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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Peach Avocado Lobster Cocktail Recipe


I confess, I only cooked live lobsters once, and I kind of freaked out. I made Lee come and put the lobsters in the pot. That was several years ago, so when the nice folks at LobsterAnywhere offered to send me some fresh lobsters, I figured now was as good a time as any to overcome my phobia.

LobsterAnywhere has been a wholesale purveyor since 1999, and their prices are a bit less than some of their competitors. They pride themselves on providing top quality hard shell lobsters from Maine and indeed, mine were very large and very lively when they arrived! They sent the lobsters with a booklet of very useful information, especially on the timing for boiling or steaming them. I went with steaming. But I didn't just drop the lobsters head first into the pot. I followed the instructions on the Fine Cooking video for How to Kill a Lobster. Many articles and experts say it's more humane to kill the lobsters first and them steam them. So I chilled them down for a few minutes, and sliced through the heads before putting them in the pot. 

LobsterAnywhere also offers desserts and a delicious clam chowder, but the main focus is on fresh live lobsters. I know many people think eating them with butter and lemon is best, but I like creating recipes so that's what I did. I was planning on making a mango and lobster cocktail, but I had some excellent peaches and so I used those instead. But I'm sure it would be good with mango too. After you get over your fear of lobsters, the rest is easy! 



Peach Avocado Lobster Cocktail Recipe
Serves 1

Ingredients

2 ounces lobster
1/3 cup seedless cucumber, diced
1/4 avocado, peeled and diced
1/2 peach, diced
1/4 lime

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1  Tablespoon Champagne vinegar
1/2 teaspoon honey
Salt and chili pepper flakes to taste

Instructions

Make the dressing by combining the olive oil, vinegar, honey and seasonings to taste. Whisk together thoroughly. Place the lobster in a bowl. Toss it with a bit of the dressing. In a separate bowl combine the cucumber, avocado and peaches and squeeze the lime over the mixture. Then dress the fruits and vegetables lightly with the dressing. Layer the avocado, cucumber and peach with the lobster in a glass. Serve immediately. 

Enjoy! 

Disclaimer: LobsterAnywhere provided me with the lobsters used in this recipe. They did not pay me to write this post. 

Peaches and Cream Chamomile Tea Cooler


Sometimes your instinct and reasoning skills line up to tell you something.  A situation in which success should be guaranteed.

You see the way he gets all excited playing with a ball.  You know how energetic he is.  You are extremely aware of his inability to sit still.  Friends and family all said yes, he will love it.  Toddler soccer seemed like the perfect activity for Max.

But it was not.  To say the least.  In his defense, the soccer class was held on a patch of grass immediately adjacent to the big toys on the playground.  Like right there, calling out to him with its siren song of fun and climbing adventures.  A song that he could only hear, apparently, as none of the other tots seemed to be running off to play on it.

At first, everything seemed like it would be perfect.  Hilarious and adorable, with a happy little tot playing with the soccer ball.  But that scene was crushed after all of like thirty seconds (I'm not exaggerating), when he decided he needed to be elsewhere. The two train-shaped toys were especially appealing to his sensibilities.  After using various strategies to get my child back to soccer, I eventually had to admit defeat.  As soon as I would carry him over to the soccer balls he would just dart right back to the playground area.  Futility at its finest.

So that was that.

I was so wrong about his interest in soccer.

But I don't think I am wrong here.  I had a vision, instinct and reasoning, telling me that sweet cream and peaches and chamomile and lemon would come together to make a delicious summery drink.

Sometimes our instincts are wrong.  And sometimes they are spot-on.  Not sure what to make of that situation.

Ingredients
For the chamomile-black tea:
8 regular-sized chamomile tea bags
3 regular-sized black tea bags (I insist on my mom sending me packages of Red Rose brand of tea)
4 cups just-boiled water

4 peeled peaches
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 tablespoons International Delight Cold Stone Creamery Creamer Sweet Cream Flavor
honey, to taste (depends on the sweetness of your peaches)

Instructions
To make the chamomile-black tea:  Pour the water over the tea bags.  Steep for 4-6 minutes, remove bags. Cool.

To make the tea cooler:  Pour the tea, peaches, lemon juice, creamer, and honey (if using) in bowl.  Blend everything with an immersion blender (or regular blender) until frothy. Ladle into ice-filled glasses.




By the way, in addition to the Sweet Cream creamer flavor, International Delight and Cold Stone Creamery have three additional flavors! They are:
Cold Stone Creamery Hot for Cookie
Cold Stone Creamery Founder's Favorite
Cold Stone Creamery Churro Caramel

Sound amazing?  Click here to find out where to get them!

Love ice cream + coffee? This summer, International Delight is bringing your favorite Cold Stone Creamery ice cream flavors to coffee and they're celebrating by giving away five $400 grand prizes to throw this summer’s ultimate Ice Cream Social!  To enter, visit the ID + Ice Cream Pinterest board and pin your favorite image using the #IScream4ID hashtag. Good luck!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.