wonder foodie: a little clammy

Back in May, my sister, her boyfriend, and my husband and I prepared an early Mother's Day dinner for my mom. She was going to go into a long slew of medical treatments the week following, so we weren't sure if she'd be up for a celebration on the actual Mother's Day.

So we quickly got together an impromptu menu and made a four course meal for her, picking from different cuisines and putting our own twist on certain dishes. Here's what we had:

Steamed Manila Clams with Garlic Crostini
Green Chopped Salad with Balsamic dressing
Grandma's Steaks (she made this on the spot, so we had one more course!)
Kimberly's Special Chicken Tikka Masala
Banana Tarte Tatin with homemade Mango Ice Cream

The steamed clams were my favorite dish to make - I had this recipe bookmarked for 4 years ever since we had the clams at the Lahaina Grill in Maui. Finally came an occasion to have it! The recipe is fairly simple, but going into it I had no idea how much clam juice costs! Yikes! I paid $6 for two 8 oz. bottles at my local grocery store. Next time I'll shop around first. That said, it was completely delicious and fed 7 people that enjoyed it. Everything else was delicious and yum, time to do it again!