Today started a little later because the low tide isn't until 7:30 am. Needless to say, I'm feeling a little discombobulated, never mind that I just stepped on the scale after a 10 day hiatus and the numbers are rising. Holy cow! Some day I'm going to be singing "Hurray, hurray the diet starts today", but not yet. I can still fit into my pants, so I'll put the calorie counting off for another day or two. It's gettin' close though.
With all of that out of the way, yesterday was mostly a "kitchen" day. I love the little kitchen in our cabin. Although there's limited counter space, the sun's always shining in and it sure puts out some fabulous food. Steve's best buddy John is here for a few days, which means I have even more reason to cook. He brought a gorgeous flat of berries some of which are going to find their way into a crisp a little later on. John loves desserts and I love to make 'em, so it's a perfect situation.
The kitchen smelled just peachy most of yesterday. We'd picked up some white peaches on sale the other day at Fred Meyer and they were transformed into "Diddle Diddle Dumplings". Download Peach Diddle Diddle Dumplings
This recipe is from Best of Bridge and though it calls for apples, I thought peaches would be a nice variation. I wasn't wrong - in fact, the guys all but finished it off this morning before they left for the clamming beds. While it was a bit of a struggle getting the peaches wrapped into the dough, the final result tasted quite wonderful, though next time I think I'll add a little more cinnamon to the mix. Course John and I had ours with Tillamook Black Walnut Icecream (now talk about addictive), but the big guy's a purist so he had his dumplings naked.
He was celebrating yesterday, although I'm not sure that I should be happy about it. He came home with 9 gaper clams and oh boy, are they ugly! He's determined to make them into clam strips tomorrow night for dinner so you'll likely get to see them. Me...I'm going on strike if he comes home with too many of those! See what I mean?
As for dinner last night, we had Clams Casino with some of that Lemon & Basil Pasta we had a little while ago (check archives under pasta for the link). Couldn't find anything wrong with either one of them, and neither could the guys which is always a good sign. This particular recipe for Clams Casino is adapted from a Giada recipe off Food Network, Download Clams Casino and I made it with cockles the big guy dug up. Honestly, I've made it every year that we've been coming to the Oregon coast and it is almost perfect. The balance of bacon, onion, garlic, red pepper and oregano is perfect with the clams and it was particularly good with the lemon flavors in the pasta. In fact, I dumped my clams on top of the pasta which made it all that much easier to shovel in. What can I say except that the big guy finished his so quickly, I was afraid he was going to grab my plate.
While the guys are off playing I'm going to clean up the kitchen then head to town for a little fun at the antique stores. I've been meaning to go for the last 3 years, so here's my opportunity. Catch ya all later!
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