Oyster Pancakes, mom's recipe

My parents go oyster fishing regularly in the Hood Canal in Washington State, and one of the extra special recipes my mom makes is oyster pancakes, and this year, she has really perfected them.(Every few months my mom focuses in on a recipe and makes it over and over and over again. She made oyster pancakes 3 times in one week.)

They are a Taiwanese specialty, made w/chives, oysters, yam starch and eggs, basically, and my mom has achieved the perfect proportions of egginess, starchy gloppines, and oyster blobbiness to make the sooo delicious, soft and perfect, they don't need the sweet gooey sauce you usually make with them.

We ate oyster pancakes w/some corn, beets and a stir fry shrimp dish.

The coolest apple name ever is "Sister of Fortune"

In September, I went to Hutchins farm and selected a bag of apples, mainly from a box labelled "Sister of Fortune" They are all gone and eaten now, but my head has been trying to remember that name for several weeks. Finally looked it up and found a nicely descriptive blog about apples here. Truly a great apple marketing name.

Sea Beans

After eating a dish of crunchy, salty, clean sea beans on a scallop dish at Dante a couple years ago, I've always wanted to eat them again, but I haven't run into them again, until I visited the family vacation home-- they are growing right in the ground, next to wetland! They look sort of like succulent cactus, and have a very salty taste on the inside when you bite into them. The property has a combination of spring water and salt water, brackish water areas, exactly where you would find them. The photos above were taken in the early fall, and they are turning red, but now we know to forage for them during the spring.
My mom actually figured out a dish to make out of them: she soaked them overnight in water, to try to decrease the salt content, then stir fried them w/a garlic/ginger/soy vinegar dressing, very flavorfull and delicous!

Matzutake Mushrooms

May family visited the gracious and stunning home of a retiree couple, who went on a hunt in the forests of Mt. Rainer the day before to forage for the precious Matzutake mushroom! 6 hours of foraging resulted in three delicious, meaty 'shroomy snacks, about to be broiled in the toaster oven.
This mushroom is soo rich, it's no wonder that in Japan they are sliced super thin and infused into a batch of rice.

Veggie Pancakes!

Pancakes made w/rice flour, eggs and zucchini w/some corn and peppers to make it even- It's basically an okomomiyaki recipe w/zucchini instead of cabbage....