Robert skaer story we've all got crabs

Yield: 1 servings

Measure Ingredient
\N \N Howdy folks!
\N \N As long as we've all got crabs (on our minds) I thought I'd pass along a
\N litre Story from last summer, and a recipe that has NOTHING to do with crabs
\N \N To take the curse off the whole thing! I was in a terrific little town called
\N \N Tenekee Springs Alaska. One road, paralellinfg the shore, with houses on each
\N \N Side of the road, and one vehicle, a pick-up used as a fire truck! No raods
\N \N To anywhere! I flew in (with a partner) to teach VBS to the three kids in
\N \N Town that week, one of whose parents are professional crabbers! (What DO you

call crab fisherfolk??) They offered us some free crabs, and took us out to their boat to select dinner. There were BIG crabs, about 10"-12" across!! We took them back to our digs, and got some muskege (sp??) water boiled to put them in. Now, I had NEVER cooked crab or lobster, so we were going by several people's versions of what to do.

Clean first? Cook first? Who knew? Not we! Well, the only thing we had that would boil water was an old electric skillet about 14" across. So we boiled the water, I then grabbed the victim from our sink and threw them in the pan and tried to close the lid. Which was something of a challenge due to the crab trying to exit said pan!! After much scrambling and creative use of language, the lid would close and 25 minutes later, BING! Perfect cooked crab. Now. How to eat this! We had heard about halving the little critters and cleaning out the gunk inside, so I tried (with hot-mitts) to do so, and got a generous portion of boiling-hot "crab butter" all down my front!! (Crab butter is the fat of the crab, which melts during cooking and is used by some in place of clarified butter) We finally discovered that after cooking, all crabs are flip-top models, and ate away! Since our digs (high atop the slendid one-room St Francis Chapel) had no running water, I had to walk a quarter mile to get a new pan of muskege water, past scores of salmonberry bushes that were visited by bears!! I could just see a hungry ol' bear wandering down for a meal, and here I come in crab flavored shorts!! But we finally had the best three-crab meal I have EVER had!! I wish I had a scanner so I could post the pic of our first cooked crab! Submitted By JOANN PIERCE On 03-30-95

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