asked if I wanted to go to brunch and hike with the girls, so of course I said yes.

I drove up to Snowbird, yes *the* Snowbird resort, where I met the lovely ladies for brunch. That place is absolutely huge and awesome. I need to go back! They are having Oktoberfest right now and I would kill for a beer, wienerschnitzel, German potato salad, and hot soft pretzels. Sigh....reminds me of the beer gardens in Germany....but instead we had a nice brunch with coffee. I had an omelette with mushrooms, onions, cheese, and diced ham, and some cottage cheese on the side. Forgot to take blog pics. We then hiked up to Cecret Lake (pronounced Secret). It was a short and simple hike, but not entirely easy. It was the highest altitude I've hiked thus far, so at first I felt all tingly and out of breath. But, only about 1/2 hour each way so totally doable and the view was amazing!!!

We like taking tons of posed photos that look "unplanned"

Not dancing, just trying to get into position!

Me, B & K

Sorry for the mass amounts of photos. Wait, I'm not sorry. You're welcome :)

I got back and had a snickey snack of a bbq bacon wrapped chicken skewer (yes, it is a snack in my book.....could be why I've gained weight...) and took an amazing shower. Talked to a few peeps and went to church. Got home and made the ideal half-birthday dinner, which happens to be almost exactly what I had for my actual birthday this year! Just thought of that! King Crab and Asparagus.

My first blog recipe! ...Ish

This isn't really a recipe, but just letting you know how I cook my crab.

Step One: Buy copious amounts of King Crab when it is on sale. When I lived at the 164 (always pronounced "the one-six-four" never anything else!) HC liked to cook crab a-lot. I enjoyed every second of it. We had King and Snow and Red Royal and I think maybe even Queen once. If King Crab is on sale, then buy the shit out of it. I only bought about .75 lbs, but I should have bought more. It was on sale for $9.99 a pound. I've seen it for upwards of $19.99 a pound so I said yes please! I think the flavor of King Crab is the best, plus the legs are the biggest so you get the most meat out of it. Red Royal is good, as is Snow, but Snow is the most time consuming to eat. If you can get King, I highly suggest it. (~~I cook~~ HC cooks Snow & Red slightly differently than King, but this way works for all 3).

Step Two: Buy your seasoning. I used Tony C's creole spice mix. You can buy the seasoning of your choice. My suggestion is to buy a container of spice mix, and not the boil bags. I think it flavors the crab better that way.

Step Three: Pour a shit-ton of seasoning into a stock pot of water. Yes, that is a term of measurement in my apt. You want to cough from the smell of spices in the air and the water to turn dark red/brown, then you know you've poured enough.

Step Four: Boil the water.
Step Five: Add crab legs and boil (lid on) till it's done. About 10 min. Don't over cook! How do you know when it's done? I don't know. When you think it is. Seriously.....it doesn't take long to boil. 10 min should be plenty, but if you are cooking more, you might want to do 15. Don't boil longer than that!! 5 minutes min to about 15 max. Just sayin'

Step Six: Dump out boiling water, put crab back in stock pot with lid till you're ready to eat.

Step Seven: The key to crab: Browned [salted, always salted] butter. While my crab was cooking, I boiled some asparagus with a dash of coarse sea salt (no iodine) in the water. I used the same small pot to brown the butter. Get it as hot and brown as possible, but pleeeeeeeeease don't burn it. Just don't. I always use way too much butter, but it is so darn good! I think I had a quarter cup browned for both my asparagus and crab dipping. Oops.

Step Eight: Take crab out of pot, crack open, and dip in browned butter! Enjoy!!

Seriously I was so surprised how amazing it tasted. Usually HC always cooked the crab, so I was sure I was going to screw it up, but I didn't. The best part was every single leg of crab was full of meat. It was so frickin' good. So good. I mean, I can't even describe it accurately without taking this blog into Rated R territory. I'll just post some pics. I enjoyed it way too much and forgot to take good pics, but here are a few. Oh and asparagus (my absolute favorite vegetable no questions asked) is just flash boiled or steamed with some salt so it is al dente. Topped with a dash of salt, pepper (forgot that today) shakey parm cheese, and a bit of browned butter. Easy breezy.

See the fuzz on the end of the crab claw?? Creeped me out to the MAX but I didn't let it bother me, some how. I could not let fuzz stand in my way of food orgasms. Oops. Just took it to Rated R. Apologies.