Feeling Crabby

Only ONE crab cake?  Ok, this must be the lunch platter!

One of the easiest things to make, and make wonderfully well, is a good crab cake.  There are soooo many recipes out there, for various iterations of crab cakes, but after four consecutive Fridays of making crab cakes from different recipes, our family all agreed:  the simplest recipes are the best.

The flavor of crab is so subtle and sweet, that adding a lot of herbs and spices just seems to obscure the taste, rather than enhance it.  And when you’re spending anywhere from $20 to $26 a pound (Costco prices), you want to actually taste the crab meat.  Those prices are for the lump and the jumbo lump, which is what you want for crab cakes.   Don’t even bother with the unrefrigerated crab meat that is sold next to the canned tuna – it won’t be the same.  That kind is ok for crab dip, but you really want the fresh crab for a great crab cake.

This is the time of year when going out to a good seafood restaurant at the shore seems like a great idea.  But why go out when you can forgo the traffic and make a great crab dinner for five for the price of just one entrée?  (OK, so you won't be able to take a walk on the beach...)  Best option – throw these together in the morning before work – it’s easy as pie – and then let rest, covered in the fridge.  Get home, heat up your skillet, arrange some lettuce and good tomatoes on a plate and say goodbye take-out pizza, hello gourmet dinner!

Where are the best crab cakes to be had?  In Maryland, of course – so one of the best recipes comes from the book, Chesapeake Bay Cooking with John Shields.  The recipe is  Faidley’s World Famous Crab Cakes, from Faidley’s restaurant in Baltimore where they have been making renowned crab cakes since 1886. 

Adapted from Faidley’s World Famous Crab Cakes

1 lb. jumbo lump crab meat

1 cup crushed saltines

½ cup mayonnaise

1 egg

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Dash of Tabasco sauce

Vegetable oil, for frying

On a large sheet pan, spread out the lightly drained crab meat.  Sprinkle the crushed saltines over the top.  Mix all the remaining ingredients together in a small bowl.  Distribute over the top of the crab meat and crackers.  Fold together lightly.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Use a large ice cream scoop to portion out 10 or 11 crab cakes.  Cover with plastic wrap and store in fridge from 1 to 12 hours.

Heat about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of oil in a heavy frying pan over medium high heat.  Saute half the crab cakes for about 4 minutes per side until golden brown.  Repeat with remaining crab cakes.  Serve hot with fresh lemon slices.

Another, even more basic, but equally delicious, recipe comes from, of all places, the radio.

Joan Hamburg’s Crab Cakes from WOR 710 radio

1 lb. lump crab meat (this time, not jumbo)

8 saltines, crushed

3 Tablespoons light mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

Lightly mix together crab and saltines.  Mix the mayo and mustard in a small bowl.  Fold into the crab mixture.  Form into 6 – 8 large crab cakes or 10 smaller ones.  Chill in fridge 1 – 12 hours.  Saute in butter and olive oil in batches until golden brown on each side.

So go to the beach or not, but have some authentic Maryland crab cakes this summer – and take out some cookbooks and/or beach reads from our Library today.

Diane Whitman

Reference Librarian

Crabby Person

Tween Scavenger Hunt for 2012 SR Program!

This summer is Tween time!


South Brunswick's fourth to seventh graders are eligible to join our Tween Summer Reading program! When you sign up, check out the square barcode on your reading log. You can scan that code to begin our exclusive Tween Digital Scavenger Hunt that will run throughout the summer!

To scan the code on an Android smartphone, download the free Google Goggles app through the Google Play store (link). To scan the code on an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, download the free Google Search app through the iTunes app store (link). Once installed, just open the app, hold the device up to the QR code, and follow the link!

If you don't have a smartphone or Apple device, you can still participate! Just follow the link underneath the QR code by typing the case-sensitive link into any web browser and following that to the next clue, code and link!

