Happy Purple Friday: Week 2

This Purple Friday, I'm rocking a purple cardigan and my Ravens earrings! Go Ravens! What are you rocking on this beautiful Purple Friday?

Maryland Crab Cakes, Baby!

Who guessed I'd make crab cakes with all that meat? Virtual high-five to you!

I'm not a food blogger, although I do love a good food blog. Honestly, I don't know what kind of blogger I am. General? Random? Weirdo? Even though I'm not a food blogger, I can still post a recipe here and there! So here we go!

I've actually never made crab cakes before; can you believe it? Someone else always makes them for me. It's the kind of dish people don't like to allow a learning cook to screw up. Probably because crab meat is so darned expensive. I didn't even make these crab cakes; Joe did. He is a master chef, oh yes.

On a side note, Star Wars jammies and a cupcake apron are 100% required to make this recipe. That's very important. Don't forget it.

Obviously, we started out by picking crabs for hours and hours (and hours; by the way, we ended up with 2.2lbs of meat. I used the bathroom scale method to figure that out.). You can just buy crab meat at the grocery store though. Our crabs were steamed with old bay and mustard seed, so we won't add any of that to this recipe. However, you may want to consider adding some if you buy unseasoned crab meat.

Start out with 1lb of lump crab meat. My sweet picking skills left our meat extra lumpy. It can never be too lumpy. Add 1.5 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and a teaspoon of dried parsley.

We dry our own parsley, so Joe employed this method of getting it down to a good texture.

Very nice!

In a separate bowl, whisk together 1.5 tablespoons of mayo, a squirt of yellow mustard (yes, a squirt), a dash of hot sauce and of Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and an egg. 

Then, gently toss everything together. Gently. You want to keep your lovely lady lumps.

Form the mixture into six even patties.

We put the patties in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up a bit. This is not required, but it does help. You can also refrigerate them for 30 minutes if you have more time.

And fry in a little oil, over medium, until golden brown. Remember that although the crab is cooked, there's raw egg in there, so you want them to cook all of the way through.

Then, transfer them to paper towels to sop up some of the oil. 

Finally, EAT THAT SHIZ!

We served our crabby patties with salt and vinegar roasted potatoes from Noble Pig, and a spinach and feta salad. Are you drooling yet?

OMG just look at those jumbo lumps. I wish I had like 15468431354 more of these.

Enjoy!

Maryland Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

1 lb lump blue crab meat

1.5 TBS bread crumbs

1 tsp parsley

1.5 TBS mayo

1 squirt yellow mustard

1 dash Worcestershire sauce

1 dash hot sauce

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

oil for frying- about 1/8 inch deep

1 tsp old bay (optional)

1. Add bread crumbs and parsley to crab meat. Add Old Bay if desired. Toss gently.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together mayo, mustard, worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and egg. Pour over crab mixture and gently toss to combine.
3. Form mixture into six even patties. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze for 10 minutes to allow the patties to firm up.
4. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add crab cakes, and fry until golden brown and cooked through about 5 minutes per side.
5. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate to absorb some of the grease. Serve

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Margaritas for all! HUZZAH!!

Picking Crabs

There were many leftover crabs from Saturday's festivities, so last night me and Joe picked 'em all! Here I am mid-pick session:

It took so long, and we were so sick of it by the end, but it yielded a lot of meat :

And a lot of guts:

I'm a good inside the crab picker, and Joe's better at the claws and legs. So, we split up the duties about half way through, which made the process much faster.

I have no idea how many crabs we picked, but they yielded about 4 cups of meat!

Guess what we're making with it? It's a surprise!

Ravens Vs Steelers: The Rivalry?

This is a guest post by my wonderful hubs Joe. He is awesome. Without further ado...

Hello. My name is Joe. I would like to take a moment to explore the reality of the Pittsburgh Steelers / Baltimore Ravens rivalry on this day; September 11, 2011. Some of you may be wondering: ‘Gee Joe, I know that it’s regarded as the best rivalry in the National Football League, and you are from Baltimore. Is it really as great as they say it is?’ After today’s game I must sadly decline any credibility to these claims. Please allow me to elaborate. Ahem………

DO YOU SEE THIS FUCKIN FACE?!?!!?!?

THIS FACE?!?!?!?

HOW ABOUT THIS ONE?!?!?!?

CAN YOU GET A CLEAR VIEW OF THIS FUCKIN FACE?!?!??!?!?! HUH?!?!?!?!

THEN YOU HAVE NOW SEEN THE FACES OF CHAMPIONS. FREDDY MERCURY’S SPIRIT IS SPRAYING PLASMIC GHOST TEARS OF JUBILATION ALL UP IN THIS BITCH BECAUSE HE REALIZED THAT HIS SONG HAS A TRUE MEANING. YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW!!!!!1!!1111!!!!!! Erm…..Pardon me, I must have blacked out. As I was saying, I would sadly have to deny these claims. For there to be a proper rivalry you must have 3 key factors covered in order to compose it: 

#1 An elongated dislike for the opposing team. I’ll give you this one. Check.

