Here's a better breakdown of how we handled it:

• Place about a dozen clams in your sink and pour boiling water on them, just enough to open the shells. I actually saw a clam throw his shell open and flop right out of the shell. Cartoonish to the point that I expected it to hold up a wooden sign that said "OUCH!"
• Clean clam as normal, although we did not keep the digger and instead kept the neck and outer flesh. Cleaned clam looked similar to curly-tailed pork-based frog lure that banjo-pluckers use in the South to catch naaahse feeesh.

I think my wife put about two sticks of butter and some reconstituted garlic bits in with the clams into the covered bowl. Face it folks, if it doesn't have fat in it then it's gonna taste like crap.
After cooking for five minutes on high I was doing like you said...cutting those babies with a fork. Very filling.