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Now that I’m eating for one and a quarter – he’s  not so very big! -  my decisions about what to cook have taken on even more importance.  I spent hours flipping through my cookbooks before, and now I spend…well, even more hours.  One of the food issues that pregnancy has raised my awareness of is the mercury content in seafood.  While fish are a great source of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids, some also swim about with loads of mercury under their scales, adding to their stash as they get bigger and older.  I’m not so well-informed about just how bad mercury is for babies – or for me! – but the idea of ingesting the silvery gunk from the bottom of thermometers just doesn’t appeal to me.

Fortunately, I’ve learned that some varieties of seafood carry much less metal than others.*  Most shrimp, for instance, are relatively low in mercury, but still packed with protein and DHA.  And another of my favorites, clams, has a similar profile.  So after much cookbook-flipping a few nights ago, I set out to steam clams with shallots, butter, and beer (Yes, I’m still using it in cooking.  No, I’m not drinking it.).

I love cooking clams because, unlike almost any food I can think of, they come with a built-in timer.  If a clam opens, it’s cooked through, simple as that.  There’s no guessing, poking, or slicing involved, and no anxiety about whether you’re risking infection by eating underdone meat.  And as long as you remove a clam from heat pretty quickly after it opens, there’s almost no way you’ll overcook it.  Beat that, chicken breasts!

Because the clams yield a flavorful sauce once they’re out of the pan, I also steamed small potatoes to accompany them.  Once they soak up the sauce, the potatoes transform from boring to buttery, with a touch of bitterness from the beer.  And because babies need vegetables too, I also prepared one of my new favorite recipes, carrots roasted with garlic and thyme.  After a quick sear-n-saute, halved carrots cook in the oven for about 20 minutes.  When they’re tender and well-browned, I squeeze the roasted garlic cloves over them – it’s an incredibly satisfying dish.

I usually don't peel my carrots.

Aside from the carrots, which take a little while in the oven, the components of this meal came together quickly and without much work on my part.  Did I mention I love cooking clams?

Between the clam shells and the pale potatoes, this meal made for a pretty monochromatic presentation.  Bryce and I ate it too quickly to mind, though, and the baby isn’t much of a critic, just yet. I hear that will come!

*For more information on seafood sustainability and mercury content, visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s well-regarded site.

When I’m planning to cook with pecans, I usually purchase large bags of shelled nuts.  They’re a great snack to have on hand, and I never worry that they’ll go to waste.  I often eat them raw and straight from the bag, one sneaky handful at a time.  After I made Pecan Sandies, though, I had so many pecans left over that decided to try coating the nuts with a mix of bolder flavors.

Frank Stitt’s recipe for Spiced Pecans is literally something you can throw together in minutes.  While the raw pecans browned in the oven, I stirred together melted butter, olive oil, rosemary, cayenne, salt, pepper, and dark brown sugar in a large bowl.  The only thing that required chopping was the fresh rosemary, which is easy to strip from its woody stems.

After about 10 minutes, I tossed the warm pecans into the spiced coating.  The mix smelled so strongly of rosemary that I was a little worried; I like the herb, but its scent overpowered everything else in the kitchen!

I needn’t, it turns out, have worried.  As long as you chop the rosemary finely enough, no one pecan has enough of the herb to overwhelm its flavor.  Set out with deviled eggs and dill pickles from the farmers’ market, these pecans made an appealing and addictive Southern appetizer!

Dear Friends of Dinewithdanielle.com,

I need your help!  In the next day or so, I’m planning to send a few samples of my writing to local publications.  Hopefully, they’ll like what they see and will send an assignment my way.  If you’ve been following the blog, could you comment on this post – or on the Facebook page – and name one or two of your favorite posts?  Which have you found the most interesting?  The most well-written?  Strongest overall? Which sounds most like it could be in a magazine or newspaper? I’d love to hear your picks before I decide what to send around.

If you comment here, only I will see your email address.  And here’s a secret about that: you can put whatever you want in that box, real address or fake. No one will be the wiser, either way.  If you’re so inclined, you can even use a fake name!

Thanks for your opinions and your help.

Many of the most famous images of historic Charleston feature beautiful area homes.  The Battery mansions, for instance, grace many a glossy postcard, and the pastel facades of Rainbow Row draw daily tourists.  Even houses outside the city, such as Drayton Hall and Magnolia Plantation, have achieved recognition with visitors and students from around the world.

History in Charleston, though, is tangible in more than just columns and carriage houses.  The city is also marked by cannons and forts, the preserved relics of 18th and 19th and century wars.  The most famous of these is Fort Sumter, which is generally acknowledged to be the site of the Civil War’s beginning.  Maintained by the National Park Service, Sumter is just miles from the Charleston peninsula; it’s reachable by private boat or ferry tours.

When my parents were in town, we boarded a Spiritline Cruise at Liberty Square to visit Fort Sumter.  A fee of $16 each bought us an hour round-trip boat ride plus an hour exploring the Fort.  Though the ferry was comfortable, it’s worth noting that visitors with access to a private boat can dock themselves at the Fort and walk its grounds free of charge.

The automated narration on the ride was pretty dull, so we busied ourselves by observing activity in the harbor.  We traveled on a Sunday afternoon, and there was plenty to see!

