Lobster Dip Anticipation

Every year around this time we look forward to the Bonney family traditional Carlee's Christmas Lobster Dip! I am going to go ahead and post this story because I have already had a few calls asking for the recipe. I will follow up when the dip is ready to serve and we are ready to dive in, Melba Toast in hand!

It all started here. Ye Yacht Yard in Southport, CT. So many memories. From bluefish fisherman to lobster fisherman, my father, an old salt, lived for his time at the boat yard. He brought his 4 children down here to play on the rocks, walk the plank down to the dock at low tide and cast for snappers off the rocks. It was heaven on earth.

He loved the water to say the least. That trait runs in my veins and my siblings' as well. He became an avid lobster fisherman at some point and the rest is history. Bait barrels-smelly as can be, homemade lobster pots and ropes, and buoys and knitted bait traps. Our garage growing up was amuck!!!!!!

But his hobby was endearing and we were proud, plus others thought the same! Once there was a segment on a local television station and my dad was the star. Of course, I saved the old VCR and had it made into a CD with a cover I designed pictured here. (have it still if anyone wants a copy!!)

The business card was another design I did, yet B.C. – before computers as I say. I still love lettering by hand! The saying, "You take the best. We eat the rest" was one we used often.  If you know lobsters, they aren't always 2 clawed perfect specimens! Bullets (no claws) or Culls (one claw only) were brought home for the family. Christmas with extended family was a perfect time to share!

A class to get me back up and running in the graphic design world in the 90's produced this tribute to both my mother & father. Quite a feat back then. Learning Illustrator, Photoshop and more in one semester was fun but scary! (this first project I don't consider good art at all) but it preserved a feeling, a story and a recipe that I have been able to share time and time again.

One of the old original, wooden handmade lobster pots lives on. My sun porch has a lobster pot coffee table that is topped with glass from the old Bonney Electric window (broken from a break in!!) and clearly shows the inner workings of a pot, an identification number and some good dust it has collected.
Memories can get dusty too but if you brush them off, it sometimes hurts and sometimes feels good.

Traditions feel good...so here's to looking forward to our Carlee's Christmas Lobster Dip this year.