Recipes for a summer day

There are so many things that go perfectly with a summer day. I'll just never run out.

A real Daiquiri. Not the thing with the strawberries.

Make mine a double
Mix the juice from half a lime with a shot of white rum and a teaspoon of sugar syrup. Hey wait just a minute! That sounds an awful lot like a Havana Martini! Basically it is. A Havana Martini is a Bacardi Cocktail in a martini glass. A Daiquiri is basically a Bacardi Cocktail in a rocks glass. And a Bacardi Cocktail is a Daiquiri made with Bacardi. I like mine on ice.

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I have a story behind my crab cake recipe. Several years ago, just for the fun of it, I decided I'd devote myself to making the best crab cakes ever. So I researched and experimented for maybe...a year and a half.

This recipe is loosely based on the J. W. Faidley recipe in Baltimore and frankly I don't remember exactly where I got the recipe. This is one my first original recipes.

The ingredients. This makes 4 crab cakes.

For the crab cakes:

• 12 oz. of lump crab meat
• 1 cup Carr's table water cracker crumbs. I like the cracker with cracked black pepper.
• 1/2 cup Hellman's Light mayonnaise
• 1 egg
• 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 or 3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 4 teaspoons Old Bay
• Tabasco sauce, as much as you like
• Chopped fresh cilantro, as much as you like

For the tartar sauce:

• 2 parts Hellman's Light mayonnaise
• 1 part sweet relish
• Some lemon juice
• Chopped fresh cilantro, as much as you like

Spread the crab meat out on some wax paper on baking sheet, dust in your Old Bay and cover with the cracker crumbs and mix them up a little.

Combine the other ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Work that mixture into the crab on the baking sheet with your hands. Don't overdo it. Let it rest for 2 or 3 minutes.

After 2 or 3 minutes form the crab into loose cakes. Just firm enough to not fall apart. About the size of quarter pound hamburgers. It's more important to have them be a uniform thickness than uniform diameters. They'll be easier to cook evenly.

Pack them away in some wax paper and refrigerate them. I typically refrigerate them all day.

You can fry your crab cakes or grill them. I like to broil them. I give each side 3 or 4 minutes under a pre heated broiler. The only thing that really needs to be cooked is the egg. You want them to be a nice golden brown and heated through.

Best crab cakes ever
Serve them with tartar sauce and Pinot Grigio. Or a nice Sauvignon Blanc.