I mystery shop on a regular basis as a way to earn some extra cash. As such, I'm in the grocery store quite a bit lately. Some projects require a deli and meat/seafood purchases. Other times, I stumble across a good deal as I'm evaluating the store. This afternoon I was doing a project in Kroger and spied a package of bay scallops with one of the "WooHoo" yellow stickers. I love scallops. I am also trying to eat healthier, and thought I'd put the scallops in some sort of green leafy salad. A google search turned up "Scallops in creamy bacon and corn sauce" with a green salad on the side. It looked good.
The original recipe called for fresh corn, half and half, and sea scallops, as well as a trinity of tomatoes, bell pepper and onion. Well...no fresh corn, no half and half and no fresh tomatoes. A pantry search turned up a can of creamed corn and a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. Okay, so creamed corn is basically kernel corn with cream added. And who cares if there's a little heat in my canned tomatoes. I figured I could make it work.
I first cut up six slices of bacon into little pieces and fried them until crispy in a cast iron skillet. I took the bacon out of the skillet, set it on paper towels to drain, then removed most of the bacon grease from the skillet. I then sauteed 1/2 a red bell pepper, part of an onion, half that can of tomatoes and chiles, and some minced garlic until the veggies were soft. I poured the can of corn into the skillet, then let it simmer for a bit to thicken up. Then I added the bacon and let it all get friendly. I seasoned it with some Crawdads Cajun Blackened seasoning. I tossed some in, tasted it, and added some more. It looked like this when it was done.
The scallops got sauteed in butter, with just a smidge of olive oil added. I seasoned them with some of the same Blackened seasoning. Then, for picture purposes, I put the scallops on top of the sauce.
The pictures really don't do justice to how amazing this dish was. After taking the picture, I stirred the scallops into the sauce and dished some up. It was heaven in a bowl. Sadly, I never got around to making the salad.
When I started this blog back in 2005, it was an anonymous blog of random stuff written by a suburban mom who had doubts that anyone would want to read what she'd written. It then became a somewhat secret blog for brain purging during some tough times in my life. Then I re-vamped it into a cooking blog that no one actually read.
So...now I've got a Big Green Egg and I am part of a group of folks who post pictures of their food on social media. What better time to dust off this blog and use it to both save my recipes for myself, and share with others. Hopefully, anyone who stumbles upon the food porn I post here will find something useful for their own kitchens.
The Brown-Eyed Guy is long gone...about 18 months later than he should have been. Not too long after I bought the Big Green Egg I spent five hours on the phone with JB, whose online profile picture of a Red Jeep caught my attention. He loves my cooking, treats me with respect, and will remove dead mice from the garage. He also informed me when he met me that he didn't like chicken or asparagus and now he eats both after having them cooked on the Big Green Egg. I may just be one of the luckiest women in my neighborhood.
So, dear reader, enjoy what you find here, and please leave me a comment if you try one of the recipes...or if you just want to say howdy.
