Saturday morning arrived, and with it came the knowledge that all the food from the day before was still sitting heavy in my stomach. Not cool. I started to understand why a gradual reintroduction to food via liquids would have been more beneficial than a full onslaught of fiber. I had no time to dwell on this understanding, however, as the clambake (the reason for my trip in the first place) was fast-approaching!
I grew up in New England and have experienced my share of seafood, but I have somehow avoided taking part in a clambake before this. When John offered to get me a ticket, I jumped at the chance!
The process was fascinating. There was this above-ground oven of sorts:
With a big pile of seaweed:
As the layers were removed, here’s what was underneath:
Mmmmm, full belly or not, sweet potatoes make me so happy!
We found ourselves a spot amongst the masses:
And dug into our first course of New England clam chowder with Boston brown bread:
I usually prefer the broth-based chowder, but this one was so light and not sickeningly creamy at all! I ate it all except for the potatoes (and it was mostly potatoes), which I gave to mom.
The brown bread was so tasty, yummmmmmm.
It looked to be straight from the can and delicious 😀
Mom and John tucked right in:
Next, servers came around and dropped the steamer bags onto everyone’s plates:
A bag of veggies and a bag of clams:
I took my time unwrapping everything because I like the work portion of my meal to be concentrated in the beginning so that the actual eating process can be relaxing.
Good-bye steamer bags:
Hello sausage and fish:
Hello stuffing:
Goodbye cornhusk:
Goodbye corncob and shells; hello perfect plate, ready to eat:
By the time I started eating, mom was into the middle of her meal:
(It looks like so much more food when all the shells are still there!)
Mom and John filled up fast:
But they forged ahead bravely:
I ate everything on my plate except for a few clams that I shared with the others. This meal was one of those absolutely perfect summer moments. All of the food had the essence of ocean since it had been baked/steamed on top of the seaweed.
Dessert was obvious:
Yes, I was stuffed. But I was also happy.
Mom and I did a mini photo shoot. John started out as our photographer, but we didn’t love any of his shots:
He resigned as photographer when we kept making him take “one more.” We resorted to my old friend, auto-timer:
Much better 😀
We headed home, and I napped some more. When I was still full a few hours later and well-aware of the three big meals that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in my digestive tract, I decided it was time to take the medical advice seriously. And I also realized why Dr. Eddie had prescribed me four packages of the colonoscopy prep drink-from-hell. I got some liquid meals ready so the liquids-only rule would be easy to follow on Sunday, and I bravely set to work conquering round two of my cure-Sarah’s-intestines mission. I made it fun this time with a fancy lemonade dispenser (top right, chilling in mom’s produce-packed fridge) and a fancy juice glass:
And I set about systematically slamming one cup every 10 minutes until that whole effing gallon was gone. Pleeeeeeeease let it be the last time — I can’t go through this again!
To increase my chances of success this time around, I decided to pretend I had just completed a super expensive celebrity cleanse and had to reintroduce solid food accordingly …
Have you fasted/cleansed before? How did you manage the return to real food?
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 
i have never been to a real clam bake, but the food looks awesome.
I’ve only had to do fasting for like 12 hours before having blood drawn or something, but that’s nothing like this.
I hope today is good!
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I wanted to let you know I had a similar stomach spell this spring. I also ignored doctor’s orders about liquids and bland foods because i had several special food related events coming up over a weekend. Unfortunately this was a BAD decision, I spend Sunday night basically in the bathroom of my college dorm. It was the sickest I can remember being at school, and the $18 I had spent on Thai food for dinner at a friends birthday went down the toilet…literally. Sorry if that was TMI, I just don’t want you so suffer as I did!
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I’ve done some mini-juice “cleanses” before, and definitely been stomach-sick enough times to go through the whole reintroducing-solid-food-slowly thing . . . In both cases, it was a lot of fun to reintroduce solid food. You hold it, chew it realllly slowly, and think about the fact that we go through our lives mindlessly eating solid food and rarely appreciating it!
But simple is definitely best — warm rice dishes, a plain carrot, etc. . .
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I’ve never done any cleanse or juice fasting because I can’t live without solid food!!! 😀
but I guess when you don’t have option, you’ll just follow doctor’s instructions. I’ve done colonoscopy once, and that night was the most cleansing moment of my life.
Good luck Sarah~
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The clambake looks incredible! I’ve never been to one. My parents used to go clamming before I was born; it sounded fun.
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oh my gosh….what a fun food event! i NEED to get myself to a clambake while i’m still in new england. what does brown bread taste like? i’ve always been curious!
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Sue, it tastes like the best bran muffin ever!
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You totally look like your momma – that last pic of the two of you is a total frame-er 🙂
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I have always totally romanticized the idea of a real clam bake, but I’ve never actually been to one. It looks as though the picture I had in my head is right on. What a fabulous looking meal, and I love the community feeling of everyone eating outdoors under the big tent. I’m glad you had fun!
I’ve never purposely fasted, although I have had the experience of reintroducing solid foods after surgery, twice. It can be a little scary, I think, but that feeling doesn’t last for long. Both times I started with graham crackers. They are very comforting to me, for some reason, and also pretty easy to digest.
I hope it’s going well and that you are feeling good today!
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Oh my, I’ve never fasted, nor have I cleansed, and I’m not looking forward to doing it either! I was living with my parents a few years ago and they both had colonoscopies and had to drink that stuff. At the time I was laughing, but I’m sure once I have to do it I won’t think it’s so funny!
The clambake looks like so much fun. I’ve seen them prepare one on the Food Network, but that’s it. I’d love to go to one some time, I LOVE clams!
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I’ve never cleansed or fasted. No help there.
On another note – WOAH NELLY!!!!!!!! That clambake looks amazing!!!!!!! 😀
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Clambakes look so fun! I wish I were invited to one. I don’t even think I’ve ever had clams straight up (we have some sort of stuffed ones on christmas eve).
I never did a cleanse before but one year when I was dieting and eating very little calories each day, I went home for thanksgiving, ate a bunch, and got SO sick. I think I stopped eating for days after that!
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Clambakes looks like so much fun. I would defiantly stuff my belly full of sweet potatoes too. That is one packed fridge you got there, so much produce. The longest I have gone without eating is 12 hours and that was for a more accurate cholesterol test. Sorry, I am no help.
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