Rosie And Her Clams.

The Hawthornes are having clams today - littlenecks and cherrystones. The terms signify the size of the clams. Cherrystones are up to 3 inches in size and are named for Cherrystone Creek on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Littlenecks are smaller, less than 2 3/4 inches, and are named for Littleneck Bay on Long Island, New York. The smaller the clam, the more tender and sweeter it is. Cherrystones generally are used for chowders and other cooked clam dishes. I'm making my version of Clams Casino with the cherrystones. For the littlenecks, I'm just steaming them until they open, and serving with melted butter and lemon juice for dipping.

Here are my toppings for the Clams Casino. scallions parsley bacon oregano white wine panko bread crumbs Parmesan cheese

And then I saw Mr. Hawthorne's

leftover tiny diced hash browns from breakfast. I'll be using these too.

These are the larger cherrystones going into the steamer basket. Steam until they just start opening up.

While the clams were steaming, I chopped the parsley and scallions and grated the Parmesan.

After cooking bacon pieces, I added in the parsley and scallions.

A few shakes of oregano.

A splash of white wine.

I had a few stalks of asparagus so I diced them and added to the pan.

I topped my cherrystones with the parsley/scallion/ asparagus mixture ...

... then I added the diced hash browns ...

... and finished them off with Panko and Parmesan.

These are ready for a quick trip under the broiler. You just want to melt the cheese and slightly brown the Panko.

Rosie's version of Clams Casino.

Here are the littlenecks. Sweet and tender. All they need is melted butter and lemon juice. And I believe I just got my fix of bivalve molluscs.