Annual Birthday Lobster Dinner

Tom's birthday is February 14th and we've always merged his celebration with Valentine's Day. This year, we decided to dedicate the entire day solely to him and to instead celebrate Valentine's Day one day this week (it's a surprise and I'm super excited). It was a relief not to have to worry about V-Day on his B-Day for the first time and was a great opportunity to spoil him (extra) mad! Needless to say, there was a ton of cooking taking place that day, but the only worth sharing was our annual lobster dinner. Our birthdays are 6 days apart and we always make this dish the week in between the two dates, but this year, Tom requested it for his actual B-day. This lobster recipe is straight forward and simple, but the addition of the champagne makes it feel extra luxurious. We usually stop there, but Tom was feeling adventurous and wanted to take the leftover liquid and lobster and attempt this lobster bisque. We definitely were not prepared for how much harder THAT recipe would turn out to be. But, holy lord, the result was INSANELY good. We finished off the ridiculously labor intensive meal with a bakery-bought (thank god) triple chocolate ganache layer cake. Happy Birthday, Tom!

P.S. Click on the title of this post for more pictures!

Newlywed Note

This was our first time steaming the lobster versus boiling and they turned out just as good. As for the bisque, we needed to add a significant amount of extra flour since ours was too soupy. It's the kind of recipe that you really have to nurse and pine over until it's right. But as in life, if it's high maintenance, it's usually worth it :)

*Click title of post for more pictures