Scallops a la Mom

Cost: $10

Prep: 45 minutes

Although this is one of the costlier and more labour intense meals I make, it is also one of the most delicious.

The scallops were not a bad price, as it was a buy 1 get 1 sale. One bag was $9.99, so each bag works out to about $5.

Here is how I made it:

I looked up alfredo sauce. I got out the closest ingredients I could. I did whatever I wanted.

I melted a large pat of butter. I added a cup and a half of milk. I crushed in lost of garlic. It simmered.

I melted in some onion cream cheese. I spilled in much more parmesan than I intended to use. I stirred.

It simmered.

Then, I boiled water. I added some Cattelli Smart pasta (the only box that was in the cupboard, much not have been on sale for a while). When the pasta was 2 minutes away from being cooked, I added 1 large finely chopped red pepper.

Then, I poured the sauce into a jug so I could cook the scallops in our single frying pan.

I had rinsed and dried the scallops this time, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

I heated the pan again with a bit of olive oil, then cooked up the scallops and put them on top the pasta/sauce.

Then I mixed it together and ground some fresh pepper on top.

I don't usually let Matt in on how I make his favourite meals. It gives him more incentive to keep me around.


But, oh well, this one can slip. It appears to be one of Chuck's favorite meals too. He especially loves the scallops. He has advanced (and expensive) tastes--his favourite food, after all, is cocktail onions...

Broccoli Alfredo Linguine with Scallops

Cost: $10

Prep: nearly 1 hour

There are two problems with making things from scratch. The first issue, or the last depending how you look at it, is being dealt with in the kitchen right now: the giant mess. The second issue is the time. I was in the kitchen for a loooooong time tonight.

I started by making an alfredo sauce from scratch. Well, it was going to be alfredo sauce, but something else happened. I was looking at a recipe, and the first step was melt butter. I completed this with ease. Then, I got bored and ignored the recipe. I then melted 1/2 a cup of chive and onion cream cheese in the butter, then mixed in a large cup of homo milk. To that I added an entire broccoli crown with the florets shredded and the stalks chopped finally. I tasted the sauce at this point, and it was bland, so I added a bunch of salt, pepper, garlic, and parmesan.

I cooked up a box of Catelli Smart linguine. The final cooking step was to heat the scallops. I melted butter, then added the scallops, a finely chopped tomato, and garlic to the pan. I had forgot to dry the scallops though, so they didn't get to absorb much flavor.

Anyway, for the final step I put the pasta in bowls, added the sauce, and the scallops.

I served this meal with foccacia bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip in. Charlie was a little unsure of that at first, but by the end he was dipping every bite of pasta in the mix.

It was a bit too heavy of a dinner, but Matt and I both agreed it was good enough that you would not be disappointed if this is what you ordered in a restaurant--and it had more scallops.