First Academy Awards:

Helen Smith of Silver Spring, Maryland filled our Reader Spotlight last month with plans for an Oscar feast weekend. For her gourmet club recreation of the 1st Academy Awards banquet, she offered her own recipe for Lobster Eugenia, adapted from a recipe she found in Better Homes and Gardens:

4 5-ounce fresh or frozen rock lobster tails
1/3 cup butter
2 tablespoons
fresh chopped garlic cloves
1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
Lemon wedges (optional)

1. Thaw lobster, if frozen. Rinse lobster; pat dry with paper towels. Butterfly tails by using kitchen shears or a sharp knife to cut lengthwise through centers of hard top shells and meat, cutting to, but not through, bottoms of shells. Press shell halves of tails apart with your fingers.

2. For sauce, in a small saucepan melt butter. Remove from heat. Stir in garlic cloves and lemon peel. Remove 2 tablespoons of the sauce; set the remaining sauce aside.

3. Lightly grease the rack of a gas grill. Preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium. Brush lobster meat with some of the 2 tablespoons sauce. Place lobster, meat sides down, on the grill rack directly over heat. Cover and grill for 6 minutes. Turn lobster. Brush with the rest of the 2 tablespoons sauce. Cover and grill for 6 to 8 minutes more or until lobster meat is opaque.