As we all know, Lent in Louisiana is really just an excuse to eat massive amount of seafood rather than fast or abstain (as if giving up meat is so hard on the Gulf Coast.) I miss good seafood so badly. I definitely grew up spoiled.

Anyway, I had a craving for BBQ shrimp last week, and I found this recipe in my new Cooking Light Complete Book (great cookbook, I totally recommend it) Of course, it's nowhere near as good as what you'd find in New Orleans and because it's light, it's more wine based than butter based. But it's quick to make and most of the ingredients are probably already in your fridge, and you can use frozen shrimp since this recipe seasons the hell out of them, so its a good home-away-from-home recipe for those of us stranded without good seafood.

If you don't have everything the recipe calls for, just mix and match seasonings. Like all good Louisiana cooking, its no exact science. Put the shrimp on french bread for a po-boy or just eat them plain. The leftovers are even better because the sauce intensifys in the fridge.

1/2 cup fat-free Caesar dressing
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons butter or stick margarine
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
5 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds large shrimp
1/3 cup dry white wine

1. Combine the first 11 ingredients in a large nonstick skillet; bring to a boil.
2. Add shrimp, and cook 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add wine, and cook 1 minute or until shrimp are done.

-Sarah

Ok, so I want to declare myself (with Emeril Lagasse's help) the new crawfish etoufee queen. I had some frozen crawfish, about 12 oz. worth, and I wanted to do something different (for me) with it. So I started searching. Here's what I came up with, and let me tell you, it was yummy!

1 stick (or 4 oz.) of butter -- I actually used Smart Balance Light.
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 a medium yellow onion (about a cup), chopped
1 small bell pepper
1/4-1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped celery (optional--I omitted this)
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
1/2 cup dry sherry
1 1/2 cups shrimp/chicken stock or water
1 lb. crawfish tails
Cooked long grain rice
Tony's
Hot Sauce
Worcestershire sauce

Ok, so here's what I did, with some small addendums:
Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large-ish pot. Add the flour and cook, making a light colored roux. (I added 2 tbsp at first, but when I had a bit too much liquid later I added another tbsp. or so. I got a little impatient so my roux was really light. It could stand to cook to a light brown/tan color.)
Add the vegetables (onions, bell pepper and celery...which I didn't use), garlic, bay leaves and salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the sherry to deglaze pan and cook another 2 to 3 minutes. (NOTE: I accidentally overdid the sherry -- it said add 2 tbsp. and I put in about a half a cup, hence the extra flour. But somewhere in between these amounts would be about perfect.)
Then add stock and crawfish tails and bring to a boil. (I couldn't find seafood stock, so I used about 3/4 cup of chicken broth and another 3/4 cup of water. Also, as it was boiling, I added a liberal amount of Tony's -- didn't think you could make anything Cajun without it! -- and about 2 tbsp. of Louisiana Hot Sauce. Then I added a couple dashes of Worcestershrie sauce.)
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring, and then turn heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes or more to thicken.
Emeril's also calls for parsley, but I'll be honest. I never put parsley in anything that calls for it. Other than color, I really don't see what it adds to the dish. I never miss it.
I served it over brown rice because, well, I didn't have white rice and I kind of like the brown.
It also calls for lemon juice right at the end, but I forgot about that (which is disappointing, because I bought the lemons). I bet it would add a little something, but I didn't really miss it.

Anyway, I know that sounds confusing, but I just kind of went off Emeril's recipe from foodnetwork.com and added my own to it as I went. So far, so very good!