For about a year, when I was in elementary school, I had a pet crawfish. It lived in a small tank on my bathroom countertop, gobbled frozen shrimp with its whirring mouth and clacked its claws angrily at anyone who got too close. If it had a name, I no longer remember it. We never cuddled. I didn't tell it my 10-year-old woes. When it died, I don't think I was particularly sad.

All of this is to say: I have no problem eating piles of crawfish at the annual crawfish boil.

It helps that my friend Will boils them up in a giant pot of bubbling broth, chunks of corn, garlic heads and whole potatoes bobbing to the surface as he stirs the whole mess with a baseball bat. That broth is really good.

And the fact that we eat off a long table spread with newspaper helps too. There's something special about eating without a plate. And with your hands, that's always good.

After all, there's no other way to to tear off heads and suck out brains and peel away legs and shells to expose a tiny nubbin of meat that you can dip into a pile of Old Bay seasoning and pop into your mouth, along with a soft and mellow bulb of garlic.

And a little dessert helps build up the appetite while the next sack of crawfish awaits its steamy end. I went for a Coke cupcake topped with a crunchy peanut frosting that had the ideal sweet-sticky-saltiness, good enough to eat with a spoon.

Also -- what, you think I'd only eat one dessert? -- a big scoop of Rob's famous Dirt Pie, a diabetes-inducing mix of chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos, Cool Whip and an entire frosted chocolate sheet cake, crumbled and stirred in. The man does not mess around. He also serves it in a plastic flower pot, adorned with a real sunflower.

My contribution to the day was two types of cornbread, two batches each. Four pans of cornbread! The crowd was so insane, it all disappeared within 10 minutes of being set out. I managed to snag a piece of each, and concluded that while both were tasty, the chipotle-cheddar cornbread was a better match for the meal. (The other cornbread was sage and honey.) Its smoky heat slowly snuck up on the back of my throat, but it was a nice surprise, as were the chewy bits of roasted corn and pockets of still-soft cheddar. If there had been any left, I would have eaten a second piece.

Instead, I ate some more crawfish.

Chipotle-Cheddar Cornbread

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Makes 9 large or 16 small servings

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup fresh or frozen corn (I recommend Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn)
1 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, cooled
2 tablespoons minced seeded canned chipotle chilies

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line an 8 x 8 square pan with foil and butter the foil. Mix first 6 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, cheese, corn and chipotles in medium bowl. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients; stir until blended. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Lift bread out onto rack; cool completely.