This is our family’s version, we hope you enjoy!

This is a favorite dish for our family although we only make it one to two times a year.  Well, crawfish isn’t always in season… it’s best to make it when they are fresh!  And crawfish are very expensive!  So it is a nice treat when we make this and every drop gets eaten!!!

Now for some pictures!

Want to see us in the kitchen?  Here is the video:

Want more of our recipes?  Here is the full list from EECC Kitchen.

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Thanks,
Alisa
EECC Travels

The post EECC Kitchen: Crawfish Etouffee appeared first on EECC Travels.

The fest area was made up of several areas.  The ‘beer’ areas were split into the pro-craft beer tents on one side and the homebrewers on the other.  In the middle, there was a family games area with bean bag toss and a giant connect four.  In front of the stage is where everyone sat and relaxed either on blankets or in folding chairs.  Also, there were food booths sprinkled around everywhere and of course we were right next to Spirits, our favorite restaurant in town.

First up… beer!

Since this IS a craft beer festival, of course, our first stop had to be for a sample. I do not drink beer so this was all for Jason! His first choice was Flying Tiger from Monroe, LA. We spoke to the owner and were told that it is named after the famous Flying Tiger planes from World War II, so it is a patriotic beer! They had three to sample and Jason chose the blonde lager which was a win. After realizing that each tent had multiple samples I declared that this was going to be ‘dangerous’ as he will want to try them all.

Next up is Abita which is brewed in Abita Springs, LA. Their offering was an Olde Fashioned Pale Ale. In this same area was Crying Eagle Brewery from Lake Charles, LA who had a light, medium, and dark. The light was the Louisiana Lager crafted using Louisiana rice and is deemed ‘easy-drinking’. The medium was the Calcasieu Common amber lager. Lastly, the dark was the Pistol Bridge Porter brewed with black malt and dark cocoa… Jason’s comment ‘that’s dark!”. His favorite was the Louisiana Lager.

Pumpkin pie beer? Yeah, that is real (he didn’t try it)! But instead, Jason chose the Little Sumpin’ which is sweet at first with a bite on the back. It was deemed to be interesting… but very good. What a conversation starter… ‘You want a Little Sumpin’ Sumpin?” They also had the Two Hearted Ale brewed in Wisconsin which was a favorite because “if they make beer as good as they make cheese, it must be good’. Seven beer samples in, now Jason finally agrees with me that this is going to be dangerous!

Time for a music break

Now that we have a stack of small empty cups in one hand and a full sample in the other, we make our way over to the stage area to watch the band. Currently playing is the rich, soulful, funky sound of Jocelyn & Chris Arndt. They were really good and the music carried all around. We found a nice spot and laid out our blanket. Let me say that those super soft fluffy blankets are great for at home, but they are a grass magnet on the ground! I am still picking dry grass out days later!!!

Homebrewing at its finest

Not only did Funktoberfest feature the best craft beers from around Louisiana and beyond, there was also a section of tents for the local home brewers. Admittedly we did not visit them all but were very impressed by the ones we did. First up was Gary Baker: Heritage Road Brewing and his Biere de Garde… reaction “holy cow that’s good!’. Gary told us there was a competition for the best homebrew and that we needed to vote for his. But first to try a few more…

Across the way, we see a guy in a brewmaster shirt with a jar of hops in his hand. This drew our attention over to The Happy Wife Brew Shed for a sniff. Now that is a palette cleanser! They were serving up three brews and Jason was given samples of all three which were “Life on Marzen” Octoberfest Lager (four months old), the “Brown Eyed Girl” brown ale and a light which I didn’t catch the name of. They were great and showed us jars of all of the ingredients they use to make their brews.

Back to the blanket

The sun had finally moved behind the clouds and our blanket was in the shade. Oh, the glorious shade on a hot Louisiana afternoon! Without the sun it felt at least 20 degrees cooler outside. So we laid on our blanket and listened to the music and played with the nearby kids with giant beach balls.

The next band was a lot of fun! Zydeco music pulls at the heart of every Louisianian and the Lost Bayou Ramblers were perfect! You won’t understand until you see a guy in coveralls rocking an electric fiddle… it magical! There were even several couples dancing. Now there is a special kind of dancing that goes along with this style of music and unfortunately, I am not talented enough to be able to do it… but it is so much fun to watch!  Side note: they did a zydeco version of Nirvana’s My Girl (Where Did You Sleep Last Night) that blew us away.  You would have to know the song to recognize it because it was in French, but that was memorable!

We spent the rest of the day in this fashion. Listening to great music. Jason sampling the beers. Visiting with friends. Eating some amazing food. We watched the sun go down and the last two bands came out. They were Elliott Root and Delta Saints, both from Nashville, and they were both fantastic! We had a great time and will definitely be back next year!

Want to see this story come to life and hear the fantastic music?  Here is the video:

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Thanks,
Alisa
EECC Travels

The post FUNKTOBERFEST: Craft Beer & Music Festival appeared first on EECC Travels.

