Lobster For Five

 

Stuart said that for five people, we would need 3 lobsters. Did you know that it takes a plethora of lobster to feed that many people? We did not. We learned that "more of a lobster is thrown away than eaten", so you must do what you can to swell the numbers. The shell is mostly what is tossed away but there are icky, gooey things in there too that must be deleted or people will feel ill looking at what is on their forks.

It is a very big deal to procure three lobsters, thank the fisherman, carry them home in a sturdy plastic bag, feel slightly queasy as they make movements inside the bag, place them gently into the bottom drawer of the refrigerator, and then prepare them to become edible. That is the sticky bit. We wanted to be nice to the lobsters because all of us feel a little bit bad for eating them. At least, we feel partly bad. 

The way we learned to be nice to the lobsters was discovered by friend Rosie, who read and said if you put the lobsters inside the freezer for two hours, they will fall asleep and not know what is happening to themselves. This sounded so hopeful that our Em almost stayed downstairs instead of peeking around the corner to shout, "Are they dead yet?" 

When there were 2 hours before the action would begin, friend Rosie slipped the poor dears into the freezer. Meanwhile, the SconeLady and her husband walked to the church for choir rehearsal. The director's wife very kindly sat and pointed out the notes as we sang, and then sang the part toward my ear so I could catch on. If it had been a Baptist church and Baptist music, I would have jumped right in. But since this was a Church of England and also a High Church, I mostly hoped no one could hear me. 

Then it was time to go back and see how the little dears in the freezer were faring.

By then, one lobster had already... finished its contribution, and was being shelled. The SconeLady's husband inserted the knife into a certain area of its anatomy and twisted, then bit by bit he got the lobster meat out. It was an intense process because of the many places the knife had to be put in and twisted. (our Em hovered on the second floor and waited.)

I won't elaborate about lobster numbers 2 and 3 because it is understandably repetitive. But the lobsters didn't make any of it easy. Which made me wonder why we had worried about their comfort and put them into the freezer to help them sleep it off.

The lobster dinner was a huge success. But it might be another while before we do it again. In spite of all our efforts, there was still a bit of a noise coming from the pot (not quite a scream) and this we did not like.

See you along the way!

the SconeLady