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Labor Day Party Planning and Clam Bake Recipe

Since Labor Day symbolically marks the end of summer, there is no place I’d rather be than the beach. A clam bake on the beach makes a truly wonderful Labor Day party. To get things started, I’m using MyPunchbowl’s Travel Center and online invitations to coordinate travel with my guests. Since our family will be coming from different states, this makes logistics a breeze.

The clam bake Labor Day party is centered around the preparation and cooking of the food.  We wheel everything we need down to the beach in a wagon and load it up with ice and drinks afterward. When the hard work is done (there is a ton of preparation but worth the effort!) and the food is cooking, we enjoy ice-cold beers and pass around a guitar. Even though my uncle is the only one who can officially play, its fun for everyone to strum the guitar strings and make up songs.  Here’s a great recipe for a traditional New England style clam bake:

 INGREDIENTS

·     20 small (1 pound) lobsters

·     20 pounds clams in shell, scrubbed

·     10 pounds mussels, cleaned and debearded

·     10 pounds cod

·     20 white potatoes

·     20 sweet potatoes

·     20 ears fresh corn

·     5 pounds sausage

·     3 pounds sweet onions

DIRECTIONS

1.   At the beach dig a hole in the sand with the approximate proportions: width = 2 feet, length = 4 feet, depth = 1-1/2 feet. Line the hole with stones from the beach. Build a fire inside of the hole and cover with rocks from the beach. Heat the stones for 2 to 3 hours.

2.   Remove coals and/or embers from the hole. Arrange hot stones evenly across the bottom of the hole. Place fresh 1/2 bushel seaweed (wet) on top of the hot stones.

3.   Working quickly layer the food on top of the seaweed, the food should be layered evenly on top of each other in the following order: clams, mussels, fish, sausage, onions, potatoes (white and sweet), corn, and finally lobsters.

4.   Cover food with a clean, wet cloth. Place remaining seaweed on top of cloth.

5.   Cover entire hole of food with a sheet of wet tarpaulin, sealing the steam created by the hot stones and seaweed in. Allow a very small amount of steam to escape to relieve pressure. Cook for 1-3 hours or until the potatoes are soft. Serve bake with melted butter to dip the seafood in.

Even if you can’t get to the real beach this year, you can still host a mock-beach clam bake Labor Day party in your back yard. The ingredients are the same but use your grill and stove instead. Take the best parts of the beach experience and bring it home—set chairs in a circle for good conversation, fill a sandbox with fresh sand and sand toys for the kids and don’t forget the guitar!

Enjoy Planning.
Penelope