Jonathan likes to call this dinner first world dieting. Guilty as charged. Lobster tails are one of the more extravagant dinners that we have. But as I have said before, we don’t go out to eat very often. If we have one lunch out a week that’s a lot. Since we’ve been here in St. George (8 days), we haven’t eaten out at all.

John steamed the lobster tails for about 5 minutes. They were pretty small. After dinner he took the shells plus shells from shrimp we’ve had and kept in the freezer and made a seafood stock. We’ll be able to use that in our Mediterranean fish stew.

I was also steaming. But in a good way. I steamed tiny new potatoes for about 20 minutes. I like getting the really small ones because they cook quickly and I can eat a lot of them.

Here’s how I dealt with the collard greens. First I sauteed one slice of deli ham and some sliced garlic. The ham was a stand in for bacon.

Sauteed ham and garlic

Then I stripped the tough center rib out of the collard greens, rolled them up like a cigar and cut them in a chiffonade.

Chiffonade of collard greens

The collard greens cooked mostly just in the water that still clung to the leaves. They cook quickly. I think the whole dish took less than 10 minutes to cook. When the collard greens were wilted I sprinkled frozen corn over the top and added the ham and garlic back in. Another minute or two to warm everything through and, voila, a really tasty vegetable.

Lobster tails, new potatoes and collard greens with garlic, ham and corn