The lobsters totally match my outfit!Two weeks ago would have been my Dad’s 63rd birthday! What an old geezer he would have been! I would have loved to tease him about that, but such is life. I’m sure he had a rockin’ birthday in heaven! I wonder if he would have been thinking about retirement had he reached his 63rd year. Hopefully he would have planned trips to Greece or Italy with my mom. Or finally cleaned out his basement tool bench!
Growing up, my Dad’s birthday was like Christmas #2. Some years we went out to fancy dinners. Other times we stayed in and had a family only dinner party which usually consisted of surf and turf; my Dad’s favorite food combination and truly the best of both worlds.
Growing up, my Dad’s birthday was like Christmas #2. Some years we went out to fancy dinners. Other times we stayed in and had a family only dinner party which usually consisted of surf and turf; my Dad’s favorite food combination and truly the best of both worlds.
My sisters and I continue the tradition of my Dad’s birthday, even though he died nearly 4 years ago. One of my sisters lives in California, but I live with the other one, so we decided to do our own home-made tribute to the birth of Dad, and what a feast it was!
We decided on lobster rolls. And what better way to compliment a lobster roll then with….home-made mayonnaise! Sometimes I have this fantasy that I will get to a point in my life where I will exist solely on food that I’ve made from scratch. I’ll grow my own veggies in my non-existent vegetable patch. I’ll make my own GF pasta on my old school pasta cranky machine. I won’t eat anything from a box! But then sometimes it’s 7 pm and I find myself starving after a long day at work, and all I want is boxed GF Mac and Cheese. It’s time like these that cooking from scratch goes out the window real fast! Home-made mayonnaise is actually a lot easier than one thinks. I think it’s the raw eggs that really skeeve people out, when in reality, if you ever go to anywhere outside the US, you realize that people not only eat raw eggs with reckless abandonment but they don’t refrigerate them! My Italian host mom kept her eggs in the pantry! The US has a serious obsession with refrigeration.
Whereas I have a serious obsession with mayonnaise! I really think its one of my top 5 favorite foods. Give me anything with mayonnaise and I’m guaranteed to love it. I even dip my French fries in it….because the truth is I’m secretly aspiring to be Belgian (and maybe obese?). Home-made mayo is best prepared via food processor. I guess you can do it by hand with a whisk, but I’m pretty sure your arm would fall off in the process. Seriously, don’t be Amish and use a food processor!
My sister was worried that if I prepared the mayo incorrectly I would endanger our health, but I think she was confusing mayonnaise with home-canning in which botulism is a risk. You can’t get botulism from bad mayo, only a nasty separated concoction if you add the oil too fast.
We decided on lobster rolls. And what better way to compliment a lobster roll then with….home-made mayonnaise! Sometimes I have this fantasy that I will get to a point in my life where I will exist solely on food that I’ve made from scratch. I’ll grow my own veggies in my non-existent vegetable patch. I’ll make my own GF pasta on my old school pasta cranky machine. I won’t eat anything from a box! But then sometimes it’s 7 pm and I find myself starving after a long day at work, and all I want is boxed GF Mac and Cheese. It’s time like these that cooking from scratch goes out the window real fast! Home-made mayonnaise is actually a lot easier than one thinks. I think it’s the raw eggs that really skeeve people out, when in reality, if you ever go to anywhere outside the US, you realize that people not only eat raw eggs with reckless abandonment but they don’t refrigerate them! My Italian host mom kept her eggs in the pantry! The US has a serious obsession with refrigeration.
Whereas I have a serious obsession with mayonnaise! I really think its one of my top 5 favorite foods. Give me anything with mayonnaise and I’m guaranteed to love it. I even dip my French fries in it….because the truth is I’m secretly aspiring to be Belgian (and maybe obese?). Home-made mayo is best prepared via food processor. I guess you can do it by hand with a whisk, but I’m pretty sure your arm would fall off in the process. Seriously, don’t be Amish and use a food processor!
My sister was worried that if I prepared the mayo incorrectly I would endanger our health, but I think she was confusing mayonnaise with home-canning in which botulism is a risk. You can’t get botulism from bad mayo, only a nasty separated concoction if you add the oil too fast.
home-made mayo...oh boy! Thankfully this did not happen to me. I did think my blender was going to break down or the blade would come whipping out at my face, as the motor started making scary sounds by minute 2 or 3. But voile home-made tangy mayo! I actually didn’t even have lemons to make lemon juice (its been a frugal month at Chez Dumas), so squeezed the life out of a desiccated lime, and it still worked! If this brunette (who sometimes acts like a blonde) can do it, anyone can! Home-made mayo doesn’t last very long though (you can blame that on the lack of preservatives), so be ready to gobble it up in a few days.
Here’s the finished product. This was my sister’s plate with the lovely lobster filled roll. I had my lobster on a bed of arugula, but it was still delicious!
So here’s to you Dad. I taught myself to make home-made mayonnaise. Booo-yah.
HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE
Courtesy of Shana on Glutenfreegirl.com
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons lemon juice/lime juice
1 cup canola oil
salt and cracked black pepper
Place the egg, egg yolk, mustard, and lemon juice in the food processor. While the machine is running, slowly drizzle in the oil, until it is thick and creamy. Add salt and pepper.
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