My Year in Food/La Luna Cooks Gooseberry Patch: Easy as A, B, Seafood Bisque, December 10, 2014

I'd been kind of dreading making the seafood bisque in the Gooseberry Patch Fall, Family, and Friends cookbook. For one thing, I don't love seafood bisque under the best of circumstances. I like shrimp and some kinds of fish (Red Snapper, Mahi Mahi, Grouper), but mostly am not a fan. Jeannene, on the other hand, loves crab, lobster, and most fish. She loves seafood bisque, too. I was nervous about this recipe, though, on her behalf, because of two things. It contains shrimp, which she has recently taken a dislike to, in most circumstances, because she had undercooked shrimp twice in a week at two different restaurants. Ever since then, she has requested that any shrimp dish I make have chicken, instead, or that she get to eat something else for dinner. Can't say as I blame her. Raw shrimp is not something easily forgotten! Second, the shrimp and crab the recipe called for are canned, which didn't sound like a good idea to me. And it calls for imitation lobster. I am not even sure what that is. I mean, I know what it is, but I wasn't even sure what it really consists of until I asked Jeannene.

She, on the other hand, was really excited about the soup. When I forgot to thaw the bread dough for bread bowls and realized it as she was on her way home, she even stopped and picked up a couple mini-rounds to make into bread bowls. I made the recipe exactly as directed, saying yes to the optional dry white wine and adding a couple healthy splashes of dry sherry, as well. I think seafood bisque requires sherry. I was unimpressed by the finished product, although I thought it might be pretty good, if I liked that sort of thing.

Apparently, that was the case, because Jeannene thought it was fabulous. She, in fact, stated repeatedly that it was fabulous. She couldn't believe I didn't like it, finished mine, went for another helping, and then had the kids come by to pick up the leftovers the next day, praising it to the heavens. Me, I was content eating a couple of clementines for my dinner, after I'd given the soup a fair three bites to see if it would grow on me.