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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Raising the Beach House and Razor Clam Recipes

For those of you who are following the beach house renovation, we have exciting news!  The house raising company has begun prep work for lifting.  For those of you who are new to House Revivals blog, here is a quick catch up:

We bought a beach house, and it was a big mess.  It had been a foreclosure that was bought by a contractor/ flipper.  It was in rough shape when the contractor/ flipper bought it.  The flipper ran out of money or mojo or something, and sold the house to us after making an even bigger mess of it.   When the house was built, it had an expansive view of the ocean.  Then the sand dunes began to grow, and only very tall people could see the water.  So we decided we would raise the house.  So everyone can see the water.

All caught up?  Okay.  Right now, huge steel beams are being placed under the house.  These beams will support the house and will rest on "cribs", or "cribbing" when the house is in the air. In a few days, passers by will have a view something like this when they see the house.



And, a day or two later, it should look something like this.


Gradually, the house will go from looking like this....


... to looking like this.


And people standing in the house will go from looking at this....

Grass
... to looking at this.

Ocean

Do you want to look inside the house?   Here is a "before and after" of a guest room.   And here is the 2010 Christmas Home Tour of the beach house. 


Of course, when we eventually move into the house we will need to eat, but will have missed the clamming season to due to all this renovating.


So, we will fill the freezer with razor clams harvested by the Quinault Tribe.


Have you ever had razor clams?  They taste very similar to abalone, and can be prepared the same way.

Here is a basic recipe for preparing them:

 Fried Razor Clams

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup oil for frying, or as needed
  • 1 (4 ounce) packet saltine crackers, finely crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 4 large razor clams, cleaned and dried

Directions

  1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
  2. In a bowl, mix crushed crackers with black pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. Place eggs in a separate bowl. Dip clams into eggs, then into cracker mixture to evenly coat.
  3. Fry clams in the hot oil until golden brown. Do not over cook.
{recipe source}
Here are a few more recipes from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Do you have a favorite seafood recipe?  Do you even like seafood?



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