crab, crab & more crab plus the best scrambled eggs ever

it’s been a coupla crabby weeks around here…

MINI REVIEW PIERPONT INN yes we were a little crabby with each other during the past two weeks, but after we got over that, we had christmas dinner at the pierpont inn where i had wild salmon with dungeness crab on it (the rice pilaf was dried out, but they substituted mash potatoes which hit the spot quite well). the big monkey is such a master at grilling salmon that it just didn’t measure up, even with the dungenous crab piled on top with some sauce full of onions making it too oniony to appreciate the sweetness of the crab). the service is always excellent however, and the view lovely, so i will always recommend it. my other meals there have typically been stellar.

MINI REVIEW: JOE’S CRAB SHACK the next night we decided to go for a walk from our house to the beach and use up a holiday gift card to joe’s crab shack, a place we’d been disappointed with two times before. great location, great winter beer from firestone, great fried calamari and spicy sauce but the crab? not great. ok, but not great, and we really didn’t like the oily BBQ sauce treatment we had on the dungenous. then, they had so much trouble with the gift card, they comped us the meal and gave us the gift card back! so i guess we will be trying it again…

AFTER A FINE DINNER of king crab at home a few nights later, we headed out to montana de oro state park near morro bay for a few days of camping where we had steaks the first night then the second popped a bottle of $4 Big Lots Lorikeet Australian sparkling wine (surprisingly good!), shucked fresh oysters for an appetizer, and then dined on sauteed in butter and garlic fresh off the boat prawns with pasta AND a barbequed pork loin plus a salad…quite the feast!

IF YOU EVER get the opportunity to get fresh prawns, do it, they are so much tastier than the frozen ones you will be amazed. they are so sweet and tender. (i do have to admit that i jumped and shrieked when i looked in the bag and they were moving–they were that fresh!) we have a fishermen’s market here every saturday morning in the harbor (like a farmers market but for fishermen) and i imagine many other coastal communities do too.
SINCE WE PLANNED to go to fishbon’s winter wonderland, we packed up new year’s eve afternoon and drove to los osos where, when we discovered the event was sold out, i bought the largest king crab claws i’d ever seen, some Chandon champagne, some eggs and bread, and headed back to the beach to join our friends still camping there. while we snacked on bread, brie, and pate, we heated up some rice we’d brought in olive oil and butter, we heated butter in another pan, and we put the crab onto the bbq wrapped in foil. when we could smell it, we pulled it off and it was perfectly heated and with just a hint of smoky bbq flavor…ahhh! after dinner we sat around the fire roasting marshmallows until the kids went to bed, and soon we were the last ones at the fire…well before midnight.

TRADITIONALLY IN MY FAMILY on new years day we have what we call sugar muffins–a plain muffin with some fresh nutmeg baked in it and fresh out of the oven, the muffins are dipped in butter then rolled in cinnamon sugar. but i couldn’t make sugar muffins out there camping.

SO HERE’S WHERE the best scrambled eggs comes in: for breakfast, i used the leftover crab dipping butter and sauteed a portobello mushroom in it, then set aside the mushroom and cooked scrambled eggs in the crab butter pan. when they were almost done, i added the mushrooms to the pan with a few chunks of cheese and a meaty chunk of crab i’d hidden away. i served these up with my famous pumpkin pancakes. nope, wasn’t sugar muffins, but the best scrambled eggs i have ever had in my life!

on the prowl for some good crab, some good meals, some good times, and a great campsite, i’m your art predator

btw, let me know if you want me to post my pumpkin corn pancake recipe…