Scallops are not Shellfish

I know the title sounds complicated, doesn't it? But really, it's a good thing to remember, because things like crab, shrimp, crayfish, etc. will kill me. That's not how I want to go out! If I go out choking and not breathing well there better be some illicit activities involved! Simple as that, yo.

Mollusks? Generally seem safe. So, when me and Miss Rabbit went protein searching at our local Sprouts (I hate hippies but hey a sale is a sale!), this is what dropped her My Little Pony Headed jaw.

The hard part? She doesn't like most veggies! But that's ok, the few she does, I can cook well. This leads us to:

Scallops, Zucchini, and Pasta

I love headers..

So first things first. Ingredients. Well, maybe after shopping so is it second things second? F it, first. 

• Scallops (I do about a pound)
• Pasta (I like angel hair a lot)
• 4 tbsp. butter 
• Herbs to taste: in my case 1 tbsp. Parsley and 2 tbsp. "Italian Seasoning" 
• 1 Zucchini: I did have a normal green zucchini and 1 yellow Mexican squash thingy.. Yellow Zucchini!
• Garlic. Many. Seriously I'm sure this is 1/2 the reason I'm single. I did 5 big cloves in all this. 
• Bread - Tonight was a yummy olive bread.

I used probably too many dishes making this, but, I'm still getting used to pictures..

There's a hard part to scallops. They often come frozen, especially if you live in a desert, like me. So what do you do? Thaw them. Now you can't just let them sit out all day. They get funkay. So what's an industrious young 1D3 (nerd joke) creature like myself going to do?
How water bath

Seriously, let them soak in hot water. Change it a few times until thaw.

And now, to cook it!

Noodles

1. Cook noodles according to directions on package. Seriously. Follow those directions.
2. Make sure you're following directions

The Sauce 

1. Take about 1/2 your butter and dice it.
2. Mix in your herbs.
3. Toss in a little of your garlic
4. Add it to a pot.
1. Secret ingredient for happiness: While your scallops cook down, pour some of your water/butter from there into this. Don't tell anyone. It's just between me and you. 
5. Slowly heat this until everything is melted. 
6. Keep cooking until it smells awesome. 
7. Add your noodles.

Zucchini

1. Slice your zucchini as close to evenly as possible. I'm no pro, I don't expect you to be. If you are and you're reading my blog? Comment, I automatically love you. 
2. Add About 1tbsp. of the butter to a pan and let it melt 
3. Throw in about a third of your garlic and let it brown in the butter
4. After the garlic is browned a bit, toss in the slices of squashes (try to keep one flat layer as best you can).
5. It's time to flip them when they start getting translucent. I flip them really a total of three times. 

The Scallops, or "The Magic."

1. Throw in what's left of your butter.
2. Toss in what's left of your garlic when the butter is melted.
3. Again, brown that garlic! 
4. When the garlic is brown, the butter is sizzling, turn down the heat just a bit and lay out your scallops. Again, try not to stack. Spread them just a bit.
   
   This is apparently where people think it's confusing. When do you flip/turn them? I leave them until the edges start to turn color. See, scallops have that layer of kind of see through area. When the sides start to take on a more, flesh\white tone, I flip them. Simple as that. 
5. After your first flip, you might notice a lot of fluid/butter in the pan. Drain some off.
1. This is where that secret I told you about earlier (wink wink) comes in.
6. After they look all around fleshy/white, they should be done. 
1. Another secret? This is the point I drain off all the fluid and let them sit in the pan for a bit. Flipping them around every minute or so. This gets some browning and texture besides "scallop," all around. 

Slice your bread, add it all together. You can keep salt and pepper handy, but honestly I didn't need any between my herbal choices, the garlic, the little bit of.."fishiness," that scallops have, and the olive/salty in the bread choice. 

Wanton for these Wontons

Once, back in the ancient history, me and Miss Rabbit were thinking about how fun it would to run a small diner, or food truck, with a target audience that might include those who frequently used certain substances that cause a bit of hunger.
Yep we were thinking about stoner food.

We had multiple ideas, including simplicity of pricing, decor, etc. But when it came to thinking about food? Peanut Butter and Jelly came to mind. I mean, sober, drunk, stoned, PB&J is where it's at.
But sammiches and toast? Boring. I can't charge for that!

This gave birth to Peanut Butter and Jelly Wontons.

So I'm going to try and add picture for steps now, too. Because, well, this is for my attention disabled friends. 

What you will need

• Peanut Butter - I like natural peanut butters, or fresh ground up peanut butter. But that's just my tastes.
• Some sort of Preserves or Jelly - This is what was on hand. 
• Wonton/Dumpling wrappers. Yep, This is an excuse to go to the Asian market.. Everyone that knows me knows this hurts my feeling. Twist my arm even. 
• Water. 
• Optional (and not shown) hot sauce (I use sriracha).

• A pan for cooking in - I love my wok.
• A little oil of choice - Seriously if I had peanut oil I'd probably have used that to keep to a theme.

Seriously these might be some of the easiest things to make. Almost as easy as a standard PB and J sammich. 

Lets get cookin'

Lay out the dumpling wraps.

About 1/2 to 1/3 spoonful of peanut butter.

Wet around the edge of the wrapper, fold, and pinch, pinch, pinch around the edged. I get about 8 pinches each.

Heat some oil in your pan (enough to coat the bottom) and toss in the wontons.

When they brown (about 2 minutes or so) flip.

Remove to some paper towels to let the oil siphon off.

The Sauce

This is simple: Add preserves (2 or 3 scoops), about equal amount water, heat for 30 seconds in the microwave, and mix that stuff up! TADA! If you want to add in your hot sauce, glob in to taste, stir it up. This is a simple, quick sauce.

So how hard was that? Not hard at all. Serve it up! There are so many fun things to do with these. We tried with the jelly inside (ends badly). We tried with honey inside (It melts out as Honey Lava and melts your hands off!). We have also toyed with the idea of adding banana inside but have not yet determined if this is a good idea. Please, try it and let us know!

In the end? Our favorites are a simple dipping sauce like listed above, or drizzled with a little honey before they cool off. You can use Nutella, chocolate, what ever you would normally put on your PB&J and then some. It's a simple, easy to change, lovely little meal. I eat about 10. Rabbit eats like 6. They are filling, you get more than enough peanut butter, you get to choose how much jelly you get, it's all toasty and hot.. Really just be careful not to spill the oil !!!!!