I can remember the first time my dad took me out crabbing - it was a really cold morning on the bay in Netarts Bay, just south of Tillamook, Oregon. He put tons of stinky fish into a crab ring, the crabs would crawl in, we all took turns pulling them up, and I would sit there petrified about the crabs running around on the bottom of the boat. Then we took them all to this giant boiler and dumped them in. And when we got home there was an absolute feast. 

Later in life the crabbing pursuit involved friends on the end of the Oregon State University marine biology dock, drinking cheap beer, smoking stogies and pulling up crab rings. 

Now living in California, my crabbing adventure consists of going to Whole Foods, picking one out of a glass case and asking them to crack it and clean it for me. 

However, I have it in my mind that I will get down to Half Moon bay to try and get some for ourselves, I think Charlie would dig it. 

In any case, with my lovely little store bought crab, we made a delicious classic Crab Louie salad last night. I added a few other ingredients besides the standard to it. 

Mine consisted of a mixture of mixed greens with butter lettuce, hard boiled eggs (2 per plate), sliced red pepper and red onion, about a half of a cup of crab meat each, and topped it off with some avocado. 

I found a couple of different Louis dressings online, and adapted it to make my own version, since it was just Nick and I dining, I didn't need a gallon of the stuff. It supposedly was the salad to have at the turn of the century, but I still think it's pretty darn good. Pretty simple meal to throw together, the only laborious part was picking the crab meat. 

Classic Louie dressing

1/2 cup Light mayonaise

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1/4 cup of tomato ketchup 

2 tbsp of grated red pepper

2 tbsp of grated red onion

1/2 teaspoon of onion powder

10 turns fresh black pepper

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt