Seafood Spread Birthday

by Shelly
(Australia)

Seafood Spread

Our family birthday tradition is a seafood spread. It started with my mum's birthday, which is in December. It's a tradition in our house that Mum doesn't cook dinner on her birthday. But we live on a farm out of town, so getting take out isn't an option.

I'm from Australia, so December is incredibly hot. We also live about 500 km's from the ocean. To really put our isolation in perspective, it is 125 miles to the nearest set of traffic lights!

So when my brother and Dad came back from a shopping trip on Mum's birthday, we had no idea they were going to bring home seafood. They managed to sneak it into the house when Mum and I weren't looking.

Then they spent the whole evening, from about 4pm hiding in the kitchen pretending to cook dinner. My brother even popped out and asked how to 'crumb shrimp' and held out this tiny can of shrimp".

When they finally announced "dinner is ready" we sat at the table, wondering what we would be eating.

Then they brought out trays and trays of cold seafood, beautifully plated on crushed ice. There must have been 5 pounds of shrimp, crab, oysters and mussels there. We all had a good laugh about they had pretended to take forever to make dinner.

It was the best birthday feast I have ever had. Since then, there is always a seafood spread on our birthdays.

Sophie Says

If you like this birthday tradition, but prefer salads, seafood sauce or something hot, try one of my family favorite seafood spread recipes below

Cold Seafood Salads

1 - 1 1/4 cup of cooked shrimp, crab meat or lobster
1 cup of thinly sliced celery
1/3 cup of salad dressing or mayonnaise
1 tbsp sliced green onion
A large pinch of sea salt
A pinch of black pepper

Combine seafood and celery in bowl. Mix other ingredients. Pour over seafood and cover. Chill for a minimum of 2 hours.

Seafood Sauce Recipe

Here's my seafood sauce recipe that is so delicious and simple to make, Fraser will often mix this up to have with our shrimps.

Mix equal parts of mayonaise and tomato ketchup. Add a dash of Worcester Sauce (optional) and a pink of black pepper and salt.

Mix together and serve – its that simple!