Lobster Obsession

Is there anything better than fresh-caught dinner? Especially when it's Caribbean lobster and crab!? The Sea was generous with husband yesterday when he set out to catch dinner...one huge crab, 4 Slipper lobsters, and 8 Caribbean lobsters!



He gave some to friends to chill until Sunday when we'll have a big lobster boil, and kept some for dinner- crab and lobster gumbo!



Let me tell you- as someone who used to live in New Orleans, his was the best gumbo I have ever tasted. He made the stock by boiling the crab and lobster shells, and that alone smelled delicious...I'm not sure what all he added because he was like a crazy man in the kitchen. Chopping veggies, cooking sausage, making roux. Oh, he must have been taking notes in the cooking class that we took in New Orleans on our last vacation! The color of the roux was a deep carmel with a nutty smell and was perfect with the sweet lobster and crab and spicy andouille sausage. Yum!

He set aside some meat from the legs that he cooked in the Lobster Popcorn method (see older post) and that went into omlettes this morning with spinach, cream cheese, onions, and peppers. Topped with a splash of Crystal hot sauce- perfect!




Aren't these gorgeous? The name of our power boat is Obsession, and here some of his catch rests on the dockbox. He does lobstering, freediving, and spearfishing charters with this boat, so if you'll be in the islands...

http://www.obsessionsportcharters.com/

Came under budget this week, spent $97 of the $105 budget, and this is what we ate:

Thursday: Burgers

Friday: Mini grilled cheeses with leftover white borscht

Saturday: Minestrone (here I used the first of sister's dried zucchini)

Sunday: Roasted pork tenderloin with rice and broccoli

Monday: Girls night out- cocktails and movie. Also boys night out-Hooters

Tuesday: Pasta Primavera (here I used the last of sister's dried zucchini)
I just added it to the sauce and let it cook for a while.

Wednesday: Pizza

And the week ended with the gumbo!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Lobster vs. Lobster

Yep, we had some dueling lobster dishes for dinner last night! T caught three gigantic lobsters the other day, and we invited some friends to the boat to share with us. I had bought some pie crusts on sale to make pot pie, so my dish was Lobster Pot Pie. Thanks to all on the recipe exchange who offered suggestions for the sauce. I ended up making a mornay, and mixed it with carrots, red potatoes, creamed corn, and leg meat from the lobster, which I think is the sweetest. Longtime readers may remember my old post "Lobster Popcorn", where I talk about the best way to get the meat from the legs...put them in a tupperware with a little water and put the lid on. Microwave maybe 30 seconds, the meat steams and ideally, bursts out of the shell like popcorn!
This is just a few legs from one of the lobsters...and this is the meat after it was steamed...

To think- before we learned the trick of the Lobster Popcorn, we just threw out the legs!
T wanted to make a more traditional lobster boil, with carrots, corn, and potatoes. Look at the size of these tails- with the beer bottle placed for scale!
We had an informal bet as to which dish was preferred by the guests. I was hoping to score some "awww..." points with my cut outs on the top crust!
We served the pie as an appetizer and T set the veggies to boil with a packet of Crab Boil seasoning
And the lobster is added last
Don't these veggies look great?
Though I hate to admit, I believe his lobster dish won crowd favorite...though I think mine was just forgotten about once the boil was served! Lots of leftover vegetables which went into the crockpot this morning for lobster bisque for dinner.
I love when T catches lobster or fish because it's free! We served 6 people two different dishes with leftovers for $13 !
Before I forget, here is a photo of my tortilla press as requested by witchy woman in my last post...however, the handle just broke off so we are on the lookout for a new one. A friend bought the same one and his handle broke of too, so I can't recommend this brand (Benecasa).
Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone has a great day!

How to Make Caribbean Bouillabase

Step One: Send your husband out to catch a lobster

Step Two: Have him grab a crab, too!

Step Three: Spear a big fish...

Step Four: Make a fish stock, add wine, potatoes, tomatoes, and

carrots. Throw in a packet of bouillabase seasoning (cheating? maybe...but he's worked hard enough!) When everything has boiled for a while, add the rest of the lobster, crab and fish. Don't forget all the meat in the legs! See my post "Lobster Popcorn" for an easy way to get it all. Let it simmer while the fresh bread finishes baking.

Step Five: Invite a couple neighbors over and enjoy!

For the rest of the week, we did great on the budget ($105) for the week...we only spent $70! This was in great part to our neighbors who left for the season and gave us what was left in their pantry- always appreciated, and this is what we ate:

Wednesday: Stir fry vegetables with rice

Thursday: Split pea soup

Friday: Lobster BBQ (next post maybe?)

Saturday: dinner out with a visiting friend...T had Wahoo and I had Beef Wellington

Sunday: Pasta with pesto made from basil out of our "garden"

Monday: Caribbean Bouillabaisse

Tuesday: Sandwiches with the last of our tomatoes from the garden, served with microwave potato chips (sounds weird but really good!)

Hope everyone has a great week!

A Food Vacation, Part Three

Welcome to Part Three of my food vacation, back in New Orleans! So far, we flew to New Orleans from St Thomas and spent 4 days there. We then got on a cruise ship and went to stops in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and I've been relating all the fun food and drink we had along the way! After 7 days on the cruise we are back in New Orleans for 3 more days before heading home. Can we squeeze everything else we want to eat into 3 days? We sure tried!

Part One in New Orleans we stayed in a high rise hotel on one corner of the French Quarter, and now we are staying at the opposite corner in a bed and breakfast, The Banana Court. It was built in the 1870's and happens to be a haunted former brothel. Our particular room was one half on the sitting room where the ladies would wait for their customers. We didn't see any ghosts, but we both saw some strange shadows moving where there shouldn't have been shadows.
We ate lots of fun food on part one, such as oysters, muffalettas, gumbo, and jambalaya, but we couldn't leave without trying a few more things:














T really wanted to try crawfish (I think they taste like dirty lobsters...yuck), so we went to the Crazy Lobster at the riverfront. He got a HUGE boiled seafood bucket...crawfish, shrimp, mussels, lobsters, clams, corn, potatoes. I think it took him an hour to eat it.


I had a fried oyster Po Boy which was DEEElicious!


Throughout oour stay we enjoyed lots of Abita beer, which is locally made. Purple Haze is a raspberry wheat beer.

We had hurricanes on a balcony
More Bloody Mary's a Pat O'Brien's
Absinthe at Good Friend's bar (no, we didn't see the green fairy!)
Lots of drinks at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, which is supposed to be one of the oldest continuous running bars in the states and a former hangout of pirate Jean Lafitte. Their only lighting is candlelight...this photo s during the day but we also went at night.
Some very excellent late night burgers at Buffa's
Some excellent late night pizza at...oops forgot!
Big fat oysters at Desire
And don't forget the beignets at Cafe du Monde!Whew!! The last thing on the list was roast beef po boys...T ran 10 blocks the morning before the flight to pick some up from Johnny's Po Boys and we took them to eat at the airport.
Overall, it was an excellent food vacation!!
I don't know where we are going next, but you can be sure there will be lots of good food involved (and maybe a cooking class or two!)
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!