Exciting News! Also, a New Scallops Recipe!

Thanks to everyone who gave their opinions on the Reynolds Parchment Paper! Daniel wrote and said that he will pass along the comments to Reynolds.. so maybe, just maybe, they'll listen and our parchment paper blues will end! heee! Has been a pretty busy week.. and I haven't cooked much new and exciting, but I do have some new and exciting news! Tuesday was "Lung Day 2008". Yeah, not a national holiday but a very important date to my mom and myself. Tuesday we went to 2 doctors and they both agreed.. "IT'S NOT A TUMAH!" (Did I sound even remotely like Arnold?) WOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! What a fakkin relief. Talk about being scared out of your mind for 2 months. But it's all good now. :) (Whoops! For those of you who are lost at this point.. they found "something" on my mom's left lung 2 months ago.. but it was too small to tell exactly what it was.. finally after a very long wait a 2nd CT scan showed it was NOT a tumor) Anyhoo.. from new and exciting news to a new and exciting recipe that both Hubbs and I loved. Again with the scallops.. his favorite seafood. I was craving pasta like you would not believe so I went in search for a scallops-y pasta-y recipe packed full of deliciousness. It didn't take long.. I went to Cooking Light's website and found a recipe that sounded pretty good and included ingredients that I had on hand. Bonus! This dish ended up being really, really good. A creamy red pepper and cheese sauce that has outstanding flavor, wrapped around tender scallops and al dente linguine. Superb! It was super easy to make.. well.. it would be super easy to make for any other person on the face of the planet. All that was required was pulsing the sauce ingredients in the food processor, sautéing the scallops, cooking the pasta until almost done and then baking the whole kit-n-caboodle in my Ohhh so sexy dutch oven. Easy peasy, right? No. Not right. Not even close. If you are me. With the bad juju. Fakk no it was NOT EASY. There's a lesson here, kids.. now pay attention to what I'm about to say.. I've got one of those food processors that has a lid with a shooter tunnel thingie on the side.. you know, it kind of resembles your pet hamster's playground but you'd never let your preshus hamster play in this playground because the hamsters in this neighborhood play with spinning blades. Anyway.. this shooter thingie, I suppose it's got a purpose. I just don't know what it is. Well another little feature that my food processor has is a slit in the lid. And in this slit is a removable plastic blade-like thingie. I never really gave much thought to this removable plastic blade-like thingie other than to wash it once I was finished processing. So, did it even occur to me that I was headed for a rude awakening when I noticed the lil plastic blade-like thingie wasn't in the slit on the lid? Did I even give it a second thought? No. No I did not. I didn't think about it after I threw in the roasted red peppers, the fat-free cream cheese, the salt and the hot water.. I didn't even think about it when my hand pushed the pulse button down.. HELLO! It was at that particular point, when the contents of my processor bowl shot out of the shooter thingie covering my legs, feet, floor, dog dishes, butcher block table and assorted small appliances in a curtain of warm, chunky, liquidy, pink gobble-dee-gook. ewwwwwwwwww! GOD DAMMMMMITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! MOTHER F*CKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU SON OF A MOTHERLESS GOAT!!!!!!!!!!! It was squishy between my toes. That's not such a very good squish. Me no likey. Thankfully, my sweet male counter-part, heard my "alarm" and came running. After he stopped laughing, he grabbed a bunch of paper towels and started cleaning up the floor so the dogs couldn't OD on pureed cheesy peppers. I waddled on my heels to go hose down my legs and feet. Gah. And the lesson learned? If you own one of these instruments of Satan, go bury it in the back yard. No, that's too close.. go find a field somewhere and bury it. It probably wouldn't hurt to douse the site in holy water as well. To extreme for you? Then right now.. before you read another word - go find the duct tape and close that side shooter tunnel thingie for good! (and it probably wouldn't hurt to douse the tape in holy water as well) Luckily, I had another jar of peppers and more fat-free cream cheese, so I started over, only this time I made sure the f*ckin' plastic blade-like thingie was in the f*ckin' lid of the f*ckin' processor. God. I have to say.. although I really don't think any recipe is worth what I went through, this