What's for dinner?

How many conversations have you had with your friends about trying to come up with something new for dinner? Yeah, yeah, we all know the story....pizza, spaghetti, chicken nuggets, macaronni and cheese...yada, yada, ya. Well, I love to cook and even though not every new recipe ends up being a keeper, I've had two successes in a row. Whoot whoot!

So here they are....

Baked Scallops

1 1/2 pds. sea scallops, rinsed and drained
4 T. butter, melted
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 scallions, chopped
3 pinches of ground nutmeg
salt and pepper
1/2 c. bread crumbs
2 T. olive oil
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400*
2. Pour the melted butter into a 2 qt. casserole dish. Distribute the scallops evenly over the butter.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients. Sprinkle the mixture over the scallops.
4. Bake in pre-heated oven until scallops are firm, about 20 minutes.

On the side we had mashed potatoes, green salad, and french bread. Delish!

Knock out #2:

Country-Style Pork Tacos with Tomato Salsa

Paste:
1 T. kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1 1/2 tsp. chile powder
1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 pds. boneless country-style pork ribs

Salsa:
1 1/2 c. roughly chopped ripe tomatoes
1 large ripe avocado, finely diced
2 to 3 green onions, white part only, finely chopped
1/4 c. finely chopped fresh cilantro (Can I just say how much I L-O-V-E cilantro!!)
2 T. fresh lime juice
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

flour tortillas

1. Make the paste. Trim excess fat from the pork and then rub the paste all over. Cover and refrigerate the pork for 2 hrs. (or as long as 8 hrs.).
2. Make the salsa.
3. Allow the pork to stand at room temp. for 20-30 minutes. Grill over Direct Medium heat, 12 to 15 minutes. NOTE TO READER: GRILL WHENEVER POSSIBLE IN THE SUMMER TIME IN AZ. WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WANTS TO USE THE OVEN??!!!!!
4. Warm tortillas. (Can wrap in foil and place on grill for 2-4 minutes or use the microwave).
5. Cut the pork crosswise into very thin slices. Serve the sliced pork wrapped in warm tortillas with the salsa.

Serve with refried beans and fresh pineapple as your sides.

Sorry no photos of the food. Come on people, if I had to stop and take pictures, my kids would already be full on goldfish, fruit snacks, pretzels, oreos, bread and whatever else they could sneak out of the pantry. I swear as soon as I start cooking dinner they suddenly become ravishing and wither from starvation as I'm madly whipping together the ingredients. I promise they are Yum!

Sweet Sadie

Anyone who knows Sadie, knows that I am truly not that biased when I talk about how amazing she is. She turned 6 last week and so I've spent a lot of time thinking about how quickly the past six years have gone and how my life would be so empty and meaningless without her. Today marked her last swim meet of the summer. It turned out to be a HUGE commitment but so like Sadie, she never complained about getting up at 5:30 a.m. to get there on time. At the end of the hour long practices I could tell she was completely wiped out, but she would do the conditioning drills with the biggest grin on her face. She was definitely the smallest on the team and I think I worried more about her age/size/ability than she ever did. In fact, at one of the meets she was thrilled to finally win the pink ribbon (8th place) because she didn't have that color yet. Ahhh, someday I'll long for those days when she grinned about 8^th place. She has come so far this summer in her swimming abilities and is so much fun to watch. I could go on about the other things that she does....like make all of our beds in the morning, picks up after Deklan without me asking, is so kind to everyone, tries everything on her plate and always compliments me on the meal even though I know she detested it.....alright, I'll stop and just post the pictures of our little fish. Man I love her!!!!!

Summer lovin'

You just have to know that blogging is not a priority in my life.....

Having said that, I think I am now recovered from our annual summer trip to UT/CO. We have spent the past week reminiscing and wishing we could return to cooler weather, greener surroundings and mostly to our families. Isn't that backdrop gorgeous?!!!!

So Erik's favorite part of the entire trip was our float down the Green River at Flaming Gorge. We had two rafts carrying 15 passengers. Not bad when only 5 of them were kids and then 10 adults. Which made me question the sanity of my parents and my aunt and uncle (20 years ago was it???) when they took 11 kids and the 4 of them down the Colorado River, which had many more rapids than the Green River. What were they thinking?!? O.K., they weren't, but none of us are in therapy over it and look, I took my kids, so they must have had it all under control, right? Anyway, it was a two hour float and we had fun getting in waterfights, laughing, manuevering the rapids, and for Erik.....fishing.

Notice Erik...fishing. He caught a Brown Trout (not the kind you're thinking Mr. Case) a German Brown Trout and was very excited. I think this experience convinced Erik once and for all that lake fishing is just not that exciting and river fishing is where it's at!

And there are my cuties and Jorgen with their Papa. When can we do this again?

For Sadie, the best part was riding her cousins' kid-sized quads. They let her drive all by herself and of course she was a very poised and careful driver, until you saw her pull into the driveway and give herself whiplash. It was a sight to see!

When I asked Deklan what his favorite part was, he of course copied what Sadie had said. But as a boy after his daddy's heart, he did enjoy the fishing. Concentrate buddy.......you never know when one of those fish might take a nibble. Oh wait, you don't have a hook on your line. (I don't think next year I'll get away with that safety mechanism.)

And my favorite part? Hands down, it was spending time with my sisters. I absolutely adore them and definitely need the constant laughter I experience whenever I am with them. Thanks girls for admiring my skinny arms and for playing detectives.....I miss you!

And no, I won't wait another six weeks to post.........