Why I Love This Place - # 348

Dungeness Crab:  This should probably be among the Top Ten reasons why I love living here, but since it has had to wait its turn due to being eaten too quickly all summer long, it isn't until now that it can become A Post.

We LOVE crab...specifically, we love Dungeness crab, and none better than the free, fresh crab we get regularly from our adorable neighbor who has a boat and goes crabbing every chance he gets.  Evidently they get tired of crab (!!!) or can't eat it fast enough (!!! again), so we end up getting two crabs, cleaned and cooked, about once a week during crabbing season.  Can life get any better than hearing your neighbor say "Could you use some crab?"  Could we???  Could we not???  As long as you catch it, we promise to eat it.

Usually we eat our crab straight up, with a tiny bit of garlic and butter.  As Erin said today, you have to have your fill of straight crab before you can even think of putting it into a crab cake, but...

Yesterday we had two nice crabs in the fridge, cooked and cleaned and ready to eat.  I thought, "Why not crab cakes this time?"

A couple of hours later, this is what we had.  A couple of hours, because I had to pick and clean the crab myself, all the while NOT eating it.  Easier said than done.

Here are the results.  Incidentally, No Bread Fillers for us!  I make these cakes almost all crab, with just a bit of stuff to hold them together.

The fresh crab, ready to be picked.  Who first thought of eating this thing?
Probably the same person who thought "Hey, if I take this horribly bitter olive and brine it
and salt it and wait for ages, it will be really good!"  Or the only survivor, who said "Hey, if I don't eat the leaves of the rhubarb, just the stems with tons of sugar, I can make a dessert with this! And we won't all die!  Bonus!"

Picking tools, and crab.

Always need lemon, and a cute juicer, too.

Two nice crabs made 7 nice sized cakes.  They have to rest in the refrigerator for an hour or so, since they have no filler to speak of, just crab and scallions from my garden, and a couple other things...

Are you drooling yet?

Not sure how this snuck in, but this is fresh produce from my garden, ready to have with the crab cakes.

Four cooked cakes, ready to eat.  No crumbs, no coating, just crab.

Last three cooking.

Fresh veggies and crab cakes.  A Northwest feast.

Crab cake with my homemade tartar sauce, which is awesome, if I do say so myself...which I do.
And a side of homegrown squash and beans!
Were there any left?  Hmmm....

And the pickles snuck in here somehow, too...today I made bread and butter pickles from the 5 lbs. of organic cucumbers I got from my Klesick Farm Box of Good.  Yum!

I also made refrigerator dills, a first for me.  I'll let you know how they taste in about 3 weeks or so.
Or Erin will, since I gave her a jar, too.