Hot Crab Bites: The Result of Experimenting

Last night, I was the fill-in at cards, which meant I had to come up with a tasty snack to bring along, one that hopefully no one else would have (I had heard the horror stories about the nights virtually everyone showed up with cookies) and that if no one liked I wouldn't mind having as a leftover :-)

In the mail, I had received my Kraft Food and Family recipe magazine (if you don't already get this; it's free. You can sign up on the website. There's coupons in some of the issues, not all, and a lot of fast and easy recipes in every issue. This holiday one had at least six recipes I bookmarked for trying). Anyway, they had a cold crab bite recipe. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm a hot food kind of gal unless it's 90+ degrees out. Call me a food wimp, but I like my meals to make my belly warm :-). So I started fiddling with the recipe, trying out different ways of making it to get one that would be hot, easy to eat, and easy to make.

And it was a hit. So, I'm posting it here. For one, because my blog has become my virtual recipe book. I no longer go looking for recipes in my cabinet if I know I've posted them here. I just search the blog, LOL. For another, the ladies raved, and all asked for the recipe. I figured posting it here was the easiest way to spread the crab bite love.


Hot Crab Bites


2 8-ounce packages imitation crab meat (unless you have a big budget and want to use real crab meat. I'm in the Midwest. Real crab meat costs the equivalent of a Mercedes here ;-)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon hot sauce (Frank's is good; use as much or as little as you want to spice it up a bit)
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon dried dill (depends, IMO, on how fresh your spices are if you need more)
1 package wonton wrappers (I had 60 in my package)


lukewarm water
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons vegetable oil


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Chop crabmeat into small pieces. Mix crabmeat, mayo, cheese, hot sauce and dill. Dip one finger in the water and spread water around the edges of wonton (this will help it seal). Put one teaspoon of crab mixture into center of wonton. Bring edges up, twist together. They make like a little pouch (and you may ask why there is no picture...well, we ate them all pretty fast here :-).


Put the crab bites onto greased cookie sheets. Mix the butter and oil together and brush that over the outside of the wontons (this will keep them from burning, and will make them a bit crispy, as well as golden). Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes (check them by checking the bottoms at about 10 minutes. My stove is old, so it doesn't always like me at certain temperatures.


They were really quick and easy to make and I can already think of a dozen other fillings for the wontons.


Oh, for dinner, I made a Taste of Home recipe. I had leftover mini hotdogs from the Monster Toes the other day, so I mixed those with a large can of Bush's baked beans, some brown sugar , some mustard and some Worcestshire sauce. Then I topped it with some Jiffy corn bread mix (mixed according to the directions) that had 1 cup of cheddar cheese added into the mix. Baked at 350 for about 20 minutes. I'm not a huge bean fan (I was eating at the hostess's house, so this was the DH's dinner) but I thought this was really good. I just realized Taste of Home has a website and the recipe is there! So you can go there and download it if you want.


Shirley