Date night dinner...with or without kids

Crab cakes, baked herbed goat cheese and prosciutto wrapped shrimp

As with most parents, I sometimes look at my “adult” life in two sections…pre-kids and post-kids. Some days I look back at the “pre-kids” Jen and can only see a hazy memory of a life that was full of free time. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my babies! But many/most things in my life now have to be done in a time clipped tweaked manner.

For example, one Christmas my boyfriend (AKA, my husband Brett…ok, now those days REALLY feel like eons ago!) gifted me a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine. Every month I looked forward to the amazing recipes and dreamed of the fab dinner parties I would throw once I had a house full of registry-afforded dishes and serving ware. I usually made at least one thing per issue…the more complex the better!

Fast forward to Feb 2007 when Bodie was born. My magazine subscriptions sat for months unread and all of my fab dinner parties went right out the window. Luckily, I had this amazing little boy which made all of that other stuff pale in comparison.

Now fast forward to present day. With a 4-year-old and a 2.5 year-old, I’ve been seeing more and more glimpses of the old pre-kids gal, but in my opinion she’s much improved. (I think we can all agree on that, right?) I’ve started subscribing to (and reading most of) magazines again and even occasionally have people over for dinner . While I didn’t start up my Bon Appetit subscription again, I am recreating some of my fav recipes from memory in a much faster and less-complicated manner. Enter the crab cake…

Where this recipe came from
I think I just alluded to this, but yes, this recipe is an “easier-from-memory” version of a Bon Appetit crab cake recipe. The other two things I made for this particular dinner came from the “you know what I think would be good camp”. Luckily in this instance, what I thought would be good turned out to be just that.

Making the recipe(s)
As I said, I’ve paired down the crab cakes a bit. The original called for homemade breadcrumbs. And while they are delightful, it’s kind on a PITA – so I went with the kind that comes in the canister. The other two were easy to assemble and could sit out for a while if needed. The best part though about making these recipes was in fact the best part of my post-kids life…having little helpers in the kitchen.

The results
Brett and I loved this entire meal. We’re big fans of snacking on a bunch of things so this was perfect. The kids? They ate the bread and veggies. I tried with the crab cakes and even the goat cheese but it was a no go. I have no idea why Bodie wouldn’t budge on the goat cheese – that kid eats hunks of parmesean…

The recipe(s)
Crab cakes
2 tbsp chopped scallions
1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp old bay seasoning
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp olive oil
Zest and juice from 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
8 oz. Crab meat (I bought a plastic “can” by the seafood counter that was lump/backfin
and it was perfect)
¾ cup breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 425. Mix scallions, tarragon, old bay, mustard, mayo, olive oil, lemon zest/juice, salt and pepper and egg in a medium bowl. Add in crab (pick through it for shells first) and breadcrumbs and lightly mix.

Form into patties and place on a cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes or until toasty and brown.

Tartar sauce
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp mustard
1 tsp chopped tarragon
4-5 mini gherkins, chopped
1 scallion, chopped
1 tbsp capers
Zest of 1 lemon, and juice from half

Mix all ingredients and serve with the crab cakes

Herbed goat cheese
You could throw whatever you want in of this – here’s what I used…
1 6 oz log of goat cheese
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp scallions, finely chopped
1 tsp dried basil
Pepper

Mix all ingredients and put in a small oven safe dish. (Note: this sat in the oven while I was cooking other things. I did it for about 20 minutes at 425, but you could do a lower temp too…depending on what else you might be making that day. ) serve with toasty bread and veggies.

Prosciutto wrapped shrimp
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
½ lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
¼ lb thinly sliced prosciutto

Preheat oven to 425. Mix lemon zest/juice, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and crushed red pepper in a small bowl. Add shrimp and let marinate for 30 minutes or so.

Wrap shrimp in sections of prosciutto to completely cover it. Placed on a sprayed, foil lined baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes, until the shrimp curls and the prosciutto turns crispy.