CRABBY NEW YEAR! SET YOUR EYE STALKS ON '09: THE BLUE CRAB COOKIES

I said I was finished with the cookie posts, but I lied.

These Chesapeake Bay blue crab cookies were an insanity--from trying to tint the royal icing a just-so blue-grey of a pre-boiled crab (without one on hand), to stippling the shells, to the seven failed methods for achieving the eyes, but...I think they were worth it.

They are a simple butter cookie, with a hefty smatter of sea salt, and a lot of orange zest, which many will recognize as a nod to the way that Blue Moon Ale is served (come to think of it, if I had really been working that theme, I'd have used a bit of coriander in the dough)
And frankly, this is a shameless plug for the CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION-- please, please give them--or any one of the Bay supporting entities--some money. The Bay I love is in some sad shape these days, and the eventual loss of this crab I have grown up with makes me, well, blue.

You can also buy the Blue Crab block design from THE HAPPY TOMATO, and have it printed to anything you like--from a baby bib to adult organic T, to some organic cotton tea towels, and I will donate for you. I always donate a percentage of the sales from this design, but for the month of January, I will donate 100% of the proceeds, if that gives you the pinch you need.

Despite the negativity of the bottom feeders, the depression-mongers, and the naysayayers, I have decided to set my personal eye stalks HIGH in '09! To give more, rather than less. To be more open, rather than clamped up tight like an, um...clam.

I think this year holds great promise--because I fully expect it will not be what I think it will be.

You know, I experimented with a number of methods on the eye stalks--from snippets of super-fine black licorice I attempted to fuse to the cookie and top with the a tiny blop of icing for the eyeball, before settling on this final stiffish but kind of amateur black icing.

Anyone who knows and loves crabs sees that their eyes they are just the most curious, bizarre, adorable, and strange appendages on any live creature (I mean, it won't keep you from eating them, but you will muse). I tried dragee-like candies, simple painted eyes...none of it worked. I kind of like the floppy, happy eyes I ended up with, though they were not what I thought I wanted. I could have waited, and built it up the icing slowly, in increments, ever higher, adding to the stalk like a drip sand castle...but where would I have stored it? How long would it have taken?!

They were nowhere near finished, and 3 year old Huckle filched one.

"But Mommy, they looked so GOOD! I wanted to eat one before he could see me."

Maybe less looking and more enjoyment is in my future. Even if it's "only" sideways.