- [Michael] Tonight on "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories," we're back in the kitchen of Johnny Spezzano with a New England themed clam recipe and a New Englander to help him out.

And the incredible power of books.

They're so much more than entertainment.

Discover how the right read can change everything.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories."

(bright music) - [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories" is brought to you by.

(bright music) - [Narrator] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home when you need it most.

- [Narrator] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports-related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Narrator] We are the North Country.

Where protecting one another like family is who we are, and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North County strong at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- [Announcer] Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good Tuesday, evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories."

I'm Michael Riecke.

We begin tonight with a stuffed segment of "Johnny on Fire" as he invites us to his kitchen with a New England inspired recipe called Stuffies.

And to make things more interesting, he got a little help from a New Englander based here in Watertown.

Take a look.

(bright music) (people chattering) - Hey, come on.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Well hello, my friends.

Welcome to another episode of "Johnny on Fire," where we take great recipes and we cook them on fire.

Now we've got some ingredients here, but we don't have anyone to help us put it together.

If only we had someone from New England on the crew who could help us.

- You need a New Englander?

Oh, I'm 1,000% from New England.

I will come and help you out with this.

- Oh!

- Oh!

- How you doing?

- Good to see you.

- This is Luke Smith.

- Hey, how's it going?

- He's one of the great crew here on "Johnny on Fire" with WPBS.

- Good to see you, Johnny, as always.

- Well, good to see you too.

Thank you for helping me out.

So let's talk about what some of our ingredients are.

Obviously these are clams, these are big.

- Yeah, I think we've got enough here to make some New England Stuffies.

Are you familiar with Stuffies?

- Is it like Clams Casino?

- It's a little bit, it's easy to mix them up.

The difference being that instead of like breading them and filling in, like making the clam filling, we're gonna make like a clam stuffing that you're gonna bake inside the clam.

- [Johnny] I like this.

- [Luke] You mentioned the ingredients.

We gotta start there.

We've got our Quahog clams.

We've got some sausage, we got a bell pepper, some lemon.

- [Johnny] This for us to drink?

- This is gonna be for steaming the clams.

So we're gonna steam them in the cast iron in the wood fire.

And it's gonna add more of like a complex taste to it.

- So the fire is lit.

Since you're on the crew, you know how this goes.

It's time for us to get started.

- Yeah, let's get moving.

All right, so the first thing we wanna do is prep these clamps.

- So grab that bowl right there.

So here's the thing, guys.

You should always rinse your clams.

Always.

If you've ever been to the fire hall clam bake, a lot of them, they do a great job, but they're making so many of them, they don't wash them out correctly.

You wanna run them underwater, you wanna soak them, and you wanna let the sand filter out of them.

- And when I pulled some of these clams out, I noticed they were like still kind of sandy.

They were still kind of dirty.

They smelled like Boston Harbor.

If you've ever been to Boston Harbor, doesn't smell great.

Doesn't smell fantastic.

- So I'm rinsing those off.

We'll scrub them up a little bit.

Now we're gonna take some ingredients and combine them, right?

- Yes.

- Okay, well we gotta start by chopping up our vegetables.

- Yes, so we're gonna start with chopping up our onion and our pepper.

And I'm gonna move the sausage out of the way here.

I'm gonna move the white wine.

And what do we think?

Big knife, small knife?

- Always the big knife.

- An aggressive large knife?

- Always the big knife.

- [Luke] How do you feel about chopping the celery?

I like chopping the ends off first.

I don't like that white bit.

- Get rid of it.

I'm gonna go over here and clean the clams real quick.

I'm gonna bring them back over so everybody can see.

While you're doing that, here they are.

They're back in their natural habitat.

- Just swimming in the sea.

It's to see a Spezzano.

- If you take them and you move them around, you'll see the water gets more and more cloudy.

And that's the sand coming out of them.

And of course the outside of the shell has it too.

The tastier they will be later on and you won't have that kind of stuff in your dish.

- And those clams taste delicious when they come right out.

Even if we don't make them for Stuffies, you can still snack on them and they just taste so delicious like right after you steam them.

Especially with that white wine, it's just gonna taste delicious.

