Baptismal Boil

January through June in Lafayette, Louisiana....it's pretty typical to find family members gathered for a backyard crawfish boil. One such get-together occurred two Saturdays ago at the home of my friends Katherine and Stuart Roy. This wasn't just any boil though. It was held in celebration of their soon to be baptized baby boy Preston Lee Roy. 

It won't be too long before Preston is helping his dad with the cooking duties, but for now he'll have to settle for formula while the big kids enjoy the delicious Roy clan recipes. On the menu for the day were oysters raw or char-grilled with homemade pesto, butter and topped with Parmesan. There was chicken and sausage jambalaya, boiled crawfish and endless coolers of crushed ice covered beer bottles. 

Stuart's method is to boil the the mudbugs in plain water and season them second in a Styrofoam cooler, where they steam themselves to spicy goodness. This practice keeps each batch consistent with the last. I've been told by at least one crawfish fanatic (my fiancé Katie) that Stuart's boils are the best not only because of his particular method, but because of his unique mix of boiled vegetables including Brussels sprouts and whole heads of garlic. 

Photos and text by Denny Culbert/ Shoot. Eat. Repeat. 
   
(Below, Stuart Roy says hello to his little sone Preston Lee, during a crawfish boil in honor of his baptism the following day.) 

Preston's buddy baby Drexel and his parents Rex and Jessica were in attendance.

Preston relaxes in the arms of his mother Katherine Roy, as the backyard boil winds down.

Growing up in Ohio and having lived in Louisiana just a few years, I'm still warming up to peeling and devouring pounds of crawfish all in one sitting. I overcame my apprehension of raw oysters, so I'm sure I'll be sucking heads in no time. 

Let me know what you think of the new and improved Shoot. Eat. Repeat. For those who were following along before, all the old posts live on at www.shooteatrepeat.tumblr.com/archive. Moving forward this blog will reflect my journey into documentary and commercial food photography. 


All images copyright Denny Culbert and cannot be used without my expressed written consent.