Crab Cakes and Salad

After making some of Jan's Crab Dip (see recipe below), we had some extra lump crab meat in the fridge. What does one do with crab? So, we looked up some recipes online and decided to try a food network recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/crab-cakes-recipe/index.html).

Crab Cakes
These crab cakes had a lot of flavor from the veggie mixture described in the recipe. The sauteed vegetables and seasonings were delicious (can be used with other seafood dishes, mixed with shrimp and diced tomatoes over rice) but when we make them again, we'll make some changes:

-There was too much filler compared to the amount of crab, so try to 1/2 the veggie amounts
-The crab cakes didn't hold together well so we had to add extra breadcrumbs which made the crab cakes a little bland...we'll work on the best way to fix that (any suggestions?)
-There was WAY too much salt! I recommend holding back with the salt and then cook a mini crab cake to test the seasoning (same strategy works well for burgers and meatballs).
-We fried 1/2 the batch and broiled 1/2 the batch, and the broiled batch were actually much much better. We sprayed both sides with cooking spray, and this batch was crunchier and held together better (and had the added benefit of being healthier!)

Crab Cake Sauce
-The proportions of this sauce is entirely to your taste depending on how much you like mayo and mustard. We tend to go heavier on the mustard than the mayo, but to each their own!
-We mixed some mayo, brown mustard, and a small amount of sour cream with the zest and juice of one lemon, a small amount of Old Bay seasoning, pepper, and Cholula hot sauce for some heat.

Delicious Salad
This is a variation on salad that we make all the time. Pick any green that looks good that day, an extra veggie like tomatoes or cucumbers, a nut for some crunch, a crumbled cheese if we have some, and sometimes dried cranberries. For the dressing we like to switch up the type of vinegar to make things interesting (red wine, balsamic, champagne, white wine, apple cider, etc) or even just some lemon juice with some good extra virgin olive oil. Then we pair the extra ingredients (like mustard) and spices with the meal we are having that day.
Tonight's salad:
-Baby arugula, cherry tomatoes, chopped almonds, gorgonzola, and crispy prosciutto
-Dressing: Champagne vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, dijon mustard, salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano
*To make crispy prosciutto (which is good as a crispy topper for anything) - Put a few slices on a sprayed cookie sheet in a 450 oven for around 6 minutes. Watch them! Don't let them get totally crispy in the oven, they finish cooking when you take them out and can easily burn. After they cool for a few minutes, break them up and top something or snack away.

Jan's Crab Dip
-1 package of cream cheese (we use 1/3 less fat because who can tell the difference?)
-Crab meat (this depends on how much crab you like - we used about 1/2 of a large can from Trader Joe's, but there are small cans next to the tuna)
-Serve it with plenty of cocktail sauce in the middle and triscuits on the side.
-And for a slight break from tradition, I added a little Old Bay seasoning, a few drops of worcestershire sauce, and a few drops of hot sauce

Gumbolaya with Cod and Cheddar Jalapeno Corn Muffins

Cajun food is full of delicious veggies and spices and uses some cooking techniques that we don't use every day, so we thought we would give it a try! This is another dish that we threw together by choosing fresh ingredients from the store (usually in season and on sale) as well as some staples we keep in our cupboard and freezer.

Gumbolaya with Brown Rice

Cod

Cheddar Jalapeno Corn Muffins
-1 box of Jiffy corn muffin mix - follow directions, plus:
-1 Jalapeno finely diced
-Approximately an amount that looks like 2 tbsp of dark brown sugar
-Something like 3/4 of a cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Fajitas

We make Mexican food pretty often, and normally we just throw something together. One night we thought we would try something different and here is the result. From start to finish it took us about 45 minutes working together (we did start marinating the beef earlier). We don't always use recipes, and we generally don't measure, so here is the best recap:

Beef
We rubbed some boneless sirloin with minced garlic, Adobo seasoning, chipotle chile powder, and lime zest and marinated it in beer for about an hour (it happened to be a light Portuguese beer that we had not tried before). Mike grilled it for 5-6 min. each side on high heat.

**The beer gave the meat a nice caramelized crust, helped keep the meat moist, and gave it a nice flavor to balance the heat of the chipotle powder. We were surprised by how much the beer flavor really came through after cooking, so next time we will choose a beer we both like to drink (Leah likes the lighter less hoppy beers).

Onions and Peppers
Sauteed one large onion, two bell peppers, a few cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper in olive oil. When the veggies were soft, we added one packet of Goya's sazon.

**We use this method for all types of cuisines by just changing the spices. We've used it for Italian, Cajun, Latin and Asian dishes.

Rice
We toasted 1 cup of brown rice in olive oil, then added one packet of Goya's sazon with saffron, about 1/4 cup of salsa, and 1.5 cups of chicken broth.

**Adding salsa is a short cut we use sometimes. When we have a little more time, we finely dice some onions and garlic to saute with the rice. We then add some fire roasted tomatoes and season with salt, pepper, oregano, and chile powder.

Tortillas
Mike found a recipe online for chewy flour tortillas (http://www.texascooking.com/features/sept98flourtortillas.htm).

**We usually buy the thinner burrito-style tortillas from the store, but we thought we'd give this a shot (plus you can cut them up into triangles and bake them to make some delicious homemade chips). They were easy to make and cooked very quickly. Letting the dough sit a little longer would have probably helped us roll out the tortillas a little thinner, but the recipe is pretty fool-proof for making good tortillas.


Thoughts on the meal
The rice and veggies are old standbys for us so we were able to make these dishes quickly and spend a little more time spicing up the meat and trying to make tortillas from scratch for the first time. This was a fun and easy meal to prepare, and the leftovers were great! We used the extra veggies in combination with some leftover potatoes from a previous meal, and a turkey kielbasa to make a delicious hash for our weekend brunch.