HungryChris

Chicken liver pate, smoked salmon spread, cherries and a Boston Lager. HC .

I have refused to buy zucchini, from the moment the little ones started to form on the plants out in the garden. I have faced down the grizzly reality of breakfast after breakfast without it. That all changed today! I was lost, but now, I'm found. HC

Made another small batch of CLP. This time I used some thyme and gelatin just to see how it would work. I kinda like the result. HC

Ramen with baby bok choy and sugar snaps cooked with garlic and ginger, black fungus, kimchi and a pickled ginger garnish. HC ok

Sometimes, in the morning, when I take my first look in the garden, I swear I can hear the late Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, singing "The Waiting is The Hardest Part". HC

Even though it was not an overly hot day, I was happy to serve a hot day dinner. HC

Funny, I was just looking at one in the market yesterday and thinking it was about time to do another. I am looking foreword to hearing about yours! HC

Sad News Indeed!!! I had kind of a bad year last year and I have seen a few, but I have a bowl of soapy water out in the garden that I just roll them into. Very satisfying! You should have enough time to recover some of the season, right? HC

New Haven Style Clam Pizza. I made the dough the day before and left it to rest wrapped up in the fridge overnight. Mid afternoon, I measured out about 13 oz for the dough and formed it into a pie. This takes about 4 or 5 sessions, allowing the dough to warm up and relax for about 20 minutes between sessions. Here it is about half way through not quite thin enough, but on its way to be. I have found that about 3 lbs. of clams (unshucked, and still in the shell) is just about right for a 13" pizza (about the biggest I can fit on my pizza peel). I learned to shuck clams at a fish market and am convinced that I learned the right way. Keep in mind that if my right hand were not holding the camera for this pic, it would simply be holding the clam knife. Notice that the clam has a sharp curve on one side and a gentle curve on the other. I was taught to place the clam knife in the slot between both shells, on the "short side" of the clam, the side where the curve is sharpest. The only force that is applied is with the fingers of your left hand, pulling the knife into the clam, not by holding the clam in your left hand and forcing the clam knife into the clam with your right hand, which is a sure fire method of cutting yourself. Three pounds of littleneck clams will yield about 13 ounces of clams, from which I drain the liquor and simmer to reduce, then add back to the clams. I chop a whole bulb of peeled garlic, add an equal amount of good olive oil, a TBS of dried basil leaves, mix this all together and brush it on to the pie, which is now on the peel that was sprinkled liberally with corn meal "ball bearings" to assure it slides quickly and easily onto the hot steel in the oven. Distribute the chopped clams over the pizza and top with a liberal amount of freshly grated parmesan cheese This gets baked in a preheated oven on the hottest setting you have (my oven tops out at 475 F). Mine takes between 14 and 18 minutes depending on the toppings. HC

I spent the morning working in the garden. By 10 AM, it was heating up and the humidity is pretty high. I went inside, turned on the A/C, put a beer glass in the freezer, made this salad with some Bibb lettuce I had picked and washed, and headed back out to the garden. Just before noon, as the sun was in it's prime and the heat was reaching 86 F, I had had enough. I was ready for lunch. Homemade smoked salmon spread, although an afterthought, fit right in! HC

I have started keeping a file of hot weather meals to help me plan in the future. Here is my first entry: Chicken pasta salad (made with leftover jerk chicken), deviled eggs, radishes from the garden, marinated asparagus, olives we brought back from Italy, smoked salmon spread, brie and watermelon sticks (yesterday the seedless watermelon at Aldi, was $6.99 ea, today they were $3.99 ea and melt in your mouth, way good!). HC

Clear broth clam chowder and cheddar bay biscuits, both left over from dinner. HC

Here is the one I have found that I like the most: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016056-jerk-chicken HC

It was a hot one today. I used 8 pounds of the clams I harvested yesterday to make my favorite chowder, but opted to make Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits instead of clam fritters. Dealing with the hot oil, just put be off. HC

Homemade hickory smoked salmon and leftover potato salad. HC

They are just something that are not in the markets around here. In fact I have never seen a one for sale here and I agree about the flavor and would certainly buy them if I could. HC

These were from Bluff Point State Park in Groton, CT. Just about a 30 minute ride from my house on the CT side of the RI boarder. It's another 30 minute walk from the parking lot, out to "Area P", where I like to go. Those buildings in the background are the hangars and maintenance buildings at the Groton-New London airport. There is a National Guard facility there and the copters are always checking out the clamming activities. I bet they all know where the best areas are! It will be chowder and fritters, tonight, I suspect. HC

Some years ago, we had a memorable lunch at a place called Cuzzin's in St. Thomas. It was simple fare, consisting of jerk chicken and potato salad. Over the years, I have strived to replicate that lunch, and my first few attempts were almost laughable. I have sharpened my potato salad skills to the point of pride in that time, but the jerk chicken remained an issue. I am always trying to come up with new uses for trimmed chicken leg quarters because they are so abundant, inexpensive and readily available. I did my research and have come to realize that it takes a few days to make it happen properly, as the chicken needs to languish in the jerk paste for 12 hours or more. Scotch bonnet peppers are not something we can get around here, but habaneros seem to be an acceptable substitute. I was reluctant to use the 6 called for in the recipe I used, but did so anyway. I watched Deb's first reaction intently, and was pleased to see her go back for more, after an initial gasp. I don't think I have used ground allspice ever before, but used it both in the jerk paste as well as the water soaked hickory chips thrown on the fire as the chicken cooked. It is something I will buy with renewed enthusiasm in the future. The end result was a revisit to the past, and a good one! This one will go in the books as a winner. Grilled corn on the cob and fresh picked sugar snaps made this meal one to remember. HC

Low tide was at 8 am today so I was out the door by 6:30 am. The competition was there ahead of me, but I managed to "rake in" a little over 8 dozen in 2 hours. HC

Deb took her grandson down the street to the town beach today. He was full of himself and just not cooperative, as much as he does love swimming there. I had a feeling that she would need a bit of special treatment to bring her around to being the person I love living with. I have learned that lobster is the best way to get there. The fathers day special solved that problem and I was at the ready to make that happen. She spent most of the dinner making the "when Harry met Sally" noises, which let me know I had done the right thing. HC

Keep it simple Friday here. HC

I am ashamed to admit it, but the only time I went to a Sonic was in Las Vegas. I walked down there while Deb was asleep. I saw no menu, no instructions and could not figure out how to do it. I saw that there were people inside working, people outside in cars eating burgers, but just could not make it happen. I like to think of myself as a pretty resourceful person, but just walked away knowing that In & out burger was our next stop. HC

Stop & Shop Natural casing, pork and beef franks with cheese and onion, sauerkraut and onion and ball park mustard, and salads. Deb adds ketchup to hers, but I can't bring myself to photograph it. It's just wrong! HC

What started as my humble tribute to Tony Bourdain, a ramen with plenty of additives, has become a recent obsession. Today it was ramen, baby bok choy, sautéed in garlic along with the first zucchini from the garden, black fungus and kim chi, the latter adding an almost magical quality to the broth. When I began to assemble the dish, I was convinced I would not be able to finish it, but I soon realized I could not stop until I had. HC

Scrapple, a scallion omelet and some sugar snaps that I picked on the way inform getting the newspaper. HC