There are plenty of clues to keep you active and searching throughout the summer! When you reach the end of the Scavenger Hunt, you'll find a link to a form you can fill out to enter for a chance to spin our prize wheel!

In fact, if you're already in the middle of the scavenger hunt, scan the QR code below (or go to bit.ly/MB34Mp) for your next clue!

For your next clue, go to bit.ly/MB34Mp

Teaching/Learning/Cooking

Inspiration comes from the darndest places.  Was reading The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn, a book we acquired in March of this year.  It was all about how a trained chef gave a series of free cooking classes to people she spotted at the food store purchasing pre-packaged and highly processed food.

Things I knew but needed to be reminded of by Kathleen Flinn’s book:

1.  Use up your leftovers.   Some suggestions - combine with new things and create pasta toppings, fillings for omelets, add to salads and soups. 

I put this adage to work right away.  Yes, I confess, I shop at Costco, and am sometimes seduced by the low prices on items I don’t normally consume in huge quantities.  Like that giant jar of Kalamata olives that was languishing in my fridge. 

Checking a cookbook I own, I used my food processor to whip up an olive tapenade,  and added a chopped ripe beefsteak tomato, chopped fresh parsley,  a can of drained imported tuna and served this over wagon wheel pasta (plain for my granddaughter), and topped with more whole olives and freshly microplaned Parmesan cheese.  Wonderful!

2. Use flavor profiles to cook without a recipe.  I do this all the time, but The Kitchen Counter Cooking School contains a “Cheat Sheet” for cuisines from Cajun to Asian with lists of relevant ingredients that you might have forgotten.

3. Always have fresh garlic, onions, and lemons on hand.  Note to self:  buy lemons.

4. Pass on your love of cooking to others.  My granddaughter loves to "make" fruit salad (she can cut up soft fruits like bananas and strawberries).  I was cutting up fruit for breakfast one morning and Devon offered to arrange a fruit platter.  She tentatively tried the apricots, and loved them.  Funnily enough, Devon used the apricot pit, and the next day, used the tops of the strawberries in her design.  Don’t stifle creativity!

Devon and Apricot Pit Fruit Plate

  Finally, a quote from Chapter 2:

5. “You have to give yourself that dream assignment.  No one is going to give it to you.”  Sage advice I’d love to follow and pass on to all my kids.  It's a variation on one I've always loved:  “Create the life you dream of living.”

Lots of people, books, ideas and cooking -   all things I love being surrounded with.  Come and explore all your options at our Library today.

Diane Whitman

Reference Librarian

Lifelong Student

Google Music

Hello. Google Music is a free service that allows you to purchase and store your digital music in the Cloud.  You can then listen to your music on your Android phone, tablet, PC laptop, or desktop.  If you have any of those devices and a Gmail account, go to Google Play which is the Android market.  From Google Play you can download a selection of  free music to your cloud account or purchase music.  The music will be stored in your cloud and ready to play  whenever you want it. 

Another option is to load CDs that you have already purchased into your cloud share via your computer.
To do this download Google Music manager.  Google Music manager will search for music on your PC and automatically upload it to your Google Play Music account.  If you have any questions about how to do this contact Randy at the Information Desk.

Randy Marsola
Network Librarian
South Brunswick Library

Four Generation Quilt Cake

Quilt and Quilt Cake

Quilts endure; cakes, not so much

It started with the quilt Great Grandma Marion made for Devon when she was born - triangles of lavenders and purples, interspersed with white, each square quilted with a heart.  Five years later, it was "Mimi's" (Devon's nickname for Great Grandma) 80th birthday, and there was a big family reunion weekend planned to celebrate the occasion.

Daughter Kate wanted to know who was making the birthday cake, and that if I wasn't making it, I should.  And, she added, it should be a quilt.

I just hadn't thought about it, but so instructed, I volunteered.  Upon inquiry, the "birthday girl" admitted her favorite was carrot cake.  When pressed for a choice of frosting to go with vanilla cake, Mimi ventured that she loved apricot anything.

