Steamer Clams with Linguine

Today I went to the fish market (yes, they know me well there!) to get something to prepare for our dinner tonight.  I was delighted to see steamer clams in the display, herring roe and large shrimp already peeled and deveined (yes!)...so I bought all three!  I decided that tonight I would make clams with linguine and save the roe and shrimp for tomorrow when we watch the final game of the ACC tournament.  Wayne and I both like clams with a white sauce, but tonight I gave it a little bit of red and it was delicious!

Ingredients:

1/2 # box Fettuccine 
3 dozen steamer clams (yes this is a lot for 2 people...probably can work for 4...but we "luv" clams!) the clams I bought were pretty clean, just needed a cold water rinse to get a little grit off the shells

1/4 cup olive oil
6 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion, chopped
1 bottle clam juice
2 cups white wine
1 can petite chopped tomatoes
1 cup parsley, chopped
1 tsp. sea salt
Red pepper flakes (I use about 1/2 tsp.)
Shredded Parmesan cheese



1. Start cooking the fettuccine, you want it to be al dente....drain when done.
2. Pour olive oil and heat in large skillet medium heat until hot...not smoking!
3.  Add garlic and onion and cook until onion is translucent.
4.  Add Clam juice and wine and cook until reduced by half.
5.  Add can of tomatoes with juice, parsley,red pepper flakes, salt and cook for 5 minutes.
6.  Add clams and cook until clams open (should take 8-10 minutes)
7.  Combine fettuccine and clam mixture.
8.  Serve in bowls topped with Parmesan with crispy bread and a salad.

Relax Your Kale...Give It a Massage!

In January I was in Seattle and, for the first time, had a fresh kale salad.  I came home and tried to replicate it for Wayne, it was OK, but the kale was not tender enough.  Off to Google I go and discover that kale needs a good massage to make it relax.  Now this is my favorite green to use in salads.  It's really good with fruit (I've used mango and oranges) and with the traditional salad vegetables.  Adding your favorite cheese topping only makes it better!  I like using blue cheese with the fruit version and freshly grated Parmesan with the vegetable.  Try this for a really healthy, delicious salad!

Ingredients

·         1 bunch kale, stalks removed and discarded, leaves thinly sliced

·         1 tbs. lemon juice

·         2 tbs. olive oil

·        

Drizzle olive oil and  lemon juice over kale and massage the kale until it starts to soften and wilt, 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside while you make a dressing.

Sweet Dressing (if adding fruit)

In a small bowl, whisk 1/4 cup lemon juice with 2 tbs. honey and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Slowly add ¼ cup of olive oil while whisking.

Pour the dressing over the kale, and add 1 cup of fruit.  Toss and serve.

Vinaigrette

·         ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

·         ¼ cup fresh lemon juice

·         2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano)

·         2 garlic cloves , minced

·         ½ teaspoon sugar

·         ¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper (to taste)

·          Kosher salt (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake until combined.  Add chopped tomatoes, green onions, and cucumber to kale.  Shake dressing again and pour over salad.  Toss and serve.

Delectable Shad Roe

Today I went to the fish market intending to get salmon to cook for our dinner tonight.  The salmon was there,  but as I explored the ice box filled with fish I saw one of Wayne's favorite delicacies, shad roe.  A shad  spends their lives in the Ocean from Georgia to Nova Scotia, but move into North Carolina freshwater rivers and streams to spawn in the spring. We've had such a warm winter, I think they've come a little early.  The American shad is a valuable commercial fish highly prized for the quality of its flesh (so some say) and roe (I would agree!). I doubt that I would ever cook a shad...it's loaded with small bones and if my memory serves me correctly, a real "fishy" fish.  I remember Grandmama  cooking a shad  covered with a cloth and baking it so long that the bones dissolved.  You can find recipes for cooking this fish dating from early colonial times.

Wayne and I are not shad fish eaters but really enjoy shad roe so I was delighted to find it already in the market.  Sometimes I precook bacon until it's just about to crisp, wrap the bacon around the roe and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.  Tonight I found a  great new recipe in the Washingtonian Magazine from the Blue Duck Tavern that made the roe a very special dish.   I served it with garlic mashed potatoes and a crispy romaine wedge salad.  Yum!!!


Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 slices smoked bacon, diced
1 medium vidalia (or other sweet) onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 slices bacon
2 "sets" shad roe (4 lobes)
2 tbs. butter
2 tbs. balsamic vinegar
4 tbs. chicken stock
1 tbs. stone ground mustard
2 tbs. butter
1 tbs. fresh squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1.  Using a cast our skillet over medium heat, saute bacon until crisp and fat is rendered.  Add onion and garlic.  When onions are caramelized (about 5 minutes) remove mixture from pan and set aside.
2.  Wipe pan and return to heat.  Pat the roe dry and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Melt two tablespoons of butter in the pan, add the two whole slices of bacon and cook until close to crisp.  Add roe to the pan and cook on one side for 3 minutes, basting with the butter in the pan, then carefully flip.
3.  Place the pan in the oven a cook for 5 minutes (the time is very important, overcooked roe turns to mush!)  Remove the roe and bacon from the pan and place on a warm plate.
4.  Drain the fat from the pan and return to medium heat.  Deglaze the pan with the vinegar when it is reduced by 90% return the onion mixture to the pan, add the chicken stock and mustard.  When it starts to boil take it off the head and add butter and lemon juice.
5.  Serve roe over the onions with a strip of bacon and drizzle sauce over.

Me Oh My...Simple Apple Pie!

Desserts were never a featured part of my mom's menu when we were growing up.  At Thanksgiving and Christmas she woud prepare sweet potato pies and nutty finger cookies and once and a while a really good pound cake (my dad's favorite).  When we had apple pie it was a frozen one from the A&P (I remember taking one out of the oven and dropping it in the floor).  So, like my mom, desserts are not my speciality...except for apple pie.  When Wayne and I were newly weds we had wonderful back door neighbors, Tom and Caroline.  We ate together frequently and often Caroline would prepare a delicious apple pie.  One fall we drove to the mountains in Virginia and picked our own apples and it was then that I learned from Caroline just how simple it is to make an apple pie.
This past October, while visiting with my children and grandchildren in Maryland, I took the grandchildren apple picking.  The trees were full of apples and in no time we had all filled our bags with crispy, sweet, tart, beautiful apples.  When we got back to the house we all decided to make apple pie.  One of the most difficult steps in making a pie is peeling the apples.  But Amanda has one of those fantastic apple peelers that makes the task simple and really a fun task for the kids!(http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/old-fashioned-apple-peeler-and-corer/ )  The other difficult part, at least for me, is making the crust...but thanks to Pillsbury, that is no longer true!  So, once we had taken the crust out of the box and had it in the pie pan, the children filled the pie shell with the apple mixture.  We cut the second pie crust in strips and created a woven top.  Soon the pie was in the oven and that wonderful aroma of apple pie filled the house...a delicious dessert and wonderful memory!

Ingredients

8 medium Granny Smith apples or 6 large, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 box of Pillsbury Pie Crusts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1.  Follow direction for crust, when the bottom crust is in the pan sprinke white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg over the bottom.
2. Combine apples, sugars, flour, nutmeg and cinnamon
3.  Fill pie shell with apple mixture
4.  Use the second pie crust to top the pie (You can slice in strips and make woven top or just place on top, crimp edges and make slits for steam to escape).
5. Bake for 1 hour.  Serve hot from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

A Light Valentine Dessert

This recipe is one I learned from my Aunt Esther about 40 years ago.  Aunt Esther was a real character and a fantastic cook.  She was married to a Navy man and traveled the world with him.  When Pearl Harbor was bombed she was there with her 2 year old son.  She and her family finally settled in Virginia.  Wayne and I had not been married long when she invited us over to a luau.  I asked if I could come early and watch and help her cook.  I learned a lot from her that day, from how to properly cook rice, why  and how you slice vegetables on the bias, and, most importantly, how you can easily prepare a festive meal for a crowd.  The dessert that night was a simple, light combination of jello, angel food cake and strawberries.  Since we all associate red with Valentine's Day, I'm sharing it as a simple Valentine's Day dessert.

Ingredients

1 large package strawberry jello
2 cups boiling water
1 cup cold water
1 box sweetened frozen strawberries
1 angel food cake
1 large container whipped topping
Fresh strawberries
Mint leaves (optional)

In a bowl dissolve jello in boiling water add cold water and mix well.  Pour into whatever shaped container you want to use...I have done this in a bowl, a casserole dish, and mold. (If using bowl or mold I spray with Pam).   Add frozen strawberries and chill until slightly set.  Tear the angel food cake into chunks and add to jello, push down to level the top.  Refrigerate until firm.  Frost with cool whip and garnish with fresh strawberries and mint.

