Sunday, September 2nd, Labor Day Weekend. We traveled up to York, Maine on a beautiful day to have a seafood bake with our friends Craig and Kristen. A seafood bake takes time, but in the Northeast, where seafood abounds, not much money. First we stopped off at a small shack to pick up our lobsters. We were met by an elderly, leather skinned, woman who promptly scooped out our 8 pounds of lobster into a thick paper bag and off we went!

Lobsters like to sit in the cooler and hang out for a bit before they get their steam bath, so we started off with a nice bowl of bruschetta.  Since we're going all seafood, our choice was the Bruschetta with Grilled Shrimp & Sweet Basil Mustard. Slice up some bread, BBQ the shrimp, and top with the sweet basil mixture and you've got one heck of an appetizer.  But you can't stop there because the lobsters are still chillin' in the cooler right? 

So while we were preparing the steam bath, we started scrubbing our mussels.  No silly, not those muscles, our Mussels! Mussels are best when you get'em fresh because you have to sift through each one to make sure it's still alive and then you have to scrub off any 'stuff' hanging out on the mussel. This can be a tedious chore.  Might I suggest a Guinness while you scrub your mussels? After we got done scrubbing, we threw'em (gently!) into their own steam bath along with the wine, lemon juice, chicken broth and red pepper flakes.  Mmmmm tasty!  We served with a couple slices of left over bread from your bruschetta.

Finally, back to the lobsters.  They been chilled for awhile in the cooler and finally it was time for the moment of their lives. Well, kinda. Maybe not. But it was fun for us.  Each lobster gets its' picture taken as it goes into the pot, kinda like you get your picture taken when you're coming down the best part of the roller coaster. Same feeling, different ending.  Anyway, we cooked 'em for a couple minutes (10-15 to be exact) and then pulled 'em apart. Lobster love.

Recipes in this feature:

Bruschetta with Grilled Shrimp & Sweet Basil Mustard Short version of great recipe.

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Steamed Maine Lobsters Steamed Maine Lobsters are great year round!

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Steamed Mussels The steamed mussels we made at Craig & Kristen's house on Labor Day weekend... hopefully good.

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