So charged, I was pondering how to transport a tiered cake serving 30 people for three or four hours on the car drive up to Massachusetts, and thinking wouldn’t it be easier to bring cupcakes?  In that case, each person could choose whichever flavor they preferred, and I would get to socialize and not have to cut up and serve a layer cake.

Devon, future master baker

Having had so much fun making a fondant baby shower cake (see blogpost titled Adventures in Fondant), I enlisted granddaughter Devon to help me make a seven pounds of fondant, (see The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Berenbaum) knowing that whatever cake I made, I definitely wanted to use fondant for the decorating.

Meanwhile, I was leafing through Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book, and Devon was tucking her Teddybear in on the couch with her lavender quilt and she said, "Grandma, why don't you make cupcakes and cover it with fondant like a quilt?"  Bingo!  Devon's a genius!


Fondant "quilt"

Using Devon's quilt as inspiration, I drew up a plan to make a quilt just like Devon's, only made of fondant.

The next day it was off to the kitchen with Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book in hand.  A few hours later, I had 60 cupcakes:  half of them carrot, and half vanilla.  And then, on to the frostings.

 Full disclosure:  there was leftover cream cheese frosting on hand from a batch of Red Velvet Cupcakes Kate had made for her friend's birthday two days before, so I just needed to make frosting for the vanilla ones. Following America's Test Kitchen's Family Baking Book's excellent recipe for Vanilla Frosting, and reasoning that orange and apricot are compatible flavors, I made the Orange Frosting variation and added glaceed apricots.  Perfect!  Recipe follows. 

Brought the cupcakes to Massachusetts, and rolled out the fondant at the camp cabin.  With help from cousin Tara, we made all different purple combinations of colors - some with a reddish tint, some with blue and rolled out "fabric" triangles to put on the quilt top.  Finally I used a template and a toothpick to add the heart quilting.  Voila - you could hardly tell the difference between the quilt and the cake.

"Marbled" fondant - see Carpenter's Cake Decorating for how-to

Mimi loved the cake and it was a true generational collaboration:  from the quilt that Great Grandma Marion originally made, to the idea for the cake from Granddaughter Kate, to the design from Great Granddaughter Devon, and finally the execution of it all by me (with thanks to Tara for color mixing and moral support).

Vanilla cupcake with Orange Apricot Frosting

Orange Apricot Frosting inspired by the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, enough for 24 cupcakes

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 Tablespoon heavy cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons orange juice

2 teaspoons fresh orange zest

1/3 cup finely chopped glaceed or dried apricots

1/8 teaspoon salt

16 ounces (1 lb.) confectioner’s sugar

In an electric mixer on medium speed, mix together the butter, cream, vanilla and salt.  Beat for 2 minutes until smooth.  Turn off the mixer and by hand carefully mix in the confectioner’s sugar.  Turn up the mixer to medium-low and beat until smooth again, about 4 – 6 minutes.  (If too dry, add 1 – 3 teaspoons of heavy cream.)  Finally, increase the mixer to medium-high and beat until very light and fluffy, 5 – 10 minutes.

Notes:  This recipe produces a very light, creamy and irresistibly buttery frosting that can only be achieved through the lengthy mixing time.  This rivals buttercreams made with eggs, but is much easier and you don’t have to worry about egg safety issues.

Carrot Cupcake - recipe from Stewart's Cupcakes

A new book in our Library is The Complete Photo Guide to Cake Decorating, by Autumn Carpenter:  what an encyclopedic reference!  I am really impressed.  Filled with both basic information and really useful tips (example:  grease your hands with shortening before mixing food color into fondant to keep your hands from getting stained) that I have never read before, this is a fun book to peruse for reference, instruction and inspiration.  Find it in our Library.  Right after I return it.

