The Scalloping Gourmet

Hi everyone - Been a while sorry...  As the last post indicated, Sandy was out of town on business, and while Ike tried to sneak along with her he was unsuccessful so he and I were batching  for the week.  Ike was still in his cast and splint, (next update on his status) so we weren't able to venture too far so we did our fair share of cooking...    I posted most of them before, black and blue steak,  pork chops, salmon and jambalaya  but the one I want to focus on in this blog is the scallops and garlic spaghetti.  We had recently gone to Trader Joe's (of the famous 2 buck chuck wine) and they had a special on IFF (Individually Flash Frozen) scallops.  So we brought 'em home and since Sandy isn't a scallop fan per se, I thought the time was right for me to do them again.  
Ingredients:
6 sea scallops - fresh is great if you have them but if frozen defrost following directions.
3 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning
6-8 Cherry or Grape tomatoes - washed and sliced in half
8-10 fresh Basil leaves - more or less depending upon how big or how much you like Sweet Basil
2 cloves of Garlic either sliced verrrrry thin or chopped
3 Tbsp of Olive Oil
6 oz of Spaghetti  cooked al dente

OK start by getting some heavily salted water on the boil for the spaghetti.
Cook spaghetti to al dente, remove from water and rinse (This should be done before scallops are cooking as they don't take too long)
While water is boiling, slice/chop garlic, wash/slice tomatoes and chop or tear basil leaves
While spaghetti is cooking, warm Olive Oil in skillet
Rinse and pat dry the scallops and sprinkle the Old Bay Seasoning on both sides.
When oil is hot, place scallops in skillet.  They don't take long and you don't want to over cook so as soon as they start to brown nicely on one side turn and add tomatoes and then garlic - reduce heat.  saute the mixture and then place drained spaghetti in skillet and mix to warm and coat with olive oil.  Toss in basil leaves and then serve in bowl or plate.  Nice Chardonnay goes very well with this dish.

Scallops Ala Ike

Ike the Stowaway

Ike has been the subject of many topics on this blog - but this one kind of takes the cake.
We were packing a suitcase for Sandy's recent business trip and she said she needed another pair of shoes.  So we went into the closet to pick them out and get them down off the shelf, and while we were in there - all of about 30 seconds - Ike decided he wanted to accompany his mom along on her trip.  
We turned around, and here is what we were treated to:

"What??? I'm not doin' nuthin'"

"If I get into a small enough ball they won't notice"

Well, I couldn't get the lid closed and I don't think he would make it though the TSA screening so we had to remove our not so little stowaway.  We laughed and we couldn't really get mad at him.  He has been such a trooper with his torn Achilles Tendon (which is going quite well according to the Vet).   Ike is getting better and better and when we are completely done I will let eveyone know - that is if I don't come home to a letter telling me he has decided to travel around the world.