- I'm gonna clear the water here.

(water splashing) The good news is we've already been cleaning these before we started filming, so.

I just thought- - We love a little early preparation.

- I thought it would be important though that just people do understand that.

So while you're doing that, I'm gonna line these up.

- [Luke] I'm so particular when we're cutting my veggies.

I'm such a perfectionist.

- So how we're gonna cook these clamps, we're going to cook them right in the wood fire.

We're gonna add the moisture, so that way they steam.

I'm gonna throw a little cover over the top too, so that way the climb itself doesn't burn.

- Is it possible to cook them in the wood fire?

- Oh yeah, oh yeah, we're gonna do that.

Now, I happen to know of an Italian restaurant that does linguini clam sauce.

And this is how they do it.

They just do it in a pan on the stove top.

They open the clams up.

They just steam them in some white wine.

They don't have to bury them or anything like that.

I know we talked about steaming them in water like a clam bake.

But this is gonna be way better.

- I remember immediately when you mentioned that that typically people like to use little necks.

Like people even use little necks for Stuffies.

But we wanted big clams for this.

Like we didn't want a small clam to put Stuffies in.

- You know what we should do?

We're gonna put wine in here.

Let's throw some butter.

- Yeah, while I chop the celery up.

I'm not the fastest cutter.

- And then you're gonna have to, I'm just gonna break it off, and I'm just gonna put it various places around here.

Grab the wine for me.

- Gotcha.

Little Sauvignon.

And we gotta save a little bit of that for the stuffing mixture that we'll need.

And celery is just going all over the place.

- How about half a bottle?

- That should be perfect.

- Okay, now if Julia Child were here, she'd pour a glass for herself.

- I can't get caught on camera doing that.

(upbeat music) - Woo!

Look at these bad boys.

- Oh my Lord, look at those.

- All that wine and butter all baked up nice.

- That looks fantastic.

- Yeah.

- Those cooked up nice.

- We need to let them cool down because they're very hot.

We're gonna chop them up and add them to our mixture.

So what is our mixture?

- So our mixture consists of an Italian sausage.

I chose Gianelli's.

We've got some breadcrumbs right here.

We got some Old Bay seasoning because you can't go wrong with Old Bay seafood seasoning.

- Traditional.

- We're gonna mince up some garlic, and then our vegetables that we just spent all that time chopping up while those were steaming.

- Well, what do you want to add to the bowl first?

- Let's start with the meat mixture.

So I'll start this.

You just gotta put that right in there.

Oop, there we go.

They say I'm a messy cook.

- Then our veg.

- There's all that veg just right in there.

- [Johnny] I like it.

Look at the color.

- [Luke] We're putting some breadcrumbs in there.

Whole thing.

- [Johnny] Okay, cheese?

- Yeah.

Let's throw the Parmesan in there.

And I'm gonna quickly mince up this garlic.

You need about two cloves.

- [Johnny] Can I eat a clam while we're waiting?

- Oh, totally.

- It might be really hot.

- We got so many clams in there.

- Let's look.

I'll get some juice.

We were talking about this, using the clamshell as a spoon.

- We gotta drink some of that broth later.

- It is super hot though.

Super hot.

I'm gonna wait.

I'm gonna wait.

It's hot.

I don't wanna burn my mouth.

Not on TV.

I got family watching.

They'll get scared.

- All right.

- God, I am struggling- - You want me to help you with this?

- Yeah, this would be great.

I'm gonna move around over here.

- It's hot.

- Oh yeah.

- Hotter than I thought.

- Handle with gloves.

- [Johnny] Ready?

- [Luke] You just gotta mash that thing.

Boom.

- Boom.

- Look at that.

See, when I'm home, I'm typically using like seven cloves.

I'm typically using like seven cloves of garlic.

- [Johnny] Right, that's why nobody likes you at work.

- [Luke] I'm a bit garlicky.

- All right, garlic.

- Let's switch place.

Switching back.

- Stir?

- Yeah, now we're gonna mix that whole thing up.

- Is there any liquid involved in this or not?

- Let's put the wine and we're gonna pour some of that clam broth in there.

So you've got the flavor of the clam mixed with the wine.

