When playing with my kids, I’ve found quantity time trumps quality time, because “quality time” is so elusive.  Bad luck can ruin even the most well planned afternoon.  For instance, some no good thief (or perhaps alligator) took off with Oliver’s crab trap.  It was a bummer to say the least.  On top of that, the Sargassum seaweed was thick in the surf and the temperatures were bumping 100.  Our surf fishing was over.   We decided to crab, and we were saved by the ubiquitous Stone Crab; the prize of more discriminating crabbers from Maine to Belize.  About the color of red mud, the Stone Crab’s key feature is its gloriously huge, sweet, meat filled claw.  In Texas you can only keep one claw which has to be 2.5 inches, but really their body lacks the meat a blue crab’s body has.  We just twist the claw off and pitch them back in the water.  These oyster eating crabs have the ability to regenerate an arm, so maybe next year we will reharvest them.

We cleaned the blue crabs as shown here . The heat has been suffocating, so we went with a simple but amazing recipe.    Equal parts beer, apple cider vinegar, and water.   Sprinkle liberally with Old Bay, but any of your favorite seafood seasoning will work.  Steam, don’t boil for 20 minutes.  Then dip in some melted butter and you have a bit of heaven on a plate.