Fall ... already. Remembrance of lobsters past

HALLIE EPHRON: I can tell it's fall because I'm drinking my first cup of tea in six months, and look at what's on my feet.  Also we're sleeping with the windows closed and I've hauled out the blankets and I've had my first allergy attack in months.

There's one piece of pie left from my first apple pie this year, made with local Cortland apples. Cortlands are incredibly good when they're fresh picked and more or less useless from the supermarket, IMHOP.

We ate most of the pie last night with friends, at the end of a cookout that ended early because by 8 it was dark. Very dark.

The hydrangeas and hostas in my garden are starting to show fall colors.


This summer lobsters have been incredibly cheap. So cheap that I've started to think of them as an ingredient, not the star of the show. So in honor of the end of summer and cheap lobsters, here

Lobster mango salad... it was sensational and I only thought to take a picture after I'd eaten most of it... What makes this work is the bitterness of the arugula and the bite of the cilantro and the sweetness of the mango. I put the dressing on the lobster and added it to the rest of the (undressed) ingredients because you don't want to overwhelm it with the taste of the dressing. 

Dressing:
Mix together --
- About 3 T of mango chutney (if there are big chunks of mango in it chop them up)
- About 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- About 1/3 cup olive oil
- A healthy squeeze of sriracha (hot sauce)
Create a bed of:
- Romaine lettuce
- Arugula
Top with:
- chunks of meat from a steamed (chilled) 2-pound lobster that have been tossed in the dressing
- chunks of mango (I like to use 2 of the yellow "ataulfo" variety)
- chopped cilantro (about 1/2 cup loosely packed)

Lobster corn chowder, dinner for 2... much easier than lobster bisque.
First, boil 2 lobsters, take out the meat and chop it coarsely.
Cook 3 ears of fresh corn, cool, and cut the corn off the cob. Scrape (I use a grapefruit spoon) the cob to release all the nice white milky deliciousness that's still stuck on the cob)

are two recipes
Then...
- Crisp 4 pieces of bacon and set aside; keep the fat!
- In the same pan, saute about a cup of chopped onion, and a cup of chopped celery in the bacon fat drippings
- Add about 2 cups of cubed peeled new or yukon gold potatoes
- Add 3 c. of seafood stock
- Simmer until the potatoes are done
- Add the lobster meat
- Add the corn and crumbled bacon
- Add 1 cup of cream
- Warm through
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- To make it especially delicious, sprinkle each bowlful with chopped fresh tarragon (if you haven't got it, then use parsley)

Leaving you with this morning's New England sky... is this a fall sky or what?