Buckaroo’s Garlic Seafood Bucket

We are excited to shout out Buckaroo on the blog today! Bucakroo is a man of few words…and when you taste his garlic seafood bucket, you will be too!! In one bite you will quickly discover that TALKING?!?!?! “Ain’t nobody got time for that!!”

The Lady was never much of a crab person {{UNTIL NOW}} because it just took too much work for that little bit of meat, but Buckaroo has always been a seafood man through and through. His sister popped in for a visit over the weekend and we decided their isn’t a better way to hang out and “shoot the breeze” than over some good seafood.

Everyone does these differently, and we’ve eaten them all kinds of ways and cooked them all kinds of ways, but this is the Chewsy Way. We’ve finally found what works for us, and if you try it, we can pretty much guarantee you’ll be hooked. It seems like alot of work but its not, ‘chews’ someone you love to cook with or for and it will be ‘elementary’.<----Buckaroo lingo for easy!

Buckaroo's Garlic Seafood Bucket
(Feeds about 6 people)
Ingredients:
2.5 qts. Salted water
4 lb. Dungeness Crabs (We buy ours already cleaned and halved at the market.) <---Meaty, and sweet! You will love them!
2 lb. Large Shrimp (Shells On)
2 lb. of Mussels
1 pack Frozen corn Niblets
3-5 New Potatoes, sliced in thick rounds
1 c. Your Favorite White Wine (If you don't drink wine, use cooking white wine.)
1 c. Minced Garlic
1/4 c. Old Bay Seasoning
2 sticks Unsalted Butter
seafood-bucket-ingredients
Instead of a huge stock pot, we use two small ones. Keep reading we’ll tell you why. —–>

Preheat your oven to 200. This is your “warm drawer” or your “hot box” as we call it.

Bring your salted water to a boil in a stock pot and add crabs, corn, and potatoes. Cover and turn heat to medium heat.

While those are working, heat a saucepan to medium high heat, and then add your wine, garlic, and old bay. BE CAREFUL PLEASE!! Turn it down and let it simmer. {{Everything to this point should have taken about 15 minutes}}
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Pour the water off of the crabs into your other pot and move the crabs to your hot box (the oven). Add your butter to the saucepan and let it melt into the garlic and seasonings.
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Add your shrimp and mussels to the yummy crab water you reserved, cover, and let them steam for about 10 minutes on medium heat. We like the shrimp with the shells on to trap the awesomeness of the garlic butter sauce. So it’s peel n’ eat!! There is no prissy way to eat a seafood bucket. By now your butter should be melted and it should look and smell like garlicky goodness!!

When the mussels pop open and the shrimp are bright pink, they are done! Pour the water off of them. Take your crabs out of the oven. Pour your garlic sauce all over your seafood, both pots and dig in!!!
Garlic-Seafood-Bucket
**After we butter our seafood, we like to put the top on the pots and shake it up over the sink. So the yummy buttery goodness can get all up in there!! Its easier to do this when you use to small pots instead of one huge one.**

The best way to enjoy this is with cold drinks, pots in the middle of the table, and with people that love to eat, laugh, and aren’t afraid to get messy in the name of a good meal. Be Chewsy!!!

M.W.A.H.,

The Chewsy Lovers

Are you “seafoodies” like we are? What goes in your seafood pot?!

Haute Date, Haute Plate: Mercier Orchards, Blue Ridge, GA

Mercier Sign
A few weeks ago I was looking for a nice day trip for us to getaway for Buckaroo’s birthday. I called my sister and dad to help us with the kids and I said let’s go! No excuses. We went to a small mountain town called Blue Ridge, Georgia to Mercier Orchards. It was about an hour away from Atlanta, and just gorgeous. I had been begging since last year to visit an apple orchard, and Buckaroo loves the mountains, so it was a perfect compromise.
Apple-Orchard-U-Pick
We had such a good time!! There was apple picking, they had a huge store, and restaurant. A bag to pick apples was $10 and it included a tractor ride through the orchard.
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They had fresh cider and…an onsite winery. Oh yeah!! We wanted to start featuring cool date night spots on Chewsy Lovers, where you could also get good food. Well this episode of Haute Date, Haute Plate is about the wine…although there is a restaurant at Mercier. It was packed and we actually had packed lunches to have a picnic, so all we needed was a little bubbly.
apple-orchard-tasting-room
In the winery we enjoyed a free tasting and demo which was really interesting, and delicious! The orchard grows all kinds apples, peaches, blueberries, and nectarines, just to name a few and they make their own hard ciders and wines onsite. We tasted about six different wines and hard ciders. We bought two bottles of the Just Peachy wine to take home. It was the sweetest out of the six we tasted.
Mercier-Orchards-Wine
After we left the orchard we rode around and looked at cabin houses, holding hands, and making plans like we did when we were dating. Then we stopped in at an open air art festival we saw while riding and did some walking and talking.
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If you live in the Atlanta area, Mercier Orchards is a quick day trip! It’s well worth it. Live on purpose, love on purpose, date on purpose, and BE CHEWSY!!

M.W.A.H.,

The Lady

Do you and your Chewsy Lover have a favorite outdoor date?