It was another good weekend to relax and cook. I grilled some steaks and served those with homemade curly fries and grilled squash and zucchini. Sunday, we had one of my favorite dishes, a bucket of clams and mussels. They are steamed in a rich broth that becomes almost a soup. The idea for the dish came from a restaurant called Fishmongers in San Jose. There that served just a bucket of mussels. My dish mixes onions, garlic, tomatoes, clam juice, white wine and lemons together to form a great steaming liquor. I also like to have a combination of mussels and clams. Yesterday the store had fresh looking Little Neck, Softshell Clams, Cherrystone and one other large clam, whose name I can't remember. Steam it all up, add a couple of tablespoons of butter at the end with chopped parsley and enjoy. Okay, I left a lot out. It was good but not selected as the recipe of the week. That honor goes to Spicy Beef Stir-Fry. I really enjoy making a good stir-fry out of either beef, chicken or seafood. I don't think I have made one with pork. In any case, it was excellent. Once everything is prepped, it cooks very quickly. In fact, I cooked the rice while I was prepping all of the ingredients. Then as the rice sat for the requisite five minutes before serving, I executed the stir-fry. This is a spicy version but for those chili heads out there just add more chilies and chili garlic sauce. The beef, vegetables, ginger and soy sauce offer more than enough flavor to handle the heat. I like the addition of the peanuts, salted by the way, but you could leave them out and have a great Spicy Beef Stir-Fry. Enjoy.

Google Stirring Things UP

As most of you know by now, included in the governments stimulus package is nearly $8 billion for broadband expansion. Google is using its official blog to ask Google members and users to submit their ideas for hoe the money should be spent. Google is offering the following:

• Fiber deployment to every library, school, community health care center and public housing facility in the United States
• Incentives for providers to install multiple lines of fiber as new networks are rolled out
• Fewer usage restrictions on "white space" wireless spectrum, so operators can deploy mobile broadband more easily

It's not the first time Google has been active in the broadband discussion. They did bid on spectrum last year but I think lost out to Verizon. In addition, Google owns a portion of Clearwire as it expands its interest in Wi-Fi. Just a reminder to you, that Google is a lot more than a search engine.

By the way, it does seem a good idea to submit how the broadband stimulus money should be spent. Send the FCC you thoughts. I'll share more of mine on Wednesday.