All about baked clams

Hubby took Friday afternoon off to visit his Mom because we weren't sure she was doing as well as she should have been and we wanted a surprise visit so the staff wouldn't know we were coming.
Caring for the elderly is a waking up experience because you know, soon it's your turn. Anyways...
We had a very encouraging visit and on the way home it was late and I just didn't have anything defrosted or prepared for dinner so we stopped at a local Italian place for some food. I ordered the clams oreganata and crab stuffed snapper for dinner and besides the saltiness of the food, I forgot how much I liked baked whole clams. Usually I buy the chopped clams and make a stuffed clam shell. I just love clams.
Seems everyone is confused about oreganata vs. casino, so I decided to do some research on my own.
Here's what I found out:
Clams Casino is bacon, garlic, wine, red peppers, spices and it's baked in the oven.
Clams Oreganata is bread crumbs and oregano and garlic, etc. that is either added after the clams are steamed and tossed together or it can be lightly packed onto a whole clam and baked in the oven.

I made my own on the grill on Saturday along with fresh oysters and lobster.
First you shuck the clams, saving the juice. To the juice I added fresh herbs from my garden (oregano, chives, parsley, lemon thyme) unseasoned fine bread crumbs, lemon juice and zest, roasted garlic olive oil to moisten and grated cheese. I took about a soup spoon of filling and covered each of 6 clams with it, brushed the tops with melted butter and put them on the grill along with the lobster.

YUM.

Some grilled bread, a touch of wasabi for a nice kick, squeeze of fresh lemon, some white wine and we had a very nice dinner at home for a quarter of the price.

Sunday was so oppressive that I made just sausage and ziti (with my canned sauce) and we ate in the air conditioning.