Last Saturday, like most other Saturdays lately, we were out looking for cars. My lastest test drive was an '02 Subaru Outback. It's an attractive vehicle with all wheel drive. That makes it good in all this snow we've been having here in the "Sunny South". It was nice enough, I guess, but it felt small on the road, and a little cramped inside. The door and the seat were so close to each other, there was hardly room enough to get my hand to the seat adjustment controls - and I don't have big hands. However, there was something wrong with it that I can't put my finger on. It had a slight hesitation on take off, which my previous experience with an Outback told me wasn't normal. I decided that it wasn't the car for me.
Since we are both in the market for a car, hubby drove a Toyota Corolla ('02 maybe). It was fine after he got the seat and mirrors adjusted for his comfort. We didn't see anything wrong with the car. It was even a nice color, beige/gold (we don't like silver). The thing holding him back is that it wasn't as comfortable as the Accord. Well, of course, that's another step up the Honda ladder.
So that concluded another day of car shopping in ridiculously cold weather.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Here Comes the Sun
It was cold and rainy this morning. It quit by lunch time only to return again later this afternoon. It was still cold and the rain was mixed with some sleet. After leaving huge puddles in the driveway, the rain moved on and out popped the sun for a late-day photo op.
I just love the way the sun hit the trees with some of the dark clouds still in the background.
I just love the way the sun hit the trees with some of the dark clouds still in the background.
Looking East from my driveway.
Product Review: Phillips Maryland-Style Crab Cakes
Are you a fan of the humble crab cake, that golden brown, slightly crunchy parcel of delectable deliciousness?
What makes a good crab cake? In my opinion, and probably most crab lovers, high quality lump crab meat, minimal ingredients and and gentle handling. I've eaten crab cakes at many places, some good, some OK and some just plain awful. Even places that I liked on the first visit, the next time they seemed to have changed their recipe. So what made the good ones good and the bad ones bad. Given quality crab in all instances (any anything less than nice lump meat doesn't get counted) some offending ingredients are bell peppers (red and/or green), celery and onions. Not only are the peppers still crisp tender and "crunch", the flavor overwhelms the delicate crab. That version seems to be very popular around here. However, good crab is good all on its own and does not need to be stuffed full of crunchy vegetables and fillers. Any seasonings should just enhance the flavor, not cover it up. Want more spiciness, serve with a tartar or remoulade sauce on the side.
Having figured out what I didn't like, I set out to find a recipe that would produce the results I craved. I searched for crab cake recipes, and scanned through a number of recipes online. I only found a couple that used the offending bell peppers, and barring those, they all used similarly simple ingredients. Wow, this is it. This is what I've been looking for. I actually found the recipe I used here. So when lump crab meat went on sale, I snatched up a pound and proceeded to makes crab cakes using my new-found recipe. The recipe was wonderful, but we had an issue with the crab meat itself. It smelled funny. Not spoiled, but not like I thought crab was supposed to smell. It didn't make us sick, and it tasted...eh...all right. After that, I was leary of trying it again. I could tell, though, that it was a GOOD recipe, so next time I got a different brand, and it was much better. I don't remember either brand right now, but that's not important.
Now for the product review part of this post. When we were in Costco the other day picking up coupon items and some wine, we saw the Phillips brand frozen Maryland-style crab cakes. They were $12.99 for six 3-oz. crab cakes. You pay more than that for a pound of the good stuff at the grocery store, and most recipes make 6 cakes per pound of crab meat. Considering that you can pay that much for a sub par crab cake dinner in restaurants, it seemed like a good deal. I mean they're already made; you just pop them into the oven for about 16 minutes or so, and poof, you've got crab cakes. I don't buy a lot of pre-packaged, already made up stuff, preferring to make my own, but we didn't have anything planned for dinner, so I said, "this is dinner tonight", and into the cart they went. The directions were to bake them on a buttered baking sheet (I used olive oil) at 400 degrees for 12 minutes, turn them and bake an additional 4 minutes. I think I let them go a couple minutes longer while getting the rest of the dinner together. They were nicely seasoned, with nothing overpowering the crab. They had decent size pieces of crab meat, and held together well without being tough or packed with fillers. Just good taste, good texture, and I think, a good value for the money. The flavor was equally as good as my recipe, and at just $2.16 per serving, this is definitely a repurchase. If you like crab cakes, these are worth checking out. Of course I will keep making them from scratch, too!
For the record, I had heard of different styles of crab cakes. I mean every area has one, Carolina style, Charleston style, Chesapeake style, Maryland style. Since I live here in North Carolina and have a hard time finding good crab cakes, I assumed that it was the Carolina style that I didn't care for. I was mistaken in that assumption. My continued research shows that most styles have pretty much the same basic recipe, and that the propensity for adding veggies seems to be more the exception than the rule (except around here).
What makes a good crab cake? In my opinion, and probably most crab lovers, high quality lump crab meat, minimal ingredients and and gentle handling. I've eaten crab cakes at many places, some good, some OK and some just plain awful. Even places that I liked on the first visit, the next time they seemed to have changed their recipe. So what made the good ones good and the bad ones bad. Given quality crab in all instances (any anything less than nice lump meat doesn't get counted) some offending ingredients are bell peppers (red and/or green), celery and onions. Not only are the peppers still crisp tender and "crunch", the flavor overwhelms the delicate crab. That version seems to be very popular around here. However, good crab is good all on its own and does not need to be stuffed full of crunchy vegetables and fillers. Any seasonings should just enhance the flavor, not cover it up. Want more spiciness, serve with a tartar or remoulade sauce on the side.
