We recently took a trip to the Oregon coast to visit my folks and while we were there, we got to go crabbing for Dungeness crab (the best kind IMO). While we had a blast motoring around Nestucca Bay on a perfect fall day in the boat, the real fun came when we pulled up the pots full of tasty crab. Of course, we had to throw back most of them, which were either too small or female, but we ended up with 3 sizeable beauties to take home for dinner.

Here’s the journey to the table:

It all started with the boat, which belongs to my dad. He was kind enough to take us out early one morning to catch the incoming tide.

If you want to catch some crab, you’re going to need some traps. These sturdy box traps allow the crabs to enter, but prevent them from leaving. They also keep the seals from stealing your bait (we used chicken) and crab.

These were the catch of the day! Aren’t they pretty?

We boiled them for about 20 minutes.

And when they come out of their hot bath, they look like this. Gorgeous.

We like crab. A lot. We like it with some crusty bread and clarified butter, on salad with French dressing or just plain by itself. But one of our favorite ways to eat it is in cake form as in crab cakes. Here are all the ingredients, the most important being Dungeness crab.

We bake them in the oven on a cookie sheet, which is healthier than frying and allows us to do more than just a couple at a time in a pan on the stovetop. We use a recipe from Cook’s Country.

And then we have the finished product: crab cakes.

Give them a squirt of lemon and they are ready to eat. From bay to table. Easy as pie, or should I say cake?

The best mornings at our house involve some coffee (to wake up the brain) and a savory breakfast (for sustainable energy). One of our favorites is breakfast tacos. Wrap some combination of scrambled eggs, sausage, potatoes, cheese, green onion and salsa in a flour tortilla and you have a delicious, portable breakfast that will definitely tide you over until lunchtime. I’m not sure exactly what I love about them. Maybe it’s the fluffy eggs or the crumbly sausage or the melted cheese or the fresh, flavorful toppings. Or maybe the magic happens in the combination. It’s the sum of the parts, and of course, there are lots of variations on that theme. Sometimes we have chorizo (Basque or Mexican), or we’ll add some bacon into the mix. Potatoes can take the form of hashbrowns or cubes. We usually use medium Tillamook cheddar cheese, but pepper jack, Monterey jack or something else would work just as well. There’s no right or wrong way to do it as long as it pleases the tastebuds.

We used to call them “breakfast burritos,” but after reading a book called “Austin Breakfast Tacos: The Story of the Most Important Taco of the Day” by Mando Rayo and Jarod Neece we were quickly converted to “tacos.” The book, written by two self-professed breakfast taco addicts, is a love letter to both tacos and Austin, Texas. It breaks down the anatomy of a breakfast taco and then interviews several different Austin residents on how they were introduced to breakfast tacos and which ones they like the best. The book also highlights several breakfast taco proprietors and some of their recipes. There truly are hundreds of different combinations that can go into a good taco and this book offers some great insight on what makes them such a delectable way to break the fast.

Here’s a step by step guide of some tacos we had the other morning (we made four):

First we browned some sausage on the stovetop and set it aside on a paper towel-lined plate to degrease a bit.

Then we cracked six eggs in a bowl, added some milk, salt and pepper and whisked them together.

We scrambled the eggs, added the sausage back in the pan and sprinkled some sharp Tillamook cheddar cheese on top. Turn off the heat and cover.

Then we got our toppings ready. We happened to have some fresh cilantro, green onion and a serrano chile on hand.

We chopped those up, and added our favorite store bought salsas. Fresh tomatoes and homemade salsa would of course be a big plus here, but hey.

Then we put it all together. Egg, sausage, cheese, cilantro, green onion, serrano and salsa on a flour tortilla that’s been heated in the microwave.

Then we wrap it up and enjoy.

Good morning, taco.