Oh my goodness, this looks fantastic.

- [Johnny] Clam broth?

- [Luke] You shovel that in there.

- Wait, hold on.

Is that still?

That's still hot.

- Start shoveling it in with the clam.

And then they usually give you measurements, but just throw the Old Bay in there.

- Old Bay at will?

Old Bay till your heart says stop.

- That might have been a little bit too much Old Bay.

- [Johnny] No, no.

- While you do that, I'm gonna chop up these lemons because you can't add seafood without a nice little lemon wedge.

Might be a little quicker.

- I'm gonna add a little more broth.

We'll just take it right out of here like this.

- Oh yeah.

- Okay.

I'm assuming the more broth, the less dry it'll be.

You know what though?

- It'll fluff up a little bit.

- It needs more wine.

I'm not from New England, but I know how you people are.

You like your wine.

Oh, it smells good now.

- Oh yeah.

I told you, it's got a complex scent to it.

- All right, so here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna wait a few minutes for the clams to cool so we don't burn our hands.

- Before we do that, we deal with this parsnip.

- Then we're gonna stuff these Stuffies.

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) - So we've given the clams time to cool.

- They're much cooler now.

And now we're gonna chop the meat.

So what, do we just open them up?

- Pretty much just take them out.

Rip them open like so.

Take that clam meat right now.

- Wow, these are huge.

- Yeah, seriously.

This is why I wanted Quahogs.

- Throw it right up there.

All right, so we are gonna restuff the shells though, right?

- Yeah, so we're gonna wanna break them in half like so.

Kind of like how you pick them up at the beach.

- And we're gonna line the pan.

- Oh, this one's still wet.

- Now, all right, I'm gonna tell you this.

When I was growing up, my mother made something called Clams Casino, which is a lot like this dish.

And here's the neat thing.

She took this mix, she brought it this far, and she would take whatever was left and she would freeze it.

She'd keep the shells, she'd wash them and keep them in a box in the pantry.

And if guests came and she needed a fancy hors d'oeuvre, she'd just take the shells out of the pantry.

She'd have the mix in the freezer almost like a thing of cookie dough.

And slice the medallions, drop them in, and throw it in.

So just remember that if you're making this at home because I think we're gonna have a lot left.

- [Luke] Honestly, we could be making like 100 of these things.

- [Johnny] So we're chopping the clams.

- [Luke] We gotta have these clams.

Johnny, how often do you think you're eating clams on a regular basis?

- Well, we're not in New England here.

We're in upstate New York.

So we don't eat them as much as you guys do.

What about you?

- I'm typically, I'm more big on like the lobster rolls and the clams.

Because I remember as a kid not liking seafood, but I started to grow like an appreciation for it.

- [Johnny] I think everyone does.

You kind of grow into it.

- And in these, it's just like chicken.

So if you're apprehensive towards clams, give them a try.

They taste just like chicken.

And I think we're running out of space- - That's the famous thing to get someone to eat something they don't want.

Eat it, it tastes like chicken.

- What does chicken taste like at that point?

Here we go, a bit more clam in there.

- Again, we made a lot of mix, and I want things to kind of be at- - Think about it like that- - A proper, I know.

But I want it to be like at a proper consistency of clam versus stuffing, all right?

All right, here we go.

Am I doing this right?

- How full?

How full?

- Just pack them in.

Just pack them in.

Put as much as you can.

- [Johnny] Pack, okay.

- Go Bananas in pajamas.

- Bananas?

- Bananas in pajamas.

(upbeat music) - Are we ready to put this in the oven or what?

I'm just starving.

- Look at that.

I know, I'm ready to eat these personally.

Oh my goodness.

- So here are our Stuffies.

Now let's bake them in this.

It won't take long, and I'm happy about that.

(upbeat music) - Oh, those look fantastic.

- Oh, they're so hot.

- Oh my goodness.

- Ooh yes.

- So who lays claim to which clam?

- I mean, I like that one because it's kind of got some crustiness to it.

That one's got beautiful color.

- [Luke] Yeah, seriously, a nice mixture, especially the browning on the top right here.

- Let's let them cool.

While we do that, I want to ask you some things here.