Having figured out what I didn't like, I set out to find a recipe that would produce the results I craved. I searched for crab cake recipes, and scanned through a number of recipes online. I only found a couple that used the offending bell peppers, and barring those, they all used similarly simple ingredients. Wow, this is it. This is what I've been looking for. I actually found the recipe I used here. So when lump crab meat went on sale, I snatched up a pound and proceeded to makes crab cakes using my new-found recipe. The recipe was wonderful, but we had an issue with the crab meat itself. It smelled funny. Not spoiled, but not like I thought crab was supposed to smell. It didn't make us sick, and it tasted...eh...all right. After that, I was leary of trying it again. I could tell, though, that it was a GOOD recipe, so next time I got a different brand, and it was much better. I don't remember either brand right now, but that's not important.
Now for the product review part of this post. When we were in Costco the other day picking up coupon items and some wine, we saw the Phillips brand frozen Maryland-style crab cakes. They were $12.99 for six 3-oz. crab cakes. You pay more than that for a pound of the good stuff at the grocery store, and most recipes make 6 cakes per pound of crab meat. Considering that you can pay that much for a sub par crab cake dinner in restaurants, it seemed like a good deal. I mean they're already made; you just pop them into the oven for about 16 minutes or so, and poof, you've got crab cakes. I don't buy a lot of pre-packaged, already made up stuff, preferring to make my own, but we didn't have anything planned for dinner, so I said, "this is dinner tonight", and into the cart they went. The directions were to bake them on a buttered baking sheet (I used olive oil) at 400 degrees for 12 minutes, turn them and bake an additional 4 minutes. I think I let them go a couple minutes longer while getting the rest of the dinner together. They were nicely seasoned, with nothing overpowering the crab. They had decent size pieces of crab meat, and held together well without being tough or packed with fillers. Just good taste, good texture, and I think, a good value for the money. The flavor was equally as good as my recipe, and at just $2.16 per serving, this is definitely a repurchase. If you like crab cakes, these are worth checking out. Of course I will keep making them from scratch, too!
For the record, I had heard of different styles of crab cakes. I mean every area has one, Carolina style, Charleston style, Chesapeake style, Maryland style. Since I live here in North Carolina and have a hard time finding good crab cakes, I assumed that it was the Carolina style that I didn't care for. I was mistaken in that assumption. My continued research shows that most styles have pretty much the same basic recipe, and that the propensity for adding veggies seems to be more the exception than the rule (except around here).
Quote of the Week
We don't always get to where we want to go, but we always get to where we're going.
- Robert Brault
I think this pretty much speaks for itself. We can choose our own path, and plan our future but life's bumps along the way may affect where we end up. Nevertheless, we always get there, where ever our "there" happens to be.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Valentine's Day...Dinner?
Today is Valentine's Day, whether you celebrate it or not. Apparently a lot of people do according to the wait times and packed parking lot at every restaurant we tried. We drove through a half dozen parking lots and actually went in to check wait times at two. First we tried Texas Land & Cattle. They had a 25 minute wait, which some days is not too bad, but it was getting late and we were already hungry. Next on the list was Macaroni Grill. We drove through the parking lot and past the door. Too many people standing around. On to TGI Friday's. They had a 30 minute wait. Same story, and we didn't want to wait. We drove past O'Charley's, and saw the same pickup that had been leaving the Macaroni Grill parking lot when we drove through. The driver had apparently sent his lady friend in to check the wait. She came out and got back in the truck. That told us all we needed to know. We thought about a couple other places, but our style was rapidly going downhill as fast as our hunger was growing. So we ended up going home...without dinner. Thanks for the ride! We still had our sense of humor, thanks in part, to a well-stocked freezer and a gas grill.
You may ask why, knowing that it was Valentine's Day, and a huge dine-out day, did we wait until so late to decide to go. It was just one of those days, and I was feeling a bit off. Not bad, just off, and wasn't sure what I wanted to do. By the time I came to the conclusion it would be just fine with me to go out, we were getting hungry and still needed to decide where to eat. I narrowed it down to the three places where I had some type of coupon. In the end, I would have settled for anywhere we could get in and eat before we were too weak from hunger to get out of the truck.
So what did we finally eat? Before we got into the house, the grill was lit. I popped some tater tots into the toaster oven, and pulled some salmon burgers from the freezer. Yes, the Trident ones from Costco (the same folks that make those yummy fish sticks). I tossed those on the grill for 8 minutes, made up some of my special sauce and we were good. We washed that down with the remains of last night's wine - Spanish Quarter, a Chardonnay and Albarino blend. It was great with last night's crab cakes (review in progress). It might not have been the fanciest Valentine's dinner ever, but it hit the spot. Some of the best meals really are had at home.
I hope you all had a wonderful day, no matter what you did.
You may ask why, knowing that it was Valentine's Day, and a huge dine-out day, did we wait until so late to decide to go. It was just one of those days, and I was feeling a bit off. Not bad, just off, and wasn't sure what I wanted to do. By the time I came to the conclusion it would be just fine with me to go out, we were getting hungry and still needed to decide where to eat. I narrowed it down to the three places where I had some type of coupon. In the end, I would have settled for anywhere we could get in and eat before we were too weak from hunger to get out of the truck.
So what did we finally eat? Before we got into the house, the grill was lit. I popped some tater tots into the toaster oven, and pulled some salmon burgers from the freezer. Yes, the Trident ones from Costco (the same folks that make those yummy fish sticks). I tossed those on the grill for 8 minutes, made up some of my special sauce and we were good. We washed that down with the remains of last night's wine - Spanish Quarter, a Chardonnay and Albarino blend. It was great with last night's crab cakes (review in progress). It might not have been the fanciest Valentine's dinner ever, but it hit the spot. Some of the best meals really are had at home.
I hope you all had a wonderful day, no matter what you did.
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