June 8: Cape Cod Stew

I was supposed to make this recipe yesterday, but I had some setbacks, so I made it today. I'm a day behind now, so I wonder how I'll get caught up. We'll see. Here are the ingredients for tonight's recipe:

In the Crock Pot, I put 2 cans chopped tomatoes, 4 cups beef broth, 1/2 cup chopped onions, 1/2 cup chopped carrots, (I left out the 1/2 c. cilantro for my husband's sake), a tbsp. sea salt (I thought 2 would be a bit excessive), 2 tsp. minced garlic, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 4 bay leaves, and 1 tsp. thyme ( I left out the 1/2 tsp. saffron, since it was over $17 for the jar... more than I paid for 2 lobsters!):

I cooked it on high for 6 hours, then I added 2 pounds of shrimp, 2 pounds cubed white fish, 2 lobsters (was supposed to be 3, but I couldn't afford it), and a pound of mussels:

I cooked it for another hour, but I had to switch pots and cook it some more on the stove since the Crock Pot was too full. When the seafood was cooked through, I served it with a hammer:

Wow, this soup was excessive! We did not need that much meat! And we may be eating this for days. It really tasted good. I couldn't find raw lobster or mussels, so they came pre-cooked. I think they were a little over-done. Other than that, the soup was excellent, and even DH, who wasn't looking forward to it, had fun using his new Cutco knife to break open the lobster's shell to get the meat out. Everyone but Susanna finished their soup, and I even had seconds.