Chicken and Shrimp Orzo Paella - Skillet Dinners

In this 30‑minute YouTube episode, Chef Dennis Littley (host of "Around the Kitchen Table") and co‑host Susan Sarah present a healthy, one‑pan "Orzo Paella" that blends Spanish paella flavors with gluten‑free, clean‑eating principles. The show opens with light banter about Dennis’s upcoming wedding, his long‑term relationship, and social‑media reactions. Dennis explains how a clean‑eating magazine inspired the recipe, then walks through the entire cooking process: seasoning boneless chicken thighs with smoked paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper; searing the chicken in a sauté pan; sautéing the "Holy Trinity" of peppers, onions, and celery; adding shrimp, clams, garlic, canned tomatoes, orzo, chicken stock, and saffron; and simmering until the orzo is tender and the clams open. Throughout, he shares equipment tips (e.g., using an $80 Sawtooth sauté pan, oil‑spray bottle), ingredient substitutions (whole‑wheat vs. regular orzo, olive oil vs. other fats), and cooking hacks (freezing clams to open them easily). Susan interjects with cultural commentary, a slideshow of Spanish food, design, and tile trends, and personal anecdotes about family meals. The episode ends with plating, optional garnish ideas (lemon, cilantro, cheese), and a preview of a future collaboration with Chef Bob Angst. The tone is conversational, enthusiastic, and instructional, with occasional personal storytelling.
Chapters
Hey everyone, I'm Chef Dennis and welcome to Around the Kitchen Table. And we're here today with a delicious dish for you and it's a little bit on the healthy side too, which is always a good thing. And I've got my co-host Susan Sarah in New York. How you doing, Susan?
I am just doing great and I'm really looking forward to the show. I love everything from Spain. I love Spain. I love paella. I can even say it, paella, right? Yeah, paella. There we go. So I'm so excited about this, but you know, I mean, first things first, you are getting married on Friday, so this is going to be just, you know, a fun show. And you know, how are you feeling? Are you ready?
You know, I've been ready. This for me, you know, it wasn't me that waited 17 years, it was Lisa. You know, she's got that commitment phobia, and even now she goes, I'm I'm not marking Mrs. I'm not marking Mrs. So I've been telling her, I've just been calling her Mrs. I said, well, we'll treat you like the Brits. Yo, Mrs., what you doing? But you know, it's just like it's something I've been waiting for for a long time. I'm really excited about it, but it's not like it's overwhelming me because every 6 months I ask her again, oh, when are we getting married?
I was going to say, and all of a sudden it was just one moment. You asked her the right time to do it. Did you ask her after you fed her dinner or before you fed her dinner?
My COBRA ran out, my insurance, and she goes, "Look, we've been putting this off. Let's just get married so I can put you on my insurance." And then it started, then the non-commitment started, and I was like, "Ugh." So I saw that and I went, "I've been down this road before," and I went on my computer and I looked up—
Right, right.
—and I got insurance. Everything's fine. I'm good. I've got 5 days that I won't have it for. She comes in, no, Disney's open, we're going to do this. And I went, really? So I said, well, I'm just going to pencil it in.
Oh, that's so good. So many people are so happy for you, and myself included. Well, thank you. I'm excited.
I have a lot of friends that I've made on Google+ and I'm happy with all the comments I've got there, all the good wishes. Even on Facebook, you know, we had— I think that's been my most popular post so far, was sharing the event there. It's just really— and Ella—
Oh, I think I missed it. I think it just missed on my feed. You know, if you don't catch it, it goes.
That's Facebook, you know, you never know what you're going to see. But, you know, a lot of people were saying the same thing. Oh, I thought you were married. And I went, well, yeah, because it's always been easier just to say we were. We've been together for so long. You know, if we lived in Pennsylvania, legally we would have because it's a commonwealth and we would have been a— we would have had a common-law marriage. But New Jersey doesn't, you know, view that, so we weren't. But it was just always been she calls me her husband, I call her my wife, just because it's simpler than saying my fiancée.
