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!

Husband in the Kitchen

I do most of the cooking in our household- husband is great at the meats/fish/lobster dishes, and I do pretty much everything else. This week though, he dominated the kitchen!

He started out the week with a tomato/egg/bagel stack...I bought this tiny egg pan that fits just one egg and cooks a perfectly round fried egg. The pan is so cute, the checkout ladies were actually cooing over it when I bought it. He sliced up a couple bagels very thin, toasted them, then stacked with fried eggs and tomatoes...a perfect summer dinner.

Monday was another light meal...I had baked bread during the day and we ate that with tomato, the most perfect avocado, and a very nice bottle of wine.

Tuesday he made a meal I am still thinking about! We had found some veal at a nice price, which he breaded and pan fried while roasting some vegetables...baby red potatoes, brussels sprouts, garlic, and onions, topped with rosemary. He made a white onion sauce that was amazing!

The vegetables were so perfect they were melting in our mouths!

Wednesday we went out to dinner for a friend's birthday...company was great but the food was a bit disappointing.

Thursday husband made tacos...a while ago we bought a tortilla press, and he has become a master of making fresh tortillas. I have tried (using his recipe) and it turned out to be a disaster. So he is our official tortilla maker. We served them with seasoned turkey, avocados, tomato, and cilantro. I don't think there is anything better than a fresh bread of any kind!

Friday we had cheese ravioli with "Amy's Cilantro Cream Sauce" to use up our cilantro. This is the best sauce for everything! I also roasted some onions and tomatoes and served them on top.

Saturday I tried my hand at veggie springrolls...have been craving them but haven't been able to find the rice paper until yesterday. I matchsticked carrots, apples, cucumbers, avocado, and picked some chives and lettuce from our container garden.

The last time I used our lettuce, it seemed a bit bitter to both of us, so I did some research trying to find a sweet lettuce. Didn't find anything, but did run across a tip that in temps over 65 degrees, lettuce does turn bitter (I am growing mine with an average temp of 85 degrees!) but if you pick it and put it in the fridge for a day it will sweeten up...and it sure did!

I also ran across a tip for making springrolls- I assumed you just pile up the ingredients and roll. Well, that doesn't work so well since the rice paper is so thin. So what you do is place your first ingredient along the edge, roll the paper over it, then place the next parallel, roll it all over that, and continue til the end when you tuck the ends in and make the final roll. Worked great! I served these with leftover cilantro cream sauce. Husband has actually never had rolls that were not baked or fried, but he said he loved them!

These were appetizers. For dinner I tried out a recipe from my last issue of "Vegetarian Times" called Asparagus and Mushroom Tartines.

These are made in foil packets. Place 2 pieces of bread on the bottom (I used leftover homemade bread from the other day), then add sliced mushrooms and asparagus that have been tossed in a bit of broth with salt and pepper. Mix an egg into a little more broth and pour on top. Seal the packets, bake 30 minutes at 350. Serve with a bit of goat cheese on top. Sooo good! And no pan to clean up!

This is the before photo...we ate too fast for an after photo!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Thanks Mr. Lettuce!

For the best salad ever! Our lettuce was finally ready to eat this week...it only took 3 months! I wasn't sure we could grow lettuce here in the Caribbean, and I had a hard time keeping him cool and damp, but he grew up beautiful! We used one bunch and added some spinach, tomatoes from the neighbors, strawberries, red onions, goat cheese, and cashews, and topped it all with a raspberry vinaigrette. Delicious!

We did ok on the budget this week ($105 for breakfast and dinner, food and drink), and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Leftover pizza and pasta

Monday: Tamale Casserole in the slow cooker

Tuesday: Leftover tamale casserole

Wednesday: Tapas- three kinds of cheese, strawberries, tomatoes, olives, sausages, bread

Thursday: Salad

Friday: BBQ ribs with corn and coleslaw. We have been cat/tomato sitting a friend's house so were able to use their grill...no grilling on the boat! This is a photo of the view with a sailboat race going on.

Saturday: Chef's salad with all our leftovers

We had lots of leftovers and easy meals this week because we were both very busy...husband does charters on our power boat in addition to his diving job and was booked solid! And the artists' garden where I keep my studio had an Art Fair where all the artists open their studios and lots more artists come and set up tables. This happens a few times a year and is always lots of fun. I am normally a glass artist (jewelry, mosaics, etc) but I have been obsessed with making paper lamps, so that is what I showed. It was a great success, but very tiring days, so... easy meals!

Check them out here

http://www.etsy.com/listing/47454036/waer-candy-paper-lamp

Husband is making home made tortillas for dinner tonight, and we are having tostadas with more of the neighbor's delicious tomatoes and hot sauce made from our cayenne peppers...sounds like a great start to the menu week!

Hope everyone has a great week!

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!

A Food Vacation, Part Two

Welcome to Part Two of my food vacation, on board the cruise ship and ports of call! We left New Orleans in the evening, and had a full day at sea before landing in Costa Maya. Husband and I both had spa treatments during the day at sea (sea weed wrap for me!), and explored the ship. We had 12 different dining options and 8 bars. Of the 12 dining options, half were included in the cost of the cruise, and the other half were "specialty" and had a cover charge, from $10-25 per person. The dining options that were included were varied, from buffets to formal sit-downs with menus, and we tried them all, but the food was not as good as on some other cruise lines we've been on. We tried 2 specialty restaurants, an italian trattoria and a steakhouse. They were both worth the extra charge!

