If anyone knows the derivation of this phrase, please let me know. It never made sense as clams seem like rather emotionless –albeit delicious—blobs. Good eating, yes but happy? Hard to tell.
One of the first things we did after arriving in Maine was to stop at Cindy’s, a roadside shack on Rt. 292/US1 just south of Freeport. Cindy’s has been in business for thirty-one years, is cash only and makes everything by hand including the tartar sauce. Our crab cakes were fantastic—loaded with crab meat, not filler. One man I talked with had driven miles just for lunch at Cindy’s. Because our order somehow got semi-lost in the shuffle, Cindy (or one of her siblings) presented us with a large piece of Maine wild blueberry pie as we departed. (I realize this is a post about clams but …)
That evening, we went to the Waterfront Restaurant in Camden where I had a simple bowl of steamers (yes, clams) that brought back memories. When I was about four years old, my grandmother had a house in New Haven, CT right on the water. Eating clams began by collecting them. You tossed a pebble onto the wet sand, watched to see where bubbles emerged and then dug like mad to trap the clams. Afterwards, we steamed and ate them at a long picnic table on the beach. One day, I caught the biggest clam of all which was roundly applauded. The clam may not have been happy but I was.
In case you thought I’d follow this theme with a clam recipe, think again. We are staying at the Whitehall Inn in Camden, a little charmer complete with a house dog, a Newfie-Lab mix, named Zeus; a room with eaves that (politely) scream old New England, and a mostly Serbian staff of delightful young women on a work/study program. At breakfast, our waiter, son of the previous owner, insisted on giving me the house granola recipe. If you reduce the oats to 1 quart and then reduce all the other ingredients to six ounces each, you will have a reasonable amount. Apparently it doesn’t freeze in the freezer but pours perfectly.
Whitehall Granola
5 quarts old fashioned oats
1 qt chopped walnuts
1 qt slivered almonds
1 qt wheat germ
1 qt shredded coconut
1 qt honey
1 qt safflower oil
Heat honey and oil together in a pan. Then mix this with the oat mixture above. Heat the oven to 300º. Lay mixture on baking sheets and bake for 15 minutes. Stir and bake another 5 minutes. Cool and serve. Store in freezer to use as you wish.