one was pretty darned good. Creamy, cheesy, sweet and smokey bell peppery with the bite of the just-done linguine and those scallops were super tender and didn't lose their flavor under the sauce. I recommend this low-fat / low-cal but doesn't taste low-fat / low-cal recipe! Give it a shot! My only change would be to thin the sauce a little bit.. maybe adding a little of the pepper "juice" next time. Even if you aren't a scallops fan, try it with shrimps (the original recipe actually called for scallops and shrimp - as well as ziti instead of linguine).. or leave the seafood out completely. The sauce would be completely delish over some cheesie ravioli or tortellini. You can find the recipe here. Here's my take on the recipe in photographs! And for those of you wondering.. sorry! the camera didn't come out until after my kitchen AND MY TOES were clean.. :) First you slather up your sexy dutch oven with a lil olive oil and you slip some linguine in a nice salty bath until it's almost done. Then you toss in a lil garlic, finely chopped.. Finally the scallops go in for a quick sear on each side. Once you've seared in the flavor of the scallops, pour that crazy roasted pepper sauce over them. Don't forget the linguine! What's a lil pasta without some parsley, eh? And who would think of putting all that goodness in the oven half-nekked like that?? There's ALWAYS room for an Asiago blanket to keep our scallops toasty warm in that 400º oven! Mmmm.. melty cheesie goodness! Voila! Slightly blurry, but ohhhh so luscious Baked Sea Scallops and Linguine in Roasted Pepper Sauce! *slurp* xoxo

Crunchy Scallops with Citrus Sauce

We've started up the snow machine here in NE Ohio.. like I said before when we were having all that mild weather, when it starts to snow it's not going to stop! But I have to admit, grudgingly, that it is pretty - there's been a lot of it but it's been the big fluffy stuff. Normally when it's constantly snowing, I sink into cozy/hibernation mode when it comes to cooking. But since I've been on this "recreating" kick of late, I decided that the next restaurant recipe I wanted to try to figure out at home is a light, summery, scallop dish Hubbs had at that restaurant I told you about where I only ever ordered the pork tenderloin? Well he had this dish once and gave me a bite and I thought it had to be the best scallops I'd ever had. Unfortunately they were on special that night and never offered again after that. I've looked high and low for recipes that I could use as a platform to work off of but so far, nothing. And it's getting harder and harder for me because I'm trying to recreate something I had one bite of a good 4 years or so ago. This is my 3rd attempt and I knew just from reading the recipe, which I found on the Whole Foods website, strangely, that it wasn't going to be close either - but it was interesting enough on it's own to give it a shot - who knew maybe we'd find a good citrusy scallop dish that was just as good? These are breaded scallops, which I usually don't like at all - but I'd been having a craving for Panko so I subbed it for the regular breadcrumbs the recipe called for. Also I didn't have any baby bok choy on hand (imagine that!) so I served these with bite-sized chunks of roasted sweet potatoes with a lil drizzle of honey. Come to find out, they were the perfect side dish as the citrus sauce is quite tart. This dish was good - not one of my favorites - but Hubbs loved them. The scallops had a nice crunch and were tender on the inside. The sauce had a very good citrus flavor but ohhhh baby if you got a scallop with a lot of sauce on it you'd start to pucker! Not that that is a bad thing - for me the sauce really brought out the flavor of the scallop instead of over powering it, which was great. Crunchy Scallops with Citrus Sauce 1 1/2 c. freshly squeezed tangerine juice (3 to 4 tangerines) 1/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 to 2 lemons) 1/4 c. freshly squeezed lime juice (1 to 2 limes) 1/4 c. chicken stock 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 TBS. honey or agave nectar (I used honey) 1 TBS. sugar 2 large egg whites 1 1/2 TBS. cornstarch or arrowroot 2 TBS. freshly squeezed lemon juice (I omitted this) 1/2 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, or to taste 30 large scallops, pat dry 1 1/2 c. sesame seeds (I used Panko) 1/4 c. canola oil (I used even less just enough to brown them without burning) 2 lbs. baby bok choy (Or 2 sweet potatoes chunked) To prepare the sauce, combine the tangerine juice, lemon juice, lime juice, chicken stock, garlic, honey and sugar in a heavy saucepan over high heat. Boil until slightly syrupy and reduced to 1 cup, about 15 minutes. Set aside. