Low-Country Boil

I am resolved to get in the kitchen and start trying new recipes again.  My brain is in recipe overload and I have several that are already on my to do list.  The ingredients are purchased...I'm ready!  I can't guarantee that I will always take a picture which really stinks, because I love looking at pictures with food!  But my pictures are never that appetizing anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter!  Obviously, my idea of printer friendly recipes is also a disaster and so that shouldn't be expected either.  I'm just going to stick with sharing the recipes!! 

We went the whole summer without having our Sunday school supper club and The Dish Washer and I were really missing it, so we decided to host August.  We love having people over to the house and The Dish Washer decided he wanted to do a low country boil as a good way to end the summer.  First of all, we have never made it before.  Second of all, I HATE shrimp!!!  But I took one for the team and Low-Country we were!  I think it is a pretty basic thing and other than our potatoes getting a little overcooked (meaning they didn't hold their shape and wanted to mash whenever you went to scoop) it was a pretty good success for our first time.  The Dish Washer even built a special cooking station.  He actually built it for frying fish.  We've only done one fish fry since we have been married, but now that we have this maybe we will do more!  It's empty right now, but here is the picture.

Random side note is that you can see one little sprout of basil.  Normally I have basil coming out the wazoo, but this year my basil has disappointed me.  I blame it on a pesky chipmunk living in the vinca you see behind the table.  I tried to scare him off with some dashes of cayenne pepper!  I bet that really woke him up the first morning he got a sniff!  :)  Anyway, from all of my "chatting" you can tell I have missed this.  Let's get to the recipe:

Low-Country Boil

1/4 pound fully cooked, smoked sausage per person, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/4 c. Old Bay seasoning, or more to taste (we used MUCH more but we had a LARGE pot!)

2 small new potatoes per person

1 ear fresh corn, per person, shucked, silked and broken in half (The Dish Washer prefers white corn)

1/2 pound large fresh shrimp per person, shell on

Fill a large pot with enough water to cover all of the ingredients.  Add the sausage and Old Bay seasoning and allow to boil for about 20 minutes so that the sausage can flavor the water.  Taste, and add more seasoning if you think you need more.  Add the potatoes and boil for about 15 minutes.  Add the corn and boil about 10 minutes more.  Finally, add the shrimp and allow to cook for 3 minutes.  Taste shrimp and it is cooked through, drain immediately and serve.  We dropped ours down in a cooler to keep it cooler while everyone fixed a plate and went back for seconds, but I think it more fun to dump it out on newspaper.  And EVEN better if you drop the tailgate and dump it out on newspaper! 

Serve with cocktail sauce and tartar sauce.