My 3 Fav Words: Surf N Turf

July 24, 2020
Filet Mignon and Lobster
With Balsamic Reduction (and Beurre Blanc Sauce)
Pg. 105
Kaitlyn, Season 4
22…77 to go!

This week/recipe brought on two new and very valuable lessons:

How to cook lobster. Check.
Save the pictures you take of your food right away.

Let’s talk about number two for a minute. I spent over an hour (yeah, I would not be a great contestant on MasterChef; everything always seems to take me longer than it’s supposed to) cooking juicy, bacon-wrapped filets accompanied with tender lobster tails, a sweet balsamic reduction, and a decadent Beurre Blanc Sauce–all my first time making these. I grabbed my nice camera and headed outside to my picnic table for the good lighting to take my “fancy” photos of this amazing dish, and somehow (it’s still a mystery) the photos disappeared when I was transferring some things from one SD card to the other before I took the time to save them to my phone. *Facepalm* So here we are, with one of the best, yummiest, most expensive recipes I’ve tried so far with no picture to prove it. #SADday #liveandlearn

Now back to number 1. I am so pleased with how the lobster tails turned out. I was terrified I would either overcook or undercook them. I did a little extra research prior to getting started and read that lobster takes about one minute to cook per ounce. That was super helpful, and they came out PERFECTLY.

Fun fact: I love cooking, but my eyes + nose are ridiculously and over-dramatically sensitive to the most basic stuff, which can make it really difficult to cook some things. And I found out that night cooking with large amounts of vinegar (in this instance, balsamic vinegar) makes my eyes + nose burn, and eventually the nose will run and the eyes will water. Fun, right? Needless to say I looked like a hot MESS while preparing this dinner, which I made for my sweetheart to celebrate his new job. But he still loved the meal and me, even though I was not a pretty sight.

I really enjoyed the balsamic reduction, despite the agony it brought upon me while making it, and want to do it again. To do so, though, I will need strong nose plugs or perhaps a gas mask. However, the Beurre Blanc was painless and TO DIE FOR. I want to pour it over everything I eat for the rest of forever. Maybe I liked it so much because it was made with half a bottle of white wine? In case you’re wondering, we drank the other half with dinner. 🙂

What did I do differently? Just one thing!

I opted for bacon-wrapped filets. No regrets.

Laugh at yourself, shrug it off, learn from your mistakes and keep workin’ at it!

All my love,
Dani, a big tid

P.S. If you had to pick one shellfish to eat for the rest of your life, would you choose crab or lobster? I’ve always been in an exclusive relationship with crab, but now I’m starting to consider my other options here. Sway me one way or the other in the comments.