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm before using.) To prepare the scallops, in a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, corn starch (or arrowroot), lemon, and cayenne pepper until blended. Add the scallops and toss to coat. Place the sesame seeds or Panko in a deep rimmed dish. One by one, dip the scallops in the coating, making sure to coat all sides. Place the coated scallops on a nonstick baking sheet, set aside. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until very hot. Carefully add half of the scallops to the hot skillet, and sear the scallops until golden, about 2 minutes. Turn the scallops over and continue to sear the other side for 2 minutes or more until golden on the outside and just opaque on the inside. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining scallops. If using the bok choy the recipe says to trim it and cut it in half lengthwise. In a large deep saute pan with a fitted lid, place 1/3 c. water and 1/4 c. citrus sauce, stir to blend. Bring the liquid to a boil, add the bok choy and cover. Reduce the heat to low and steam for 2 to 4 minutes or until the bok choy is just tender and bright green. Remove from heat, toss in the liquid to coat. Place the bok choy on individual plates, arrange the scallops on top of the greens and drizzle with the remaining sauce. If using sweet potatoes, peel and chunk them into bite sized pieces. Lay them on a cookie sheet and drizzle olive oil and about a tsp. of sea salt over them then using your finger tips, toss to coat. Place sheet in a 425º F. oven and roast for about 25 - 30 minutes or until they are browned and tender. After plating, drizzle a small amount of honey over them.

Monthly Mingle #5 - Give Thanks

For this month's Mingle, my sweet friend, Meeta has picked a theme about giving thanks. I like this idea as it's always good to think about what we have and to acknowledge our appreciation for it. Sure, we've all got our problems - who doesn't - but instead of stressing over them, it's rather nice to take a moment or two to think about your loved ones and how they care about you, your home and how there is no better feeling than coming home. Your health and how grateful you are to be alive to share your life with your loved ones, be it family and/or friends. The list can go on and on. I'm thankful for many, many things. I have a Mom who is also my best friend. I have a man who loves me for who I am and who I love deeply. I have three beautiful "furry" kids who I cherish more than I ever thought possible. I have a nice home that's cozy and welcoming. I have a handful of true friends that I know will always be there for me and who I hope they know I'll always be there for them. I have my health - although I'm not in the best shape that I could be - I am alive and grateful for it. My list goes on and on as well, but you get the idea, yes? =) For this month's Mingle I've decided to say thanks to Hubbs. This man may drive me insane on occasion (heee!) but I do love him with all my heart. He shows me affection constantly. He helps around the house, he takes care of his yard, he comforts me when I'm down, he cracks me up like no one else can, he likes to do the same stuff I like to do and he's shown me things I've never seen before. He's easy going which is nice because I'm the stressed out worrying alla time type - so I know I can count on him to "talk me down" when I get wacko. lol Above all, he makes me feel loved and special. And so, to show him some of my appreciation this week, I made him his absolute favorite food. Scallops. He doesn't care how they are prepared, all he cares about is that he's getting scallops. I've made them many times for him - and always a different way. This time I wanted to make a sauce that was tangy with a nice punch of heat. So I chose this ginger-lime sauce to drizzle over them. When I first tasted the sauce while it was reducing, I was quite alarmed - whoa baby was it salty! Woo!! I thought I screwed up and was already getting out ingredients to make the old stand-by garlic and butter sauce to replace it. But I continued cooking it and added a lil sugar to tone it down a bit. This sauce ended up being fantabulous with the seared scallops and white rice that I served with it. It really brought out the taste of the scallops, which surprised me. If you decide to make this sauce, my only words of caution are - use it sparingly as it does pack quite a punch. We found that just a drizzle over the scallops and then maybe a spoonful or two over the rice was just perfect. It's tangy and salty and sweet and spicy all at the same time. Seared Scallops with Ginger-Lime