New Year's Day Feast-Crab Rangoon recipe

Today we began cooking, just like most special days, early in the afternoon. Some days we begin cooking early in the morning but since this is New Year's Day, we got a late start. Cooking is a big part of our family, almost as big as eating. Ron (dad) is super passionate about food. He can cook for anyone, at any time, for any reason, ANY kind of food. It will always be delicious and there will always be enough for at least 5 extra guests.

Ron and I had already together prepared his famous Beef Wellington this morning. We had lots of juicy, tender crab meat left from from New Year's Eve with the Kosteckis, our neighbors. Usually Ron does most of the cooking on these special days, but for some reason he handed over one of the appetizers to me. Since we were about to make Bri's favorite appetizer, crab rangoon, she had no choice but to help. Bri is a typical 17-year old. She loves food more than she loves cooking. It is time to teach her the joys of cooking, daddy style. The recipe follows.

As we began our assembly line, with Ron handing out orders, in walks Krystian, Bri's 17-year old boyfriend. Krystian has helped in our kitchen before, doling out chocolate chip cookie dough. It took him a while but he finally got them the perfect size. I felt a little sorry for him at first because he was definitely out of his element. But as usual, he jumped right in without a word and went to work.

So as we had our assembly line going, we talked. We talked about New Year's Eve and all the things that happened within our family that we knew about. Mostly happy things, from what I could conjure up from the conversation.

Then we began talking about cooking. We are Food TV junkies in our home, and Krystian came up with the idea of starting a Food TV show on our cooking escapades. As we talked, we came up with more and more ideas and decided to start a blog regarding our family's cooking excursions. We will share with you some of the fun things that happen while you cook. Mind you, not everything is fun. The kitchen can be a very intense place at certain times during the process, but with some quick moves and tongue biting, we come out unscathed and ready to sit down to a scrumptious meal.

Oh, yeah, when we are alone as a family, we can't get through a meal without critiquing every apsect of the food at every meal. This usually happens when I cook. Mind you, I can cook. I just don't prefer to cook. I have been in school for the past 3 years and basically just cooked to get dinner on the table. Ron's food has to have "presentation" as well as be exquisite. When we have company over, it goes without saying that everything is mouth-wateringly delicious.

I hope you enjoy watching/hearing about some of our adventures in cooking. We will try to share as many of our favorite recipes as possible and maybe even have some famous and not-so-famous guest chefs. We hope to inspire all ages that it's all about Food, Family and Fun.


Crab Rangoon

1-1/2 c shredded crab meat
1 pkg cream cheese
5 green onions chopped
2 dashes tobasco sauce
1/4 t 5-spice powder
S & P to taste
1 pkg wonton wrappers
Egg wash (1 egg w/ 1 t water)

1. Mix together first 6 ingredients
2. Lay out wonton wrappers and brush egg wash on outside edges
3. Add about 1 T mixture to center
4. Fold wonton in triangle over mixture
5. Fork sides together
6. Fry in 1" of oil (anything but EVOO) about 1 minute on each side or until lightly browned
7. Lay on paper towel to remove excess oil
Serve on platter with sweet and sour sauce.
We also used wasabi mayonnaise because everything tastes great with wasabi mayo on it.
And this time we also tried some Toasted Sesame Ginger dressing (by Litehouse) and it was a nice accompaniment.