A few weeks ago, I Tweeted that I was making crab cakes for dinner. Many of my Twitter buddies thought this sounded great and asked me to share the recipe. The thing is – I just take them out of the freezer and put them into the oven. (The cat has now escaped the bag!) It’s that easy. No real recipe to speak of. The key is the source:

I am married to a world-class crab cake snob. He hails from Maryland where they “know” crab cakes. We enjoyed many a wine filled, romantic, seafood dinner during our courtship. We ordered crab cakes frequently, most of the time they didn’t meet the crab cake snob’s standards. (We weren’t in Maryland.) Oh, we ate them, but they weren’t usually quite up to par.

Fast forward a few years. I’m very pregnant, with a preschooler playing at my ankles. There are several alpacas in the back yard. I’m watching QVC. An adorable, brunette QVC hostess with a pixie haircut is hawking crab cakes. “They’re delicious”. OK. “They are easy”. OK. “They have colossal pieces of lump crab meat in them”. Hmm.

At this point I am thinking, “What a shame DH is such a crab cake snob or I would order these.” Then cute little hostess comes out with this story, “When my son was born, I could hardly ever find time to cook dinner. But with these crab cakes, I just pop them into the pan and they are done in minutes. They’re easy. Delicious. And it feel like you’ve made something special without taking up much of your time.” I just about broke my leg waddling to the phone to place my order.

I was a little apprehensive that crab cake snob wouldn’t like them. But he LOVED them. Now he brags on them. It’s really hard to find restaurant crab cakes that are this good. They really are delicious AND easy. We have them at least once or twice a month at our house. Here’s all you do: Thaw for several hours up to a day. Then you can either pan-fry them, or put them in the oven to bake. The last few times, I have brushed a little butter on top and baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Chesapeake Bay Gourmet now has their own website, and even Oprah raves about these crab cakes. I also like to give them as gifts during the holidays. This weekend I’m taking some to my parents.  Dad just broke his ankle and this will be something that will be quick and easy for them to prepare. Try these crab cakes once and your family will think you are a genius!

You can tell I’m hooked on these crab cakes. To see what other bloggers are hooked on this week, visit Hooked on Houses’ Blog Party.

If you try these crab cakes or if you’ve already had them, please leave a comment and tell me what you think!

May 7th, 2009 | Tags: Alpacas, Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake Bay Gourmet, crab cakes, dinner, seafood, Twitter | Category: Tending the Hearth | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL