Tuesday, lift your spirits meal

Tonight’s meal was based on the following statement in the cookbook. “Oranges, scallops, and onions are at their best in the wintertime and these lively flavors will help brighten up a gloomy evening. If there was ever a day that I needed brightening, today was it. The recipe is called Seared Scallops with Orange and Red Onion salad. Following is the list of ingredients, but I will tell you that I did not add the green olives. I am not an olive hater. I always order my Tangueray Martinis with olives. When I told Jim I left out the olives he said, “That’s good, I will not have to explain why I am picking them all out. “


This meal was really good and I wish I had a ladies lunch bunch to feed it to. Again it serves 4, but it is gone. This is from Eat Well. I did write Williams Sonoma today to find out about the rinsing of the onions. I looked all over the internet and the only rinsing of onions I could find was before cutting and then freezing to avoid crying. I did learn that if you have really sharp knives you probably do not experience the tearing. I have really sharp knives, right Marrilyn?

Red onion, ½, thinly sliced

Rice vinegar, 1 ½ T

Oranges 3

(Mild green olives, ½ c pitted)

Olive oil, 2 T

Sea scallops, 1#

Salt and pepper

Fresh mint leaves, 2 T coarsely chopped

First slice the onion, rinse and put it is a bowl with the rice vinegar. Next, zest one of the oranges to obtain about 1 t of zest. Then peel and pith the oranges. Today all the food channels have you cut the top and bottom off and then run your knife down the sides. I learned a long time ago from Jacque Pepin, who cuts off one end and then, using a serrated knife just makes a continuous peel working around the orange. Works like a charm, but remember I have incredibly sharp knives. Right, Marrilyn? Then you combine the oranges, zest, and 1T of the olive oil.

The scallops are next. I drained them and also dried them on paper towels. Remember in the Julie and Julia movie when Julia wrote for the Beef Bourguignon to dry the beef? The same applies to the scallops. Salt and pepper them. Put the last T of oil in a skillet large enough for all scallops. Do not cook longer than 5 minutes. Over cooked scallops will taste like Octopus Sushi, which is the equivalent of rubber bands in your mouth. Finally combine the onion mixture and the oranges and arrange on the plates. Top with the scallops. Since I didn’t use the olives, I had a side dish of asparagus. I used oil this time that a friend in NC brought to me to top the asparagus. I have no idea what is in it, but the flavor was very complementary.