And in their words:

“The City of Alexandria – in partnership with dozens of local arts organizations and programs – combines the success of existing cultural events, bringing them “all under one roof” for three days in Downtown Alexandria. Together with numerous local businesses, community participants, teams, civic leaders and sponsors, the AlexRiverFête celebration embodies the spirit of community, culture and collaboration.”

Yummy local food

We started our day at the classic car show.  There were more than we expected and some were restored to a beautiful like new or better than new condition.  We had some good food like chicken-on-a-stick (this was really good) and pizza cooked in a brick oven inside a huge trailer.  Cameron stuck with his boring corndog, but he said they were really good.  And we had some great sweets too, we especially enjoyed the huge brownie and cream cheese bars!  No festival is complete in Louisiana without snow-cones or sneaux-cones and we had our share including a Picklelicious… yes that is a pickle juice concoction with two pickle spears sticking out of the top!

There were some fabulous arts & crafts vendors selling everything to home made bath bombs (yes we bought some of these) to jellies to clothing to beautiful artwork.

Amazing music!

The highlight for us is always the music.  With Jason being a musician and his band, Fall of Isaac, performing that night, we spent a good deal of time in front of one of the three music stages.  Over at the Fete stage we saw Mo Lowda & the Humble; New Breed Brass Band; The Main Squeeze and JJ Grey & Mofro.  At the Indie stage we listened to the music of all local Alexandria bands like: Agent Undercover, Aurum, Broken By The Burden, Astro Motel, Omnisonic Theory, Mojo Killjoy and of course the best of them all (wink, wink) Fall of Isaac!

All it all it was a great, warm Louisiana spring day!  The City of Alexandria says they have more festivals in the works and we can’t wait!!!

Want to see the story come to life?  Here is the video: YouTube EECC Travels – Alex River Fete

The post LOUISIANA LIFE: Alex River Fete 2017 – Awesome Music, Great Food, Classic Cars & MORE! appeared first on EECC Travels.

Our Family Christmas Game

How to play the game:  Put the kids in a circle and pick a starting point.  The person starting is given a pair of gloves (this makes it harder to get control of the plastic wrap) and the person to the left is given a dice (I couldn’t locate a regular dice this year so borrowed one from our SpongeBob Yatzee game…).  The person with the dice rolls until they roll a 6 (or in this case a SpongeBob) and that is how much time the person with the gloves has to try and unwrap!  Then it all passes around the circle.  Once they get past the box and to the huge ball of plastic wrap, make sure they find the starting point for the piece of plastic wrap and unroll, not try to rip through (I make sure to explain this before they start).  Then as each toy is unwrapped, the person who unwraps it gets to keep it.  It is a lot of fun for about $25 and something our kids look forward to doing!

Cameron & Colby’s Christmas Concert

We also wanted to include one song from Cameron & Colby’s Christmas band concert, ‘White Christmas’. We are so proud of them!  This is their third year in band with Cameron on trumpet and Colby playing Alto Saxophone.  They did a great job!

Want to see the story come to life?  Here is the video:  YouTube EECC Travels – Vlogmas #4

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Thanks,
Alisa
EECC Travels

The post LOUISIANA LIFE: Our Family’s Christmas Game & Christmas Concert appeared first on EECC Travels.

While we were out looking at lights, we drove around town to see what else we could find and found some other houses with real Christmas spirit… including our own

We finished off our fun family weekend with the Alexandria Christmas Parade which was a lot of fun!

We hope you are enjoying our family Christmas adventures and come back next Tuesday for more fun!  Merry Christmas!!!!

YouTube EECC Travels – Vlogmas Episode 3

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Thanks,
Alisa
EECC Travels

The post LOUISIANA LIFE: THE BEST CHRISTMAS HOUSE IN LOUISIANA & Christmas Parade – Vlogmas Episode 3 appeared first on EECC Travels.

But the biggest event of the Fete was the ice skating!!!  In Louisiana, we don’t have the opportunity to see ice or snow very often, and never get to ice skate!  But our awesome city found a company that could build and power an outdoor rink even when the temperatures were in the 50-60’s – it was incredible!  So our boys got their first chance ever to ice skate!  Colby took to in naturally, now he has a pair of roller skates that he randomly wears around the house so he had a bit of an advantage.  Ethan and Cameron had a lot of fun too!

There were a lot of other fun Christmas events to see and do!  There were elves and characters taking pictures with the kids, live music, great food, arts & crafts booths with great homemade Christmas gifts, the Polar Express train, lots of lights and even snow!!!!  And of course, Santa was there to meet all of the kids.  It was a great family time!!!

#AlexWinterFete #AlexandriaWinterFete

YouTube EECC Travels – Vlogmas Episode 2

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Thanks,
Alisa
EECC Travels

The post LOUISIANA LIFE: Alexandria Winter Fete – Vlogmas Episode #2 appeared first on EECC Travels.

There are a lot of fun Christmas activities in our area, so be sure to check out our weekly Vlogmas videos every Tuesday!!! Merry Christmas!

YouTube EECC Travels – Vlogmas #1

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Thanks,
Alisa
EECC Travels

The post LOUISIANA LIFE: Christmas Decorating (including our Disney ornament collection) with EECC Travels – Vlogmas Episode 1 appeared first on EECC Travels.