Things I learned while working at a nursing home in Coastal Carolina

• Types of boats, including sail boats, "T" tops, schooners.
• Ways to catch seafood: clamming and flounder gigging. I asked my patient how to know where to go clamming, the response: it's a guess. To gig a flounder, from what I can gather, you wade in the water and try to sneak up on a flounder and then "gig it" which apparently means to spear it.
  
• Ways to prepare seafood:


• Conch stew. You can apparently get the conch removed from the shell by boiling it or just sticking it in the freezer. Conch Stew, depending on where you eat it may have a variety of other seafood and veggies in it. None of the ladies I spoke to had made it themselves, they just new how to evacuate the conch from the shell.
  
• Steamed Crabs: Place live crabs on a wire rack above a pan. Cover with one can of beer and lots of Old Bay, making sure the crabs don't pinch you or roam off the tray (this sounds to be the tricky part). Cover the pan, cook on the stove top. When you notice that the crabs are no longer clawing to get out, begin your kitchen timer for about 10 minutes or so. Eat up!

Hot diggity!

This summer I made the switch from beef hotdogs to turkey dogs. The Best Man's favourite beef hotdog brand is Nathan's. All beef dogs, especially the "jumbo" variety can run close to 200 calories. The turkey dogs I've grown to eat over the past few months are closer to 45 calories per dog. I figured if I could make the switch from beef to turkey- how hard could it be to switch to veggie?

Very hard indeed. Calories aside (80 per dog, almost twice my turkey dogs), these dogs are a no go. Besides looking strange (more orange than the pink of a beef dog and the white of a turkey dog), these veggie dogs did not taste...well, like meat. I tried them with melted cheddar and american on top, before dipping them in a swirl of ketchup and dijon mustard. Then, I tried eating them with a mouthful of beans. These were not just any beans. The only beans I buy are Bush's. You know, the kind with the maple syrup and bacon? Oh yeah, nothing but The Best. Taking a bite of these babies along with a bit of the veggie dog seemed to help. I can only guess this had something to do with the taste of bacon. Needless to say, once I've eaten the rest of the package, I'll be going back to my trusty turkey dogs.

For those of you whom can't forgo your beef in order to partake of the wonders of turkey, you are certainly missing out. Ground turkey makes a great subtitute for beef in tacos and burgers. Turkey bacon is much less greasy and fatty than the real bacon. I really enjoy this when I'm craving bacon and actually like it much more (so does my stomach and arteries!). Veggie bacon can also work in a pinch, but is not as good as turkey bacon, however much better than a turkey dog. Give it a try!