Diane Whitman

Reference Librarian

(Cake) Quilter

More Good Flicks You Might Have Missed…

By Jill Eisner, Sr. Librarian

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
Starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson. Evelyn is a cheerfully strong-willed mother of ten who compensates for the failings of her alcoholic husband by becoming the most successful "contester" in the country. Between the mid-1950s and the early '60s, Evelyn submitted cleverly worded poems, jingles, and slogans in corporate-sponsored contests. Winning everything from palm trees and pogo-sticks to sports cars and cash, she somehow mangages to hold the financially desperate family together with happy smiles and a rock-solid defiance. Based on the book "The prize winner of Defiance, Ohio: how my mother raised 10 kids on 25 words or less" by Terry Ryan. 2005, rated PG-13. Drama.

Mao’s Last Dancer
Starring Chi Cao and Bruce Greenwood. Based on the autobiography Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. The fascinating true story of Li Cunxin, a peasant boy from rural China who beats impossible odds to become a world-renowned ballet dancer. Through breathtaking talent and sheer determination, Li makes his way to the United States, but when he falls in love with an American woman, he must risk everything to remain in the land of the free. 2009, rated PG. English and Mandarin. Drama.

Being Julia
Starring Annette Benning and Jeremy Irons. Based on the novella Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. Julia is a true diva: beautiful, talented, wealthy and famous. She has a devoted husband who has masterminded her brillant career - but after years in the spotlight she begins to suffer from a severe case of boredom and longs for something new and exciting to put the twinkle back in her eye. She finds what she is looking for in a handsome young American fan, who adds a few more sparks than Julia was hoping for. 2005, rated R. Comedy/Drama.

Enjoy!

Jill

This Week at SBPL I Discovered … Yoga!

As I got out of bed the other day my right shoulder hurt. When I twisted to stretch out that sore spot, my lower back hurt. I stood up in my doorway and reached for the top of the door frame and grabbed hold. I dropped down and let my weight pull out the kinks in my old body until it felt right again. What little I have gleaned in my sporadic visits to the gym told me that this body needed a more long-term solution.

There is enough health information floating around the internet and water cooler to tell me that this body might best be mended with yoga. It is physical but gentle enough if practiced for old people like me to do it (hey, if its good enough for Raquel Welch…!) But, where to start? The Library of course!

After searching in the Library’s online catalog I found enough print and AV materials on yoga to fill the trunk of my car. Looking in the nonfiction area, around the Dewy number 613.7 I found yoga books upon yoga books. There are a variety of types of yoga styles (astanga, hatha, and bikram to name a few), some more rigorous than others. There are yoga books aimed at heavyset adults, beginners, soul searchers, persons with special needs, men, women, children, the elderly, “idiots,” and a few for those who want to look like a model and think like a guru.

That gave me a lot to consider.

I needed to learn more about yoga in general first before I could decide which specific path would be best for me, so I started with The Everything Yoga Book and figured I would get to the DVDs after I learned more about which yoga I wanted.

The books and movies were fine and all accounted for, but one-on-one with an instructor would probably be even better, so I investigated what yoga classes are offered at the Library. There are several! The Library partners with professional instructors for various offerings at a small fee to help benefit the Friends of the Library. Fundraising dollars help the Friends to support many of our classes and programs for the public, such as the current Summer Reading events.

From fall through spring, the Library offers basic beginner and intermediate yoga classes in recurring six-week courses that cost $60 per session. During the 2012 summer, there is a Back Care Yoga course, in addition to Qigong (pronounced chee-gung), both are now open for registration. Qigong is not actually yoga, but incorporates yoga-like movement with breathing and relaxation exercises to help with physical and mental well-being. That couldn’t hurt!

So, this summer I will be focused on self-improvement through yoga with the help of classes, books, and movies at my local Library. Namaste!

What are you discovering this summer at the South Brunswick Public Library?!


by Rosemary Gohd, PR/Marketing