Clamming & Chowdering

I am very grateful, in my time here in CA, to have made a WONDERFUL new friend Michelle.  She's in my ward, my visiting teaching companion, and just all around awesome!  We hang out almost everyday and just have fun!  Yesterday she took me clamming!  I'd never been before yesterday and so I documented it photographically for your pleasure!

We went to the beach at Naval Base Coronado and what a beautiful day it was!

Michelle's son (the lil guy on the left side of the picture) went "bowling for buzzards" lol It was crazy to see that many birds out!

Michelle had her sweet baby all bundled up on her back, I had to take a picture of it!

Ok, so what you do is walk along at low tide and feel for bubbles (very distinct) or soft spots.  Then you dig, dig, dig with your toes til you find one!  Let me tell you, the water was FREEZING!!!

The first clam we found, but it was too small, so we threw it back.  The smallest one I found was smaller than a DIME!  Crazy huh?!?!

These are the bad boys we are talkin' about!!!  Look at the size of this thing!

The first clam we found

LOOK!  The first clam (and only one lol) I found on my own!!!  YEAH ME! lol

 More of the GORGEOUS scenery!  Thank you to my husband for being in the Navy because otherwise I would of never known how much I LOVE living by the water!!!  I love love LOVE it!

He loves the sound of the waves and slept pretty much the whole time!

Oh!  We found a jellyfish!  Don't touch!  I've never seen one in real life, and yes I quoted 'Finding Nemo' lol.  We think this is why there were so many birds around.

So at first I thought this was a clam butt.  Until I flipped it over...

Hey mister hermit crab!  Nice house! lol

My first real-off-the-beach-not-store-bought sand dollars I've ever found!  

It was a big day for firsts!

Nominated my new FAVORITE picture!!! Isn't it AMAZING!  Man, Heavenly Father sure has good taste!  Look at this beauty!  (you should click on this pic to make it bigger so you can see how gorgeous it is!)

Ok!  Here are all twelve of the clams we collected!

We're gonna let them soak in fresh salt water over night...

Even clams need to brush! ;)  This is not to prevent cavities, but to make sure there isn't any sand in the cracks... hehehe 

Putting them in water to boil.  (Special thanks to Michelle for being my hand Vanna!)

I'm chopping potatoes

Michelle's chopping celery, onions, and scallions (the latter just for garnish)

They're boiling away!  MWHAHAHA

Oh!  Our first one's cracked open!

Opps... this is what happens when I don't set a timer and I get side tracked with chatting... burnt bacon.  It's pretty hilarious to go into a store and buy just one package of bacon while smelling very strongly of burnt bacon lol. 

They're all done!

Ok, I've pulled them out of the shells.  And the chowdering begins!

Reserving the 'milk'.  You just skim from the top, you don't want any of the sand at the bottom of the pot!

Pushing out the muscles...

Pulling back the lungs and grossness that we don't need..

More pulling...

Ewww...

The muscles,  I think they look like mushroom stems, lol

Slicing in half so we can clean them out...

Looks like this guy needed to go to the bathroom...

Scrapping it out with out hands...

Gotta make sure it's REALLY clean!

Cutting it into strips...

Dice it up nicely...

I'm crumbling the bacon (2nd package that I didn't burn lol)

Mmm... bacon....

Sautee-ing the celery, onions, and garlic in olive oil

After they're done, add the potatoes.  Then fill with clam juice (or water if you prefer) until just below the top of the potatoes.  Then about 1/2 cup of milk and some half and half...

These are the seasonings we used.  On the left is fresh thyme Michelle dried herself (She's got an AWESOME garden in the back!!!)

Stirring, stirring, stirring.  Then add a bit of flour mixed in cold water to help thicken and another 1/2 cup of milk...

After some cooking time, VOILA!  Ladle into a bowl and garnish with bacon and chives (scallions).  It's soooooooo delicious!  The husband even loved it!   SUCCESS!!!

(sorry I don't have a beautiful bowl picture... I was too excited to eat to take a picture lol)

Anyway, I had a GREAT time clamming and chowdering with Michelle!  I'm so grateful for her teaching me how to do this!  What great fun!!!  Hope you guys enjoyed it too! :D