I cook once a week, 10 meals or more at a time. It's portioned into Chinese take-out dishes and frozen. During the week, we nuke them back to life and eat well.
November 2004 Thanksgiving
September 2004 Lasagna
Rice with Chicken and Sausage
August 2004 Chicken Noodle Casserole
Chicken Pot Pie
July 2004 Chicken w/Couscous
When I Don't Cook
Apple Smoked Chicken
June 2004 Grilled Chicken
Bratwurst
Chili
May 2004 Red Beans
Chicken Salad
Chicken Creole
I 'Cue, Too
(barbecue chicken}
April 2004 Roast Chicken Greek Shrimp
March 2004 Shrimp with Grits Scamorza Baked Ziti Oyster Dressing Stuffed Turkey Breast
February 2004 Shrimp Paprikas Chicken Paprikas Polenta
January 2004 Rosti Stock Roast Turkey
What Do YOU Cook?
The next time you're cooking something fun, shoot a few digital photos and write up a few paragraphs. Email it here: whaticook@comcast.net, and I'll share it with everyone.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Summertime Is Crab Time
Every summer, our friends the J's host a backyard steamed crab and grilled sausage feast. I helped to shop for this year's extravaganza, which was planned for 20, most of whom would be serious crab pickers.
First, we picked up 48 assorted sausages at Eastern Market: bratwursts, half-smokes, chorizo, kielbasa, and both hot and sweet Italian. For the crabs, we headed down to the Maine Avenue fish market, where prices ran exactly the same at each vendor. Number 2 males were going for $70 a bushel, $40 for a half bushel, and $25 a dozen. The larger number 3's were twice that price!
Since not one vendor had locally caught crabs, we settled on two and a half bushels of the number 2's from the Carolinas at Jessie Taylor Seafood, which had the best looking crabs.
The guy working the sales end of the boat proceeded to fill up two and a half bushels for us. "I'll make sure they're all alive fer'ya," he assured us, and he also overpacked each bushel, so we wound up with three.
After he stacked the bushels on the end of the boat, the dude working the steamer pots came over.
He had five large steamer machines running, and all he did all day was dust bushels of crabs with bay seasoning, and hoist them into and out of these humongous steamers (each of which could hold two bushels). On Sunday, with the temperature in the 90's, this guy was working with steam for a 14-hour shift. WOW. Huge props to the crab steamer dude for enduring weekend after weekend. His "beer fund" box was rightfully full of bills.
Steamer dude asked us if we wanted our spice light, medium or heavy. Heavy! (Do the crabs realize that when the dust storm of bay seasoning hits, their death is near?) Our entire order took about 30 minutes.
It was a lot of food, but the party was spectacular and we celebrated from late afternoon well into the night. The crabs were meaty and sweet, the company was excellent, and the drinks were ice cold. A homemade fireworks show capped off the night.
With all that food, there was bound to be some leftovers. We took home about half a bushel, and after picking them on Monday afternoon I made crab cakes for dinner.
Crab Cakes
2 lbs. crabmeat 2 small Vidalia onions, minced salt and pepper 1/2 t celery salt 1 t each of garlic powder and paprika 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 egg, scrambled 1/2 cup bread crumbs 1/2 cup cracker crumbs butter
- Slowly sauté the onions in butter with salt and pepper. - When the onions are soft, add the additional spices and sauté for 10 minutes. - Let the onions cool down. - In a large bowl, gently fold in the crabmeat, onions, mayo, egg and bread crumbs until well mixed. - Refrigerate for 30 minutes. - Form into patties and coat with cracker crumbs. - Sauté on medium-high heat, in butter, until the bottom is brown (about 8 minutes). - Carefully turn and sauté for another 8 minutes.
The recipe makes about a dozen crabcakes, and these were delicious – sweet and creamy. We feasted.