A Fancy Monster Dinner

Perhaps the only things missing were a pianist and some candles? Oh, and a babysitter! Josh surprised us by bringing home...

 

MONSTERS!!

er...LOBSTERS!

In the 10 years that I have known Josh, I think we have only had lobster one other time. 

I am not a lobster lover:

1) They're chewy. I like chewy in brownies and beef jerky-not seafood.

2) I have a hard time picking their...entrails...out while maintaining an appetite. 

3) They make threatening noises when about to be cooked.

And while I thought I would have no problem dropping the ugly things into the boiling pot, I just couldn't do it. Literally. The things splayed their legs out in an attempt to grab the sides of the pot to prevent themselves from being submerged. 

Creepy. 

It was at that point that I screamed. This resulted in Josh running in to see what the problem was. "I can't do it!", I wailed. "Okay. Take the kids out so they don't see." 

No problem!

  Twenty minutes later, everyone (aside from the lobsters) was all smiles:

 James took a bite after much hesitation. He said he liked it but declined his own piece. I'm pretty sure JoyAnna ate a whole one all by herself! We didn't let Lydia have any because we don't give shellfish to the kids until they are over 2 years old. There are no known shellfish allergies in our family, but we like to play it safe.

I made garlic mashed potatoes from scratch, steamed broccoli with butter, and some cheddar garlic biscuits like Red Lobster. (I cheated for those and used the Bisquick mix, then doctored it up a little.) Josh bought me some crab shaped serving dishes at the Georgia Aquarium on our Honeymoon. We use them to hold melted butter when we have crab legs. They were just as fun to use with lobsters! Go figure! And as if splurging on lobster wasn't enough...Josh and I even had a cola!

 One of James and JoyAnna's favorite things to do at Publix is to visit the "monsters" in the seafood department. They would get so excited they could hardly contain themselves as they realized we were getting closer, and would loudly cry out, "We're going to see the monsters!! Yay!" How cute! One time, the nice lady behind the counter came out to feed them for us. It was almost like being at SeaWorld!! Okay, that was a stretch...

 Here they are making the lobsters kiss. Teach them not to play with their food? What fun is that?! One of the neatest things that we noticed about how God made these, ahem, interesting creatures is that there is flesh even inside the teeny tiny little ridges of their claws. For some reason, I was surprised by that. Silly, I know. Josh gave them a little lesson on how they swim using their tails. He fanned the tail out and then pushed it back together, moved it up and down.
So, dinner turned out to be a home school science lesson.

Dinner was a little bit of a challenge for me. Well, really, it was just those lobsters. It started with the clicking noise they made at me from the counter while I was preparing to give them their "bath". Then the whole "grab-the-side-of-the-pot" strategy they tried. (Seriously...where did they learn that?) Can't forget the...undesirables...that needed to be picked out. Eww! Then it was chewy. Have I mentioned I really don't care for chewy seafood?

 The worst part?

 When Josh first opened the box and the kids yelled, "WOBSTERS!" 

When did they stop calling them "monsters"???

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On a side note, I want to mention JoyAnna's adventurous spirit when it comes to trying new foods. Last December she bravely tried alligator at The Sandyhook Fish & Rib House in Matlacha. And while James did try it, he just didn't enjoy it quite as much as JoyAnna did. Enjoy these throwback videos:

 "I like to eat alligator!"