Today’s a housekeeping day. Not as in mopping the floor (though someone — I’d prefer not me — will have to do that eventually). <\/p>\n
But housekeeping online. As in renewing domain names, cleaning out email folders, and uploading articles to the Cabal<\/a>. Much of it is screen-sucking tedium. Ugh. Floor mopping is starting to gain a certain appeal.<\/p>\n That last part was good, though. I’ve just uploaded the first two of a four-part BHM series from2015-16 on turning my $10k house into a real home and will upload the other two in the next few days. So you Cabalistas who like DIY adventures (and truly it’s been an adventure) can enjoy. The articles are fun, IMHO, and there are lots of pix included in separate pdfs.<\/p>\n While I was hunting down house pix, I also snacked on crispy-cooked razor clams, courtesy of a neighbor’s weekend expedition to the beach. I have to laugh; as much as I love living near the ocean, I realized I’d not only never gone clamming and never cooked clams, but never even eaten<\/em> them outside of a chowder.* A chowder prepared by some person NOT ME. <\/p>\n A neighbor gave me a gave me a very good recipe for broiling them. And I was pleased to discover that raw clams aren’t slimy; they’re more pleasant to handle than raw chicken. Even so, my first few bites of the finished product were a bit of an adjustment: “Eeew, that’s what clams taste like???” But after a while, I was hooked.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n So herewith, the recipe:<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Clean and cut the necks off razor clams (or the clams of your choice)<\/p>\n Dip clam bits into egg, then into Panko (coarse) bread crumbs<\/p>\n Array on aluminum foil or parchment paper on a cookie sheet<\/p>\n Drizzle with melted butter<\/p>\n Broil three minutes per side, drizzling with more butter (if you wish) upon turning<\/p>\n I varied the broiler temp between high and low and cooked the clams until crispy brown. Mmmmm-good. Well, once I got used to what actual clams actually taste like when not buried in soup. <\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n * That’s not quite true. Right after I moved to the PNW, I did two obligatory things: visited Mt. St. Helens and went to a restaurant and ordered geoduck<\/a>. Geoduck (pronounced, for no good reason, “gooeyduck”) clams … well, it’s not so much about how they taste. I don’t remember that at all. It’s what they look like. If you’re new in the PNW, somebody will dare you to eat one, probably while snickering obscenely at your innocence, and I wanted to get that taken care of first thing. But that was a long, long time ago.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today’s a housekeeping day. Not as in mopping the floor (though someone — I’d prefer not me — will have to do that eventually). But housekeeping online. As in renewing domain names, cleaning out email folders, and uploading articles to the Cabal. Much of it is screen-sucking tedium. Ugh. Floor mopping is starting to gain a certain appeal. That last part was good, though. I’ve just uploaded the first two of a four-part BHM series from2015-16 on turning my $10k house into a real home and will upload the other two in the next few days. So you Cabalistas who…<\/p>\n