Right, right, right. So finally the time is here and good for you. Everyone is so excited. Thank you. Yeah, so, and today on a whole different note, so why did you pick, why did you pick paella today, Chef?
Well, actually, I picked up a couple magazines a few weeks ago, and I always get my gluten-free magazine now because, you know, even though I'm not eating, I still like to look at the pictures. And basically that's what I do when I buy cooking magazines or cookbooks. I look at the pictures I may glance through the ingredients, and then I try to make it my own. So I actually picked up a clean eating magazine, and that's kind of where I got the ideas for the skillet dinners. You know, I was basically doing that in a lot of things, but calling it a skillet dinner kind of gives it a different feel and makes you think, you know, you're making something even a little more special. And they had this dish in there, and it was a paella, but they used whole wheat orzo, and Elise won't eat anything that's whole wheat, so I bought regular orzo. I changed it up a little bit. I added some of my twist to it. You can find some really good ideas in something like that, so I'm running with it, and we'll see if there's anything else in there. Again, thinking more towards healthy, clean eating. I've lost 35 pounds. I can't just put them back on. I need to start changing my lifestyle a little bit.
Yeah, and you are looking great, by the way. You are looking great. Time for new clothes, right?
I know I've been through it. I've got my— I know I have too. I swore last time that I would not buy anything bigger than what I had. When that started really getting tight, that's when I knew. I said, "I've got to do something." Today we're making— and this is, like I said, it's a really healthy dish. There's a lot of vegetables in it. You have protein in it, and I'm using orzo instead of rice. Orzo is a nice pasta. It's different. It's going to cook pretty quick in here, and you could sub out rice with this. You could use brown rice. You could use quinoa if you wanted to. There's a lot of options open to you.
I love orzo, and I've actually put together a slideshow on a little bit about Spanish culture, about Spanish food, everything the opposite of some things I've eaten, and I have pictures of the opposite of maybe healthy, but anyway, they're interesting pictures, all part of the subtext of, you know, what goes along with paella. And I'll even slip in a few trends too for the kitchen. Sounds good to me.
Oh, I have a surprise too. In 2 weeks, one of my friends, new friends down here, Chef Bob Angst, I'm gonna go to his house and we're gonna do the show from his house and he's gonna be cooking.
Oh, great! Okay, any hints on what you might be cooking, or should we wait?
I told him, I saw him yesterday, we did a show from a coffee roaster in Orlando and it was his that makes a brand of coffee for him for his line. He has a little culinary line of his own and we were talking about that and he's got a new house that he just bought, not a new house, but new for him, and the people poured $50,000 into the kitchen before they sold it. So he's got an induction cooktop, he's got all these things. So we're going to go over there and cook from his house and see how things go and let him make something to share with us.
Oh good, and you'll get some ideas for your own. So then we'll come back 2 weeks from now and pick up the kitchen series.
There you go, there you go. Next week, I'll still be here next week though, we're not going away anywhere. Anywhere yet. So, all right, my pan, I just turned my pan on. So let's start with this and let me change cameras. So we have the pan cam. Sure, I got it. All right, now I'm going to add a little oil to it.
You know, that looks like such a useful pan. How tall is that? Is that one of those? Yeah, I don't have one of those that's only a few inches Taller, that's large, wide, and a little, you know.
This is called a sauté. Okay. Okay, and it's like the greatest pan in the world, and at work I would have one that was probably about 2 foot, 18 inches to 2 foot wide. It was like huge. Wow. You know, a complete circle, and you can cook a lot of stuff in a sauté. What I'm going to do first is I actually have some flour that I've seasoned. I've seasoned it with smoked paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper. I'm going to coat my chicken in that. There's some flour in here. For me, it's gluten-free flour. Even though I'm not eating this, that's the only flour I have in the house right now. We're going to cook the chicken a little bit, get it seared. I'm going to have to I'm going to put some more oil in there. I see that's dry.