Cape Lookout and Clam Chowder

Every time I see a picture of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's home I have a rush of wonderful memories.  The Lanes, along with some of their friends, leased the lighthouse keeper's house for several years.  For several summers I went with my friend, Connie, her parents, her brother (Hal), and who ever else was invited to come along.  Harold Lane was truly a man in charge (still is at 96) and had our jobs lined up for the trip over to the island.. who was going to put the wood blocks at the wheels while he launched the boat, who was getting the cooler....and we all jumped at his order to get our jobs done.  We did the same when we beached the boat at the cape.  Jeeps were always ready and waiting for us (magic Harold worked with some guys working at the Coast Guard station) and we trekked up to the big ol' house.  Everyday we were out and about...little time was spent laying in the sun.  We fished, went shelling, and took adventurous trips in the jeep.  At night board games and cards occupied our time...all of this accompanied by much laughter.  Once we had to leave the cape because a hurricane was on the way.  In spite of the rain, Harold stopped the boat for us to fish.  We filled a cooler with beautiful trout...I screamed with delight every time I caught one.  One of the things I enjoyed most there was clamming.  Using garden rakes in shallow water on the sound side, we raked the bottom until we heard the scrape of a clam. It wouldn't be unusual to find a scallop or a sand dollar in the process.  After our buckets were filled with clams, we headed back to the house.  Harold used a hammer and a chisel to pry open tightly closed clams, while Weezie Lane directed us at dicing potatoes, onions, celery, and carrots (all done to Harold's specifications).  The results were always delicious!  Those wonderful days of clamming, fishing, game playing and adventuring are such a special memory to me.

My clam chowder is not made with fresh clams and at my son, Joel's request, I have added tomatoes.  Here lately I've been cheating with the dicing and use my food processor to chop but the result is still a delicious chowder that I enjoy sharing with family and friends.  I know I would never have made my first pot if it had not been for the happy times spent with the Lanes at Cape Lookout and the ritual preparation of  clam chowder!


Ingredients

1 tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup pork side meat or thick sliced bacon cut in small pieces
2 cups yellow onion,  chopped
2 cups celery,  chopped
1 cup carrot, washed, not peeled, chopped
4 medium potatoes, cubed
1 51 ounce can ocean clam juice (I have found this at a local fish market)
1 28 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
1 51 ounce can ocean chopped clams
salt and pepper to taste

1. Over medium heat saute pork in olive oil until pork is slightly crispy
2.  Add onion, celery, carrots, cook until tender (about 10 minutes)
3. Add potato and cook for another 10 minutes
4.  Pour in clam juice and simmer for 20 minutes
5.  Add tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes
6.  Add clams and simmer on low for 30 minutes
7.  Season with salt and pepper to taste
8.  Remove chowder from burner and allow to cool
9.  Reheat and serve

Chicken and Dumplings...Real Comfort Food and a Special Memory

Years ago I started fixing chicken and dumplings for my family, always a favorite for everyone!  This recipe uses Bisquick to make a dough that you drop into a rich chicken filled broth.  The dumplings break apart slightly and the result is a thick, luscious chicken and dumplings dish.  I have lots of memories with this dish but the one that always comes back, whenever I prepare this, is an evening at the Molinari's after our dear friend Pat had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Pat had been in the hospital for a few weeks  and his wife, Evie, called and asked us to come.  We armed ourselves with NC barbecue, which I knew their sons loved and headed to Montclair.  When we arrived, Pat was released from the hospital, and arrived home shortly after we got there.  Lunch was NC barbecue, and for dinner I decided to get the makings for chicken and dumplings.  The whole family, including Pat, sat around the table that night...Pat seemed to have a very special energy with all of us there. He commented, "Isn't this great!"  I think he was so happy to have his daughter, Lynnie and his sons, Patrick and Scott with him and Evie.  When he got up to leave the table he wrapped his arm around Evie and pronounced his love (this was unusual for this "no public displays of affection" guy!).  Later in the night, Pat peacefully left us.  A special memory of a special man.

Ingredients

• 1 (2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 4 quarts water
• 2 cups Bisquick
• 2/3 cup of milk

1.    Place the chicken and salt and pepper in a pot, season will salt and pepper. Add 4 quarts of water  bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer the chicken until it is tender and the thigh juices run clear, about 40 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and, when it is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and meat from the bones. (I always taste the broth to make sure it has enough seasoning)

2.    Prepare dumpling dough according to the directions on the Bisquick box.

3.    Add chicken pieces  to the broth and bring to a boil.

4.    Drop dumpling dough by spoonfuls onto boiling chicken.  Reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes, uncovered.  After 10 minutes cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

5.    Serve in a large bowl, sprinkle with fresh parsley.