Crab!

Yesterday was busy - I did a volunteer job for the Friends of Vista House at Rooster Rock State Park in the early afternoon - then we attended the annual Crab Feed at Portland Yacht Club in the evening.  We arrived shortly after 5 pm and I snapped this shot of the sailboat harbor on the Columbia River.  Our boat, Stargazer is 2nd from the end on the middle dock in the photo.

I zoomed in and you can see her stern, the black one with gold trim. 

We enjoyed an hour and a half of visiting with people and waiting for dinner to begin, having some drinks in the lounge area.  Then at 6:30, the ship's bell was rung, signaling the beginning of dinner.  I had written our name on the paper table cover for 8 places.  My sister Roberta's son and his wife Tami have joined the club and they invited my sister and husband Teddy as their guests.  We invited my younger sister Denise and husband Steve.  On the table was a tray of oyster shooters.  They put a raw oyster in a cup, with a dash of cocktail sauce and a bit of lemon in each.  I could not muster up the courage to try one.  :-)  (Sorry for the fuzzy photo!)

Having fun picking crab!  Dayle, me, Denise and Steve.

Cliff, Tami, Roberta & Teddy. 

There were almost 400 people there for dinner!  The menu was all-you-can-eat Dungeness crab, oyster shooters, cole slaw, warm garlic bread, beer in pitchers and 3 kinds of cake for dessert!

Here is a whole crab, they're about 12 inches across including the legs as pictured.

Here's my plate before I began ripping the legs apart and picking the meat out body end, then you take a mallet and whack the shells and pick the meat out of the leg sections.  The "prize" is a huge chunk of crab in the claw.  You should hear everyone having a ball doing this!  

This is a pile of crab meat before you eat it!  They had this wonderful sauce to put on top, it's called --

Continental Cocktail Sauce

1 C mayo

1/4 C ketchup

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 dashes Worcestershire

1/4 C sherry

They even had a live band in the ballroom - it was kind of nice as we were in the dining room below, so it wasn't real loud while we were dining.

We had a wonderful time!!  We even brought home a crab and it's in the fridge - we might have crab on top a green salad for dinner.  I wanted to share this photo of our Daphne plant when I got home yesterday - it won't be long and I'll have bouquets of the fragrant flower in the house.. and it's the middle of February!

And look at my Snowdrops!!  I love these first flowers of the year.. we have big patches of them all over the farm!

And the first Stargazer Lily has opened.  I adore these flowers, we had them in our wedding in my bouquet and on the cake.  :-)

We are relaxing today - what are you up to?  Our brother-in-law Steve cooked up a new trip for us in a year - we're going to fly to Las Vegas, enjoy some time there, then rent a van and drive to the Grand Canyon and Phoenix, Arizona!  Sounds fun, huh?  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)