And you put some olive oil in?
Yeah, I just put a little more olive oil in because the pan looked a little dry to me. As it heated, it kind of goes to the edges. Sawtooth has got a little hump in it in the middle. The high heat, especially induction— now this is a good pan, but it's not a $200 pan. This is about an $80 pan. So with a $200 pan or $250 pan, that hump probably wouldn't happen. Okay. But it's still, you know, it's a really good pan. And for as much as I use the Sawtooth, and I do have another one that I use on my stove, it isn't induction ready. So this is, you know, I got this specifically for us to make dishes in, and I really like it because, you know, I'm a little sloppy, and if I have a pan that I'm not constantly knocking stuff out of, it's a good thing.
Yeah, that's my thinking too, because I see that type of pan so often by professional chefs, and I think it's, you know, useful in many ways. So you have thin— you have the thin cut cutlets.
Well, these are thighs. These are boneless thighs.
Oh, those are thighs. Okay.
I love using thighs, you know, because they have so much flavor. They have more fat in them, so they're moister. So because of the fat too, they're more flavorful. And, you know, thighs are trending. For a long time, you couldn't get people to eat thighs, but for the past few years more chefs— well, they always knew, but it was giving their customers what they wanted. And, you know, and thighs are cheaper than breasts, and it just really makes a really nice tasty dish, especially in something that you're going to simmer a little bit because you're going to, you know, finish cooking all together. So I'm getting them to the point where they're almost done, and then I'm going to remove them from the pan. They're about 60% done.
Yeah, I've been buying more thighs. I mean, it used to be, you know, you just didn't buy them. You know, and my son— it's funny, my son kind of turned me on to thighs in the past few years, and he's been cooking wonderful things. I like— I think I like it better than, you know, boned-in chicken breasts.
I do too, you know. And now this one's going to cook a little more, but I'm going to start putting in my vegetables. Okay, so what did you just put in? Red pepper, bell pepper. So I'm doing the Holy Trinity. So I'm doing peppers, onions, and celery, and I have some garlic in this one too. Nice. So the Holy Trinity just doesn't have carrots in it. I mean, that's the difference with a mirepoix for French cooking, Italian cooking, and this is the difference for Spanish, or basically Cajun. Not even so much Spanish, but for Cajun cooking. So I've taken this just— it's paella, but I've taken it in a little bit of direction towards Spanish. So now my chicken's aside, and I'm just going to start these browning a little bit. And this is really pretty simple. I also— I'm going to throw some shrimp in right now just because I want to sear them. I'm going to take them right out. I'm just going to let them get a little bit of color. Things tend to soak up that oil. Using the squirt bottle really lets you put a little bit in. That's the one great thing about this bottle is you can just add just a little bit each time so you don't have to pour and maybe get too much in.
I think that's a great tool. I see All the professional chefs use those bottles. They have them all lined up with all different things in them.
You put your wine in them, you know, whatever you're using. So these really aren't done, but they're, they're a little seared, so I'm just giving them a little bit of time just because I don't want them to just steam. I want to add a little more flavor. So this is pretty much where I want it to be. The vegetables are sweated down, which is what we call them when the moisture starts to come out. So now I'm going to add in my orzo, and I'm going to add in a can of diced tomatoes.
Mmm, that looks good.
It's getting there. And this is how simple it is. You know, you don't have to pre-cook your orzo, which can be a real pain. And now I'm going to add in some chicken stock. We're not going to put it all in just in case, but we'll come back to it in a little bit. So now that this is done like this, I'm going to add a little bit more black pepper to it, season it up just a little bit with some black pepper. I have some— oh my God, the important thing for paella, the strands, the saffron.
Thank you. Saffron.
