Lobster With My Loved Ones

Definitely, a meal to remember.

A memorable meal?

Oh, Oh! Prompt #16 could not have come at a better time!

We just returned from a week in Cape Cod — my all-time favorite vacation destination. And boy did we have some memorable meals. One, in particular, stands out above the rest, and that’s because it caused so much laughter amongst my family members that my face hurts just thinking about it.

I need to back up for a second first. So, everyone has those stories that they repeat ad nauseum, right? The ones your kids roll their eyes at and say,

“We know, Mom. You’ve told us about that a thousand times!”

One of the stories my husband and I have been accused of repeating too often is that before we had kids, we’d spend New Year’s Eve with our college friends, and we traditionally cooked live lobsters together.

It was lots of fun and we always wanted to do that with our children. Flash forward twenty-plus years when we’re trying to entertain three adult children for a weeklong beach vacation, and we figured, what better place to finally show them how to cook lobsters — live ones fresh from the ocean.

We placed our order with a local seafood market and searched for the biggest pot in our Airbnb. Armed and ready with a few tasty side dishes and cold beverages, we anticipated the night’s meal like a pair of young women waiting for the next season of The Bachelor.

But in the eleventh hour, all three of our kids chickened out.

After the first one watched a YouTube video of lobsters being dropped into a pot of boiling water, she said, “Nope. Can’t do it.” The other two jumped on the bandwagon, with my middle child threatening to bring the lobsters home as pets.

“Once I meet my lobster, I’ll have to name her, and then I could never watch her die.”

Twenty-three years old but still a kid at heart. And the fact that she’d even assigned gender to our soon-to-be dinner was hilarious.

So, before you knew it we were calling the market and requesting that they change the order. We’d pick them up already steamed instead. My husband and I were disappointed, but we weren’t about to drop good money for fresh lobsters only to have them go uneaten. They’d still be fresh and yummy, and we considered the bright side: now there’d be less mess to clean up.

Once the table was set, we all sat down with our nutcrackers and started to tackle the bright red crustaceans. All three of my adult children behaved like toddlers.

“Ewwwww,” my oldest said. “I don’t like the eyes staring at me.”

“I can’t get mine open — this is too hard,” her sister whined.

And my son was especially fixated on the insides of his lobster. “What is this greenish brownish goop inside mine?”

“Exactly what it looks like,” my husband replied laughing.

“Gross! I’m not eating that!”

But, we showed them how to crack open the lobster, starting with removing the claws and the knuckles. Then, holding the body of the lobster in one hand, the tail in the other, how to twist them until the two ends pulled apart. After that, we used the nutcrackers to crack the shells in several places, making it easier to pull out nice chunks of meat.

The kids tried to follow our lead, moaning and groaning about how disgusting it was as liquid dripped down their arms and all over the table. They scooped out anything that looked inedible and squealed at how “yucky” it was. The looks on their faces and the hysterical sounds they made were priceless. Surprisingly, no one cut themselves on the sharp edges of the shells, but there were a few near-misses to warrant more whining.

“I don’t like this,” my middle child complained.

But as soon as they dipped that first piece of lobster meat into the melted butter, the room went silent.

The thick chunks of meat were sweet and juicy, absolutely delicious! Everyone stopped complaining and I know they’ll all be talking about that meal for a long time to come.

What makes a meal most memorable usually isn’t the taste alone. The company and the experience itself add to the flavor, and this meal, in particular, gets a five-star review.

I wasn’t just grateful for the fresh lobster, but the time away with my family was a blessing that I’ll never forget.