Crabby English Muffins

Crabby English Muffins
From Tera's Grandma Arlene

For the first 15 or 20 years of my life, virtually every Easter and Thanksgiving was spent at my Grandma's house.  According to family lore, if you wanted to chat with young me, your best chance was to find me at the appetizer table, which was really the pool table in my Grandma's basement.  Thank goodness we used something as big as a pool table, because our family knows how to rock appetizers.  These are a family classic, and although my Grandma isn't responsible for cooking the whole meal these days, we can always count on her famous crab English muffins.

This year, with our big NYE party just around the corner, I finally thought to ask for the recipe.  I called up my Grandma requesting that she email it to me, and to my surprise she said she has it memorized and can just tell me over the phone.  Well, now that I know what's in this mystical delight, I can see what she meant.  It's pretty much equal parts butter, Velveeta, and fake crab meat.  It might not sound gourmet, but boy oh boy do they fly off the platter, and what more can you ask for in an appetizer!


Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 lb Velveeta
• 8 oz imitation crab meat, also known as surimi (it's in the refrigerated case, probably near sausages - it's a compilation of white fish, flavored and dyed to look like crab, and while that description sounds gross, just go with it)
• 6 English muffins

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place butter and Velveeta in a microwave safe bowl and microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted.
3. Pull crab meat apart into smaller shreds, using forks or your hands (hands is way faster).
4. Mix crab meat into butter and Velveeta.
5. Split English muffins into 12 halves.
6. Divide crab mixture across muffin halves.  If you want to make them in advance, you can put them in the fridge at this point and bake when you need them.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until brown on top.
8. Cut each muffin into 4 pieces.

Makes 48 pieces which will be quickly devoured, even after you admit that the only ingredients are butter, Velveeta, and fake crab.

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Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette

Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette
From Bobby Flay 

Four and a half years ago I threw my very first dinner party.  I had just graduated college and was living by myself at my parent's new condo in downtown Chicago.  I must have been pretty dead set on throwing that party, because if I recall correctly the condo was so brand-spanking-new that it wasn't even fully furnished yet.  Among the missing furniture was a kitchen table, which makes current-me wonder what past-me was thinking throwing a dinner party (but I could waste a lot of time dwelling on such questions, so let's move on).  I ultimately served this a beautiful seared tuna salad on a black bed sheet spread over the coffee table with everyone sitting on the floor around it to eat.  (Talk about easy-to-please guests - I should throw dinner parties for 22 year olds more often!)

Four and a half years later, I don't remember many more details about that night, and frankly I had nearly forgotten about it altogether.  But I was hanging out with one of my lucky guests the other day and she mentioned that my little dinner party had turned her on to seared tuna for life.  It made me realize how long it had been since I made seared tuna, so I dug through my recipe archives and John and I whipped up that very same dish the next night.  We ate it at the dining room table this time, but it still had all the charm of my dinner party back in 2007.


Ingredients

• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons wasabi paste (usually comes in a shelf-stable toothpaste tube type thing - check the Asian aisle or if your grocery store sells fresh sushi near the fish counter, check there)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tuna steaks (6-oz each) (make sure you get high quality tuna, since you're pretty much eating it raw - we usually go to a fish market for this dish, but Whole Foods would work too)
• peanut oil
• 4 cups salad greens (we used baby arugula, which was really nice - I would recommend something with character, maybe a little peppery spice - definitely NOT iceberg or even Romain - avoid watery greens)
• 2 avocados, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
• 2 plum tomatoes, finely chopped

Preparation

1. Whisk together vinegar, wasabi paste, and oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.
2. Heat grill or grill pan to medium high.
3. Brush steaks with oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
4. Grill for 30 seconds on each side, just to obtain grill marks (use your discretion, I like tuna really raw and freaked out and made John flip them at like 15 seconds).
5. Thinly slice tuna, against the grain.
6. Place one cup of salad greens on each plate.  Top with avocado, tomatoes, tuna and dressing.

Serves 4.

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