Wow, it’s really been a long time since I posted any recipes! Trust me, I’ve been cooking. I just haven’t been great about documenting everything. Well, there’s no time like the present to remedy that, right? Right! I wanted to share a recipe I threw together on Good Friday. Now, crab cakes are one of th ose things I just can’t be bothered to make. Both Shop Rite and Hannaford have great seafood sections in the store and offer store-made crab cakes for as little as $1.25 each. When you take into consideration the cost of the ingredients and the time putting them together, for me this is a no-brainer.

It was just Drew and I for dinner that night (the boys were at my parents’ already) and I wanted something quick and easy. Along with the crab cakes I made a package of saffron rice and warmed up a stir-fry vegetable mix of broccoli, corn, and red peppers. I mixed the rice and vegetables together and served the crab cakes over them. But what made the dish so good was the sauce. I can’t wait to make it again!

Spicy Jalapeño Ranch Sauce

1 jalapeño pepper (seeded if you don’t like the heat)
1 handful of cilantro
juice of 1 lime
1/3 cup ranch dressing

Combine first three ingredients in your food processor and pulse until pepper is chopped. Scrape down the sides and add the ranch dressing (add more or less if you want, this measurement is a guesstimate) and process until the sauce is smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Serve with crab cakes.

Yield: 2-3 servings

We opened up the bottle of Magnolia from Duplin Winery that we bought last summer in N. Carolina. It was a very sweet wine and kind of mead-y. It’s not something I’d rush to have again because of my preference for drier whites, but if you like your vino on the sweet side, I bet this would be up your alley.