Fellowship and Crab Cakes

Had some wonderful fellowship with my darling sisters in Christ tonight! I guess I must be getting old to be saying this... but fellowship is truly a wonderful thing! I was reminded how amazing God works, by how He surrounds us with a true support system when we need it most.

I'll share a mini-miracle that happened in my life today: recently, God has placed a burden to pray for revival among the young people in my heart and He has allowed me chances to pray... well, everywhere. I've especially been learning to use my 20-25 minutes on the bus in the morning to pray (instead of idly staring out the window and wishing the bus moved faster!). It's slowly becoming a habit, to pray when I have a spare moment. But, I digress. This morning, I had an idea to re-begin the sisters' meetings we had last year. While I have been praying for revival alone, I hope to share my burden and diligently pray with others. As the Lord promises, when 2 or 3 gather, He will be among them. Yet, I didn't want to be pushy and force my ideas on others (as I often do in the past), so I asked God to allow someone else to initiate if this idea was from Him. Praise the Lord, by the evening I had my confirmation. One sister brought up the very idea of meeting together with some sisters for fellowship. When I shared my prayer burden, she had the same thought and prayer. How amazing God is!

I think it's important to document God's work in our lives, no matter how small. Because, we (especially me) have such short-term memories. The miracles God works in our lives and when God feels so real quickly fades away with the doldrum of school, work, repeat. Also, I call God's work in my life "mini miracles" not to cheapen or downgrade it, but because I know God is possible of much greater work than just events in my life. God is an Able God.


Lastly, because this is a still a FOOD blog at heart... I made crab cakes for the first time tonight. While not perfect, they were quite good, in a rich and fatty way. I didn't have a couple of the ingredients in the recipe, and was too lazy to go out and buy them tonight. Made do with what I had, but wonder what the product would've tasted like if I had followed the recipe exactly. Below is the original recipe:

Crab Cakes

4 lbs. crabmeat
1 egg
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/8 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 c. saltine crackers, crushed (can substitute with Ritz crackers)
1 c. mayonnaise
4 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Combine crabmeat, egg, lemon zest, Old Bay Seasoning, basil, crackers, and mayonnaise in a bowl. 
2. Form mixture into 5 oz patties. Chill before cooking.
3. Heat oil in skillet. Saute crab cakes for 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. 

Tips: I did not have Old Bay Seasoning, and experimented with some garlic salt, black pepper, chili powder, and onion powder... and my crab cakes turned out a bit too salty. I would invest in the Old Bay Seasoning, it's fairly cheap, next time around. Also, you can broil the crab cakes in the oven, instead of frying on the stovetop. I broiled my crab cakes for about 15 minutes, and they slightly charred on the bottoms. I would stick with 5 minutes per side, until golden brown.