Signs of change...

February in New England is far from spring like, yet there are subtle signs of change if one pays attention. In an earlier post I mentioned that the chickadees are singing their springtime song, and that is cheery. I have noticed some other birds being more vocal as the days grow longer with every turn of the calendar page. In winter the birds stay quite quiet, saving their energy to stay warm and find food. But I am hearing the titmice call more often, and yesterday a round dove called from the apple tree.

My sister Donna told me that Thoreau began his essays of Early Spring in Massachusetts on February 24th, and if he could consider that early spring, well, I can, too. Of course the weather yesterday, (the 24th) consisted of leaden skies and a steady precipitation of what the news people refer to as "wintery mix." Not quite snow, not quite sleet, not quite rain, but cold and messy and slippery. It was a fine day to stay inside, and that is what we did; fire dancing in the stove, music playing.

Chris and I spent a few happy hours cooking together. Normally we prefer to cook solo, the kitchen is not that large and we tend to get in each others way, but yesterday we had a special meal to prepare, and it found us hip to hip, chopping vegetables and plotting the feast.  Our friend Scott has a guest here from California, and the two of them took a few hours to dig quahogs last week.  We offered to make up some chowder and clam cakes, so that is what we were about. 

 Quahogs (pronounced, KO-hog)  are "edible bivalve mollusk, native to the eastern shores of North America." We call them clams. Mostly they are eaten around here when they are much smaller, and are cooked up steamed or fried. These brutes are, as you can see in this picture, huge.  Scott and his friend carefully cleaned them, and brought an enormous bowl of meat over for me. Such a fun treat!

Since not everyone coming to dinner likes seafood, I made up a batch of corn chowder in one pan, and a batch of clam in the other. This was easily done, as the two recipes are almost identical. I also fried up a pan of "ends and bits" of bacon, grown right here.

 

 

I cooked the onions in some of the bacon drippings, and then added diced potatoes and broth. Then (depending on the pan) corn/clams, salt, pepper, thyme, a dash of Worchestershire sauce, some raw Jersey milk from a local dairy, and a big glug of heavy cream.  Each bowl of chowder was served with a garnish of diced bacon.

The food processor came in handy to mince those big chunks of clam.

The end result was pretty tasty. I mixed some of both flavors of chowder in my cup.

Meanwhile, Chris whipped up a batch of his famous deviled eggs, and then turned to making some clam cakes. Except the recipes we found for clam cakes looked incredibly boring, so he made clam fritters, with lots of onion, red and green pepper, and some jalapenos. I regret that I didn't take a picture.  He made a scrumptious lime aioli to dip them in. The recipe for fritters he found made us both pause with one word it used.  It said something like, "mix the batter until it is thick and unctuous." Though I recognized the word, I had to stop to look it up. "Smooth and greasy." That didn't sound terribly appetizing, but thankfully, it was.

We had some laughs around the table. Marion brought amazing sour dough bread and one of her famously delicious salads, and there was Toll House pie with whipped cream to end things on a sweet note.

Today is in the 30's and the wind is whipping the tops of the tallest pines back and forth in a frantic dance. But I know the season is changing, because I recently saw the "OPEN" sign flying proudly in front of the Rockland Dairy Queen.

And though this is a place I rarely go, it's as sure of a sign of spring as anything else.