Dinner tonight: Snow Crab Legs, Green Bean Salad with Mustard Crema, and Wheat Rolls

Snow crab legs were on super sale and of "very limited" supply at the Teeter, so of course I had to pick some up for dinner! Plus, it seemed like an appropriate end-of-summer dish as the oppressive DC heat finally begins to let up.

A common dipping sauce for crab involves mustard, and green beans are also a classic summer veg, so I thought Green Bean Salad with Mustard Crema would be a good accompaniment. They were...okay. For such a simple sounding recipe, it actually took forever to make. I blame having to trim 2 lbs of beans (I made 2/3 the recipe, and also did not include the almonds) and then wait for a massive pot of water capable of holding said beans to come to a boil. Although not bad, I think the crema could have used more mustard flavor, and perhaps a tad more salt. I also think the sauce was a bit heavy-handed...I would use half as much next time, and maybe water it down a little. Pat just didn't like the idea of mustard and green beans together. I will say, this dish is much better room temperature than cold (one of the recommended ways of serving)...cold, they're pretty bland.

We also had wheat rolls to sop up the crema. Usually, I buy these fantastic all natural Alexia dinner rolls from the freezer section, but this time they only had ciabatta rolls. So I bought HT bakery "take and bake" rolls instead and, well, baked them. Not bad, although not as crusty on the outside/squishy on the inside as their Alexia brethren. Bring back the Alexia, HT!!

For dessert, we split our first ever Hello Cupcake cupcake -- peanut butter chocolate. Pretty good, with generous (and SO delicious) icing. The cupcake could have been a little more chocolatey, but all in all, I would say it's a pretty close second to the G-town...which I now hear has bouncers and even longer lines, so we'll see how long it is before I return. Anyway, I still have three more Hello's in the freezer!