I'm going crazy here. The saffron. I'm not going to put a lot of salt in, but I'm putting the saffron in. I'm going to stir it up really well. With the paprika, if you don't like smoked paprika, you can use regular paprika. The paprika just adds a little bit more to the dish. That's basically it. I have some clams here just because I had some on hand that I'm going to Oh, good! Chicken back in. I'm not going to put the shrimp in because I don't want it to overcook. That's going to go in right towards the end. I am going to put the clams in because they're going to take a little while to steam and open this way.
So does that go— so then how long does that need to simmer? You're having it at a simmer now?
Yes, and that's— let me grab a lid. And I'm going to lid it, and that's going to simmer for about, well, until the clams open, let's put it that way, until the orzo is cooked. So that will be pretty much when, that will be your giveaway to when it's done.
So that's like one of the fastest dishes in the world.
Well, you know, it takes you longer sometimes to cut up your vegetables. Which is about 10 minutes. I buy celery, not the hearts. I don't buy the full heads. I buy organic, so it comes in two that are pretty much trimmed down. I pull a few of those off, ba-ba-ba-bum. I buy the little peppers. I like them because I don't have— if I only want a little bit of pepper in it, I only have to cut two of them up. I don't have to cut a whole pepper in half, save the rest. Then I can get some yellow peppers and red peppers and different things in there. And half an onion, so I'll wrap the onion and save it and hope I use it for something soon.
Okay, this might be a silly question, which I'm full of, so many. Now, you know, you cut your vegetables so beautifully. You know, I'm one maybe to use a food processor, and then they chop up maybe a little on the smaller side and all different shapes and whatever. Is, you know, any pros or cons to—
different shapes are fine. Different shapes add some variation to what you're using. You know, they shouldn't always have to be the same size depending on what you're making. You know, it really— even in a soup. Now, if you're in the Culinary Institute, you're going to cut every piece of every vegetable exactly the same size, and you're going to be trained to do that. That mindset, people learn to do it. It doesn't take them any longer than it would take me. It's just that's how they learn to cut. I did not learn to cut that way. I think variety is a good thing. Your food processor is wonderful, but you're cutting so little, it's almost a shame to get it dirty.
Oh, I have one of those mini ones. Oh, you have a mini one? I have a mini one, and my big one, I killed it, so I need another big one. Yeah, just wondering about that. Should we go into the slideshow? Absolutely.
While this is simmering, let's go into the slideshow.
Okay. So we are— I have a slideshow. I was so inspired by this dish today that I had to go to one of my favorite places and look at my pictures, which is Spain. And I've been there I think 3 times in the past 5 years. So I love it, I love the food, and like I said, Chef, here we go, the first image, you know, not the healthiest, but you know what this is. Chicken, it's, they're probably, they're traditional chicken croquettes. Absolutely. Oh, I love it. Yeah, beautiful.
I wasn't sure if they were rice balls.
Oh yeah, maybe they were, that's probably what they were. So, yep, they're great. And of course, what, you know, I'm thinking of dishes surrounding the paella before having it on the table. And you know, what's paella without, you know, Spanish food without ham? Serrano ham? Yeah, I think, no, I think there's another name. I think it's another name. I don't know, maybe it is, or maybe Serrano's Italian. I don't know, don't ask me the details. I just, I'm the photographer. Now here's a paella dish I had in Barcelona. And this is a very traditional restaurant, lobster paella. And who only, it looks like there's some peas in there and mussels, and it looks terrific. And here's another shot and even another shot, another overhead shot. Yep. Beautiful mussels and all kinds of things in there. This is a lovely salad with avocado and olives. Of course, the olives from Spain are wonderful. Jeff, take a look at this one. This is— we were overhead dining, overhead, and there's the kitchen exposed downstairs. Can you see? Can you see this a little bit?
That is beautiful. Yeah, yeah.
