Crab Cakes!

Dinner last night was crab cakes.


Zoomed-out version of the photo I posted last night

This recipe needs to be mixed together 2-12 hours prior to cooking, then refrigerated to marinate until ready to cook.


My fridge is usually pretty organized, (still is, actually) but I didn't have much room for this big bowl... anyone else have this problem?

I was out running errands with SIL and MIL- hubby was home with our two and SIL's two kids (4 kids between 20 months and 5 years)... we'd been gone an hour when he sent me a text message: Bring food and booze NOW! The kids were driving him a little nuts. All of our errands were near the house, so we stopped by for a few minutes between stores; I shaped the crab cakes into patties and put them into the oven- setting the timer so he wouldn't forget to check on them. ***The kids had already eaten- chicken nuggets and fruit- I'd planned grownup food for us, and hadn't planned that the errands would take as long as they did.*** When I got home another hour later, he'd left four of them for me (I made 9). I tried one before I remembered to take a picture:



They really weren't too bad. I made a couple of changes to the recipe that I'm sure had a big effect on the turnout. First, hubby had a "moment" when he heard that I had crab meat on my shopping list and insisted that I buy imitation instead (because crab meat is expensive, you know!). So I KNOW that that changed the taste. Also, I couldn't for the life of me find my cayenne pepper or chili powder, so I didn't add that... and I refused to pay $2 each for a red bell pepper and skipped that as well. (Seriously?!? TWO DOLLARS for ONE PEPPER?!? The green ones were $.75 each!!!) BUT, I used to work at a seafood place... then a high-class/first-class/hoity-toity place... and I also lived on the Penn/Maryland border (Maryland is known for their crab cakes!)... and I'm a bit of a seafood snob. First to admit it. (If you're ever in Gettysburg- yes, THE Gettysburg- get the Homemade Crab Dip at O'Rourke's. It's an appetizer, but get it as a meal. Trust me on this.)

One of the regulars at the fancy-schmancy restaurant where I most recently worked is a cookbook author, and has a recipe for crabcakes- she worked on this recipe for over a month, and although I've never tried it, she was working to make it both easy and authentic. I think I'll try to adapt her recipe to the Core plan and see what I can come up with. Or, I'll play with several online recipes for Maryland Crab Cakes and come up with my own- and share it with you!

Either way, I'll use real crab meat.