Lobster Dinner

Touching the lobster for the first time
He was big!

Notice how my handy apron hides my big belly!

Chef Anson

The finished product!

Enjoying the meal!

Ella warned him! Can you see the shiner under his left eye?

Actually it wasn't inflicted by Ella, but by the ottoman in the living room!

Today, Dusty brought home a 2 pound live Maine lobster from the Farmers Market! The kids went crazy! They loved touching it and watching it swim around in the sink while I prepared the pot of his doom. Actually, you can see by the picture that he was so big, he took up the entire sink (the smaller side). Once the water came to a rolling boil it was time to make him turn red. I placed him claws-first into the pot of water and sea salt and let the kiddos watch him turn that nice red-orange color. It was quite a memorable experience and neither of them seemed too sad that we "killed" the lobster. They were excited to taste him! A couple years ago Target had all this lobster feast stuff in their dollar section and I bought one of everything they had with the intentions of having a lobster party. Well it may have just been the four of us, but we made it a party! Anson had fun helping me set out everything on the table while we cooked dinner. When the lobster was done, Dusty had the honors of of getting all the meat out and eating most of it! Anson ate some and really liked it, too. Ella wasn't interested at all. And me, well, I had a nice spinach walnut salad with raspberry vinagarette dressing since I'm not supposed to have shellfish while pregnant! :o( Maybe next time!

By the way, if you've never cooked a lobster, it's easy!

Here are the directions I used:

Half fill a large kettle with water and add 1/4 cup of sea salt.

Cover and bring to a boil.

Grasp the lobster firmly by the middle of the back (see my awesome example above! :o) with claws held away.

Plunge them head first into the boiling water

Cover. Begin the timer when the water is again at a boil.

Cook 10 -15 minutes for 1 - 2 pound lobster.

Overcooking toughens meat.

Plunge cooked lobster directly into cold water for 1 minute to stop the cooking process.

(I fill my sink with cold water)

Take the lobster out of the water and let it drain for a few seconds and place on platter.

Twist off large claws and pull tail from body section. Discard entire body - no meat there.

Make a slit down underside of tail and serve with melted butter.

See? Easy!!

Dusty likes his served with garlic mashed potatoes but tonight we settled for yellow squash and spinach salad.