And you can see the— actually where they cook, the kitchen, it's a gigantic island. So it's really very interesting. Good shot. And there's one of the chefs, and the food is all spread out there, and it just looks very appetizing. You have the traditional tile. And so this is a very old, very, very old restaurant. Very old. You know, you see so much— here's just a beautiful picture of abundance. You know, if I was Italian, I'd say "abundanza," I guess. I don't know what they say in Spanish. Probably the same thing in Spanish. And ham hanging from the ceiling and barrels. I don't even know what these are, but this is all in a restaurant in Barcelona. You see the traditional tile all over the city, and you know, that feeling is coming back in tile in kitchen design, interior design. I'll show you a little bit later. Lovely, comfortable, you know, your kitchen doesn't have to look like a brochure. No. Just be comfortable. Now how about this one? Here's that big island I was talking about, and so the chefs are all around it and they put the dishes on top, and I don't know what's going on there, but I think that's probably been there for about 50 years. You might be right. Probably. And this looks just like my bar at home. Yeah, with the big mums hanging too. That's right. And just a few other little places we've been to. This is a little sangria spot where this is the king of sangria. And we watched this guy make sangria. I have no idea what he was putting in, but you can see there was— he put in about 4 or 5 different bottles of different things. And so it was a wonderful concoction of Spanish sangria. Here's a wonderful little street in Barcelona, you know, in the Gothic Quarter. So along with our feeling. Then I went to Dekton by Cosentino, this new plant in the south of Spain. This is the Cosentino headquarters, and I'll show you a little bit. Their headquarters is a Spanish company, it's a family-owned company, and I bring it in here to the slideshow because of what they make. I love this mural. This is a huge, huge mural when you walk into their headquarters because they also do marble. They have their own marble quarries of, you know, the old time, the old times. And so here is actually a marble quarry that I visited. And you can see the context of, if you see my mouse, this is a crane, this is a crane. Oh my God. It's just, it's amazing. But I will tell you, that when they have to carve out the mountain for this, they are required to plant trees in other areas. After they're finished using the mountain, they need to replenish it with trees, and you see those young trees in many, many places. This is Silestone. This is in their showroom. I love the integrated sink. I love the way the sink flows. You know, and here Silestone has wonderful colors, so many colors. Beautiful. You can express yourself. Yep. And another sink here with the grid, and Sensa is actually a stone, a type of granite stone, although this doesn't look like granite, but it's a built-in sealer that will— it's impenetrable. So this is such a cool look, you know, it's very modern but very earthy. Which is what I like. This is another one of their natural— maybe it's not a natural stone, but it's a natural stone that's put together somehow. I really should get more information on that. And then we went to a little town on a hill overlooking the water. And you know, it just is so inspirational. You have this whitewash, these whitewashed towns and you know, the the clay roofs and the beautiful streets, and again the tile. So this inspiration, not really if you want to do your kitchen in a Spanish theme, but you can take bits and pieces, you can take inspiration, you know, such as the color, the white, and, you know, be inspired just by the general feeling of the place, which is a wonderful place indeed. Here's a place This is up on a hill overlooking a hillside. On the other side is water. Spaniards are very big on, of course, their olive oil, one of their biggest exports. They export 40%— or I should say the other way— Italy imports 40% of their olive oil from Spain. Really? Yes. Yep. So it's huge. And this is just actually from this little a sangria place, and just looking out the window at the doors, it looks like you're looking at a painting. Now, also what's happening in Spain in terms of design is a refreshed traditional. Of course they don't want to discard the traditional, but they have— but they're refreshing it in many ways, sometimes with color. This is an ancient floor, but doesn't it look new? I mean, it's classic, it's timeless. So you can get that kind of timeless feeling, but you can also refresh it. Here is— this is a very, very old— this is authentic, obviously it's peeling. And now when I go to the next slide, you can see what's happening new in tile in Spain. And there's that same sort of Moorish influence, but with a twist, with a modern twist. So when we get back and forth, you can see what's happening now. They are so innovative with tile. It's beautiful. It's refreshed traditional, but you know, for sure. Then when we look at this blue tile as a backdrop, that is very earthy. It reminds me it's retro. Retro tiles from the '70s are actually coming back as well. Beautiful, beautiful, you know, innovation. Spain is not standing still, but they— people, they're not so high on the radar in terms of design, and they should be higher. I can tell you I've been there. So, a little bit, you have a combination of a refreshed retro, you have innovation, which you see here, pretty crazy, and just so much creativity, you know, a little bit of glam here, and look at this. Now, this is neutral again, that refreshed influence of traditional tile, and now this I hope now we go away from Spain and we go to your wedding. And I wish you every day is filled with glasses half full and so much love and so on and so on. And this is actually a chef's garden. And I wish for you that the garden of your love will always be in bloom and just grow, grow, grow. Thank you. So there you go. Thank you, thank you.
