clams

Ina Garten’s Easy Cioppino Recipe

You don’t have to be a chef to make this recipe for the Barefoot Contessa’s authentic cioppino, a tomato-based seafood stew loaded with shrimp, cod, mussels, and clams for a healthy soup and surprisingly easy dinner that goes from fridge to table in just about an hour.

Fun fact. Back in the day I worked as a server (we called ourselves waitresses then) in the best seafood restaurant is Salt Lake City. It was the summer after graduating college and I was saving money for a trip to Europe. It was the most fun I’ve ever had at a job, and even better, it’s where I met my husband.

I was a good waitress. Most of the time. But there was that one time I definitely was not, that dinner service I was carrying a tray loaded with three iron serving skillets atop china plates filled with hot-as-hell cioppino to be served to my table that was up the stairs and around that always tough-to-navigate corner.

As I rounded the corner, I felt it happening. The heavy platters saddled with those steamy pots of Italian fisherman’s stew slowly began to slide. I braced myself and tried to rebalance. It didn’t work. The platters of cioppino slid off the china plates. And then off the tray. And then directly into the lap of my hungry customer. It was a waterfall of tomato stew. My customer had been totally cioppinoed.

That poor guy was not one bit happy about it. But then who would be? And yes, his dry cleaning bill came out of my check.

Luckily that whole nightmare of an experience didn’t tarnish my love for cioppino. In fact, it inspired me to learn to make it at home. Safely at home.continue to the recipe… about Ina Garten’s Easy Cioppino Recipe

Linguine con Vongole (Linguine with Clam Sauce)

Linguine with fresh clams in a garlic white wine sauce (authentically known as linguine vongole) is one of those dinners that sounds totally chic and fancy but is actually one of the easiest and budget-friendly Italian pasta recipes you can make.

I was recently sent the new Fred’s at Barney’s New York Cookbook by Barney’s New York’s chef Mark Strausman who teaches us how to make some of the famous dishes beloved for years by celebrities and chic shoppers in the fashion store’s Fred’s restaurant.

Flipping through the cookbook there were tons of recipes that looked divine, but when I found this recipe for Mark’s Baby Clams and Spaghetti, fresh clams went directly on my shopping list.

Clams and spaghetti at Fred’s became clams and linguine at my house, and now no matter which pasta you choose to prepare, this recipe is on it’s way to yours.

continue to the recipe… about Linguine con Vongole (Linguine with Clam Sauce)

How to Make the Best Steamed Clams

Small, sweet clams are cooked in a butter, garlic, white wine and cream to create the best sauce for sourdough bread dipping.

I was a waitress for years. My first waitressing job was when I was 15 years old at my best friend’s family restaurant, Sandy’s Fine Foods in Ogden, UT. They made the most amazing homemade pies. I learned a lot from that job, and it was my first foray into realizing I could make more than just a standard hourly wage.

Making tips on top of an hourly wage got me hooked on waiting tables.

Waitressing was also my side job through college. My mad money. I was lucky that my parents had planned ahead and saved for my college fund so I didn’t have to.

After college graduation, I worked two waitressing jobs to save money to go to Europe with my best friend. That was the summer my eu de parfum was the scent of grease and fried fish with the subtle scent of maple syrup while working at Salt Lake City’s premier seafood restaurant of it’s time, the Market Street Grill for breakfast and lunch, and then heading up Emigration Canyon to the historic Ruth’s Diner to work the dinner shift.

continue to the recipe… about How to Make the Best Steamed Clams

Market Street Clam Chowder Recipe

This recipe is a favorite I published in the early days of FoodieCrush. This past weekend I ran into a friend at the grocery store who said she’d been searching for the famous clam chowder recipe from Salt Lake City’s Market Street Grill, which reminded me to re-share the recipe with some updated photos for you. So, without further adieu, here is a re-post of the best clam chowder recipe, in my opinion, EVER.

“Hey, Chowda-head!”

It was a greeting that one of my fellow waiters at my post-college/pre-real-life-seafood-restaurant-job has been teased about for lo’ these many years. And he has NEVER been happy about hearing it again, and again, and again.

See, that job at Salt Lake City’s Market Street Grill was all about presentation and customer service. That meant every dish, every cup and even every spoon was served by the waiter from a tray.

So when you had a 6-top—that’s waiter-speak for a table of six—who all ordered the house specialty, famous clam chowder, we would load up a HUGE tray, hoist it high over our heads with the straightest arm we could possible muster, and charge forth through the sea of waiting to be seated customers to serve our eagerly awaiting diners bowls of creamy, white chowder in heavy china bowls with plated liners.

One especially busy night—it must have been a big rush before a Utah Jazz basketball game—my friend had a big table and of course they all ordered chowder. He loaded up the tray, even stacking the bowls two high!

It was a feat to behold for mere waiter mortals.continue to the recipe… about Market Street Clam Chowder Recipe

Mad for Dips and Creamy Clam Dip

When it comes to sporting events, we’re all about rallying the troops and gathering the pom poms, but really it’s an excuse for a foodie get together.

It doesn’t much matter the team, whether it revolves around engines, goggles or balls, it’s a simple reason to come together and become absorbed in the beauty of human determination and fortitude.

This weekend we’ll be choosing sides, donning our colors, and sitting back to immerse ourselves in March Madness. I’m partial to college basketball. My dad played college basketball, as did my grandfather, and yes, I play a mean game of H-O-R-S-E.

So as the remaining teams battle for the big win at the Final Four and the network entices the not-so-enthralled-fans with the musical medley of Jimmy Buffet, Blondie, KISS, Avett Brothers and the Black Keys—nothing like throwing a broad blanket on the entertainment picks to try and appease each and every demographic–we’ll be gorging on our go-to game time snack. Clam Dip.continue to the recipe… about Mad for Dips and Creamy Clam Dip