When people ask me how long I’ve been married, I tell them I’ve had 25 happy years of marriage. In actuality. hubby and I will celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary this week. So, as you might expect there were days…..
Why we decided to get married a few days from Valentine’s Day is beyond me. I can’t remember what we were thinking that long ago. At this time of year flowers are always double the regular cost, and restaurants are overpriced and crowded, so celebrating with flowers and going out to dinner is not an option for us.
We’ve found other ways to celebrate over the years like a romantic picnic spread out in the living room or… Well I have to share our first anniversary. We were in San Francisco and our best man and his wife drove over from Sacramento. I brought the top of the wedding cake to celebrate (you saved the top of the wedding cake in those days to eat it on your first anniversary). We had our mini-bar (back in the day you could bring a mini-bar on an airplane – ours even leaked in the airport!). We thought we had everything covered, except…. we didn’t have anything to cut the cake with, or serve it on. Minor details. We cut the cake with a corkscrew (because you never leave home without it) and served the cake pieces on toilet paper (clean of course!). We still laugh about this.
Tonight, we agreed on a quiet dinner at home, in the midst of kitchen construction, and managed to make a simple meal of lobster, baked potatoes with Gorgonzola herbed butter, cauliflower, and homemade rolls. Lobster was on sale at the market – bonus!
When hubby was a diver he said this size lobster was considered “shorts” and they couldn’t take them from the ocean. I guess the rules have changed. These tasted good nonetheless.
It was a struggle to get the belly cleaned up, but these dressed out nicely.
This photo is from Better Homes and Gardens and captures how the lobster should look. I hadn’t fully “dressed” the lobster or potato when I took my pictures. We were still trying to figure out where to eat our anniversary dinner, I was a bit distracted.
We couldn’t eat in the dining room, all the kitchen stuff was being stored there. We couldn’t picnic on the floor in the living room, there were ladders, etc. being stored there, and besides I don’t think we could get down or up off the floor too easily these days. We opted for a table set up in the family room and made the best of it.
And a Valentine’s or Anniversary isn’t complete without a glass of wine. When visiting one of our favorite wineries last weekend we were gifted this bottle of wine to help us celebrate. Thanks Redhawk Winery!
- 4 8 ounce fresh or frozen lobster tails (ours were half that size so I cooked 3 of them for the 2 of us)
- 1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- garlic scapes to garnish
- 1/4 cup butter
- Clarified Butter (optional)
- Preheat broiler.
- Butterfly the lobster tails by cutting through the center of the hard top shells and meat. (I actually went through the stomach instead of the top. It worked fine. If you do that, you'll need to clean away stomach spining and claws.)
- Spread the halves of tails apart. Place lobster tails, meat side up, on the unheated rack of a broiler pan.
- In a small skillet cook garlic, orange peel, and chili powder in butter over medium heat about 30 seconds or until garlic is tender.
- Brush mixture over lobster meat.
- Broil 4 inches from heat for 12 to 14 minutes or until lobster meat is opaque. (ours only took a few minutes, they may have been closer to the heat.)
- If desired, serve with Clarified Butter.
- Per serving: 238 kcal cal., 14 g fat (6 g sat. fat, 1 g polyunsaturated fat, 5 g monounsatured fat), 167 mg chol., 509 mg sodium, 1 g carb., 0 g fiber, 0 g sugar, 27 g protein
Serves 4
Save RecipeIngredients
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- 4 tablespoons Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Cream butter, Gorgonzola, and fresh parsley together.
- Dollap on hot potato and/or rolls.
Nutrition
“Doctor, doctor give me the news
I’ve got a bad case of lovin’ you
No pill’s gonna cure my ill
I’ve got a bad case of lovin’ you”