Home!!!

Ermahgod, y'all. We.are.home. Do you hear the chorus of angels and bells ringing down over us?

We spent a whirlwind forty hours in Atlanta, celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday. She didn't know about the party we'd planned or that every single one of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were heading to Georgia for it. A happy surprise, to say the least. Just look at her- Mimi is 90 years young! And my sister and I always have so much fun.

I've missed being here, in this space, but have stuck to my goal of trying to slow down when I need to or can. 

Oddly square crab cakes with mustard aioli

Tonight I made crab cakes for us, to toast being back and flightless in our near future, and now I'm in bed with a purring Nutmeg. Sleep threatens to come at any moment, but I wanted to share some pictures of all the fun I had during this grand holiday season.

My nephew, Leone, adores Oliver and chased after and climbed all over him at every opportunity. Adorable. Then, there was the spectacularly Louisiana Christmas tree. And, a night out with girlfriends: dinner and Motown the musical.

Heading home

I hope this new year is treating you all well. What are you looking forward to?

Crab cakes, Old Bay "fries" and BYB

This morning started off nicely with a small feature on Beyond Your Blog, a fantastically informative, warm spot that provides tons of information about publishing: submission guidelines and themes; contacts; who pays what; podcasts with editors. Susan Maccarelli, founder of BYB, is so lovely and energetic, and I was happy to be included in her piece, 13 Inspiring Stories of Amazing Opportunities That Came From Blogging. Many busy hours later, I cooked the crab cakes T and I intended to make last night but quickly became too tired to. Some Old Bay sweet potato "fries" seemed an appropriate side, and a wonderful dinner was born.

www.em-i-lis.com

www.em-i-lis.com

Do y'all remember my crab cake story of old? Still makes me laugh!

Y'all, look at my cat's pile o' paws. Is he not perfect?!?

www.em-i-lis.com

Crab cakes, favas and mint/something else TBD

I am getting pretty darn psyched about tonight’s crab cake dinner. I LOVE crab cakes, could eat them pretty much every day. And yesterday, Maryland jumbo lump crabmeat was $8 off its regular price. This will be heavenly. I cannot, for the life of me, figure why anyone does anything too terribly fancy with crab. It is divine plain, in a simple cake, or atop an avocado salad. Simplicity and crabmeat like each other. Why, WHY is cream or cheese ever involved with crab? Sadness. Anyway, this leads me to a story that Shawn loves to remind me of and which was one of his prompts, years ago, for urging me towards food writing. Tom was in San Francisco for a meeting, and I, pregnant with Jack, flew out to join him for a last hurrah (as best a hurrah as one can have in a great wine area whilst pregnant). During the days, I trolled the streets of SF and one day decided to eat lunch at Jack Falstaff’s, a well-regarded, fairly popular spot near my hotel. Per my love of crabcakes as described above, I ordered said item. I was the first one in the restaurant so figured my cakes would be nice and fresh from an unhurried kitchen.

They were: a) greasy; b) completely off re the crab-filler ratio; and c) just not good at all. I called the manager over and told him that I was from the east coast where crab was abundant and the best crabcakes a simple art. He asked what I’d do differently, and I told him more crab, coat them in panko before frying, less random filler, etc. The kitchen kindly remade them but they still sucked. Sad eating experience.

So, tonight T and I will be making our most loved recipe which is mostly crab, some red onion, a bit of red pepper, lemon, some diced celery and panko. I’ll post it in a bit. I also have those fava beans that I schlepped back from NY and am thinking of making a succotash with them and some fresh corn and mint; I might also do a fava-mint puree and sit the cakes atop it.