It is funny how time slips on by without much notice though. 4 years ago, STP was the event on my calendar as I was coming straight out of chemo. We had literally 3 months to train and get my body back into shape for it after my stem cell transplant. Perhaps needless to say, but it was a bit easier this year.

Saturday night, we took a detour off the course in order to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound (just north of Centrailia). The water slides were killer and a hot tub after a day in the saddle is something to be cherished. The Great Wolf will be a destination from here on out. Big thanks to Chris for ferrying our bags around for the weekend (and having time to hit the waterpark with us).

The ride itself was pretty uneventful. We made sure to take plenty of “real food” stops that I think everyone appreciated. We weren’t the fastest group ever, but it didn’t matter. While we were actually on the road, we kept a pretty quick pace.

Once we made it in to Portland on Sunday,  our friends Joshua and Brit were amazingly gracious hosts to Jane and I. It was almost over the top in it’s awesomeness getting served beer and steak while watching le Tour on actual cable TV (I’m pretty cheap at home). I really love Portland more and more each time we visit.

We had a chance to repay them this weekend when they came up to Seattle. Jane and I made a list of all of the joints that we wanted to take them and attempted to get to most of them. It was ridiculous just how much money we spent over the course of 2 days on food and drink. I’m pretty sure it was worth it, but it is all a bit hazy now.

I need to go on some sort of diet now. All of my fitness from Cascade is probably shot already.

The whole weekend lead up to an over the top feast with a bunch of Thundering Hooves porterhouses purchased from Capitol Hill’s new butcher, Rain Shadow Meats. We pulled fresh carrots from the garden and roasted those as well, with a pesto made from the greens. Josh and Brit pulled together a massive salad and some stuffed portabello mushrooms for Chris and Emily.

I’m still annoyed that I had to go back to work today. Some weekends just don’t deserve to end.

This might sound silly, but I’ve been antsy to go forage food ever since I read Omnivore’s Dilemma. I don’t feel confident enough in my skills to go out and grab wild plants, even though I’m pretty sure I know what they look like. I’ve cooked with them a few times, so I shouldn’t worry so much. Still, there was a great draw to the shell-fishing that I can’t quite put my finger on. I was excited; we both were.

On Friday afternoon, we took a trip down to Burien to get some licenses at Fred Meyer (Washington’s Wal-Mart… there, I said it). We stood in line with people returning their carpet shampooers and cheap electronics. A man with a low wheeze came in behind us. He started to quiz us about what kind of fishing we planned on doing and where at.

“Olympic Bay? Oh, I used to get huge draws out of there. Yeah, I actually went to prison for catching 10,000 over my limit (The limit is 40 per person…). A year and a day.”

He went on to describe how they tried to accuse him of selling heroin for clams and how much of a bum rap he had gotten. Once he learned that the computer system was temporarily down, he started making a big scene about how they were just down “the other day”. He tried to get the lady behind the counter to just sign something for him to say that he paid for a license. When she wouldn’t, he stormed out.

We waited around for a bit for the system to come up, but we eventually decided to give Big-5 a try down the street. Once we got in line for the licenses, the wheezy man somehow snuck back in behind us again and struck up another conversation. This time he found a fellow “fisherman” to talk to. The government is apparently trying to screw us with these catch limits. They would charge us for everything if they had a chance to. Keep that in mind.

We left Big-5 $17.50 a piece poorer with licenses to catch clams and oysters throughout the year and crabs through the summer. We were both crossing our fingers that we could actually figure out what to do.

That night we had reservations to attend a special dinner at a new spot called Nettletown. It was a dinner in celebration of the eve of May Day and an old holiday called Nettlemas. Apparently, it was quite an intimate dinner, because there were only 10 of us on the list for quite a feast that was served family style. It was an outstanding meal of chinook salmon, pickled fiddleheads, a spring “ragu”, leek mashed potatoes, watercress and mint salad and a bread pudding dessert. I can’t even describe how fantastic everything was. We will be back soon. More importantly, it made me want to get out and grow and forage even more of my meals.

We woke up as early on Saturday as our internal clocks would allow us to. We packed some gardening tools, a bucket and the dog and head out to a hardware store to get a second set of everything. We made the drive out to Shelton without any troubles and started up Highway 3 headed north. I went the long way to avoid paying a toll on the Tacoma Narrows. It didn’t seem all that shorter over the bridge to where we were headed anyways. I missed the turn off to the parking lot at first and overshot it by about 6 miles. If I were on a bike, I would have been severely disappointed.

We parked in the tiny, obscure parking lot and set out towards the tidelands. There was only one other family out. Chibi was having a good time dancing around in the mud and generally getting filthy. There were plenty of sections that we sank shin high in to mud. Fair warning: bring clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. It is going to happen one way or another.

