Spring in Laramie, Wyoming is fickle at best ~ and by the second snow in June it can seem downright elusive. This year, our first in Laramie, winter has seemed particularly dogged in it's cling to our thin air, but in the last 10 days, daytime warmth and the sudden greening of the plains seems to be announcing that summer has at last arrived.

This year we marked Summer twice. Our first attempt, a "Summer Barbecue" over Memorial day weekend was well attended and ended a great success, never mind the wintry chill and icy rain with which it was accompanied. Ultimately the event was hardly the warm outdoor picnic we had all hoped for.

No, it was going to be yet another 10 days, before we would really mark Summer properly. Naomi and I gathered some good friends, crossed our fingers and, took the folks at CajunGrocer.com up on an awesome offer, 10 pounds of live Crawfish shipped overnight and delivered to our doorstep.

The folks at CajunGrocer.com sent us a beautiful batch of large red swamp crawfish, straight from their farm in Maurice, Louisiana. They arrived packed in a large styrofoam case, cooled by several gel packs. We made several dishes with crawfish for the party: we boiled the live crawfish in a traditional style, with Louisiana seasoning (included in the shipment), smoked sausage, and fresh corn all boiled together in a large pot. We also made a huge batch of my Crawfish Etouffee, 6 quarts of home churned strawberry ice cream, and even made up some homemade lemon-lime soda. Our guests brought wines, salads and other side dishes that ultimately made the meal complete.

We count ourselves lucky around here when we can get our hands on ingredients like Crawfish. Finding good fresh fish other than trout (which by the way is wonderful) in Wyoming is nearly impossible. Laramie is a very small town, and getting harder-to-find ingredients often means a long drive to Fort Colins or  Denver Colorado, or even just forgoing them entirely. We usually end up driving to the Whole Foods in Fort Collins for special occasions that call for more than the locally available catfish,  frozen farmed salmon and frozen farmed shrimp that makes up 90% of what is available in our local markets. So getting our hands on these live crawfish was a real treat.

I can't think of a better way of bringing in Summer than with a crawfish boil. The internet and companies like CajunGrocer.com have made it easier to get some wonderful and traditional American ingredients that we just couldn't get otherwise.