Crabby Cakes & Crabby Edie

Edie was a bit feverish last night, but seemed good this morning. After B left for work, juggled the kids, got the laundry done, got a weight lifting session in, made smoothies for me n' Edie, did dishes, ate a proper lunch and prepped foods for dinner, had a couple of good friends in town. Basically was running around non-stop until they showed up, then left the house. Edie became a bit tired while out, and lethargic and feverish when we got home. Dinner was great, but it was a bit sad not to have happy Edie bouncing around entertaining everyone. I never realized how happy and full of energy my daughter has become until suddenly she dials it down.


TODAY'S COOKING
Health Salad: Standard recipe, but no white vinegar on hand, substituted apple cider vinegar. A little less sharp, but nice. Apples n' cabbage are a fine combo.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: Rather than use the recipe on the back of the pack of chocolate chips, I used a fussy Cook's Illustrated recipe. It involved browning the butter in a skillet, then whisking it with the sugars and egg, letting it rest then re-whisking it several times, to get a similar leavening-flaky effect as creaming sugar into (solid) butter, but with the much richer, complex flavor of browned butter. Cookies came out surprising great, much more interesting than the standard. Took an extra pan, some careful watching to brown and not burn, and the whisking/resting took and extra 15 minutes, but worth it.

Crab Cakes: Another fussy recipe from this month's Cook's Illustrated. Pretty standard, softened celery & onion, mustard, Old Bay, Tabasco, fried in a coating of toasted panko. The main innovation is to use a moussiline as a binder, something I haven't made since c-school. Instead of eggs as a binder, which makes everything taste like a fried egg, took some raw shrimp and processed it to a mince, then added a small amount of heavy cream and pulsed it to a chunky paste. (Take that with fillers & aromatics, put it in a loaf pan in water and bake it, that's a fancy Frenchy shrimp terrine.) Added it to the flavors and the crab meat -- the shrimp flavor blended seamlessly with the jumbo lump crab meat and everything just tasted crabby, not crabby/shrimpy, or as it used to, crabby/eggy.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11:30am, chocolate chip cookie


LUNCH: 1:15pm, large green salad, PBJ on whole wheat toast,  water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Both chillun' up, just finished laundry, prepping dinner, very harried and distracted, but in it all I plopped Mil down in his bumbo seat by my feet, sat Edie next to me in her high chair, and we all paused and ate lunch together. A moment of calm. Edie asked to hold hands. I put my foot out so Mil could grasp my big toe. Despite only having one hand to eat salad and a sandwich, it was quite satisfying.


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, crab cakes, roasted brussel sprouts, spinach and sweet potato knishes, health salad, pint of beer, several chocolate chip cookies, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Probably over-ate a bit, but it was all home cooked and shared with a close friend I don't see nearly enough.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 3 cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5