#2 A tribal, almost primal aversion to the opposing team’s fans. History lesson:

The Indianapolis Colts were once the Baltimore Colts. Wiki answers states, "The Colts moved from Baltimore, MD to Indianapolis, IN on March 29, 1984. They left Baltimore in the middle of the night, roughly around 2:00 am”. Naturally, Baltimoreans were angered by this for years to come. As part of the healing process however, the people of the great state of Maryland needed a team to call their own, and some of the weaker-willed reached out for anything to fill the void left by Colts.

            Baltimore used to be among the greatest steel towns in America, as was Pittsburgh. The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was the link between our two great cities. Pittsburgh was/is one hell of a steel producer (a very hard working town), and Baltimore was/ is one of the greatest ship building ports in the world (also a hard-working group of individuals). This link caused many people from Pittsburgh to move to Baltimore. "Beth Steel" was open 1857-2003. So naturally, we have some old school roots when it comes to intermingling with one another. This being said, many of the Colt-less turned to the Steelers for lack of another option (Philly is close to here as well, but the EAGLES? Seriously?). Then the Ravens came along. The above mentioned “intermingling” turned into a cesspool of shit-talking, and with colors to define our allegiance, and a team for Baltimore to call it’s own, the tribal effect was put into place. So……Check.

#3 A Pair of evenly matched teams. Ummmmmmmmm…………………

WHAT THE FOOK DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU LOOK AT THIS FACE!??!!1!!!!? A BALTIMORE RAVEN BABY, THAT’S WHAT!! WE USED THE SQUEELERS LIKE FUCKIN TOILET PAPER TODAY. I WOULDN’T EVEN CONSIDER THEM TWO-PLY, THEY’RE MORE LIKE THAT FUCKIN SANDPAPER T.P. YOU GET WHEN YOU STUMBLE ACROSS A SHITTY GAS STATION OFF OF I-95 CAUSE YOU CAN’T HOLD IT ANY LONGER, AND THEN YOU GO INTO THE BATHROOM AND THE ONLY TOILET PAPER IS SITTING IN A PUDDLE OF SOMETHING YOU REFUSE TO IDENTIFY AS SOMEONE’S PISS. WE MADE YOU DANCE AROUND LIKE YOU WERE ON AN EPISODE OF GLEE, SINGING A COVER OF DON’T STOP BELIEVING: AWKWARD AND GIRLY. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF FOR GETTING PAID NFL MONEY AND PLAYING LIKE A BUNCH OF SUCKER PUNCH THROWIN’, BAD SPORT, BUTT HURT LITTLE BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...............

Sorry, I must have blacked out again. No check mark for #3. Thus concludes my explanation.

Good day,

Joe


In case you missed it, you can find a re-cap of the game here.
Thanks, Joe!

An afternoon in the life of...

My birthday is Wednesday, so we had my family birthday party at my mom's house this afternoon. Me, Joe, my mom, my brother, my mom's friend Mike, and my mother-in-law got together for a crab feast and birthday chocolate pie. YUM!

I wish the day was as simple and pleasant as that. It was full of ironies. As a birthday gift, Joe spent 3 hours this morning cleaning and detailing my car, only to back it into another car this evening. This means increased insurance rates on the eve of my 25th birthday, the age at which rates finally go down. Mike bought us a lot of crabs, only to under cook some and over cook others.

Don't get me wrong, the day was still very good. The second batch of crabs was cooked perfectly, the pie was THE BEST EVER, my car looks amazing on the inside (lol), and I got to spend the afternoon with my family.

Here's a little snippet of our afternoon. We were waiting for the crabs to be ready, and indulging in very mature and intellectual adult conversation... NOT!

Just to clarify the beginning, I am trying to flare my nostrils. I cannot. I've tried again, and again, and again. Oh well!

Purple Friday: Ravens v Shittsburgh Edition

Purple Friday is finally here!
Oh you're not from B-more, are you? You don't know what Purple Friday is?
On Fridays during football season, everyone is Baltimore wears purple. Everyone. I am acquiring quite the collection of purple blouses. Tomorrow is a rare casual day at work, one where I don't have to leave the office at all. With it being a Purple Friday too, I could wear my jersey. But my amazing husband bought me my dream jersey and gave it to me as an early birthday present. It's a ladies white Ray Rice jersey.

[That's my husband., and he's rocking "the face." Oh, how I owe an entire post to "the face"]
and because it's ladies jersey, there's a GLITTER EMBLEM!

But, and you must have noticed the "but".... it's white. And tomorrow is Purple Friday. Maybe I'll just wear it anyway; I don't get many chances.

Tomorrow is an extra special PF because it's opening day. And because we're playing Shittsburgh. I don't know who doesn't know this, but the Ravens and the Steelers are the best rivalry in the NFL. I am so flipping excited/nervous. Last year, I went to my first ever Ravens game, and it was vs the Steelers. It was so amazing, even though we lost, and even though I froze my ass off!

These games can really go either way, but here's to hoping we kick some Shittsburgh ASS!!!

These videos, I love them. Each one is better than the next, and I've watched them all at least twice.