Mr. Hawthorne Makes Crab Cakes.

The Hawthornes are still working on all that crab meat. Crab meat is not something you set in the back of your refrigerator and forget about it for a few days. I picked all those crabs. All by my lonesome.

I used some of the crab meat to make a crab/cheese mixture. Part of it went to top my artichoke hearts with pasta. And the rest of the crab/cheese mixture went into my stuffed mushrooms I still have 2 heaping cups left of just plain crab meat, so Mr. Hawthorne is making crab cakes.

Ingredient list: 2 heaping cups crab meat 1/2 piece toasted whole wheat bread 1 heaping TB red pepper, minced (I used an Anaheim from the garden. You could use a regular sweet bell.) 1 TB green onion, minced 1 heaping TB celery with leaves, minced 1/2 tsp spicy brown mustard 1 egg a few shakes Old Bay 2 TB mayonnaise sprinkling of cayenne 2 parts semolina flour 1 part Panko bread crumbs Oh, and those are roses from my garden in the picture, top right. Say what, Xmaskatie? I can't heeeeerrrrrreeeee youuuuuuu.

Mr. Hawthorne used 1/2 slice of toasted whole wheat bread ...

... and processed it until medium fine.

He minced the Anaheim.

And minced the green onion.

And the celery stalk and leaves.

A few shakes of cayenne in the bread crumbs.

Mr. Hawthorne gently turned the crab meat into the bowl. Do NOT over mix the crab. You want to keep it in lumps.

Add in the minced veggies.

Tiny squirt of mustard.

A few shakes of Old Bay. Egg went in. (I would have whisked the egg in a bowl before adding.) He actually made a well in the crab meat and whisked the egg in that without mixing the crab meat.

Finally add in the mayo.

Lightly mix all ingredients until just combined. Don't break up the crab lumps.

Mr. Hawthorne formed the crab meat into patties ...

and rolled them in the panko/semolina mixture.

Then he refreezerated them and went off to watch a movie ...

leaving me with this to clean up.

These were frozen all the way through by the time he started to cook. Normally, just an hour in the freezer is enough. The freezing helps the crab meat hold together better; otherwise, you'd need more breading to bind it and we like a very light coating so as not to overpower the delicate crab meat. Mr. Hawthorne sauteed these in butter and olive oil, over low heat, covered, for 5 minutes each side.

I served these with a little tartar sauce, some guacamole, since I had some, and our rendition of Boar and Castle sauce.

Now this how a crab cake should be. It's not a filler cake. It's a crab cake. And it tastes like crab.

Here's my little cake, heated up the next day, and eaten for lunch, with natural light. That sounds like I had a beer with it. No, the photograph was taken in natural light, not incandescent lighting, which is warmer and tints the picture yellow.