Sauce 1 lb. of sea or diver scallops 1 TBS. butter 4 TBS. soy sauce (this could be cut down to lessen the salt - or use the low-sodium soy sauce) 2 TBS. light brown sugar 2 TBS. fresh ginger - either grated or minced 2 tsp. ground chilis (I used ground ancho chili powder) 2 tsp. fresh, minced garlic 1 tsp. rice wine vinegar 1 tsp. lime juice (I upped this to 2 tsp.) 1 tsp. ground black pepper 1/2 tsp. onion powder 1 TBS. corn starch 2 TBS. water Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until it's just starting to brown. Lay your scallops between two layers of paper towels and apply pressure to coax the extra liquid out of them. Season the tops with sea salt and pepper then transfer them, top side down, to the hot skillet. Season the other side and leave them alone for about 3 minutes or until the bottoms are nicely seared. Flip only once and sear until browned and cooked through - approximately another 3-4 minutes, if even. For this sauce recipe you could do two things. Put all ingredients, except the corn starch and water, into a jar or container with a tight lid and shake until combined then refrigerate for 24 hours before use. This preparation would be more for a marinade. Or you can add all ingredients to a small saucepan and cook over medium high heat until you get the desired thickness you'd like. That's the way I went. *Note: I also doubled all ingredients except for the cornstarch and water as that was plenty to thicken the double batch perfectly. And I added 2 scant TBS. of white granulated sugar to help cut the salt a bit.

Pan Seared Shrimp & Scallops with Mushroom "Hash"

Remember the old Reese commercials where the slogan was "Two great tastes, that taste great together!"? 'kay well this was not the case last night. I had two skewers of giant scallops and jumbo shrimp that I had purchased from our seafood store, but didn't feel like grilling them. So I just started dumping ingredients in a pan that I thought would be good with the shellfish. Ohhh and was it good. Garlic, butter, fresh parsley, lemon juice and a splash of white wine.. the scallops were tender and sweet, the shrimp was creamy and flavorful. I might just have to prepare my shellfish like this from now on - yum! I needed something a little on the substantial side to go with the shellfish as there were only 2 scallops and 2 shrimps per serving.. so I decided to go with baby new potatoes and fresh button mushrooms. I started preparing them the same way as with the shellfish - garlic and butter. At about the time I was allowing the veggies to carmelize a bit, Hubbs walked in with 2 late garden tomatoes - so I decided to seed one, cut it in chunks and add it to the veggies. I let the whole thing cook down a bit and what I got was a fabulous side dish that really could have been ate as the main course. The only problem was that by adding the tomato, the veggies ended up on the rich side and were a little too heavy to go good with the light shellfish. I will prepare this veggie dish again and again - but will pair it with beef or pork next time, for sure. So there you have it - 2 new dishes for me, wonderful on their own, but not quite right with each other. =) Pan Seared Shrimp & Scallops with Mushroom Hash 3 TBS. butter 3 cloves garlic, minced and then mashed into paste 2 TBS. fresh, chopped parsley juice from 1/2 lemon splash of a good white wine (I used a Pinot Grigio) 1/2 lb. sea scallops 1/2 lb. large shrimp, shelled & deveined pinch of sea salt Saute garlic in butter until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the lemon juice and wine and cook until sauce reduces a bit, about 4-5 minutes. Add scallops, season with pinch of sea salt. Sear for about 2-3 minutes, flip the scallops and season, then add the shrimp and fresh parsley. The shrimp won't take as long so once you see them starting to turn their pretty creamy pink color, flip them. By the time the shrimp are cooked through, the scallops will be done as well. Mushroom Hash I'm not even sure Hash would be the right term for this side dish? 1 small carton of small to medium button or crimini mushrooms, leave whole 5-6 small new potatoes, peeled and chunked 1 lg. tomato, seeded and chunked 3 TBS. butter 3 cloves garlic, minced Cracked black pepper Sea salt 1 TBS. fresh parsley, chopped Saute garlic in butter for about 3-4 minutes, add potatoes and allow to cook until lightly browned on the bottom, about 4 minutes, flip. Add the mushrooms, cap side down, cook for another 4 minutes or until the caps have gotten goldeny brown and add the tomato. Simmer for 6 minutes or until the juice from the mushrooms and tomato has reduced by half. Season with salt & pepper, stir in parsley.

