Three Things Thursday; vol. two

Two random things on my mind and one tempting recipe. Here goes round 2 of Three Things Thursday:

1)    Vanilla Almond Tea from Republic of Teas. If you see me at subbing at school in the morning with my steaming green travel mug, this is most likely what I am sipping. If I have a chance to run the couple of blocks home during the day, I will probably brew another mug to get me through the remainder of my classes. This is my mojo.

2)    Dirt Devil Simpli-Stik Bagless Stick Vacuum. We live with 3 lovable dogs. 3 lovable, long-haired dogs. 3 loveable, shedding, long-haired dogs. If I fail to clean just one day, we have Texas-sized dust bunnies of dog hair in every corner of every room. This simple stick vacuum has been my savior. It isn’t much more than a dust buster on wheels, but it is lightweight and compact enough to store just steps away from my kitchen on our back stairs. It has reasonably good suction to corral those wads of floating dog hair and whatever leaves, dirt, and small twigs are pulled in through the puppy door. The attachments allow me to clean tight corners. When it gets full, I just dump the bagless canister and start over. I do wish it had a brush for rugs or upholstery, but the majority of our home is hardwood. This gem makes dog hair suck just a little less.

3)    Seared Scallops with White Beans and Spinach. In our house, we big puffy heart love perfectly seared scallops. The trick is to make sure the seafood is really patted dry and the pan is very hot. I always use my cast iron for the best sear.

Seared Scallops with White Beans and Spinach

(adapted from Cooking Light)

olive oil

1 1/2 pounds sea scallops, patted dry

kosher salt

1 cup onion, chopped

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup dry white wine (I use Savignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.)

1 cup chicken broth

1 (19-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

4 cups fresh baby spinach

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Season scallops with salt.
When pan is sizzling hot, add scallops.
Cook 2 minutes on each side.
Remove scallops from pan and keep warm.
Add a little more oil to the pan and sauté onion. 
Add pepper flakes and garlic and cook just until garlic is fragrant.
Immediately stir in wine; cook for 1 minute or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Stir in broth and beans; cook until heated through.
Add the spinach and cook until wilted.
Serve beans and spinach topped with seared scallops and with crusty bread on the side to dip into the brothy beans. (Serves 4)

October 8th

Today is my husband's and my wedding anniversary.

Just as we have spent so much of our lives together, we don't have grand plans.

It will be a quiet night in the comfort of our home.

I will cook something simple, but (hopefully) delicious.

After a long day of working, he will probably fall asleep in his chair.

There is a Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting baked with the last monster zucchini from this year's garden.

And tomorrow, we will start building another year of our lives together. 

Seared Scallops with Bacon and Sauteed Spinach

(adapted from Cooking Light)

5 slices bacon

1 1/2 pounds jumbo sea scallops

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 cup onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

12 ounces fresh baby spinach

Cook bacon in a large cast-iron skillet until crisp.
Remove from pan, chop, and set aside.
Reserve 1 tablespoon of bacon drippings in the pan, and increase heat to high. (The pan needs to be screaming hot to properly sear the scallops.)
Pat scallops dry with paper towels (wet scallops don't sear), and season with salt and pepper.
Add scallops to the hot pan and cook 2 1/2 minutes per side, until done.
Transfer to plate and keep warm.
Reduce heat in pan and add onion and garlic.
Saute until onion is tender, but be careful not to burn the garlic (burnt garlic is bitter).
Add the spinach in batches, stirring and cooking until wilted.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Divided spinach equally between 4 plates, top with bacon, and serve with scallops. (Serves 4...but, truthfully, only 2 of us ate it all with a crusty baguette and a nice bottle of wine.)

Fall Back

I think I am getting old. I don't remember the time change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time kicking my butt so much in the past. Sure, I have lamented about the lack of evening natural light for good photos of my dinner meals and recipes, but overall, the biggest pain has usually been climbing up on a chair to change the analog clock that hangs high in my kitchen.

This year, the early darkness is making me a crab-ass. My temper is short in the evenings and everyone needs to beware. Perhaps, it is due in part to the pups not getting the memo about the clocks moving. They are being kind of insane, too. At the first hint of dusk,--which, let's face it, is about 3pm--they start sitting at the side door and whining. No, they don't want to go outside; they could easily escape through the swinging puppy door installed in the back door. They want Hubs to come home. Never mind that Hubs' work hours have NEVER allowed him to come home at 3pm; at the first hint of darkness, they think it is time for him to be home to lounge together in his big leather chair. Who wouldn't be a crab-ass if they had to listen to two dogs' endless whimpering for hours and hours? Really.

Anyway, I am going to try to yank myself out of this funk (and not throttle the pups) by pulling from some recipes I tried during the long, endlessly sunny days of summer. I am going to fall back into a plate of Fresh Corn and Gruyère Polenta and Grilled Scallops and blissfully remember the night we first sampled these in a late evening dinner on the patio. It was still light at 9pm, and the heat of the day rose from the concrete. Although it had been a very lengthy day of working on the front porch project, we were at peace as the pups playfully wrestled on the grass at our side.

It wasn't dark.
There was no whining.
The food was good.
What more could I want?

for those kind of days to last forever...

