Fruit and Cheese Platter

By Somer

Sometimes, particularly in the warmer months, the last thing that I want to do is heat my house to unbearable temperatures by cooking a hot meal.  Sometimes you just want something cool and light.  Tonight we had something that my husband and I used to have regularly for weekend brunches before our son was born.  I made a fruit and cheese platter and white wine spritzers.  It’s light, delicious, crisp, and very fulfilling.

Here is a picture of the finished product and we’ll break it down from there:

On this platter is sliced watermelon, sliced Bartlett pears, sliced green apples, strawberries, sliced salami, toasted French bread, Roquefort (blue) cheese, Chevre (goat cheese), and a gorgeous French Brie.

When you are indulging in heavier tasting cheeses, it is important to accompany these cheeses with palate-cleansing fruits.  Grapes are usually the generic fruit for this, but I really prefer green apples and pears.  And there’s no better pairing in the food world than strawberries and Brie.  (Brie is one of my favorite cheeses to schmeer on some bread.  It’s like butter, but with some FUNK mixed in.  And people, FUNK is a good thing where cheese is concerned.)

I don’t like to put crackers on a gorgeous platter like this.  I just go to my local grocer and buy a loaf of French bread.  There’s more body to it and it stands up better to some of the strong cheeses.

Just slice the bread, drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and toast in a 400 degree F. oven for 10 minutes.

I also really love the pairing of this platter with white wine spritzers.  I know most spritzers will be served with seltzer water or sparkling water, but I use lemon lime soda.  I buy a HUGE bottle of an inexpensive, fruity wine and a 2 litre bottle of lemon lime soda.  Just put ice in your glass and do half and half of the wine and soda.  It’s a light and sweet drink that goes great with the cheese and fruit.  Also, I buy the big bottle of wine because I will drink these babies until the bottle is empty.  They are spectacular.

Of course if you choose to make a fruit and cheese platter, I would expect that you use your favorite fruits and cheeses.  This is just my personal pick for favorites.  It’s a great dinner, brunch, picnic, cocktail party serving, appetizer, etc. meal.  Enjoy!

Crab Cakes

By Somer

When I was in college, my boyfriend (now husband) picked me up from one of my night classes and brought me home.  When I walked through the door, I noticed that he had music playing.  Low ambient light provided a warm glow to our crappy little domicile and there was a small feast spread out on our kitchen table.  He had spent the last few hours researching and making crab cakes and oysters on the half shell for us as a romantic meal.  Of course, the oysters were astounding, but I was surprised at how good the crab cakes were.  On our tiny college-student-budget, he had managed to put together a proper meal.

If you research crab cake recipes online (and even if you use the recipe I will be providing), you will notice that almost all of these recipes will call for lump crab meat.  While it is a fact of life that lump crab meat makes much better crab cakes and require less filler (like bread crumbs), lump crab meat is really expensive.  It’s more than I’m comfortable paying for an everyday meal, in fact.

I use canned crab meat when I make crab cakes as a small family meal.  Obviously it is not as good as lump crab meat, but it’s still crab meat and crab meat is good….so shut it.  This stuff is so cheap and affordable that if you stop listening to the people who tell you that the only good food is expensive food, you can have a perfectly delicious meal for pennies a person.  I still use the recipe my husband used all those years ago (maybe I’m a sentimental fool) and it’s still as good today as it was then and it’s still budget friendly because it uses ingredients that most people already have in their pantries.  I’ve revised the recipe a little bit (of course) so here’s the original recipe and I’ll list my revisions below.

Mrs. Duvall’s Crab Cakes

Mrs. Duvall of the Rail Stop, The Plains, VA

¼ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup onion, minced

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

½ tsp. dry mustard

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

1 lb. lump crab meat, picked over

1 cup soda crackers, finely crushed

2 Tblsp. unsalted butter

¼ cup vegetable oil

Lemon wedges

In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, onion, eggs, Wocestershire sauce, dry mustard, salt and cayenne.  Fold in the crabmeat and ¼ cup of the cracker crumbs.  Shape the mixture into 16 cakes about 1-inch thick.  Coat the crab cakes with the remaining cracker crumbs and transfer to a baking sheet lined with waxed paper.  The crab cakes can be refrigerated overnight at this point, if needed.

In a large skillet, melt 1 Tblsp. of the butter in 2 Tblsp. of the oil.  When the foam subsides, add half the crab cakes and cook over moderate heat until golden and crisp, 2-3 minutes pre side.  Drain the crab cakes on paper towels, then keep warm in a low oven.  Repeat with the remaining 1 Tblsp. of butter and 2 Tblsp. oil and cook the remaining crab cakes.  Serve with lemon wedges.

YIELD:  4 servings

-If you are using canned crab for this recipe, use two 6 oz. cans.  I know that doesn’t quite equal a full lb., but for canned meat, it is the perfect measurement.

-I use 1 Tblsp. of Dijon mustard and 1 Tblsp. of coarse grain mustard instead of that piddly amount of dry mustard called for in the recipe.  It adds wonderful zing to the dish.

-I have this awesome tiny-sized food processor that I use for dishes like this that call for finely minced onion and garlic.  You want a very fine mince (almost like a paste) because big chunks of onion or garlic in this are not very appetizing.  Oh yeah, I also use garlic in this dish even though it isn’t called for.  I have yet to meat a seafood that doesn’t benefit from a little garlic.  2 cloves minced is a good measurement.

-Instead of soda crackers in this, I use Saltines.  Everybody has Saltines in their pantries and they add a nice saltiness to the dish.  You’ll use an entire sleeve of the crackers in this dish.  Just crush them up as finely as you can.  A few chunks here and there are fine.  Use 1/2 cup of the crumbs in the mixture and the rest for outer coating just as in the recipe.

-When it’s time to fry these babies up, make a little assembly line for yourself.  Crab mixture, cracker crumbs, skillet.  It makes the process a lot easier, trust me.

In between batches, put these on cooling racks over a baking sheet so they can drain and put them in a warm oven until you are ready to serve.

A simple, affordable, and lovely dish.  You can even mini-size these things for appetizers.  I’ve been making them for about 6 years and will continue to do so for many more.  Enjoy!