Crab Legs on a Dime

Do you love crab legs but hate the price on the menu?

I have a couple of girlfriends who like them, too. One time, our friend Jennifer had us over to her house to have crab legs. It must have cost her a fortune to buy us all crab legs (thanks again, Jennifer!). It worked out great. She steamed them and we had butter and pigged out. It was awesome. AND, that was the first time it occurred to me I could do that – get crab legs and cook them myself.

Fast forward to today. My son is a HUGE fan and begs for them whenever he sees them at the store. They happened to be on sale at Fresh Market today so we got some. On sale is definitely the way to go.

Okay, back to crab legs.

Here’s what you need:

• Crab legs, thawed
• stock pot
• mesh colander
• lid
• crab crackers
• small bowl of melted butter
• large bowl for shells
• Lemon

I use a stock pot with water in the bottom and then I put a mesh colander in it and set the crab legs in there with a lid.

Steam the crab legs 5 to 7 minutes. (I’m easily distracted, so sometimes I cook them longer).

Remove them and place them on a plate to cool. Then enjoy!

Tips for Eliminating the Seafood Smell:

• As soon as the crab legs are cooked and eaten, dump the water from the pot and put everything in the dishwasher and run it.
• Put the shells in the large bag the crab legs come in and seal them up and put them in the freezer until trash day.
• I don’t actually put lemon on my crab legs, after everything is cleaned up, I use fresh lemon juice on my hands. It cuts the smell.
• Light a candle.

Bottom line: If you make them yourself, you can save a boatload on crab legs.

I like snow crab. Which kind of crab legs do you like? Snow, King, Maryland, other?