Skillets, Pots, and Pans Oh My!: May 2011

Sometimes great ideas just come to me (not that this was hard or anything, it's actually quite simple. But the taste was amazing!). I had chicken in the fridge that needed to be cooked so came up with the idea of jalapeño honey glazed chicken sandwiches!

2 chicken breasts and 3 Jalapeños = lunch for 2

I used 2 table spoons of apple cider vinegar and mixed it with the remaining honey

and squirt it all over this. I also sprinkled a little crushed red pepper on top then baked it for 45 minutes in the oven. After it cooled, I put it in a Tupperware container for lunch the next day.

(Don't forget to oil the pan!!!!)

I packed cheese, onion buns, tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, and ranch.....

And this is what we had for lunch!

So glad that turned out after the clam disaster dinner the night before.

For mothers day that just so happened to be on my brothers birthday this year, we went to the beach and hunted Razor Clams. Yuck! But also very fun! Here in Oregon the clams are sparse compared to say... Washington, I believe this is because Oregon does not regulate when you are allowed to dig and Washington does.... But we spent hours stomping around looking for small holes in the sand. Now I say Yuck because those things are disgusting.... First off they don't have any eyes, mouths, teeth, arms, legs, scales, etc. But they can dig in the sand? Yea, yea, yea I get it like the slug they have a "foot" but they don't actually possess a FOOT. Second they're just slimy gross things and I hate when they reach out of their shell. For this reason I can't hold my own net.

Here's a picture of my fiancé catching a clam. Look at that beautiful Pacific Coast weather! We lucked out!

Anyway back to last nights dinner! Because we collected all these clams I had no choice but to cook them. I'm a firm believer in you kill it you eat it! So last night was my first clam cooking experience.

This here is Baby Bok Choy. I picked some up at the Astoria Farmers Market while we were at the coast. I'm obsessed with it right now, that and it came with this little bag of magic seasoning made of sesame seeds, garlic, ginger, onion and what ever else those cute little Asian farmers mixed up in that delicious bag. It was genius!

I cut it all up added some onions, mushrooms, and fried it up in my wok with a teaspoon of oil.

I also had these in the fridge that were going to go bad

If I didn't boil them soon

Then the gross part. Cleaning out the clams

Luckily I didn't have to do this and my brave manly fiancé and brother came to the rescue

But I did try to make a cracker coat for them. Unfortunately I didn't have saltine crackers so I tried using Chicken & Biscuit crackers (How those got in my cupboard I have no idea because I hate them). I whisked 2 eggs in a bowl, added 1/4 cup of milk, and a spoon full of tabasco (I thought this was a great way to disguise the clams flavor) and in a seperate bowl I mashed the crackers. Dipped the clam in the egg, rolled it around in the crackers, and walllla! I had a disaster! That didn't turn out as planned at all! So instead I fried a few with the crappy cracker coats and fried the rest naked in butter and garlic. They cook fast about a minute on each side.