Boiling

Hope your Valentine’s Day was steamy. Mine was. Despite all the universal forces that conspired against me, somehow I was able to pull it off.

Surely you’ve had the experience where something was broken, but when the expert came to look at the problem, whatever had gone wrong was mysteriously fixed. Well, that is exactly what happened to my car yesterday when I brought it to Larry’s Foreign Auto. Have I mentioned lately how much I love and trust that crew?

Right now I’m sitting against a hot pad, which I hear when combined with yoga is a much more effective remedy for back pain than medicine. And I totally agree. Except of course for when the back pain is excruciating. That’s when you need drugs.

Seriously, don’t abuse painkillers. One day you may need them to work unabated. Fortunately, I’m not in that spot. Stretching, the occasional Advil, and a good hot compress are all that I need.

But I was talking about my steamy Valentine’s Day, so maybe I should get back to that.

What made it steamy? Well that’s a fair question. And I wish I had a more titillating answer. But the truth is simply four pots on the stove. One for each of the two lobsters. One for the boiled local, organic yukon gold potatoes. And one for the clarified butter.

Let me tell you, the windows were absolutely steamed up.

Seriously, this is the easiest and most delicious meal you can ever possibly make in your own home. And really, the only thing you need to be able to do is boil water. I hear there are people who claim they can do no such thing, but I have yet to meet anyone who can’t perform this most basic kitchen task.

Sure, it may not be easy to throw a living creature into apot of boiling water.

It’s not easy for me either. It isn’t. I’ll do it. But I take no joy in the death of these delicious little bugs of the sea. I suppose if God didn’t want us to eat animals, they wouldn’t be so tasty. I mean, come on! What sort of cruel God would do that.

Come over here and breathe in the enchanting aroma of this bacon. I refuse to admit that the denial of bacon can come directly from any divine being, when clearly the glory of such a thing has echoes of the divine.

The same goes for lobster.

Man, those little sea bugs are delicious. Especially with drawn butter, lemon, and a little bit of added salt. Sure, I salted the water. But the added crunch and salinity of a tender flake of Maldon salt? It’s too good to resist.

Sure, clarifying the butter requires a little forethought. But not much. It’s simply melting the butter, and letting it harden again. Then you can scrape off anything that rose to the top or sunk to the bottom. Easy peasy.

I didn’t have a lot of time yesterday to gather the goods. So I had to swing by our local neighborhood wine shop on Colvin Street. There, I asked for a rich and round sparkling wine (as opposed to lean and tart) with a fine bubble structure, from anywhere around the world for about $20.

She had a recommendation for me within the set price range, but noted the one I really wanted was just a few bucks more.

It was the right call. For $25 I walked out with 2010 vintage Argyle sparkling wine. Mrs. Fussy and I had actually enjoyed the winery’s chardonnay on our honeymoon a million years ago, so this was an especially nice treat.

The crustaceans came from ShopRite around the corner. The woman working the fish counter was helpful in helping to make sure both lobsters were about the same size. She really had to go hunting. But we came up with two that were just shy of 1.5 pounds each, which seemed to be the largest they had on hand.

Local organic potatoes were purchased at Honest Weight Food Co-op, because really, where else are you going to get those on a Tuesday.

And after boiling our delicious dinner, the two of us got a little snuggle. Although Mrs. Fussy ended up catching one of the kids colds. Even still, she was able to appreciate the dinner. However, I think because she was a little under the weather, I was able to snap a pic of my plate without objection.

Maybe next year will be the year we commemorate this occasion by drinking bourbon on the floor. But with all the craziness of our lives and this week, I was thrilled to be able to have a quiet dinner for two in the privacy of our own home.