Good golly, Miss Molly! Missouri Crab Cakes, pages 104-105 with fresh citrus-vinaigrette dressing, page 105

Good golly, Miss Molly.

What a meal.

I've been looking forward to making these trout "crab" cakes since we started this project. They are featured on the cover of Cooking Wild in Missouri, and for good reason. They are pretty on the eyes.

I've not made crab cakes before, but I remember having some at a winery in Holts Summit and we really enjoyed them. I'm sure there are fantastic crab cakes, and kind of nasty versions of the real thing and was excited to try Bernadette's recipe.  By now, if I wasn't trusting her judgement, I've taken the "show me" state thing way too much to heart.

So, on this fine Saturday afternoon after way too busy of a week for the whole family, it was time to relax and pamper ourselves.

I made the bread crumbs from good french bread, baked two trout and deboned the meat, grated good parmesan, chopped herbs, squeezed lemon, and made the salad dressing that is recommended to dress the salad to accompany the trout cakes. And, I didn't even cut short the amount of butter recommended to fry the trout cakes in (in my defense of my own insult, don't most recipes seem to call for a wasteful amount of oil and butter to fry in?!?!).

Fred turned on the a.c. for the first time this spring, chilled down some beers, the boys set the table, I splashed down with water to cool myself down, tossed the salad, and we were ready to enjoy this dinner.

Boy, did we. I was hoping they'd be good, but these were tastier than I thought they would be. They didn't stick together quite like the photo in the book, but that's ok. I think it was partially because I left the trout in fairly big chunks thinking that would be more appetizing that grinding it into little pieces, and don't particularly regret that decision. Also, as I was flipping them in semi-panic because they were falling apart, Fred suggested I let them brown more before flipping. Wow. He was right. How come I didn't pick up on that, and how come he did? Just when you think you knew all that man's talents . . .

Fred commented that he didn't know what restuarant would make such a good meal. How nice is that?

Now, the men in my life are cleaning up the kitchen and we are getting ready to take a walk with our dog downtown to Sparky's for ice cream. Oh, yea. Sometimes, life is grand (and sometimes it's a grind, but right now let's not focus on that).