For the past six years, the Bumgarners have hosted an amazing and increasingly insane party involving tremendous quantities of tequila, mountains of crab and teeming hordes of awesome people. This year I created a baked crab-and-bacon dip, and need to post the recipe lest I forget (and, trust me, this is a dip to remember!)
Crabtacular Bacon Dip
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 C mayonnaise
- 6 oz shredded cheese (sharp cheddar and pepperjack have both worked well)
- 1/2 C (or so) grated asiago or parmesan cheese
- 8 oz bacon, cooked and finely chopped
- meat of a large dungeoness crab, cooked and cleaned
- 1/2 of a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, very well drained (downright wrung out) and finely chopped
- 4 scallions, finely chopped
- 1/4 onion, cooked over medium heat with a spoonful of bacon drippings until soft and translucent
- Seasonings to taste – I think I used Worcestershire sauce, fresh ground pepper, kosher and / or truffle salt, onion powder, Beau Monde, Old Bay, cayanne… make it up, taste frequently, try to have a theme and don’t overpower the crab (but there should be a lot of crab meat and bacon has flavor aplenty)
- Ritz crackers to crumble on top (and dispose of any excess dip)
Combine thoroughly in a large mixing bowl, fill a 10″ pie pan (lots of dipping area and you can use a foil one you don’t have to remember at the end of the party), top with a bit of extra grated asiago cheese and crushed Ritz crackers, bake at 350 – 400°F for about 20 minutes or until the crackers brown and the dip bubbles around the edge.
) and I honestly haven’t been this excited about electronic junk in a very long time — and believe me, that’s saying something! Briefly: one gets an email explaining the project and asking if you want to participate, if you do you receive a box of junk; you take whatever you want out, add whatever you want in, publish something about what you took out, and pass it along to someone else who will do something cool and keep the box moving. After talking myself down from replacing the contents wholesale, I picked out:
So what did I “need”? A few pairs of hemostats, some solder wick, a set of “security” screwdriver bits, a UV LED flashlight, a pair of direct-drive moters with foam-rubber wheels, a game controller with analog sticks I can pull out and play with and a few free transistors (the solder guy has a box of free parts).