Scallops with Pasta and Summer Vegetables

Let's start at the beginning.

This was the beginning. A Pomegranate-Lime Fizz. Simple to make and delicious. I think it is very important for every woman to know how to make a good drink. This is now my drink of choice.  Cheers.

I was planning on making tonight's dinner last night but no way did I feel like attempting it. So here we are tonight with Scallops with Pasta and Summer Vegetables. Not sure how I found this recipe but it is a YouTube video. Thank you Chef Justin Timiner. I made a couple of changes. I used Pappardelle noodles and did not add arugula, GRRRR I forgot to add it to my list! Oh and no mushrooms.

Just a few ingredients.

 

 The dish was quite good and speedy to prepare!

Meet me at....

Wow another crazy work day. I emailed Chris at lunch to let him know I was not able to get out to the store so he should not expect too much in the way of dinner. His reply back was to meet him at a restaurant. Now that is just want a person wants to hear. Well it was music to my ears! So I continued on with my work until after 5 without it bothering me because I did not have to sit in traffic, Memorial Day weekend is the beginning of the Friday night commute from hell, and secondly I knew I would not have to do dishes tonight!

We ended up at Friends and Company. We had not been there for quite some time. But dinner was as good as it always is. We started with Fried Mozzarella Balls. Nice and light with a touch of crushed red pepper. And the dipping sauce was a marinara that was, dare I say it, as good as mine!

Chris had a special, Beef Tenderloin with a Pink Peppercorn Sauce with Roasted Potatoes. The meat was like butter! I had the Beef Stroganoff, I am a sucker for egg noodles. The sauce was so flavorful and the meat was nice and tender.

Dessert, no way, we were too full. But later on I had a 100 calorie Klondike Bar!

And a post with no photos...
Wait a sec... here are a couple of cute cat photos!

Happy Friday!

Not Quite a Wordless Wednesday

Wow I can't believe it is already Wednesday. I stopped by my Dad's on the way home from work tonight and took some photos of some of the flowers in his garden. I thought that they would be perfect for a "Wordless Wednesday" post. I was tired and really didn't have much to say. But when I walked in the door Chris was taking the Baked Macaroni out of the oven and it looked "picture perfect." Oh well. I now find it necessary to write. First we have the photos from my Dad's garden. Poppy, Iris and Chive flowers

The Baked Macaroni right out of the oven and when I plated my serving it looked need to have it's photo taken.

And while we are on the subject of food and photography there was an interesting piece in Eater National today. Chefs on Photography in Restaurants. Enjoy!

Musical Interlude

This was such a treat...

Not Sure What to Begin With....

 We could start with the Grilled Balsamic Pork Tenderloin.

Or the Grilled Broccoli! Lets just say if you like broccoli you will like this. If you don't like broccoli, well sorry....

Oh but this was interesting. Crunchy Couscous Galette. And it received a warm reception! I used Israeli Couscous so I had to adjust the recipe a bit but this has definite possibilities.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Yes we are revisiting a meal from not too long ago. Kind of long day at work so I wanted to keep it simple. But simple is usually the best. So for this dinner the only ingredient I needed at the store was the pancetta. Not bad. A quick run into the grocery store and I was all set. Keeping it short tonight... Happy Friday!

Eggs in Purgatory

It's all about the sauce and this sauce was good. It was just a basic Marinara that I made on Sunday.
I added green beans and hot dogs (that way everyone is happy). I poached the eggs in the sauce tonight. Not sure how a meatball ended up in the pan... Anyone?

Chicken Parmesan

Today I left some Chicken Cutlets in the fridge to thaw. When I walked in the house I was greeted with....

 Nice job Chris!

What did we have for dinner a year ago...

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette and a Stuffed Bread

What did we have for dinner 2 years ago...
Grilled Rib Eye Steaks with Blue Cheese Crusted Tomatoes

Zucchini, Onion and Bacon Tart and Spinach Soup

The Zucchini, Onion and Bacon Tart was pretty easy. I sauteed some onion and zucchini added cooked bacon and used some of the Pate Brise with pepper that I had in the freezer. I broke 2 eggs on top of the sauteed vegetables after they were on the pie crust. I folded the crust up and popped it in the oven. Dinner can't get simpler than that.

 

Spinach Soup. Food Styling by Chris.

 

Of course I have this fear that there will never be enough food, I have no logical explanation for this feeling. So I made a soup! Spinach Soup! Yeah I think Chris went back for seconds... I found the recipe on a box of Ronzoni Ancini Di Pepe. One of these days I will tell you the story about my mom and the Ronzoni Brothers!

Ingredients
1/2 onion
, chopped
2 tablespoons butter 

1 can (46 oz.) chicken broth

1/2 cup Ronzoni Acini Di Pepe, uncooked
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Salt to taste

1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions

Cook and stir onion in hot butter until tender but not browned.
Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.
Add pasta, nutmeg, and pepper; simmer about 5 minutes.
Add chopped spinach and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season to taste with salt, if desired.
Sprinkle with cheese.

Hey and don't forget to stop by the Facebook page. I promise I will not hound you every day about this.

Happy Mother's Day and Grilled Pizza

Happy Mother's Day to Lenore, Ann, Tara, Heidi, Cindy, Caitlin, Julianne, Jeanine, Jeanne, Terri, Debi, Becky, Carolyn, Julie, Michelle, Lucille, Kimberly and Lucy!

Tonight for dinner we had one of my mom's go to meals for a Sunday night... Yes Pizza! She use to mix the dough early in the morning and then it would rise by the heat vent wrapped in a blanket all day. She and I would roll out the dough and add the tomatoes and herbs and cheese. She made like 4 at a time. Quite the assembly line.

 

Well tonight I added meatballs, still craving meat even after last night's dinner! But our pizza was grilled. Yes it was a lovely warm day so we took advantage of it and grilled our pizza. We added the meatballs and kalamata olives. On mine I added some of the zucchini we grilled last night. The shapes, well lets just say they were interesting. Anyway the crust was nice and crisp and not at all greasy.
I hope everyone enjoyed their mothers today or enjoyed the memories of their mothers like I did.