[Insert some witty oscar reference here]

So yesterday's food adventure was a simple success! I don't have any photos to share with you, as they were gobbled up in a second, but I made a nice little batch of crab rangoons to bring to an Oscar party. I wanted to use the rest of the crab meat leftover from the cakes and some other ingredients that were literally just around. The only things that I didn't have yet were the fillo dough (my poor confused boyfriend was at the store looking for phylo-foam, hahah) and scallions.
I have never made crab rangoons before and I glossed over some recipes, but this is what I threw together...

1 pckg of cream cheese
12 oz of crab meat
chives, scallions
few dashes of ground roasted ginger, garlic salt
fillo dough
- Put cream cheeze at room temperature or even a bit warmer, mix in the crab meat and the remaining ingredients to taste. I used a teasp of ginger and a little more of the garlic salt, and a few tablespoons of both the scallions and chives. Refridgerate mixture for 20 minutes or until the consistency is a firmer solid.
- I've never worked with fillo dough before and found it interesting. My advice before using it was, be careful, it falls apart, keep it cold, have cold hands. I made sure that there were enough layers of this papery thin dough over the filling so that the pastry puff was not transparent. I just wrapped the dough around a modest spoonful of mixture and placed it on a cookie sheet and drizzled it with olive oil.
- Cook for 10-15 minutes at 350. Place cookie sheet in center of the oven, so as not to burn the bottoms or top (They're so delicate!) They are ready when the sides of the rangoons are golden.
- Let them sit for a few minutes before serving! The insides are piping hot.
- Makes around 15-20 crab rangoons, depending on the size.

mish mash dipping sauce:
apple sauce
ketchup
orange juice
vinegar
sugar
soy, teriyaki
- all boiled and add ingredients to taste

A very successful party food. They were gone within minutes (next time I'll know better...)

Any advice for working with fillo dough? Let me know.

It must be the weather

Today I had an overwhelming sensation to use crab meat. I really did. I was thinking maybe some crab rangoons with cream cheese, scallions, a bit o ginger, garlic, red onion, etc... But then I remembered someone telling me how difficult it is to make a perfect crab cake. I wanted to see how close I could get without following a recipe. Here goes:

1 Gala apple, processed
1 Large yellow onion, processed
1 red pepper, processed
1 sleeve of white flour buttery crackers (I used trader joes social crackers) * I also used a couple pieces of whole wheat bread and about a cup of rice crispies , all processed. yay for magic bullets!
18 oz of crab meat
4 tblsp of fresh lemon
1/2 cup of chives, chopped finely
1 1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan chz
2-3 cups of panko bread crumbs
1 cup mayonaisse

4 tblsp minced crushed garlic

1 stick o butter
1 egg
* Go veg! : 1 portabello mushroom, processed

Quick! The Aioli!

Bowl - 1 cup of mayo, more or less depending on how much you like aioli.

Whilst processing the red pepper, over a tblsp of red pepper juice was produced. So. I used that, along with a tblsp or so of the processed red pepper and a tblsp of lemon juice and a modest handful of chives, add salt and pepper to taste. Done and done.

As for the rest.

1. Put bread crumbs in large bowl.
2. Melt stick of butter in frying pan and simmer chopped onions med low til cooked. Add mixture to bread crumbs.
3. The bread crumbs should still be a little dry, add egg and lemon juice to mixture until all is moist.
4. Add the rest of the red pepper, the apple, and a modest handful of chives. And a couple of tablespoons of minced garlic. 2 - 4, depending on your taste for garlic.
5. Here's where I split. My 2 roomates are veggie, so I made a little batch for them, processing a half a portabello mushroom and adding that to the mix. The rest of the batch I used a ton of crabmeat, 18 oz, for some really crabby cakes. ahah. Mix it in and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, whatever, to taste. I love using pink himalayan sea salt, cracked black pepper, white pepper, love it!
6. Roll into balls of a size you would like to eat. For appetizer portions, I like to do a meatball size. Entrees, 2, 2.5 meatballs mushed into one. I roll the balls in panko bread crumbs and either store them to be cooked later on, or place them on a cookie sheet with tinfoil.
   
   
7. Bake those biddies for 12 minutes at 425 or until the panko bread crumbs are browning.
8. Drizzle with red pepper aioli and SERVE! I love a sprout and spinach garnish.

~ 25 appetizer crab cakes, or ~ 12 entree crab cakes.

UPDATE: I tried making crab cakes again for my family a few days later. I nixed the parm cheeze and used about half the bread crumbs. I added a little parsley and a scoop of mayonaisse. They were delicious... Wayyy better! But if you were gonna stick with the portobello, I would keep the same amount of bread crumbs and cheeze, add parsley, no mayo. muah.

Fraaaank! He ruined our salaaaad!

Charlie has returned to Cranshack!

Pat & I had a celebratory lunch:

Salad:
spinach, arugula
carmelized onions
warm dried cranberries
thinly sliced radishes, sprouts
almonds, gorgonzola
dressing: fresh lemon, whole grain mustard, olive oil, black pepper


And:
Ziti alfredo with broccoli and chicken. mmm.

winter hummus

2 cans of chick peas
garlic, shallots, radishes, butternut squash seeds
parmesan cheese, olive oil, vinegar
s+p, brown sugar, cane sugar, black pepper



roast 2 shallots and 2 med size cloves of garlic at 350 for 20 min
roast butternut squash seeds (salted) at 350 for 10 min
pickle sliced radishes in vinegar, brown sugar, cane sugar, and pinch of salt
process chick peas, add water and olive oil to desired texture
add 2 tblsp of shallot and garlic together, add the rest to taste

heat hummus. drizzle olive oil on surface. sprinkle on seeds, radishes, and fresh parm as desired.