Lobster Tales

I was cleaning out my recipes the other day when I ran across a note to myself from 2005 on my lobster recipe that said, "The lobster is done when the leg or antennae pops off easily." What in the world?!?!?! Am I a sick weirdo or what?!?! 2005 would be about right because I wouldn't have made Lobster since we had kids and the first born came in 2006. I don't consider myself a gourmet chef, although I still love what I heard my adviser, professor, mentor, friend, Dr. Cunningham say at a Tennessee Dietetic Association meeting once, "Gourmet is a feeling." There are a few out-of-the-box dishes I can make, lobster being one of them. With Halloween in the air, posting about lobsters seems even more fitting because THEY ARE SO SCARY AND DISGUSTING! Here are a few lobster tips:

1) Make sure you buy lobster from a reputable seafood supplier. (I get mine from the seafood supplier at Kroger.) You want to make sure the handler knows his/her stuff because the illness-causing boo boos in seafood can sometimes not be cooked out. The safety is in the handling.
2) Put the lobster in cold a pot of water and then turn up the heat. This way the lobster goes to sleep and it is not so tortuous for it. It is a little freaky to hear it scratching around in the pot. Ahhhhhh!
3) Make sure you cook it until it is done...like I said, the antennae or leg will pop off easily.
4) Serve it with clarified butter. (Just get real butter and melt it.)

Ok, so here is my big tale. I'm not sure if I have all my lobster terminology correct, but I'm still higher up on the food chain. My Dietary Manager, Donna, and I decided to cook Lobster for the board meeting at the hospital. I was already skiddish after driving 20 miles with thirteen lobsters scratching around the box in my back seat. It was time to cook them. Most everyone had already gone home for the day. Donna held the live lobster with tongs so they faced me while I was supposed to clip off the rubber bands from their claws. Now I'm sure we could have and probably should have left the rubber bands on their claws, but I was afraid the rubber band would affect the flavor of the lobster. I insisted we cut them free before boiling. She would hold those things up, and I panicked every time those little beady eyes would stare at me.

It was like they were just waiting to get free so they could snap my finger off. (At least I WAS working about 30 paces from the ER.) Every time I clipped one of the twenty-six claws, I would scream. Like a real live, loud, something-is-going-to-get-me scream. It was quite an ordeal. Donna was completely stressed out holding those things with nothing but tongs, and I was not making it easy on her. She had the hard job. The kitchen was quite a ways from the nursing station, but later I found out that the nurses could hear me screaming all the way down the hall. To this day I wish we could have video taped us cooking lobster. I'm sure we could have won a funniest video contest. I still laugh about that.

Nutritional Nugget:
More sweet potatoes please?

Sweet Potato Fries From the Food Network
Ingredients

* 1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled (2 medium potatoes)
* 1 tablespoon canola oil
* 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more, to taste
* Cooking spray

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Cut the potatoes lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick matchsticks, and toss with the oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake until the "fries" are tender and crisp, about 30 minutes.

Season with additional salt, to taste. Serve immediately.