Our adventure in bivalves

Aprons on...check! Prep station readied...check! Smiles all around...check!

Our view of the Columbia River

We had a bivalve adventure and learned how to cook them at Salty's on the Columbia River. It was a spur of the moment decision after getting an email about the upcoming class a few days before the event.

Bivalvia - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bivalvia

Bivalves as a group have no head and they lack some usual molluscan organs like the radula and the odontophore. They include the clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, scallops, and numerous other families that live in saltwater, as well as a number of families that live in freshwater. The majority are filter feeders

Now in all fairness, I freely admit to loving clams, oysters, and mussels...oh my! My sweet steak-loving husband came with me even though his idea of delicious eating is more meat...add potatoes! I, too, am a steak and meat lover and am pretty comfortable cooking lots of different cuts of meat. What I am not comfortable cooking is seafood other than fish. It was such fun cooking together with ingredients that are way outside of our comfort zone. 

Our stations were setup perfectly and each person was given a glass of champagne upon arrival complete with a luscious cheese and fruit tray. I think that was a ploy to get us to relax and it worked perfectly.

Each person has his/her own cooking and prep station. Isn't that the prettiest picture of our ingredients!

Our three-course meal included: Oysters on the half shell. Sorry no pictures of them halved. I ate as I opened them. We were taught how to safely and properly open up those yummy suckers! It was nice to make our own fresh cocktail sauce. I made out like a bandit because Tracy fed me nearly all of his oysters too! SCORE!!!

Second on the list is Harissa Mussels with Smoked Tomato and Chorizo. Thankfully, the chefs had already cleaned the mussels so we could get down to chopping and cooking right away.

We needed bigger bowls and a larger tummy. The portions were huge!

Last on the list was clams risotto. By then I was so full that I could barely move, but they were so tasty, I couldn't stop eating mine and even helped myself to a few of Tracy's clams. Hey, we shouldn't waste, right?

We were surprised by the kitchen with tiny cooked desserts. Sorry no picture. Even as full as we were, we both swallowed them whole! 

It was a perfect evening spent with the most important person in my life. Thank you honey for such a wonderful date! How about we do our own private weekend class complete with New York steaks, baked potato, and a caesar salad.....and maybe a lemon cheesecake for dessert. YUM.....

Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle

We love to recycle items. Normally, that means that we go through the house and garage and at least yearly look for items that have outgrown their usefulness to us. We throw away anything that we ourselves wouldn't want. Being that it is just the two of us adults, most of our items are in very good condition so we donate to our local Salvation Army. We used to donate to Goodwill but after learning about their policies in place, we changed to other centers that have proven to provide more of the dollars to really helping others.

So with a mini bathroom remodel upcoming that requires a hole in the closet, I started looking at everything that I have to haul out of the closet in order to give the workers the room they need to work and keep the clothes clean. Wow....I have a love/hate relationship with closets. Why are there so many items that never get worn inside of closets? In this case, hubby had several pair of very nice jeans that he never wore anymore. Styles change and some that were comfortable years ago lose their comfy-ness so get relegated to the back of the closet. Newer items push them further and further to the back until getting another clothes hanger in is a struggle. Have you ever tried to carry 7 pair of jeans hanging on a hanger. They are heavy, heavy!

So, I stacked his jeans on the bed that would be heading to the center and added a couple of mine. I love colored jeans and my white and orange jeans sadly no longer fit me anymore. So, I'm staring at this monster stack of jeans and hubby innocently says "well can't we do something with them." Oh NO....the challenge flag has been thrown on the floor. Should I pick it up, run away, or simply ignore that I even heard the statement.

This was on a Friday before Memorial Day. I started thinking and thinking and thought to myself: I'll just make a 'quick' throw out of the jeans! How fun that will be to have our jeans sewn together. Now, let me preface it that we do not need a throw....let alone a jeans one, but hey I couldn't stop my brain from jumping ahead of me. So I started deconstructing jeans via old fashioned scissors. I decided to not use anything with seams or pockets to reduce the bulk. Over the course of 2 days, I cut out 140 circles out of those jeans. Then I went shopping in my stash for all those 5 inch square that I had been hording for no apparent reason. Seriously, they never get used. I must stop buying them! I ignored colors of the charm squares and just grabbed one and used a tiny bit of glue to hold it centered on the jean circle. This took me I don't know how many hours to finish and then I started sewing them together in rows...then the rows into longer rows. and finally a half to a half. Now I have one monster of a pair of jeans and cotton squares sewn together. It is pretty darn heavy but so stinking cool looking. To finish the quilt, I sewed each of the flaps down 1/4 inch from the outside edge so that when washed and dried, they would fray. Okay, this took me two days to complete sewing of the flaps for a total of four days of work, but I seriously love it and hubby and the Dillman love it. AND, it is DONE!

Now that this minor intermission is done, I must get back to my other projects that are waiting for me. LOL