LOBSTER ROLLS

This time of year I crave shellfish. I so miss the Dungeness crabs from San Francisco with a passion. I always made Cioppino on Christmas Eve and sometimes New years Eve as well when I lived there. Fifteen years of those wonderful crustaceans.When they were in season, we often had steamed cracked crab....so delicious!Not the only thing I miss from the Bay Area, but they are right up there at the top. Those crabs are hard to come by here in the East. Sometimes I can find them live, outrageously expensive...but I buy them anyway. This year there were none to be had...not that I have seen anyway.

It is cold here in Northern New Jersey today...we are having snow showers on and off and my husband and I had a wonderful summertime treat for lunch today. Lobster Rolls!
I had leftover steamed lobster...if that is even imaginable. We had a lobster fest on Tuesday night.
Maine Lobsters on sale for $4.99 per pound....we got 6 lobsters and the carnage that ensued..well..I spared you all any pictures of that. Needless to say we opened a bottle of wine, and tore into the steamed lobsters, dipping the meat into drawn butter and lemon and not much else...I had steamed some little yukon gold potatoes and some really out of season corn(which was not worth eating) and we had a feast..just the two of us...some lobster crackers and picks and a huge bowl in the middle of the table for the shells...it was great!

I had one 1 1/2 pound lobster left in the fridge...so I picked out the meat and made a lobster salad with
some Hellmann's Mayo(Best Foods...west of the Rockies) , diced celery, a dash of tabasco sauce, freshly ground pepper, and some freshly snipped chives. Now, for a real lobster roll you need a New England style hot dog bun(which we were lucky to find here in New Jersey! Even luckier because my 17 y/o son found them at the market!), which opens on the top and has sides with no crust....you butter the sides and grill them in a pan on top of the stove. I used a cast iron skillet. Open them up, put in a piece or two of lettuce and load in the lobster salad. This we ate with potato chips and cornichons, lacking some nice dill pickle spears in the fridge. I closed my eyes and it felt like lunch at a fish shack in New England...in the summer time. It was a nice lunch to welcome in the new year! I think I need to go and get a few more lobsters while they are still on sale! Who knows...maybe I will find a Dungeness crab swimming in the tank as well!