Cajun Crab Dip

Here's a super simple appetizer that you can make in advance and then just bake up when your company arrives.

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 T sliced green onion
1 T milk
1 T Tabasco sauce  (+++)
1/2 tsp prepared horseradish
1/4 tsp salt
6 1/2 oz crab meat (drained, flaked, cartilage removed)
Slivered almonds for topping (optional)
* serve with your favorite crackers (I loved the cracked pepper water crackers)

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, stir together all ingredients except the crab.  Once everything else is well combined, gently stir in the crab meat.
2. Spread in a lightly greased pie plate.  Sprinkle with almonds if desired.
3. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until heated through.

I don't eat seafood, so I know I'm not the best judge at some of these recipes, but I can tell you that I received many compliments on this "dip."  Mine appeared almost like more of a spread than an easily dippable material, but it was still great.

Mini Crab Cakes with Cilantro Lime Aioli

Some people might be amazed by this, but those who know me might not be too surprised.  However, today, I'll let you in on a little secret (or two)...

I often make food that I would never eat.  I also don't take a lot of samples of my food as I'm cooking it.  Sometimes I'll serve something without even having tried it, with the hopes that it will all turn out all right.  Usually it does.  Sometimes I'm not so lucky.  98% of the time, however, most people have no idea that I really have no idea.

Why the secret sharing?  Maybe it's because yesterday was my birthday and I'm feeling older and wiser.

Maybe it's because I'm not a great cook by any stretch of the imagination and I just like to follow recipes.  Maybe it's just because I made crab cakes and I hate ALL SEAFOOD.  Sure, I'll eat it, but there is nothing that I have discovered that comes from the ocean that I want to have to eat on a regular basis.  Or at all.

However, when I found this recipe for crab cakes, I was immediately drawn to it.  I could prepare it the day before and cook it day of.  It came with a great aioli.  It was gluten free. And, I had never attempted any sort of seafood dish.  This recipe had all the great wonders of a world I wanted to dip my toes into.

We mixed up the "crab" dip and put it in the muffin tins the day before.  Then I cling wrapped them and placed them in the fridge.

The next day, we baked them until golden brown.  (350, for 30 minutes)

Then I tried to pop them out of the pan.  MAY DAY!  We're going down fast!  The bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of each stayed in the pan.  And it was soft, barely baked.

I did the only thing I could think of (other than panic): I placed them bottoms up on a baking sheet, smooshed the bottoms back on, and finished baking them until firm, but not dried out.  About another 5 minutes under close supervision.  They turned out soft, but amazing, and everyone loved them.

I even tried one.  They really were good, and no one could tell that I had messed them up.  I'll try them again in the future, but I'll have to come up with a better game plan for making sure they're all baked (like the ones on the back of the plate), and more likely to come out in one piece!