Fresh Corn and Gruyère Polenta

(adapted from Food For My Family and Gwyneth Paltrow - I had first seen the blog post from Shaina at Food for My Family, and then decided that adding fresh corn as Gwyneth Paltrow suggested in her cookbook would be perfect for us. Loved the extra texture of the corn kernels.)

4 cups water

1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 sprig rosemary
1 cup cornmeal polenta
1 cup of fresh corn kernels (alternately, frozen corn may be used when fresh is not in season)

3/4 cup milk

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup Gruyère, shredded

Bring water, salt and rosemary to a boil in a medium saucepan.
Reduce heat to low and remove rosemary sprig.
Whisk in polenta.
Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until polenta is thickened; stir frequently.
Stir in fresh corn and milk.
Add butter and allow to melt into the polenta and incorporate.
Stir in the shredded cheese a bit at a time to melt thoroughly into the polenta.

Grilled Scallops

1 pound sea scallops (original recipe called for fresh, but frozen are better suited to my geographical location)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Heat grill to 600 degrees. (We used charcoal for the added smokey flavor, but use gas, if that is your thing...or even a super smoking grill pan indoors, if the weather isn't friendly.)
Combine olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
Add scallops and toss to coat thoroughly.
Place scallops on the smoking hot grill.
Cook 1 to 2 minutes per side, just until grill marks are browned and scallop is cooked through.
(Don't overcook...rubbery scallops aren't so delicious.)
Remove from grill and place on platter.
Cover with foil and allow to rest about 2 minutes.

To serve the Fresh Corn and Gruyère Polenta and Grilled Scallops, use a shallow bowl or scooped plate to first add polenta, and then top with scallops. Season with fresh cracked pepper. (Serves 4)

Spy Capers

Are spy capers just for kids? Should you chortle uncontrollably at a silly story in a restaurant full of people? What is the cut-off age to want to wear a purple wig? Is there such a thing as being too old to have crazy fun? I don't know the proper answer to any of these questions, and I honestly don't care. I am up for all good capers.

I am willing to crawl the streets at night looking for a certain address for no reason other than that I can. I always carry Wisps in my handbag, just in case. I believe in investigative driving. I like to laugh until my sides hurt. I am not afraid to snap silly photos to document my foolish fun. And, I am fully aware that 99.9% of you have no idea what any of that means. Which is good. That means my spy capers were successfully spy-ish. 

I will divvy out all the details of another caper, though. The capers in Scallop Piccata with Wilted Spinach (adapted from Cooking Light) are too good not to share. Nothing silly, foolish, or crazy about this. The salty, little buds of the capers dot this dish with tremendous flavor. Lemon makes it bright. Wilted spinach is vividly fresh (or is that an oxymoron?). And the whole meal comes together so quickly that I can't resist experiencing a caper of Scallop Piccata with Wilted Spinach On My Plate.

Scallop Piccata with Wilted Spinach

12 sea scallops

kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

5 teaspoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons butter
4 teaspoons capers

1 bag fresh baby spinach

1 pound dry angel hair pasta

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.
Meanwhile, heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. 
Pat scallops dry with paper towels. Sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper over scallops. 
Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. 
Add scallops; cook 2 minutes on each side or until seared. 
Remove from pan; keep warm.
Reduce heat to medium. Add chopped garlic to pan; cook 10 seconds. 
Add wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook 2 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. 
Remove from heat. Add parsley, fresh lemon juice, butter, and capers, stirring until butter melts. 
Pour sauce in a bowl.
Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in pan over medium-high heat. 
Add spinach; sauté 30 seconds or until spinach wilts. 
To serve, arrange pasta on plate; top with spinach and scallops; drizzle with sauce. (Serves 4)

Scalloped

Recently, frosty water droplets of freezing fog scalloped everything on the prairie. Our world became a winter wonderland of beautiful white as the broad strokes of a frosty paintbrush covered everything. Crystallized trees shimmered, traffic signs grew fingers of frost, and even our breath turned crispy in the frigid air. While the heavy frost brought with it power outages and slippery roads, it was still impossible not to stop and admire the gorgeous beauty in its pure simplicity.

Likewise, I find it hard to ignore the beauty of the pure simplicity of Seared Scallops with Roasted Tomatoes. I spotted the recipe in the April 2009 issue of Cooking Light magazine and have no regret for putting it On My Plate several times since. It is no secret that I have a thing for the ease of roasting vegetables, and love tossing bright cherry tomatoes into a hot oven until they burst with rich sweetness. Searing scallops is as simple as watching the clock, and leaves the flavor of the seafood unadulterated and pure. Serving it up with slivers of basil on a bed of fresh fettuccine makes a beautiful meal. Pure simplicity is at its best in a white winter wonderland and with Seared Scallops with Roasted Tomatoes On My Plate.

Seared Scallops with Roasted Tomatoes

3 cups cherry tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, divided
1 1/2 pounds sea scallops
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil

Preheat broiler.
Toss tomatoes with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Broil 10 minutes, or until tomatoes begin to brown, stirring occasionally.
While tomatoes cook, heat remaining olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.
Pat scallops dry; sprinkle both sides of scallops with remaining salt and pepper.
Add scallops to skillet; cook 2 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.
(DO NOT OVERCOOK.)
Serve scallops with tomatoes on a bed of fresh fettuccine; sprinkle with basil. (Serves 4)