Costa Maya, Mexico, was beautiful! We didn't sign up for a shore excursion, instead we rented bikes on our own and rode a couple miles to a beach and got a nice shot of the ship!

On the way back we saw a little place advertising $1 beers, so of course we had to stop! We were pretty much the only customers, so we talked a while with the owner and his family, had lots of beers and fresh fish tacos, and met their pet- a Mexican parrot that snacks on tortillas rather than crackers!

Here we are having margaritas once back on the ship. The strange thing about this photo is there is no one else in it! We didn't realize it would be spring break...there were 500 spring breakers on the ship, all from Vanderbilt University! They definitely changed the vibe of the week.

Next stop was Guatemala...we did a Nature and Culture tour. We drove about a half hour to a textile museum that had a huge garden with all kinds of native plants. I don't think T was too excited about this tour, but it was my birthday so I got to pick! We also had lunch here, I had fresh tortillas with guacamole, and T had chicken with rice and fried plantains. Everything was delicious and we met some really nice people here.

The next day was Belize City, Belize. T did a zip line/cave tubing excursion, but that's not really my thing. I thought I would just walk around town and explore on my own. At this port, it is so shallow that the cruise ship has to anchor very far away and we took a little tender boat to shore, about a half hour ride. There was a little shopping area which was very crowded, as there were 5 ships in that day. Felt just like home! Outside of the shopping area, the locals were VERY aggressive trying to sell you tours and taxi rides and just about anything else. I explored about a block and headed back to the ship, which was blessedly empty, and spent the day by the pool.

Cozumel was the next day. We had signed up for a cooking class, so we headed to a resort with about 10 other people. The class was a lot of fun...more hands on than the one in New Orleans...and the chef was great! We made an appetizer, entree, and dessert, and drinks all day were also included. The appetizer was a grilled tortilla with chorizo and onions and peppers. It had a name but I can't remember...there were a lot of margaritas consumed that day!Our entree was a grilled chicken or fish wrapped in a banana leaf then topped with peppers, tomatoes, olives, and wine and then finished in the oven. (We also learned how to decorate or plates: a flour and food coloring mix for the entree, and a cream and strawberry mix for the dessert).For desset we made rice pudding and thin cookies. The pudding was layered between the cookies into sort of a tower...very good and very easy!

We had another day at sea, then arrived back in New Orleans. But I can't leave my cruise story without a cheesy sunset over the water photo, so here it is! Stay tuned for Part Three, back in New Orleans!

A Food Vacation, Part One

When you live on a Caribbean island like we do, the first question we invariably get when meeting people on vacation is "Why would you need a vacation from there?" Well, as great as it is here, everyone gets a little Island Fever! And of course, we love to try the food in other places. Yes, I'll admit it, our vacations mostly revolve around food!

We just returned from a week in New Orleans and a week on a cruise to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. New Orleans was split into two parts, four days before the cruise and 3 days after. Our flight arrived after midnight, but it's no problem finding food and drink 24 hours a day. Our hotel on this leg was on the corner of Canal and Bourbon, so we wandered the French Quarter for a few hours checking out some of my favorite bars (I lived here about 10 years ago but haven't been back since. Husband had never been.) Our very late dinner was lots of Krystal burgers (kind of like White Castle) then back to the hotel about 3 am. This is riduculously late for us, but we were up and ready to go again in the morning!

First stop, Pat O'Brien's! I had a Bloody Mary that was the best I've ever had (with pickled green beans!) and breakfast in itself. T's breakfast was three Hurricanes and he was feeling fine!

We both love oysters, and there are some restaurants on the island that serve them, but since they are shipped in, they are NOT GOOD. I don't think you can go wrong finding good oysters in New Orleans. I have heard that there is really only one company that sells to all the restaurants, so it's not worth wasting hours in line at Acme Oyster House with all the other tourists. We decided on Crescent City Brewhouse, where they brew their own beer (and claim you'll never get a hangover from it since there are no preservatives), and sat at the oyster bar. The shucker asked if we would like small, medium, or large (we chose medium) then proceeded to open and choose the best oysters for us.

I like mine on a saltine cracker with cocktail sauce, and I like to chew them. T likes his with hot sauce and gulps them. Either way, they were fantastic!!

On to Muffulattas! The spelling can vary (muffaletta, muffelatta, etc etc), but this is a huge sandwich on a round italian bread with meats and cheeses, and topped with a marinated olive salad. Lots of places sell them and we got ours from Central Grocery, which claims to have invented them. We took it to go and ate in the park. For $13 we shared one sandwich and even had some left over!

We really loved our cooking class when we were in Paris and wanted to find one in New Orleans, but didn't want to take up the whole day, so we decided on a cooking demonstration at the New Orleans School of Cooking. It was about 3 hours long and cost only $25 per person, and included free beer and lunch! Our chef was great- he talked a lot about the history of cooking and food in New Orleans as he walked us through making gumbo, jambalaya, and bread pudding. Unfortunately, I am allergic to green peppers, so I couldn't eat either the gumbo or the jambalya, but they smelled fantastic and T had 2 helping of each! I did have the bread pudding and it was delicious.After lunch, we left the French Quarter, and I showed T around my old neighborhood in the Lower Garden District. We ended up at my favorite neighborhood bar, the Half Moon. The bartender turned out to be a guy I worked with at a different place 10 years ago, and we shared memories over many, many shots of Southern Comfort. This was at one in the afternoon and I will spare you the details of the rest of our day!

Stay tuned for Part Two, on the ship and ports of call!