01-25-12

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
For previous recipes please use the Archive links in the left-hand column.

This Week's Theme: Favorite Ingredients - Crab

Today's Recipe: Crab Louis

Here's another from Rosemary Zwick:

Getting married is very much like going out to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want, then when you see what the other fellow has, you wish you had ordered that.

Every purchase you make from Amazon.com using my links earns me a small commission at no cost to you. Please use my links for all your purchases, and please bookmark this link for future purchases.

This week's theme

• 20th Century American Classics

This week's recipes

• James Beard's Roquefort-Filled Mushrooms
• Cobb Salad with Brown Derby French Dressing
• Spinach with Sour Cream
• The "21" Club Hamburger
• Chocolate Meringue Pie

Also included in every Weekend Edition

• A Food Funny
• A Word from the Chef
• The previous week's Kitchen Tips
• The previous week's Ask the Chef questions and answers

Subscribe today so you don't miss any of the fun. See a sample edition here.

Thanks to Harriet St. Amant of Baton Rouge for sharing this quick and easy recipe, and please don't believe her when she says she's cranky:

What do I cook when I don't feel like cooking? Hmmm. The same sort of stuff I cook when I do, because I'm getting old and cranky and cooking is no longer one of my favorite things to do. That said, I have a feeling I've already sent in every recipe I use and even a few I hadn't gotten around to yet. This one, as I'm sure I've already explained, was a throwaway idea in an old Good Housekeeping magazine; no title (so I made one up), no specific measurements, just took up about six lines in a column of ideas with the lead in that, "One can't have too many good chicken recipes, can one?" It has become my absolute favorite way to fix chicken.

Cheese Crusted Chicken

Skinless, boneless chicken breasts, halved if necessary for bigger ones
Sour cream
Crushed cheese crackers
Butter
Celery salt
Onion salt
Worcestershire sauce

Rinse the chicken pieces and pat dry. (I usually have to remove cartilage and other stuff left behind by a butcher who's not as finicky about chicken as I am.) Coat each piece with a thin layer of sour cream and then coat again with cracker crumbs. Press crumbs in gently and refrigerate until you're ready to cook, two or three hours if necessary. In a pan large enough to hold as many chicken pieces as you plan to cook, melt 1 or 2 tbsp butter for each piece in a 350-degree oven. When melted, season to taste with salts and Worcestershire. (I'm pretty generous!) Place each piece in the pan "skin" side down and immediately turn them over to the "rib" side. Allow to cook, basting every 10 minutes, for 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked but not dried out.

Let us hear about your favorite dish for those times you don't feel like cooking. Send it to me with "Quick and Easy" in the subject and I'll dispel those rumors about your crankiness too.

No one knows for sure when crab Louis was invented, nor by whom. It appears to have been around since at least 1911 when it was served in several San Francisco restaurants. This version became popular in the 1970s and has since become the "standard."

Crab Louis

For the dressing:
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) mayonnaise
1/4 cup (60 ml) chili sauce or ketchup
1 scallion (spring onion), green and white parts, thinly sliced
3 Tbs (45 ml) finely chopped green bell pepper
1 Tbs (15 ml) lemon juice
2 tsp (10 ml) Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp (1 ml) hot sauce, or to taste

For the salad:
1 1/2 lbs (675 g) lump crab meat, picked over to remove shell and cartilage
2 heads Bib or Boston lettuce, separated into leaves
3 large avocados, halved, pitted, and peeled
8-12 cherry tomatoes, halved
3 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and quartered lengthwise

Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Gently fold in the crab meat. Place a bed of lettuce leaves on 6 plates. Place an avocado half in the center of each plate and mound the crab mixture on top. Garnish with the tomatoes and egg wedges. Serves 6.

If you like recipes, then you'll love Worldwide Recipes PLUS. Subscribers to the PLUS Edition receive everything in this free edition plus the following additional recipes and features:

Today's second recipe

• Crab and Melon Salad

Today's bonus recipes from the WWRecipes Archives

• Quick Curried Artichoke Hearts
• Quick Mushrooms with Garlic
• Pickled Coleslaw
• Ladies' Cabbage

Today's Readers' Recipes

• Beef Ribeye Roast with Hot and Cold Sauces
• Baked Rice
• Turkish Lamb Pizza
• Banana Crumb Muffins

Quizine - An interesting and unusual bit of food trivia every day

Kitchen Tips - Helpful ideas to make cooking even more fun

Culinary Chronicles - Food legend and lore through the ages

Ask the Chef - It's usually about food, but you never know what people are going to ask me

The entire PLUS Edition is delivered by email so you can read it at your convenience and save the file on your computer. See a sample issue here. Monthly and annual subscriptions with several easy payment methods are available. Click here for complete details.

Search the Recipe Collections or browse the recipes by category.

Afternoon Tea	Appetizers	Beef
Breakfast	Casseroles	Chicken
Desserts	Fish	Fruit
Greek	Herbs	Italian
Mexican	Pasta	Potatoes
Salads	Sandwiches	Shellfish
Shrimp	Slow Cooker	Soups
Spices	Vegetables	More recipes coming soon

Thanks to Nancy Marr for this week's review:

Substituting Ingredients: The A to Z Kitchen Reference is a great little book that has a lot of information to help keep you from running to the store when you’re in the middle of a recipe. In my case, that’s something my husband will really appreciate. Click here to learn more.

