Holy Clam Juice, Batman – That was Delicious!

So I've been avoiding a can of clams I've had in the basement for a while now. Only the good Lord knows why I picked it up in the first place, though I do vaguely remember enjoying some sort of spaghetti with clams my mom made growing up.

Tonight, I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner around 6 p.m. when I saw it and thought, What the heck? The only problem was, I had no idea what to do with it and my parents weren't on Skype. Without real long distance, I figured I'd go to my old standby, allrecipes.com, and found this recipe.

It was surprisingly fantastic. I say this because the inside of a can of clams isn't that appealing. The sound of it really isn't, either. Don't even get me started on smell. When I told my husband, Rick, what I was making he replied, "I don't think I like that." Well, turns out he was mistaken. He gobbled it right up, along with my 21-month-old. I couldn't believe it.

If you find yourself with a wayward can of clams and some pasta, give it a try. These are the adjustments I made: because i only used 1/2 a pound of spaghetti, i cut the oil down to 1/8 cup and used 2 TBSP butter, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 15 oz can of chopped clams and about half the juice, along with half of the spices.

Some other reviewers suggested adding white wine, which I may try next time. For sure, I'll fire up a piece of bread to sop up all the juicy goodness. Mmmmm.

Upside Down Chicken Rice

Our friends, the Cross Family, were coming over for dinner last Thursday and I had every intention of whipping up a batch of the simpliest, easiest, tastiest chicken dish ever, Sweet & Sour Chicken. My mom got this recipe years ago from Lipton Onion Soup mix; here's a version of it; she used to always use a whole chicken cut up and more preserves, but you can just wing it or let me know, and I'll look up the exact measurements.

Anyway, I was convinced I had all the ingredients on hand and even though I had made a note to double check, I decided against it and just went to the store for other items we needed. After picking up my son from his little pre-school and tucking him in for a nap, I go to assemble my ingredients and of course, they weren't all there.

In a rush to find some other kind of chicken I could make with ingredients I had on hand, I found this one for Upside Down Chicken Rice. It has a Mediterranean flare to it and even though I'm not a huge cinnamon fan and was a little hesitant about boiling chicken, it turned out really well. Give it a try.

The only things I did differently: used boneless skinless chicken breasts, added in about a cup of frozen peas as another reviewer suggested, and cut waaaaay back on the oil. Although I was tempted to toast the nuts in the oil, I just toasted them in a dry pan. And when I fried the chicken and carrots before adding the rice, etc., I only put in a tablespoon or two versus 1/4 cup.

I also tried to cut down on the number of dirty pans, though technically I dirtied more plates and bowls in the process. For instance, I didn't want to fry the chicken and carrots in a new pot, so I just removed the main solid contents to a plate and poured the stock into a bowl, then poured 3 cups of this into a 4-cup Pyrex liquid measuring cup. (BTW, the recipe is set up to make 12 servings so make sure to pare it down; I went to four.)

Otherwise, the only other thing I'd do differently in the future is skip the frying in the oil part. I don't think it's worth the effort, but you can make your own mind up. Enjoy!