Sea Scallops with a Farmers Market Flair

Today I walked to the farmers market in my town. They have such gorgeous, gorgeous fresh produce, it gets me so excited about food and cooking! Today I picked up some golden Swiss chard, yellow grape tomatoes and sea scallops.

Cooking sea scallops takes a few tricks. To get a good sear on the scallops, they need to be patted as dry as can be and put in a very hot pan. Don’t move the scallops until they release themselves from the pan otherwise they will be stuck to the pan and tear. I made a delicious meal with my finds. Here is what I did. Enjoy!

ingredients

5 sea scallops, cleaned and pat dry
1/2 tbs pine nuts
1 garlic glove, smashed
1/2 cup white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, cut in 4
Salt and pepper to taste.

directions
Sear off the scallops, cooking about 5 minutes on each side. Add the pine nuts to the hot pan to toast slightly. Add the smashed garlic and wine. Scrape up the brown bits and let reduce. Add the lemon juice and cook scallops through.

Meanwhile sauté the Swiss Chard with salt, pepper and garlic. Instead of adding the garlic to the pan, stick it with a fork and use the garlic fork to stir the chard. This just gives a hint of garlic flavor.

Place the chard in a dish and remove the scallops from the pan and place in top of the chard. Add the tomatoes to the juice in the pan and warm through. Pour over the scallops and chard, and enjoy!

A Variation on My Beer Chicken

Sundays filled with errands and activities doesn’t mean you can’t have a beautiful, slow cooked, comforting, Sunday night dinner. With my slow cooker I was able to accomplish just this today! I made a variation of my beer chicken in the slow cooker and it came out delicious. So nice to relax with a warm meal after a day of running around! Here’s what I did… Enjoy!

ingredients

4 chicken legs (or whatever pieces you choose!)
1 yellow onion, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tbs chili pepper
1 tbs worcestershire sauce
1/2 tbs cornstarch
1 bottle beer
1/4 cup water
1 hot banana pepper, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

directions

In a 3 qt slow cooker, place the onions, garlic and carrots in the slow cooker pot. Place the chicken on top and sprinkle with the chili pepper. Mix the cornstarch with a small bit of the beer in a separate bowl. Add the mixture, the remainder of the beer, the worcestershire sauce and water to the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for 7 hours.

After 4 hours, add the sliced banana pepper. (If you won’t be home all day you can add this at the beginning!).

Serve over rice.

Chicken Francese my way

I like Chicken Francese, but to be honest, egging and flouring the chicken is, well, annoying! And to be honest, again, it’s not my favorite part taste-wise. So I make chicken francese my way – with no breading. It also makes it healthier. Here’s what I do. And I am sorry if this recipe is taken from someone somewhere. I’ve sort of made it up, but who knows if someone else already has!

ingredients

4 thin sliced chicken cutlets, cleaned
1 lemon, sliced in half with two sliced taken off
1/2 cup white wine
Juice of the lemon
1/2- 1 cup chicken broth
1 tbs butter
Salt, pepper and red pepper flakes

directions

Salt and pepper the chicken. Brown the chicken in a sauté pan and cook through. Once cooked remove chicken and place to the side.

Add the two lemon slices to the pan and brown. After a minute, add the wine and reduce while scraping up the brown bits. Add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.

Add the juice of the lemon and the chicken broth, and add the chicken back in. Cook until warmed through. Add the butter and let it melt and thicken the sauce.

Serve with your favorite vegetable and starch, and enjoy! My go to with this meal is spinach and rice pilaf. The sauce from the chicken mixes with these two sides on the plate perfectly!