	Thanks to Caryn from Manalapan, NJ for this review: My son got me this utensil last year for Christmas and I didn't think I'd ever really use it, as I had many, many tools to choose from. However, once I picked it up and tried it, I couldn't put it down. This 5-in-1 tool is just about the only utensil I use to cook. I highly recommend it. Click here to learn more.
	Thanks to Alan Duxbury for this review: I thought you might like a review for Shepherd Spy: Tales of Violence and Intrigue and Terrorist Sheep. It is available on Amazon and at only 48 pages may seem small but it's worth buying not only for the excellent artistry and plot, but also because you can keep it on your cookery book shelf next to the large sign reading "Real Shepherd's Pie isn't made with beef!" Click here to learn more.
	Thanks to Laurel Hennessy for this review: One thing in my kitchen that I use just about daily are my kitchen shears. I use them to snip herbs right into a pan and to cut my salad greens into bite-size pieces. I've also used them to cut chicken strips for stir fry. They are dishwasher safe so cleanup is a breeze. Click here to learn more.
	Thanks to Sherril Gerard of Santa Ana, CA for this review: I have a pigtail food flipper and love it. Fantastic for bacon and pork chop turning and other items. You must learn not to scratch the skillet but once mastered you will love it. It doesn't let the meat juices escape from holes made by large forks, and no stiff tongs to make your hands ache. I use it for french toast, hot dogs, etc. etc. I even gave all my girls one in their Christmas stockings this year. Click here to learn more.
	Thanks to Mary Silcox for this review: The Podleski sisters are masters when it comes to developing tasty, healthy, and easy to follow recipes. I own all three of their previous books (Looneyspoons, Crazy Plates, and Eat Shrink and Be Merry) and credit them with helping me to lose a significant amount of weight and develop a healthier lifestyle. What I like best about their recipes is that they do not sacrifice flavour for nutritional value. Indeed, they don't even eschew ingredients such as butter and bacon - they just restrict their use to small quantities when needed to add deliciousness. In their newest book, The Looneyspoons Collection, the sisters re-formulate many of their recipes following current nutritional thinking, and taking advantage of healthy alternatives (e.g., whole wheat pasta, reduced salt products) not available when they started out. So long as you can stomach their terribly cheesy puns (recipe titles include "the lord of the wings", "a wok in the pork," etc.) I think you'll find this a terrific addition to your cookbook collection, even if you already have the sisters' other titles. I particularly recommend "tube beef or not tube beef" and "worth every penne" - both delicious dishes that also make great leftovers. Click here to learn more.
	Thanks to Donna in Buffalo, MN for this review: Today the kitchen got a bit brighter when the light bulb in my head went off. Why it took me 40 of my 61 years to think of this is beyond me but better late than never, right? I purchased my first ulu knife in Bar Harbor, ME while motor home traveling in the mid '90s. This gadget is great for cleanly cutting my herbs, quickly, safely and neatly. Today, needing some of my fresh rosemary for my turkey dressing I discovered one more use. Instead of trying to strip the sticky rosemary leaves from the stem by hand I used my ulu to cut right next to the stem. It was really slick and no sticky fingers. Sure glad I wasn't any older when I figured this out. Click here to learn more.

If you have a favorite cookbook, kitchen gadget, or specialty food item that's available from Amazon.com, we all want to know about it. Please send a brief review (along with the Amazon ASIN if possible) to Review@wwrecipes.com

Barbara Forsythe, Editor

Milk baths used to be considered the lavish cornerstone of the pampered lady's beauty regime. Famous alleged milk bathers include Cleopatra and Queen Elizabeth I, but perhaps the most famous milk bather of all was Anna Held, a musical performer and focus of the notorious, headline-dominating Milk Bath Affair of 1896. Flo Ziegfeld, the force behind the great Ziegfeld Follies show on Broadway, was determined to make Held into a globally recognized, bold-faced name; he leaked the "news" that she took a daily bath in fresh milk, and even choreographed then- unheard-of media events at which reporters could see the milk bottles arrive at Held's suite. At one such event, journalists were allowed to behold Held in her 'bain au lait'. This scandalous happening started an international milk bath fad and made the name Anna held "as well known in this country as the name of the President," according to the "New York World."

A tried-and-true recipe for milk baths: Add 2 to 4 cups of milk or buttermilk to a warm bath, soak for 20 minutes or so, and scrub your skin with a washcloth in soft, circular motions. When you are finished, rinse off with water and supposedly you will be as soft as a baby's bottom.

Lesley M.M. Blume, from "Let's Bring Back"

Please address your comments regarding "The Last Morsel" to editor Barbara Forsythe at Barbara@wwrecipes.com

For an archive of all Morsels published in Worldwide Recipes, plus Weekend Morsels for insatiable foodies, please visit TheLastMorsel.com