When we reached the fort, everyone opted out of the hard-to-hear narrated tour.  Instead of following a guide, we rambled over bricks and stone in Sumter’s shell.  The old walls gave us a bit of welcome shade, but soon we retreated into the small, on site museum to really cool off.

My favorite part of visiting the Fort was seeing the old, tattered flags that flew over the Fort during the Civil War.  The U.S. flag, especially, was enormous, spanning nearly two stories – it was much too big for my camera to take in!

Time at the Fort went surprisingly fast, so I was surprised when the boat’s horn blew, signalling its upcoming departure.  On the way to board, I took a few parting shots:

With a rental or boat of my own, I’d definitely make another visit to the Fort.  While the tour itself was nothing special, the historical space of Sumter definitely is worth the trip.

After a steady stream of posts last week, things have been pretty quiet this week on dinewithdanielle…echo, echo, echo.

Since Friday, my family has been staying with Bryce and me and visiting Charleston for the first time.  I’ve been out sightseeing and eating, exploring new beaches, restaurants, and area tours.  It’s been productive and fun, but it hasn’t left me much time or energy to blog.

And tomorrow, Bryce and I are headed for Chapel Hill, where we’re officially vacating our old apartment.  We’ll see a few friends, scrub lots of floors, and have a nostalgic meal or two before we drive back to James Island this weekend.

All signs, then, point to a dull week on the website.  I hope you don’t mind the break! Starting on Monday, check back for a week’s worth of catch-up updates.  And enjoy the last days of July.

On my first two trips to Rio Bertolini’s, I managed to purchase their cavatelli and pizza dough without even seeing them.  We looked at their chalkboard list of options, counted our cash, and chose whatever seemed most enticing.  Last Saturday, though, I could no longer resist trying one of the colorful pastas they display at their booth.

Flavored with ingredients such as basil, porcini mushrooms, and squid ink – can you guess which color above is which? – the tiny bundles sell for $1.00 apiece, which works out to about $4.00 per pound.  At that price, who needs the dried grocery store stuff?

With four little nests of cracked pepper fettuccine in hand, Bryce and I headed home to cook Fettuccine with Prosciutto, Peas, and Lemon-Chive Sauce, a recipe I found in the Bon Appetit cookbook.  Because fresh pasta cooks so much faster than dried, it took me less than 15 minutes to prepare.

Once I’d cut my poor chive plant down to the soil and grated lemon zest, I boiled the peppery pasta.  During the last minute of cooking time, I added frozen baby peas, too; they heat so quickly that they don’t even merit their own pot.  Warmed with a little cream, sliced prosciutto ham, and lemon juice and zest, the pasta and peas were ready to serve.

I love how you can see the little flecks of black pepper in the noodles, even in such a small picture.

Although I was a bit overzealous with the peas – I used to hate them, now I overcompensate – the dish was an appealing mix of salty, spicy, and creamy.  The fresh fettuccine really ramped up the flavor in an otherwise humble preparation; I could taste the pepper in the pasta dough so distinctly that I didn’t grate any extra over the plate.

With another success from Bertolini’s chalked up, there’s just one thing I can’t decide: next week, should I try their ravioli or their gnocchi?  Opinions are earnestly welcomed!

Tonight, I won’t be home to post a detailed update, because I’m going to Coast, a seafood restaurant downtown!  I’ve got my little camera lens on, and I’m ready for a big time out.  Soon, I’ll tell you all about it.  Happy Saturday!

Plantation-style  homes in the South have always seemed to me – and many others, I know – beautiful and terrible, reminders of a region’s old shame as well as its artistry.  Growing up in North Carolina, I visited my fair share of these stately, historic places.  From a silly fourth grader shuffling my way through Somerset Place to a teenager dreamily strolling downtown Edenton, I grew accustomed to the ambiguous presence of antebellum history in my corner of the world.

While playing tourist this weekend, I decided to add to my early experiences by visiting  a South Carolina plantation, Drayton Hall.  Constructed by slaves in 1738, the house is maintained and managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

After taking oak-shadowed roads to West Ashley, we followed a gravel drive to the house.  A friendly gate attendant waived the $14 admission fee for all three of us, as teachers (that would be me) and their guests get in free all summer!  We were off to a great start.

While we waited for our guided tour to begin, we spotted an excavation site for the foundations of an older house  on the property.  We took in the expansive lawn, brick privy, and moss-hung trees, too.

With a group of about 15 others, we eventually entered the house behind Judy, our well-spoken and informed guide.  Though there are almost no furnishings inside the house, many of its elaborate decorative touches are still intact.  Because the house is a “preservation” rather than a “restoration,” it hasn’t been gussied up to appear as it would’ve in its prime.  Instead, the Trust works to slow the house’s deterioration.

For me, the most interesting part of the tour was when Judy showed us traces of the house’s former inhabitants.  She pointed out the chart generations of Draytons kept of their children’s growth, and graffiti likely left by soldiers or drifters staying in the house during the Civil War.

Once we’d made our way through the house, we were free to explore its grounds.  We walked to the choppy Ashley River, and over to an algae-colored pond draped by low-hanging trees and moss.

By the water, though, we found a reptilian resident hanging out with about 7 of his friends!

Alligators aside, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed visiting Drayton.  It has the feel of an active research site – which it is – more than that of a typical sightseeing spot, and what it lacks in moonlight and magnolia appeal, it more than makes up for in its serious approach to historical tourism.