Crab Dip with a kick

I go crabbing pretty often in the summers, as it was a tradition my dad started with me in childhood. I live in northern Virginia, and it's an hour or two drive to the nearest Maryland state parks to catch the beautiful swimmers, Callinectus sepidus (blue crab).

I saw this recipe on Epicurious, but I made some tweaks to it. because I had 8 ounces of cream cheese instead of 4, and I had a shit ton of crabs I caught. Mind you, this is a pretty decent serving. I would say it's about 3 times what you get at restaurant. It fit nicely in a 10" diameter deep circular pan.

Ingredients:

2 cups (16 oz) of lump crab meat
8 oz cream cheese, whipped
1 cup mayonnaise
1 lemon (for 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp lemon zest)
1/4 cup minced onion
4 tbsp minced chives
3 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp seafood seasoning (old bay, whatever)
3 tbsp panko breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
olive oil or butter

Process:

1. Whip the cream cheese. If you just took it out of the fridge, it helps to microwave it for like 15-20 seconds to soften it up a bit.
2. Add in mayonnaise, lemon juice, onion, chives, garlic, and seafood seasoning. Stir!
3. Add in the crab meat, and stir in it.
4. Put it all into oven-safe pan that's been oiled/buttered up.
5. Mix the breadcrumbs and lemon zest together in a separate bowl.
6. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture on top of the dip. Also sprinkle in some paprika and cayenne pepper.

Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for at least 20 minutes, i.e. when breadcrumbs are toasty brown and cheese is bubbling at the edges.

ENJOY. I certainly did.