Scallops with Capers and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Hubbs is home =) He finally pulled in around 5:30 last night. His originally scheduled ETA was suppose to be around 2 yesterday afternoon, but thanks to one of the drivers in the convoy taking a few wrong turns and a huge construction backup, his trip was prolonged. Which really didn't shock me.. considering the job was suppose to be done at the end of April, why wouldn't an extra 3.5 hours of drive time be a surprise, eh? Anyhoo.. it's over, he's home and I'm relieved and quite happy! After he recovered from almost being licked to death by the dogs, we sat and chatted a bit on the deck as he was surveying the back yard. The overgrown grass, the still covered pond, those lil f'in maple tree "helicoper" thingies that were EVERYWHERE. I could see his mind racing with everything that had to be done. Thankfully, I got outside a couple weeks ago and cleaned out the beds as best I could, and his brother came over to help plant the garden and he mowed a few times.. but the work to be done outside is quite monumental. He's never had to deal with all of this as he's one of the first in the neighborhood to start on the yard work after a long fall & winter. You know, the weirdo up the street who is wearing his winter coat, gloves and hat mowing the lawn and weed-eating? Mmm hmm.. that's my Hubbs. It was kinda comical watching his eyes dart here and there while pretending to carry on a conversation with me.. teeee! So I asked if he wanted to take a walk around the two yards to check out what flowers have bloomed so far. I thought he would trip over Nigel the way he jumped out of that chair with a squeal in his voice, "OKAY!" hahaaa! After the quick walk and a short visit with the neighbors (ugh) he got this look on his face and I knew what the evening was going to consist of. So I told him I'd go in and start dinner as he was longingly looking at his garage. Yep, after 11 hours of driving the man got out his blower and took care of the helicopter thingies and then he mowed. He wanted to start weeding but I told him dinner was done. Sheesh! lol One of his favorite seafoods is scallops. So scallops it was last night. I don't really make them too often, not sure why because I love them too, so I don't have many recipes for them.. this one I found on Epicurious and it was delicious. The sauce that's created with just a few ingredients and the liquid given off by the scallops was scrumptious. I was going to serve this with sun-dried tomato risotto.. which I didn't remember until after I had peeled, cut and started frying the potatoes and onions. I don't even recall giving fried potatoes a thought when I was figuring out what to make for dinner yesterday.. must be habit when I cook for Hubbs? He definitely likes his potatoes. Well the scallop recipe is definitely a keeper, it was heavenly. Scallops with Capers and Sun-dried Tomatoes 2 TBS. olive oil 3 large garlic cloves, pressed - (I minced) 1 tsp. minced lemon peel - (I grated with the microplane) 12 sea scallops - (as if that'd be enough for him.. I used 2 pounds of large sea scallops and the sauce, as is, was plenty) 2 TBS. minced, drained, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes 1 TBS. drained capers 2 TBS. fresh lemon juice 3/4 tsp. minced fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp. dried, crumbled - I used 1/4 tsp. Herbs de Provence but I wish I had upped it to 1/2 tsp. 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into pieces Salt & Pepper to taste Heat oil in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and lemon peel and saute 30 seconds. Add scallops and saute until almost cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer scallops to bowl using slotted spoon. Add sun-dried tomatoes, capers, lemon juice and thyme to same skillet. Boil until liquid (The scallops will give off a lot of juice) thickens, adding any accumulated juices from the scallops in the bowl to skillet, about 2 minutes. Add butter and whisk until just melted. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Return scallops to skillet and stir just until heated through. Transfer scallops and sauce to plates and serve. All I did for the potatoes was semi-peel and quarter about 1 lb. of new red potatoes, slice about 1/2 of a vidalia onion and mince 3 cloves of garlic. Fried them in 2 TBS. of olive oil with salt & pepper until they were nicely browned then finished them with a good sprinkle of fresh clipped chives and chopped parsley.