It was a beautiful and warm day here on the Oregon Coast, so we got outside to do some much-needed yard work after the wind storms we had over the weekend.  Our yard is full of old growth shore pines, sitka spruce, and willow trees, all shedding pine needles and leaves.  We decided that after a hard day of work in the yard, we needed something simple yet substantial for dinner.  I made a sauce of anchovy, garlic, Franny’s pepper paste, white wine, tomato paste, and clam juice, and added cooked broccoli,  canned clams, and whole wheat spaghetti to it.  Bruce made a torn Caesar salad and we enjoyed a nice crisp pinot grigio from Ca’ Del Sarto 2008.

I made manicotti from what we had available in the pantry today: dried manicotti noodles, jarred tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, frozen spinach, Parmesan & mozzarella cheese, minced garlic, porcini dust, and Franny’s pepper paste.  Once the manicotti were assembled, I baked them at 350F for 30 minutes and then broiled them for about 5.  The pasta was served with pan roasted Brussels sprouts that Bruce made. They had orange olive oil, blood orange vinegar, lemon zest, garlic, aleppo pepper, lemon juice, duck fat, and extravecchio balsamic vinegar from Modena in them.  We enjoyed a bottle of Villa Pozzi Nero D’Avola 2008.

I’ve made ground chicken lettuce wraps many times, but never with duck.  I removed the skin from 4 breasts, cut it up into small pieces, and fried it to rend the fat and make cracklings.  I poured off most of the fat (to save it for something else), added fresh ginger and the ground duck, and sauteed it for a few minutes.  I then added chopped oyster mushrooms, prosciutto, and water chestnuts, the leftover mignonette from Friday’s shellfish feast, oyster sauce, Chinese rice wine, hoisin, and green onions.  The duck was served with a beautiful head of red leaf butter lettuce, steamed Thai sticky rice, and edamame.  We enjoyed a very interesting bottle of Rosso Piceno from Fattoria Laila in La Marche, Italy  2006.

I went to visit Amber at Local Ocean to get some fresh mussels.  She also had a myriad of fresh oysters from various places in Washington and Canada.  I bought a dozen small oysters from Hood Canal, WA to try along with 2 lbs. of the biggest Penn Cove mussels I’ve ever seen.  I shucked the oysters and served them with a balsamic mignonette that also had soy sauce, lemon juice,  some of Franny’s pepper paste, and green onion.  The oysters were sweet and were a nice compliment to the savory sauce.

I made the garlic and fennel seed marinade that I’ve used on roasted Dungeness crab for the mussels (from the Rose Pistola cookbook).  I tossed the mussels in the marinade (crushed fennel, minced garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice) and roasted them for 20 minutes at 400 F.  I tossed the mussels, the marinade, and the mussel liquor, with chopped fresh cilantro, parsley, and dill and served them with sourdough bread; they were incredibly delicious.

Bruce made a salad of mixed greens, roquefort, pear, hazelnuts, and dried cherries with a sherry, fresh ginger vinaigrette made with pistachio oil.  We enjoyed a great bottle of French sauvignon: Touraine 2008.

Bruce made a delightful salad of  arugula, escarole, red leaf lettuce, romaine, fennel, carrot, turnip, radish, green onion, homemade pickled beets, black mission figs, and oil-cured olives.  The dressing was the leftover truffle and garlic oil vinaigrette from Wednesday.  I roasted two confit duck legs to go with the salad, we had homemade herb bread baked fresh in the bread machine (I love that appliance).  We ate the bread with the rest of the artichoke pesto, and we also finished the baked beans from Sunday’s dinner.  We enjoyed a lovely bottle of Chateau Routas 2008 rose’.