Monday, March 22, 2010

Maine Lobster

While Ashley was here visiting us a few weeks ago, we decided that we'd pretend to be true "Mainers" and steam some fresh lobster. As you can see from the photos, we didn't have a clue what we were doing or even how to handle the lobsters...


The whole experience brought new meaning to those early childhood reprimands to "stop playing with your food"...

While Dada was having a great time, Livie did not know what to think of these strange little creatures in her house.


Once we finally got them all out of the bag, cutting off the rubber bands that hold the claws in place was an adventure. Dada thought for sure that he was going to get pinched by one of the lobsters.



The thought of getting pinched by one of the massive claws was not too exciting. (Although, the thought of being thrown in a pot of boiling water probably wasn't too exciting for the lobster either.)
We got the lobsters ready and tried to boil the water on our gas grill using our cool new lobster pot that Uncle Bret, Madison and Zach gave us for Christmas. Unfortunately, the air outside was so cold, we couldn't bring the water to a boil on the grill. The lobsters probably started to think that they were safe.

After 30+ minutes of trying to get the water to boil outside, we finally gave up and boiled the water on the stove. Since this was our first time cooking fresh lobster, we weren't really sure how long to cook them.

Unfortunately, Brad really underestimated the cook time on 2 of the 3 lobsters...we just followed the directions, but we didn't know how to tell when they were actually done. For Ashley's first lobster experience, she and Brad ended up with "lobster sushi," which was pretty gross. Abby's was the only lobster that turned out bright red and that was cooked just right.

Oh well, we'll have to try again sometime soon.
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In the meantime, we'll go back to doing things that we know how to do well...


Like building block towers...
And Livie's favorite part, knocking the towers over!


"Yeah, I knocked over Dada's tower again!!!"


Sunday, March 7, 2010

New Family Member... Bailey!

Welcome the newest member of our family... Bailey! Bailey is only two weeks old, so we can't bring her home for another 6 weeks. Livie is so excited to have a puppy of her very own! Bailey is a little female chocolate labrador retriever...but she won't be little for very long!