WPBS, obviously, it's people becoming members that really keeps things rolling at WPBS, right?

- And it's super coincidental because we're about to go into our March membership.

So PBS is such a big thing to be supporting.

People need to be informed better.

And that's what PBS has always done.

We've got about 8,000 members, 62% Canadian.

Everything that happens at PBS, it's not possible without membership.

- Yeah, you got all the great programming that you've loved since you were a kid.

And then you got new stuff too.

There's so many great new programs on WPBS and then there's great local shows like this.

- Like we've got new programs like "All Creatures Great and Small" coming out, "Call The Midwife," "Leonardo Da Vinci."

We just had "Whiz Quiz" happen last fall.

- You have a new host?

- Yeah, Mel Busler.

He was incredible, wasn't he?

- How do we get Rick Steves to be on the "Johnny on Fire" show?

- We gotta give him a call.

We gotta get on WhatsApp.

- I know he usually is in Europe, but he should come tour the Thousand Islands and Eastern Ontario, upstate New York.

- See, he'll start bringing stuff like Quahogs to the table.

- That's good stuff.

I can't wait.

And of course your support really matters, so please become a member and help WPBS.

These clam Stuffies, New England style.

- I can barely get a thought together because I'm thinking about these clams.

- All right, let's put some on some plates here.

Which one you want?

- I'm looking right at this one.

This one's caught my attention.

- [Johnny] I don't know, viewers, I don't know which one you would choose, but that does look like a good one.

You got some lemon here too, right?

- [Luke] I'm gonna start by drizzling.

- [Johnny] I'm gonna go for this one right here.

- I'm gonna pick up.

- Pick me up with some parsley.

- Each one.

You got parsley (indistinct) You got the parsley action.

- Oh, you took two?

- Oh yeah.

I was thinking of having three of these.

- All right, you gonna squeeze a little lemon over them?

- A little lemon on yours.

You get first dibs.

I have two, so I'll do second.

- Okay.

All right, here we go.

These are Stuffies from a real New Englander.

- Straight from New England guy.

And and I'm not just saying that because we have a guy up there named Guy.

I can't touch these.

I was about to hold them, I can't.

Oh my goodness.

- Yeah.

Real good, bro.

- Wow.

- So good.

- That lemon makes it taste even better, you can taste the lemon.

Maybe I might have overdone it with the lemon though.

- Yeah, make these at home for the family, they'll absolutely love them.

Obviously you can get the recipe@wpbstv.org.

Look for all the "Johnny on Fire" episodes there as well Because it's fun to watch all the back episodes.

You know, we've had over 24 that we filmed.

- We're on 23 right now.

- Anyway, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for getting stuffed with us making Stuffies.

I'm Johnny Spezzano, check out the "Dinner at Johnny's" podcast.

You can hear me on the Border 106.7 weekdays.

And of course, we're here in the kitchen.

- We're gonna keep enjoying these Stuffies.

- Real good.

Does it remind you of home?

- If you're looking for more great fire-grilled recipes from Johnny, just visit wpbstv.org and scroll through our library.

And if you'd like to be a guest on the segment, all you need to do is email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org.

Make sure you include your name and your fire-grilled recipe idea.

Well up next, the incredible power of books.

Canadian Laura Tiberiu is an avid reader.

In 2024 alone, she read 118 books.

In this segment, she reveals how books can be so much more than entertainment.

They can inspire, guide, and even solve life's biggest challenges in work, love, and beyond.

Don't miss this chance to discover how the right read can change everything.

(bright music) (people chattering) - I started reading a very long time ago, but it wasn't until COVID when I couldn't speak to my friends, I couldn't keep myself busy, and I became addicted to my phone that I started reading every single day.

It was my way to escape, to feel okay in a world where so much didn't feel okay.

And since then, I've read over 300 books, and I have found so many ways to love reading.

Whether I'm feeling sad because of a situation with love, whether I'm overwhelmed at work or school, or even if I just need a break from being on my phone and computer, I can find that in a book.

And I want to share my love of reading, and I want to inspire other people who feel a bit lost that they can find that piece back in a book.

