The Claws!

Each year, Jordan and I try to celebrate Valentine's day with a little seafood, in particular, Lobster.  Some years are an exception (aka the year I sprained my ankle), but every year we look forward to sharing this dinner together. The history behind this tradition is a bit wordy, but I just adore the roots of our little culinary ritual!  If you have the time, please read the story from our 2014 post called Lobster Tales.  Trust me, the pictures alone make it worth a visit.

This February, we decided to postpone our lobster dinner for a few weeks because we had a lot going on in the month.  Plus, I didn't feel motivated to squeeze a big meal into our schedule on a Tuesday evening after a work day (2/14).  Instead, we pushed the celebration out a few weeks and had our dinner last Saturday (2/25).  

I have to say...the weekend in general was one of the best weekends!  We had great weather, fun activities, delicious food, and it was great to just spend time together!

I'd decided earlier in the week that I would try my had at making homemade bread.  I've always been a bit scared to work with anything that has to do with rising dough (I'd seen enough I Love Lucy episodes to scare me...).  Despite my inexperience, I decided to try it out using an easy recipe from Pinterest.  You can find that recipe HERE.

The first step was to make the dough.  I did this on Friday after work with plans to put it in the oven on Saturday morning.  
Top Left: This is the basic dough (flour, yeast, salt, and water).  I was very careful about the salt because I've been known to over do it.  Plus it was confusing because I only had table salt and the recipe called for kosher.  Maybe I'm a bad baker but I didn't have any kosher salt on hand.
Top Right: I just love these old Pyrex bowls!  They are very versatile!
Bottom Left: This is the dough tightly covered with suran wrap.  It made a burping noise when I opened the suran in Saturday morning.
Bottom Right: This is the dough after rising for 16 hours.  Very "bubbly" at the top.

This particular recipe uses a dutch oven and says that you have to preheat the empty pot for 30 min before putting the bread in.  It worked perfectly!
Top Left: This is the bread with a little extra flour on it just before I put it in the dutch oven.
All others are various pictures of the baking process and finished loaf!
It turned out really well and had a delightfully crusty crust!  I'll definitely make this bread again sometime!  

So after the bread was handled (and coffee in my system) Jordan and I set off to buy our lobster.
The last time we did lobster we bought from Ranch 99.  They have a great selection but this year we decided to try Hmart.  And I have to say...Hmart was impressive!  They have so much to choose from and the service was great!  Here are a few pictures from their seafood counters (yes, they had more than one counter).
I don't know what half these fish/crabs are technically named, but I looked eye-to-eye at too many of them!

We finally got our lobsters home and got to cooking!
Top Left: Jordan cut the rubber bands off their claws and this little guy really enjoyed stretching his muscles!
Bottom Left: Lobster A and B (sorry, we didn't name them this year)
Top Right: We added crab-legs to the menu because they had a great price!  I do love a King crab claw!
Bottom Right:  Abby just did NOT understand what we were doing...  And she was SO interested in the lobsters.  She kept giving me this look as if to alert us that there we live crustaceans that needed to be sniffed!

Top: I have to admit, a lobster is a scary looking creature!
Bottom: Whether you're cooking crab, fish, lobster or whatever, seafood STINKS!  I wanted to avoid making our house smell like the ocean so we borrowed Mom and Dad's big propane boiler.  This was SO helpful!  I was able to use the stove to make the rest of the meal and since the weather was so beautiful, it worked perfect to just hang out in the backyard while we cooked!

Top Left: Champagne!  I couldn't find my wine bucket but we used this cute little wine coaster.  This has been a well used gift!
Top Right: Hot lobsters ready to go!
Bottom Left: Boiling process.
Bottom Right: Have I mentioned that I love setting tables?!  I just had so much fun getting out all our nice china and silverware!  Mom gave me this pretty little lace table cloth years ago and I love it!

If you're interested in making your own lobster at home, this is a good recipe for a newbie.  It goes over the cooking times, the parts of the lobster, and the best cracking methods.  I tend to dislike the "tomalley" on my plate so I recommend separating the body from the tails and claws and then reboiling for a minute or so (all outside the house of course).  

Top Left: This is our plate of crab and lobster!  YUM!
Top Right: The tools!  Everyone needs a good cracker set.
Middle Right: I made sweet potatoes and fresh broccoli to go with our meal.  I'd planned a beautiful green salad but decided to forego that because we had so much food already!
Bottom Left: THE CLAW!  The meat from a lobster tail tastes completely different than the meet from a lobster claw!  Claw meat is my favorite and I managed to get this nearly perfect claw meet out of the shell intact!
Bottom Middle: We enjoyed a little sashimi on the side (tuna, salmon, yellow tail)!
Bottom Right: Lemons!  Lemon is the perfect acid to compliment the seafood.

Our pretty table setting!

Dessert!  We had fresh strawberries and a little red velvet cake for dessert!  Although we had to wait several hours after our lobster dinner before either of us felt like MORE food!

That's all I have for today!  Happy belated Valentines Day to all of you out there!


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