It was supposed to be a labor-intensive dish to celebrate St. Honorat’s feastday. St. Honorat(us) founded a monastery in France — the place is now called Ile St. Honorat — and the dish associated with him that Ernst Schuegraf (Cooking with the Saints) describes sounds decadent and luscious. But after hubby bought the lobster I just couldn’t see myself pushing through with a multi-stepped lobster creation. Homard St. Honorat is basically lobster with a cream-and-brandy sauce — the lobster is cooked, taken out of its shell, and sauced. Buttered rice is spooned into the lobster shell, the lobster pieces put back on top and fried oysters go on the lobster (yeah, my mouth watered just typing that). Couldn’t handle this amidst all the housecleaning and packing. [Incidentally, I tried to find out more information about the recipe and the saint, but there wasn’t much. If you have any info about the dish and why its connection to St. Honorat, I’d be very grateful for your help!]

So…. I made instead this simple dish that takes but minutes to prepare.

Now, wouldn’t you agree that’s marvelously stress-free?