I Love It When A Kitchen Comes Together

As I’ve mentioned before, we are renovating our kitchen and after countless hours installing new cabinets, sawing, hammering, sweating (but no tears!) and praying to the home gods, we finally get our new countertops in! Needless to say, my cooking will be a little quiet the next few days while we finalize but I did manage to create a menu plan for this week. I hope I get around to making them all but, hey, who cares, we are almost there lambs! Pictures to come, possibly one of me attempting to give the countertops a hug. :)

Monday: Roast Lamb with Pomegranate Sauce and a Mixed Greens with Pears, Walnuts, Gorgonzola and Green-Tea Vinaigrette (Bon Appetit, not on the website yet)

Tuesday: Fish with Orange and Saffron Broth (Bon Appetit, not on the website yet)

Wednesday: Pan-Fried Chicken Fingers with Spicy Dipping Sauce and Bacon and Ranch Mac and Cheese

Thursday: Halibut Provencal with Mixed Greens

Scallops with Green Tea Cream

I’ve had this recipe on my radar since it appeared in the November issue of Cooking Light but for some strange reason every time I had it planned for dinner something would come up (friends showing up in town, last-minute errands etc). BUT the food gods were smiling upon me last night because I finally got around to it. I will say one thing, if you don’t have a specialty food store in your area finding matcha powder might be harder than finding a needle in a haystack. After a visit to HEB with no luck, David and I walked around Whole Foods Market looking everywhere, asked a staff member that led us to the wrong thing and then David suggested we look in the tea aisle…duh right? We found the glorious powder and I purchased the scallops last night.

Scallops with Green Tea Cream (Photo by Randy Mayor)

Lord have mercy this was amazing. That cream was dyn-o-mite. Plus, it’s 10 ingredients long with just three steps so it came together in 15 minutes tops. I followed everything to the letter, but since this is meant for first course, I upped the amount of scallops and on the side we had sauteed baby bok choy with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, chile flakes and minced garlic. Simple, fresh, light and that sauce is crackalicious.

If you decide to make this I hope the food gods shine down upon you and nothing stands in your way, but hey I guess all good things do come to those who wait eh? I might start selling my leftover matcha powder to the highest bidder though. :)