That was beautiful. Loved it, loved the tile. And I'm glad to see that Spain is bringing back some of those tiles, the retro look. As long as they don't try and bring back shag carpeting, I'm fine.
Oh, that's already back. Where have you been? Is it really? Yeah, absolutely.
Well, while we're doing— we're good, we're done. While you were talking, I added in the shrimp.. I have some chopped cilantro here, not parsley, so I wanted to add just a little other flair to it, so I added some cilantro. This isn't going to be a really spicy dish, but if you want it to, you can make it spicy very simply by adding your favorite pepper, either crushed red pepper or a little hot sauce. Now I'm going to plate it up for you and show you what we have. When I plate it, I'm going to go into it and grab the orzo. Start that there. Look how— oh, that is just beautiful. I wish you could smell it. It is just glorious. I do too. The orzo cooked perfectly. Now you do want to watch when you're cooking. That it doesn't stick, because it will. And I forgot to mention that you need to turn down the heat when you are cooking. Here's my chicken. It would probably help if I used the tongs. Okay, and then we're gonna serve the shrimp.
So that was peppers, onions—
Peppers, onions, celery. Celery. Then I used a can of tomato. Garlic. Garlic, yeah, got to have some garlic. These clams are nicely done. They're just opening.
You know, it looks like that dish has a balance between— actually has a combination of, you know, a real savory dish, and also being healthy. You get the—
I mean, the only fat was the olive oil. If you've got to use some fat, olive oil is probably one of your better options. You could use another of your favorite oils. You could use this with coconut oil if you wanted to. Nobody's telling you how to make it or how not to make it.
You know what I mean? I love the substantial— it's not like you know, a grilled piece of chicken and then steamed broccoli. You know, you have such a big substantial savory component to that dish. Absolutely. While still being healthy.
I'm going to hit it with just a little bit more cilantro. Let's clean the plate up just a little bit because appearance does matter. You've gone to all this trouble to cook, you should have a little paper towel that you can clean up.
There we have it. Oh, look at that. Look at that, the shrimp, the clams, the chicken. Oh my goodness, that looks terrific.
That looks great. Wow. Really nice, the orzo. This is your orzo paella. Now, it doesn't have to have clams in it. It doesn't have to have shrimp in it. If you want to do chicken and sausage, if you want to do any combination of any food you like, if you want to make it all vegetarian, and just add some— maybe you want to roast or grill some vegetables and add that on top of your cooked orzo. I mean, it would be wonderful. You know what?
What about a spritz of lemon? Absolutely. Absolutely.
The recipe did call for lemon. They said to give it a little bit of lemon and also to garnish it with lemon. For me, lemon would probably be very good with this, but it's just not the flavor I see in this for me, but doesn't mean for someone else it wouldn't be good.
I think it looks perfect. I think it looks delicious. I think it looks satisfying most of all.
Oh yeah, you're gonna sit down to this, and like I said, if you want to use the whole wheat orzo, I might try that another time, but I didn't want to buy it and then have the dish ruined because she wouldn't eat it. So gotta keep Mama happy too. That's why we're getting married. That's right. That's right.
