Still no camera for Pad Thai and Clams

My camera is still not charged. I am looking for the battery charger but in the meantime we are having to make due with the cell phone. It's almost not worth photographing. I have been trying to make a home version of Pad Thai at home for a few years now. I don't know what it is but the from scratch variety continued to fail miserably. This time around I used a bottled sauce and it was slightly more edible but for some reason the fish sauce taste was still WAY too strong. I have no idea what they are doing differently at the Thai restaurants but this may be one of the dishes I'm going to have to leave to the professionals. Since this isn't really from scratch here are a list of the ingredients:

pad thai noodles
pad thai sauce
frozen shrimp
scallions
peanuts crushed
egg
mung bean sprouts
garlic
peanut oil

I think I remembered it all. If not there are plenty of recipes online if you want to try your hand at it. My favorite versions are served at restaurants in Maryland, Noodles Corner in Columbia and Asean Bistro, also in Columbia. In central PA it has been difficult to find something even close to these restaurants, so far the only pad thai that doesn't taste like ketchup is Bangkok Wok in Mechanicsburg. Some people like Amy's Thai in Carlisle and Pakha's Thai House in Dillsburg. I recommend some of the other dishes there but not the pad thai.

I was having another one of those cravings of mine (at least it was something I had eaten before this time) after flipping through the weekly circular of what's on sale. Last night we had some steamed clams as a splurge with a little pasta on the side if you felt like it. The clam recipe is super simple and delicious. The only think I might do next time would be to not use cooking wine because I think it made the clam broth rather salty.

Steamed Clams

48 littleneck clams
1 cup white wine
4 cloves chopped garlic
3 tbsp butter

Wash the clams well in cold water.
Melt the butter and saute the garlic briefly.
Add the wines and the clams and cook covered several minutes until clams open. It is ok to eat clams that don't pop open (unlike mussels) but use your best judgement. Serve with crusty bread (we used a whole wheat baguette).