Food and Flowers

We had a low key Fourth with my in-laws. Very nice. And please consider yourself invited to our house, next Independence Day, all day, for seafood, national parking, over-harbor fireworks, and a blast of a good time! (Pun intended.)

Freedom, Liberty, God, Bounty. I believe it.
And, of course, I have a few tips to vault on this here blog for next year.
First of all: the Food.
Exhibit A--  Clams. If you order Fried Clams at a restaurant or dive, please note they will be kind of tough, chewy, tiny strips, and a bit reliant on the sand. THESE, I tell you, are absolutely delectable. The size of a deck of cards. All you'll ever need is lemon juice. So very moist and tender (deep fry in panko, almost dangerously hot, for a mere 20 seconds. or less.)! Save the rest of the clam (whether you know how to recognize it or not) for chowder.

Exhibit B-- Coleslaw. My made-up recipe. Apparently, I have stuff like coleslaw recipes ready to manifest from my mind. Like art. So it is.
Exhibit C-- Crabs.  Distract the kids. With a sandbox.

Playing in Grandpa's boat.

Bubble blowing.
Fourth of July Cupcakes.

Are they still looking away? Just warning you...because my three year old is asking when the crabs are going to wake up. And asking as we prepare to dine-- despite the distractions. Arg! We did get to talk about life, though, and death. And the Lion King. And now I might be vegetarian.

Anyway. Jake always shells my crab meat for me. It is like a dance. He uses his teeth.

He makes a pile. He uses the crab's own claws as utensils. A true Nor'Westerner.

In case you are a little sensitive, I'll move on to flowers. But boy was that good! Like spectacular and dazzling display--For the mouth.
Okay, now I'm done.

Happy Glorious, Abundant, Independence in America Day!
And: the Flowers.

Worlds Apart

This is Allie. This is Allie (quite unknowingly) holding a live shrimp that found its way into the crab pots on Saturday. She also held it up by the eye. (I don't think she got it was a living thing,) but Jake sure does enjoy putting Allie's naivity to work for amusement.
And to Jake's credit, he had just had a very long and treacherous day at sea with his father.
I told Jake to speak up in reason as needed and that's all the advice he got from me because I know nothing about swells, tides, lake boats in the open salt water, etc., etc. "For the Love of the Crab." The hunt, the taste. So anyway. All you really need to understand is that I'm the wife.
They lost a pot under the tide, the fog rolled in, the wind openly carried them in the general direction of Canada, the motor died. The back up electric was not even helping the vessel creep back to the dock, they had to get out near land and wade, pushed the boat, trespassed on the coast guard property, his feet went numb after five minutes, he was in the Pacific Freeze for fifteen, his calves went numb. Home wet, cold, and incredibly tired.
Nature is what it is. But I will venture to say this: unlike other places around the Sound, the weather here by ocean and mountain and the wildest.... at times reminds me of farming.
If you don't do it right, you will die. Your will means nothing.
There is more reverence involved for my distinct habitations than fear, I would say, and there was such a Renaissance for me showing Jake the agricultural high desert and he me, the Pacific Northwest.
As we plan our next trip to Idaho this week, I reflect. The observation in
My Worlds Apart
have some universal lessons I'll get to re-explore.