Things wot I Made Then Ate

Olive penguins

Seen on the internet.

Assembled in advance for Deena's party tomorrow.

Black olives from Whole Food's olive bar. The olives have seeds which I left in because taking them out messed them up too badly. I also got jarred olives that are already pitted but there's no comparison in taste. This was a tough call. Whole Foods had two types of small black olives but they're both wrinkly.

Steamed clams

* butter
* white wine
* diced onion
* minced garlic
* Italian herb mix
* hot pepper flakes
* parsley

I don't have parsley but I do have cilantro, but I forgot to add it.

Water chestnut

Fresh water chestnut is to canned chestnut as fresh pineapple is to canned pineapple. The difference can put you off canned produce permanently.

Water chestnuts are a total pain in the ass to peel, like tiny apples, and by the time you work around the imperfections and cut out the bad spots, there's hardly anything left, but it's still worth it. The question then, does all that extra trouble go appreciated?

Warm salad

Briefly cooked vegetables with even more briefly cooked sole filet and shrimp. The only thing not cooked is Romaine lettuce. Vegetables and seafood sautéed in butter which served as the oil portion of dressing. Faint drizzle of rice vinegar for the acid portion of the dressing.