And a couple of comments from our good friend Coach G. Moore. He agrees on chicken parts for taste. So that is becoming more widely known, right? Yeah, yeah.
Well, you know, when we started eating wings with such ferocity, you know, I think we started looking— chefs started looking at other parts too, you know, because for the longest time it was chicken breast, chicken breast. It's all we had to have. They even bred a chicken with bigger breasts so we'd have heavier pieces, which was kind of crazy. We're starting to screw with animals so the piece we want to eat's got more meat on it. The thighs have always been— when we went out, when we'd get chicken anywhere, thigh was always what I ate first. It's funny. When Lisa and I first got together, it was perfect because she didn't like dark meat at all. She didn't like the thighs. She didn't like the legs. She wanted the breast. And then I guess after a while she saw how much I enjoyed it. And what it was like, I want to find a leg. I'm like, really? Okay.
I was gonna say opposites attract. Yes.
I have taught her how to eat a lot better. And you know, she's, she's gotten spoiled with some things. And I'm— she's not quite the food snob I am. But you know, she—
I'm sure she— I'm sure she is. And from Candy, I remember my mom— I love food. Food memories. I remember my mom cooks paella every Sunday. Love it and miss it so much. I love food memories, don't you?
Absolutely. And you can't really see— talking about paella, because of the tomatoes I used, you can't really see the saffron as much, but you will— I can smell, I get a little hint of it when I was dishing it up. So you will have a little bit of that saffron flavor in there, just a mild one. So it's not the heavy normal saffron rice you serve with with this, but just to change it up a bit. Again, that's not a deal breaker. You can leave the saffron out and still have— you could hit it with some Cajun seasoning instead and still have a lovely, lovely meal.
Again, from Candy, the slideshow is food porn. I think the whole show is food porn. You know what? I'm one of those annoying people that do take pictures of my food. I can't help it. I'm one of those annoying people.
Gotta love it. Dave Williams is saying he'd add a little grated cheese. Dave, I think that's an excellent idea, a little cheese, because you got pasta. Orzo is pasta. It's true. I do love my cheese and grated cheese. For the longest time, Italians would always frown on putting it on seafood, but I liked it, so I used it. That's just like the old white wine/red wine kind of myth. You eat what you like. You drink what you like. It doesn't matter if some people say you can't eat it that way. I like the idea of cheese on that. That sounds good. Good idea. That's about it for today I got on me. Again, you saw how easy it is to cook a dish like this at home. I use clams because I bought a bag of them last week, and Lisa had clams two nights, and she had some clams with her dinner last night, and I still had some left over. I said, Waste not, want not. Might as well throw the clams in here too.
I'm sure nothing goes to waste in your kitchen, Chef. I try not to.
I really try not to. You know, when I buy something, I try to cook it or leave it in the freezer till I do cook it. And a word on clams too. If you're going to cook them, if you're going to steam them, or if you wanted to use them for casino or for stuffing, if you throw your clams in the freezer for about half an hour to an hour, you don't need a clam knife to open them. They just kind of— you can just slip something in there really easy. Because you're killing them, they open, but you're keeping them frozen, so it's not bad. Wow. Okay. Good tip. Yeah. When I'm making a bunch— I hate opening clams. When I'm making a bunch of casino, I'll throw them in the freezer for an hour, pull them out, then they just pop right open, stuff them. Oh, wow. Wow.
Good, good tip. It's a beautiful dish. It's easy, it's savory, it's great. Another hit.
Well, thank you. Alright, well, I'm gonna head off. I have some chores to do because the wedding is coming up soon and I have a little bit more to do before Lisa gets home.
Yes, congratulations. Have a beautiful, beautiful day and, you know, lots of love and happiness Forever.
I hope so. I'm planning on it. So let's put it that way. All right. Well, thank you all for coming around our kitchen table, and we'll see you next week. Bye-bye.










