Before I could even think about unloading the truck, I was hustled into the cottage and out onto the ocean front deck - "Look at this view!" "Wait until you see this!" my friends exclaimed. Well, those silly people ....... it was pitch black outside, what did they think I'd be able to see? As soon as I stepped onto the deck, I could hear the roar of the ocean .... the surf was absolutely pounding the beach. A gust of wind caught me and turning to face it head on, I saw the huge waves, with white foaming crests, breaking close in. The waters rolled up mere feet from the bottom of the deck stairway. Wow. Now, that's impressive.
Reluctantly, I left the awesome sight of the riled ocean, and began the tedious work of unloading the truck. Usually, I arrive early enough in the day to take up residency in the cottage as soon as it is cleaned and ready. By the time evening rolls around, I'm settled in - unpacked, the kitchen organized and rearranged to my liking (all dishes, pots, pans, cookware & untensils washed and put away), the grounds picked up of any litter that might be laying around & the first of many trips to the market have been made.
Due to the lateness of the day, my friends and I simply carried in the baggage, dropping it haphazardly in the front hall. I divied up the bed linens and we began making our beds. Since Buck & Kathy would be staying only that night, they were assigned the sleeper sofa. The 2 bedrooms in Terra Mar were miniscule, but both had windows overlooking the deck & beach. Dawn & I really went through some contortions to get the sheets on, as both beds were tucked snugly into the rooms. The heads, foots (feet?) and sides of both beds were against walls and to make the beds we had to lay on them. That was enough work for one night - we were all ready for dinner.
As she did last year, Dawn packed in crabs from the Pamlico River & Sound. Tonight we would dine on steamed blue crabs ..... later in the week, fried soft shells. Kathy, not an afficiendo of sea food, fixed herself some hotdogs - how can someone not like crab?? We sat down for our first meal in Terra Mar. Crab legs, a big bowl of dipping butter, pasta salad & cold beer, with only the sound of the ocean as background music and great dinner conversation between friends ....... this is what staying on the beach is all about, my friends.
This was my first experience with eating steamed crabs. In addition to the usual dining utensils, an assortment of what appeared to be tools from a Craftsman chest were also laid out. My dinner mates assured me that these items would facilitate obtaining the sweet, tender meat found within these well armored creatures. I carefully watched as Buck & Dawn methodically cracked, pounded, pulled and picked.
Pickin' Crabs - Step by step
Remove the front claws: Put them aside, you can come back to them later.
Pull off the rest of the legs: Sometimes, you get lucky and some crab meat pulls out with them. Just enjoy it.
Open the apron: Pull up the apron on the bottom of the crab and break it off.
Open the crab: You can now easily pull the hard shell off of the top of the crab.
Clean out: Scrape out and discard anything that does not look appealing to you - the yellow "mustard" and the lungs (sometimes called the devil's fingers). Doesn't that look just YUM?
Break in half: You are now down to the main part of the crab. Simply grasp it in both hands and break it in half to expose the sweet crab meat.
The crab meat can be found in all of the little nooks and crannies. This is some of the finest tasting seafood to be had anywhere.
Dawn & Buck made it look SO easy. I, on the other hand (which, by the way, was quite bloodied from getting my fingers stuck in the claws), was making very little headway with dinner. Shells were flying all about the kitchen as I cracked. Kathy, Buck and Dawn would cringe and duck every time I started on a new crab. I kept up a steady litany of apologies throughout the meal. Finally, more from exhaustion than a sated appetite, I finished my dinner. Okay ...... it's true .... this was really excellent eating, but - dang - it was sure a lot of work for a little bit of food!
After a quick cleanup of the kitchen, it was off to bed ...... and I was surely looking forward to falling into the arms of Morpheus after such a long day.
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