This Sunday came along and it was, as you all know, Father's Day! I love this holiday so much because I love my dad and I love that I've made Jeff a father. I love to see him with our girls! Even though Alissa is not his biological daughter, she still treats her as his own and she has a daddy that is amazing so she's doubly blessed.
Of course Alissa spent all weekend with her daddy. She usually spends most weekends (at least one day) with him but he's been going to school so he hasn't taken her as often and I know it kills him when she's away. We have a very great "ex's" relationship. We get along wonderfully which makes things so much easier.
While Alissa was enjoying the day with her daddy, Carley, Jeff and I were at home relaxing. Carley and I had gone to Panera and bought Jeff bagels to have on Father's Day morning, and he also had a fresh pot of coffee and some tivo'd movies he was watching. Later we went to my parents house because we bought Jeff a new stereo for his truck for being such a great daddy and he wanted to install it right away! The new stereo is so cool because it connects to his iPod and plays the music through his truck speakers!
I had a special dinner planned for Jeff and my dad and I even invited my mother-in-law over because my father-in-law is out of town for work. (Recipe to follow!)
When we got to my parents house Carley begged us to take her "little wheels" aka training wheels off of her bike. She wasn't so confident after they came off so my dad put them back on and we took a little walk/ride around the neighborhood. While we were gone my mom decided to lay down and rest because she had been up since 3 AM for work.
As soon as we got back I started working on our dinner. I made a crab boil (some people also call them crab or clam bakes). It's so yummy, if you like seafood. The only seafood I put in mine are the ones I like to eat! I don't like clams so I don't put them in there.
Soon after that my mother-in-law arrived, helped me finish dinner, my mom woke up and we ate to our hearts content. Dessert was pretty yummy too!
Back to the stereo - needless to say it didn't go as planned. Poor Jeff was so frustrated and upset that he gave up and we went home. Now I'm stuck with his truck today so I can take it in to Best Buy Installation for him. It's a stick shift which I haven't driven in over 5 years so wish me luck!
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Recipe for the Crab Boil!
Ingredients:
Crab legs
Shrimp, deveined (I leave the shells on)
Lobster, halved and cleaned
Red potatoes, halved
Corn on the cob
Sausage (I used kielbasa but any smoked or spicy sausage will do)
Onions
Garlic
Lemons
Old Bay Seasoning
Salt
I use a HUGE stock pot and fill it about 2/3 with water, add plenty of salt and a generous amount of Old Bay (I didn't measure but I'd say it was about 1-2 cups). Add a few onions quartered with the root end in tact, a garlic clove halved with the skins and about 2 lemons that I quartered and squeezed the juice into the water then tossed them in also.
After the cooking liquid comes to a boil I added the potatoes and sausage and cooked for about 10 minutes, then I added the corn for about 5 minutes, followed by the shrimp, lobster and crab legs. Cook for approximately 3 minutes (until the shrimp & lobster were cooked through), drain & serve!
I serve this in a huge bowl in the middle of the table and everyone picks out what they like to eat. It's fun because it's mostly finger food. I also had a side of garlic butter for everyone to dip their seafood into along with lemon wedges. We also had a big salad and garlic bread too!
To make the garlic butter I melted a stick of butter with a glove of garlic cut in half!
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Dessert! I made a creme anglaise with fresh berries! It was so easy but unfortunately not so healthy.
Ingredients:
2 C Heavy Cream
1 C Milk
6 Egg Yolks
1/2 C Sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until well blended and it forms a ribbon when you lift the whisk out of the bowl.
Heat the milk & cream over medium low heat until steaming but not boiling. Temper in about 1/2 cup of the cream mixture into the egg mixture, whisking vigorously, so you don't scramble the eggs (the purpose of tempering is to slowly heat the eggs so they don't cook too quickly). Add the egg mixture to the cream on the stove and cook on low heat, stirring, until it thickens but doesn't boil (if the mixture boils it will break and won't set). Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla and strain into a clean bowl. Place the bowl over a double bowl of ice and let it cool to room temperature then refrigerate until ready to serve.
We put the creme anglaise in individual serving dishes with fresh strawberries, blueberries & blackberries!
If you try these recipes let me know how you like them!!!
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