There were hundred of clam and oyster shells up on the beach. Almost all of them were empty or filled with mud. It took us quite a while to find a real, live clam to take. I knew that we had to dig a little bit, but it was slightly discouraging at first. We weren’t planning on getting any oysters because you have to shuck them right on the beach and leave the shells (they are part of the ecosystem). We didn’t have a knife or a proper container for the meat and liquid. Next time we will prepare a bit better.

I managed to find a few here and there, but Jane wasn’t having any luck until she hit her jackpot location. Once she found “the spot”, we holed up and dug our 40 clam maximum in no time. Occasionally we were fooled by clams that looked sealed until you would wedge them open with your fingers to find them filled with mud. We were tricked this was on more than a couple of occasions, really. All things considered, we spent maybe 2 hours max on the beach, scored 8 or 9 pounds worth of clams and had a hell of a good time. I really can’t wait to do it again.

On the menu (I’ll post the recipes separately in a few days):
Homemade pasta with clam and pesto sauce
Clam Chowder (duh)
Clam and bacon pizza

p.s. Pictures shamelessly stolen from my wife.

Interestingly, this also marks the first time I’ve actually gone inside and purchased something from the Seattle Fish Company on California Ave in West Seattle. I’ve been by it many times and kept promising that I would. It is a wonderful shop with anything seafood related that you could possibly want, right up to the lemons and limes near the register. I’ll be back soon.

adapted from the Spilled Milk podcast (so excellent)
serves 4

• 1 lb. of red-snapper (feel free to try any white fish as a sub)
• salt
• 1/4 lb. daikon – peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 1 tbsp dashi bouillon (or 2 cups of fish stock)
• 4 1/2 cups water (2 1/2 if using the stock)
• 1/2 cup sake
• 1/2 cup white miso
• 1/2 head of napa cabbage – chopped roughly
• 1/2 package firm tofu – cut into four pieces
• 4 ounces oyster mushrooms -  pulled apart
• 1 bunch spinach – stemmed
• 4 teaspoons grated ginger (a microplane works best)
• sliced scallions

Salt the fish generously on a plate and place in the fridge for roughly 30 minutes while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

Get a large pot of water boiling and lower the heat to simmer the chopped daikon for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Remove the daikon slices and rinse them under cold water in a strainer to stop the cooking process. Set them aside but keep the water on the stove.

Slice the fish into 1 inch squares. Set up a bowl with cold water near by. Once the water is simmering again, blanch the fish in batches for roughly 15 seconds and transfer immediately to the cold water bowl. Once all the fish is done, drain, and dry the fish on towels.

Combine the dashi, water, sake and miso in a large mixing bowl. Whisk it all together.

Place the chopped cabbage in the bottom of a large stockpot so it covers the bottom. Put the spinach in a layer above that. Arrange the tofu, mushrooms, and daikon into individual, neat bunches on top of the greens. Leave some room for the fish in one corner. Pour in the broth. Don’t worry if the liquid doesn’t seem to cover the top yet.

Place a cover over pot and bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Take off the cover and reduce the heat to low / medium-low. Add the fish back in to the space that you saved. Cook for an additional 10 minutes. Try to maintain a very low simmer.

Serve in bowls with scallions and ginger.

I refuse to say “Power Bar”… it makes me think of that chalky crap bar they sling.
Via Bitchin Camaro (a new one for me).

These bars are AMAZING, plain and simple. I know Elvis wasn’t a health nut, but if he rode brevets (or ran marathons), this would be his bar. I’m sure he would have one of his chefs whip it together. Me, I have to dig out the cookware myself. It is a rough life.

I tried out a couple of different recipes with success, including these bars from Grit and Glimmer. They were very good as well (especially the medjool dates), but these are just outstanding. I have a love for the peanut butter and banana combo though, so I may be biased.

One thing you want to keep in mind with both of these recipes, it really helps to spend some time chopping the nuts with a knife. I could never get the “pound out with a roller” technique to give me very consistent sizes. It seemed like they were either smashed to a fine powder or completely whole. As soon as I switched over to a good, sharp chefs knife, everything kind of fell into line on that front.

Some of the ingredients might cost a bit up front (brown rice syrup, specifically), but you will have plenty left over for another round of awesomeness. For what it’s worth, I omitted the vanilla and don’t think I lost too much. I had the agave nectar on hand, but I’m definitely going to try a batch with some honey next time.

As always, the bulk section is your friend on this. PCC has an amazing spice and grain bulk section that you should hit up. I personally don’t need a whole bottle of ground cardamom sitting around collecting dust. Just pick up what you need for a few cents.