Food Musings

This delectable dish is perhaps the most successful easy appetizer I’ve ever arranged for a gathering of friends.  Simple to prepare and delicious to eat, you can be assured of culinary success when you dish up these tasty morsels.

Normally the ingredients I use include a combination of shrimp and imitation crab meat but I tested and prepared it using Crayfish for a demo at The Crayfish Festival in Kingsburg, CA.  Whether you call them crawfish, crayfish, crawdads, mudbugs, or “little lake lobsters”, the tail meat purchased pre-cooked and frozen in 1 lb vacuum sealed packaged is extremely versatile.  Simply substitute crawfish if a recipe calls for any seafood (shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops, even fish).

Note – this dish is really enhanced with a bottle of Tabasco next to it!  Let the guests add it themselves.

 Seafood Appetizers

Inspired by 2002 Pillsbury Bake-Off

• 3 cups of either frozen cooked salad shrimp, flake-style imitation crabmeat, Crayfish*, or a combination of 2 of the 3 – thawed
• 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ refrigerated flaky dough sheet or Crescent Rolls
• 2 teaspoons seafood seasoning (Old Bay)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 ½ cups shredded Mexican cheese blend (6 oz)
• 1 teaspoon parsley flakes
• Tobasco

Heat oven to 375°F.

Press thawed seafood between paper towels to remove excess liquid. Cut into small pieces.

Unroll dough onto ungreased cookie sheet. Press to from Two 6×8-inch rectangles.  This allows each piece to have a crust.

Top dough with seafood and remaining ingredients in order listed.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Cut into squares letting each piece have a crust.

Serve with Tobasco for guests to add to each tasty bite!

*Crayfish is a bit stronger in smell and flavor than shrimp.  After thawing Crayfish in the refrigerator, you’ll want to rinse it three times or more in very cold water, drain and pat dry with a paper towel.  Then squeeze some lemon or lime juice on it.