Crab Cakes

I love crab cakes. My husband loves crab cakes. We have a favorite restaurant that makes great crab cakes. Tonight  I tried to make some great crab cakes, but needless to say, they were not perfect. They were edible, but not wonderful like those at our favorite restaurant.

Paula Dean I am not. I read her recipe for crab cakes, but I had to make a few substitutions. I went to our local fresh seafood counter at the Albertson's. They had no fresh crab meat. What is a domestic goddess to do but make do. I bought imitation crab meat, about one pound. When I got it home, I mixed it up with the rest of this stuff:  two green onions, one stalk of celery, about 1/4 of a bell pepper, two eggs, 1/2 a sleeve of club crackers, salt, pepper, Old Bay Seasoning, juice of one lemon and some fresh parsley. Oh, I did not have fancy mustard or Worcestershire sauce so I put in some A-1 and some French's yellow mustard.

I took this whole mess in a stainless mixing bowl and squished the whole mess up between my fingers. The imitation crab meat took a while to squish adequately but by the time I finished it looked pretty real. I then took my old lunch lady metal spoon and made patties just that size. I fried them up in some canola oil, but I think I got them too dark.

Well the total outcome was edible. When I asked the family for reviews, I was told since I went to all that effort, it would be better to get the fresh crab from Central Market.

By the way, these are real world pictures in my blog about the way something really turns out. Needless to say, Domestic Goddess I am not.

Fried Chicken

Let me tell ya about fried chicken. Fried chicken was always comfort food at my house when I was growing up. We would have fried chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, and English peas. I am not talking about those fat ugly peas, I am talking about the can of those tiny little LeSeur Peas made by Del Monte. We would make a "bird's nest" by putting our mashed potatoes on the plate. We would then make a dent in the middle with the back of the spoon. That was made so we could put in the peas. Then we would cover the whole thing with gravy that was made from the grease that the chicken was fried up in. This was excellent food.

No my mother did not always make the perfect fried chicken. Often times she would be in a hurry and the fried chicken would be very dark on the outside and very pink on the inside. The peas often got left on the stove "cooking" while she was busy on a very important telephone call. And the gravy was sometimes a little too brown because the timing had to be perfect when you added the milk and the water. No matter how this turned out, we always appreciated the fact that my mother took the time and effort to cook us this meal.

When I became a young bride I would try this wonderful meal for my now ex-husband. He was never happy with the meal. I never made it right. Everything about it was horrible. I finally learned that if I wanted fried chicken, my best bet was to get the fried Pilgrim's Pride precooked chicken strips from Wal Mart and pop them in the oven. It finally got to the point that I just would not cook chicken any more.

I'm not going to say anymore about that. He is now an ex. Go figure.

I want to say that life changed when I met my wonderful husband that I am married to now. When we moved in together, he asked where my electric skillet was. I told him that I did not have one. I was never really allowed to fry food. Well that changed fast. An electric skillet was one of the very first items that he brought into our home. I asked what his favorite foods were. He said one was fried chicken. I cringed, knowing that I could not cook it worth a flying flip. He told me that he would teach me.

He said that the first step was to lay the chicken in a shallow pan and coat it with salt and pepper. Don't be shy when you do this. This is what makes the chicken really good. I added Old Bay seasoning to the mix, just because I like the way it makes things taste. Make sure that the grease is hot in the electric skillet. I use Crisco oil. Then put lots of flour into a stainless steel mixing bowl. Dredge the chicken piece at a time and put it into the grease. Turn the chicken often so it will not burn. Don't walk away from it. Give it lots of love and attention. The high setting on the electric skillet is the perfect temperature for the perfect chicken. Cook it forever and then the inside will not be pink. When the chicken is done, drain the grease all but the little bit that goes along with the fried chicken crumbs. Add some of that left over flour and mix it with your fork you were turning the chicken with. Keep stiring and add about a cup of milk. Then add some water to get it to the desired thickness. Then add about a teaspoon of sugar to give it that added touch that no one can really put their finger on, but that makes it mom's gravy that you can't ever really get right.

I now make awesome fried chicken. Maybe it is because I now have a husband that shows me all the love and support a woman could ever ask for.

That makes all the difference in the world.

Cinnamon Biscuits by Martha White

I was sitting here at the computer contemplating what I would write, when my dear heart came in with a package of Martha White's Cinnamon biscuits and placed them on my desk. He told me that my son wanted some of them. Could you please cook them?

My husband manages a grocery store. He is always bringing home new items that have just been introduced to the market. We both enjoy cooking and we love finding new foods. He cooks better than I do. I have a certificate from the American Institute of Baking for Food Science and Technology. Needless to say, we like food at our home.

Any hoosles, back to the biscuits. I followed the directions. I used a Fox Run Craftsmen 12-Qt. Mixing Bowl. They are easier for me to clean than plastic. The junk just slides right out in the dishwater. Instead of spraying my cookie sheet with Pam, I like to use Reynold's Wrap parchment paper. If I am careful I do not have to wash the cookie sheet later. I am kinda lazy about washing dishes. Also the cookies or biscuits do not burn on the bottom. I measured out 1/2 cup of milk and mixed it together with the mix. It looked way too dry. I used a 1/2 cup plastic measuring cup that I got from Wal-Mart. I was so excited when I bought the set. It was less than $1.00. I thought is was for dry measurement. Guess what, the are for liquid measurements. I was always taught that you you glass for liquid and plastic for dry. I was making my favorite chocolate chip cookies - Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe  - and used these measuring cups. The cookies turned out horrible. The had way too much sugar. I thought, dang, no wonder these measuring cups were on sale, they don't measure correctly. The cookies turned out very sticky and chewy, nothing like my normal cookies. I still have a whole lot of them in the fridge waiting to be cooked up. The next day I went to work and complained about these measuring cups to my co-worker. He asked if they had a pouring spout on the side. I said, come to think of it they do. He let me know they were for liquid measurements. Oh, my bad.

Any hoosles, back to the biscuits. (I have been misspelling the work biscuits, because my brain is focusing on Bisquick baking mix.) I poured in a little more milk. I used a cookie baller, you know, the little metal device that looks like an ice cream scoop, to measure out the biscuits. This device measures cookies perfectly, but it sure does make tiny biscuits. I had to cook the biscuits about two minutes longer than the recommended minimum time, probably due to the little bit of extra milk I added.

When I got them out of the oven, I told my son, here are those biscuits you wanted. He responded, "No, thank you.." Hmmmmmm. So I fixed some up a paper towel (saves on that dish washing) and took them into my dear-heart. I asked him, how did you like them, he said pretty good.