Oscar Party - Crabby Snacks

On Oscar night, I went to a party hosted by Karis and attended by fellow blogger pals Alysha, Inger, Lisa and Molly.  This was actually the first time I had gone to an Oscar party. 

I’m not much for Sunday night plans as I hardly wear makeup on Sundays, but it was refreshing to get out of the house and do something different for a change.  Plus, it is always a bonus to see the foodie girls.

The day before the party Chris and I were trying to brainstorm a snack that I could bring that was Oscar related.  Upon some searching on the internet, Chris found these Mini Crab Cakes courtesy of the Bon Appetit, April 2009 issue.  At the same time, I was searching the Oscar nominations, trying to find some kind of quote where I could get inspiration for a snack.  I saw the "crabby snacks and homemades" quote and immediately knew that is what I wanted to do since I laughed during the movie and afterwards at the part where the Mother would say "I made crabby snacks and homemades" in her high pitched voice when she would try to get her son to stay and watch the football games at home with the family.  I read a few recipes for “crabby snacks”, but the original crab-melt version with crab meat, cheese, & mayo on English muffins didn’t appeal to me.  Thereafter, our version of Silver Linings Playbook Crabby Snacks was formed.    

These are a bit less greasy and a bit more elegant, I think.  I had to buy a mini muffin pan specifically for the recipe, but I know it will get a lot of use.

 

I followed the Bon Appetit recipe pretty closely, just adding a few things to it.  I always feel pressure when making something for a party, so try not to stray too far out of the box with experimenting.

  

Mini Crab Cakes or Silver Linings Playbook Crabby Snacks

8 oz cream cheese, softened

¾ cup finely grated parmesan cheese, divided

1 large egg

¼ cup sour cream

1 orange, zested

1 lemon, zested

½ finely diced red pepper

2 scallions (white parts only)

Bunch of chopped fresh chives

½ tsp kosher salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

6 oz fresh lump crabmeat, coarsely shredded

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

¼ cup melted butter, plus more to grease the muffin pans

 

Using electric mixer or kitchen-aid, beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add ¼ cup parmesan, egg, sour cream, orange zest, lemon zest, red pepper, white scallions, handful of chopped chives, salt & cayenne pepper.  Fold in the crabmeat. 

 

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter the muffin pan (while it isn’t very healthy, I did so pretty generously so those babies just slid out of there, as the last thing I wanted was the shape of them getting ruined trying to get them out of the pan). 

 

Toss panko, ½ cup parmesan and handful of chopped chives in a small bowl.  Drizzle melted butter over, tossing until evenly moistened.  Press 1 rounded tablespoon panko mixture into bottom of each muffin cup to form the crust.  Spoon rounded tablespoon crab mixture on top of each panko mixture.  Sprinkle rounded teaspoon of panko mixture over tops of each crab cake.  I was worried as my crab cakes seemed like they were overflowing out of each mini-cup, but they cooked just fine and stayed pretty formed.

 

Bake until golden on top and set, about 30 minutes.  Serve with dollop of lemon-dill sauce.

 

Lemon Dill Sauce:

-1/2 cup greek yogurt

-1/2 cup light mayo

-chopped fresh dill

-1 lemon, zested

-salt & pepper to taste

  

 Of course, Foodies always do it up right with snacks.  Karis had a huge selection of drinks, namely homemade blood orange margaritas, pumpkin cupcakes (that were picture-perfect like everything she makes), movie theater candy and popcorn.  Others brought caprese skewers, sausage skewers, Life of Pi curry sliders made with tempeh, Argo/Zero Dark Thirty Middle Eastern Vegan Sliders made with baba ganoush and Trader Joe's crackers, dip & veggies.  Trader Joe's is like the mecca for these ladies.  Sadly, I need to get there as only shopped there a few times for the $2 buck chuck they are so well-known for! 

Photo courtesy of Karis

 

We played a game by guessing the winners ahead of time and Karis outdid herself by giving out prizes.  The more you got right gave you the opportunity to steal others prizes and I went home with caramel sauce and sea salt caramels from Becky’s Blissful Bakery.  I hear so much about this place, that I “stole” the gift from Molly.   Coincidentally, we just tried the caramel sauce last night on some vanilla ice cream.  This definitely isn’t the preserved stuff that you buy at your regular grocery store.  This is thick and gooey real caramel sauce.

 

 As far as the Oscars went, I was pleased about all of the winners.  Prior to the Oscars we saw Argo, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Django and Les Miserables.  There were a lot of good contenders this year and all were so different, I couldn’t even tell you which one I liked more. 

We have since seen Zero Dark Thirty.  I am a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan and loved her humility after falling and her post-interviews after the win, but I walked out of Zero Dark Thirty thinking that Jessica Chastain maybe should have won for best actress.  Her character just seemed so much more powerful and really blew me away.  We really want to see Life of Pi, but I think we’ll end up missing it in the theaters.  We live just minutes away from a Marcus Theater, so that makes going to movies a lot easier these days.