Brunch on Friday

Yesterday Jim played in another charity tournament. He didn’t know a thing about the food, only that it started at 1:00 PM. I had this black bean salad I wanted to make and it said best if refrigerated for 24 hours. He had some of last night’s beef salad for lunch and took off saying he would call and let me know if he’d be home for dinner. I also had leftover crab and found a dish called Crab pudding. My thought was that if he played golf and came home to bean salad, he would really pout. I was taking Elaine to therapy at noon, so I made a list and went to the store while she was in therapy to get the things I needed. It also had to be refrigerated for at least 4 hours. I finished about 2 o’clock and sat down to have leftover beef salad for lunch, only to discover that the leftovers were now just beans and salad. So I have two dinners in the refrigerator and get a call from Jim at 4:00 that they are having a full buffet dinner.
Since the crab is like strata that I often fix for company brunch, Jim and I are having the now renamed Crab Strata for brunch.
I got this recipe out of the Washington Post. It is called Bessie’s Crab Pudding and they say adapted from “Chesapeake Bay Cooking” with John Shields. I cut this recipe in half. Serves 8
6T butter
¼ medium onion minced, (1/4 C)
1 rib celery cut in small dice (/2C)
1 C coarsely chopped mushrooms
½ medium green bell pepper cut into small dice, (1/2C)
1# lump crabmeat (If you buy your crabmeat from Costco, you never have to worry about shell or cartilage)
8 slices of white bread, crusts removed, I used 7 grain bread
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 C low fat milk
2 C heavy cream
1t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 t Worcestershire sauce
Dash hot pepper sauce
1 C finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1. Grease a 1 1/2qt casserole with the butter
2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, mushrooms and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables have softened. Remove from the heat and gently fold in the crabmeat.
3. Place half of the cubed bread in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Spread the crabmeat vegetable mixture over the top. Arrange the remaining cubed bread on top. (Place your casserole dish on a plate to avoid spills.)
4. Combine the eggs, milk, cream, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and hot pepper sauce in a mixing bowl; mix well, then pour evenly over the cubed bread. (I thought this was too much liquid. I’d start by mixing just half the liquid. If it looks too dry add a little more.) Cover tightly with aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to 4 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the casserole on foil on a sheet pan as it will spill over. Bake the covered casserole for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 325 degrees, then discard the foil and scatter the cheese evenly over the top of the casserole. Bake for 50 minutes, until the casserole has set and the cheese has melted but not burned.
This was very tasty but all the milk did not absorb in the bread. I served it with fresh black berries. I will be spending the rest of my day making Max food as soon as Jim returns from Costco with the ingredients.