March 5
A Friendly Game of Spades
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- Spicy Hot Crab Dip [View Recipe]
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Ingredients
- 4 ounces cheese (freshly grated)
- .5 cup mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- 2 cloves garlic
- salt
- .5 cup jalapeños (drained)
- 1 pound crab
- 1.5 ounces cheese (freshly grated)
Instructions
We start by preheating the oven to <temp val="350"/>.
In a large bowl, we combine the Monterey jack cheese, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, and Chipotle hot sauce. We stir well with a spoon.
On our cutting board, we smash the garlic cloves with the back side of our knife, (carefully!) and discard the peels. We sprinkle with some coarse salt and mince. We add about a teaspoon of garlic to the bowl.
The sliced jalapeños are also minced and added to the bowl.
We add a ¼ teaspoon of the coarse salt and stir well.
We pick through the crabmeat as we add it to the bowl. We do not want to add any shells or cartilage. Even so, we are <i>too</i> careful since we want to leave the nice lumps of crabmeat intact. When all the crab is added, we stir gently and pour into a casserole dish (we use the gratin dish which is part of a food warmer).
Finally, we sprinkle on the Parmigiano-Reggiano—a thick layer of it—and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. We want the dip bubbling and the top lightly browned.
We remove the dish from the oven and set aside for a few minutes while we get our chafing apparatus set up. We place the hot dip on the warmer and serve with bread, tortilla chips, and crackers.
- Assorted Grilled Pizzas (toppings included proscuitto, sausage, artichokes, mushrooms, peppers, fresh mozzarella, and sun-dried tomato pesto)
- Brownies (provided by Sarah)
- Vodka Martini
- Cosmopolitan
- Beer
- Wine
We thought it would be nice to serve grilled pizzas. That would give everyone a chance to choose their own toppings, which is especially nice with kids about.
Unfortunately, the weather turned cold—too cold to have people outside. After a little trial and error, we found that grilling the dough, and bringing the crust inside for sauce and toppings worked well. Then we put the pizzas into the oven to finish cooking. All in all, we were pleased with the meal. We had the grilled taste in the pizza crust and the pizzas were served hot.
The cousins had a wonderful time playing the night away. They each did a good job eating pizza. They also enjoyed the brownies that Sarah brought over. After dinner and dessert, we put all the kids to bed and got down to the very serious business of spades.
The men handily won the first two games, though the ladies were leading the last round by 100 when we had to call it a night.
Robin made vodka martinis and cosmopolitans which were very good. They were so good that we may have to add a drink section to the cookbook.
The crab dip that started the evening was exceptional—some of us almost made an entire meal out of it. Dinner and dessert were excellent as well. But we mostly enjoyed the company and look forward to doing this again soon.