So today I want to share one specific title which I read in a time during the pandemic and I felt really lonely and isolated, and I felt completely addicted to the famous app TikTok.

And this book actually talks about social media a little bit, but it's a fictional story.

There's a bit of romance, there's a bit of family relationships, and it's a really beautiful moment where you read about this woman who's in her late 20s and is trying to figure out life and what she wants out of life.

I think it's something we can all relate to.

The book is called "Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine" And it's by Gail Honeyman.

And it's a very quick read.

It's even won a few awards.

Always in every bookstore you could find and online.

And one of the reasons I especially loved this book is because it left me wanting more.

After I read it, I just immediately wanted to read the next book because it inspired me to do something more meaningful with my life than just waste away on my phone or sit in my room thinking of all the things I wish I was doing instead.

So this is just one book of many that I've read and recommend, but I'm happy to recommend a new book every single week for you with different topics from non-fiction on how to get better habits and manage your life to fictional and romance and historical romance, all those different lovely books that help you escape life.

There's so, so many incredible things out there that can really impact you.

And it's just about finding out what you wanna read and then keep reading more.

This book starts off in a very sad way.

Our main character has still been grappling with the death of her mother and doesn't really understand how to keep living her life when her mother has taken over every single day.

When she was alive, she would tell her what she should wear to work, who she should talk to, and who she should have as a romantic partner.

Now with that mother no longer in her life, she's still going to work, still keeping the same friends, and yet there's no one telling her what to do.

For the first time, she has freedom and she has choices to make, but she's also dealing with grief.

So it's a very conflicting feeling to be sad over the loss of her mother, but also kind of happy and relieved that she can now live a life for herself.

And throughout this very funny book actually with a lot of dark humor, we read about Eleanor and how she goes through this journey of realizing she kind of hates her job and she wants to change the profession she's in.

She only studied that degree because her parents told her to to.

And we also find her making new friendships, getting a pet, basically taking control of her life and deciding she's finally gonna do the things she wanted.

And she doesn't need approval from anyone to do so because she's an adult.

So it's a really coming of age story and something that a lot of people, including myself, can relate to.

When you move out and you're on your own and you've finished your degree, you don't really know what's next, and you realize that there's no professor or teacher or any one parent telling you what to do every day.

You have to decide.

So this book felt like a warm hug because it was relatable and it was really funny to read her freaking out in the grocery store because she didn't know what the healthiest breakfast cereal was.

And I know I've been in that situation and a lot of people have, but we don't talk about it.

Although you can read about it and then feel like someone understands what you're going through without having to tell your friends you're freaking out about picking out the healthiest breakfast food.

So that's just a glimpse into the book.

I don't wanna spoil it all, but if you're feeling like adulthood is a lot to manage, this might help bring a little light into that, be a little funny, but also very emotional and raw.

The writing is incredible.

It will keep you hooked, and you won't want to put it down.

- Before we wrap things up tonight, here's a look at what's happening in your community on both sides of the border for the month of March.

(bright music) (people chattering) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (bright music) That does it for this Tuesday night.

Next week, we take a break so that WPBS TV can ask for your financial support.

Members like you help pay for the programs you love and make it possible for us to provide valuable educational resources to schools, students, teachers, and our two nation community.

Then, join us next time for a fresh look inside the stories.

We sit down with Mark Manske to talk about his series, "Adventures with Stoney," and learn about what it takes to be a gaboon.

And the contributions of women in trades are transforming industries and inspiring future generations.

Discovering how the momentum behind this movement is changing the way young women plan their future careers.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more.

All you need to do is email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org, and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight, everyone.

Have a safe night.

We hope to see you soon.

Take care.

- [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories" is brought to you by.

(bright music) - [Narrator] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home when you need it most.

- [Narrator] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports-related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Narrator] We are the North Country.

Where protecting one another like family is who we are, and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North County strong at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- [Announcer] Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- All right.

- God, I'm struggling- - You want me to help you with this?

- Yeah, this would be great.

I'm gonna move around over here.

- Okay.

It's hot.

- Oh yeah.

- Hotter than I thought.

- Handle with gloves.

- [Johnny] You ready?

- [Luke] Just gotta mash that thing.

Boom.

(gentle music)