Just or not…I sealed the front porch this afternoon and my reward????

Oregon blueberries on top of Pioneer Woman’s Pots de creme !!!

Yum!

….so, I am being VERY disloyal to the local huckleberry as well as name-dropping “Pioneer Woman” (VERY heavy hitter in the blogging world!), but as I’ve written previously, this year’s blueberries - from Oregon (as in not Maine where I thought all blueberries came from**) - have been extremely sweet, large, scrumptious!!

This bit of the berries is maybe the last of this season’s. And no kidding, PW’s “Pots de Creme” - wonderful and so easy that I’ve made it more than my waistline needs.

The state of the porch project to be addressed later…the weather continues to mimic summer and Karl, Bob and I are enjoying the slightly different perspective “from the front yard”.

**my step-Dad grew blueberries in Louisiana…vicinity of Lake Charles… who knew???

In the post Adventures of the culinary sort on August 25 I wrote of our meal of pan seared scallops - an adaptation of a recipe from “Noble Pig” blog. ( A Tiny Addiction )

The original recipe called for champagne grapes…not finding them, I substituted blueberries. We enjoyed that meal very much even though in addition to the substitution, I neglected to get the butter hot enough to sear the scallops.

But this weekend I tried again. Not only did I find Champagne grapes, but I let the butter get hot and brown AND made sure the scallops were salt and peppered well. The result was a truly seared and crusty exterior, tender and moist inside, topped with that incredible sauce. The blueberries were very good in the sauce, but the grapes were excellent!

For anyone who loves scallops and enjoys a mix of spice and sweet, this recipe is very simple and quick - the primary tricks being the pan and butter to the correct hotness, rinse, salt and pepper the scallops (salt and pepper!!) and having the remainder of the meal ready to go. The scallops take 2-3 minutes per side (put them in the pan and don’t touch them for 2-3 minutes) the sauce about 2 minutes and you want to dish up and eat immediately.

This round I served roasted beets and steamed broccoli with the scallops - wonderful combination of color and flavor.

So…champagne grapes…I did some reading as I hadn’t heard of them before this recipe. They are very small - slightly smaller than blueberries. They are often called black grapes. They are the grapes that are currants when dried. Hard to tell in the photo below, but the plate is a sandwich plate, not a dinner plate…

that plate…Royal Dulton “Old Leeds Spray” - original china purchased by my great-great (maybe another great?) grandmother…

We ate VERY well this weekend…Bill’s rotisserie chicken with my mashers and gravy on a cool Friday night. For Saturday night, I perfected my deep fried potato skin “appetizer-dinner” - skins with a good bit of potato, topped with slightly sauteed onion and red pepper mix, monterrey jack-chedder shredded cheese and bacon bits. Sunday breakfast was lox, cream cheese, roma tomato, grilled onions and capers on demi-baguette - a variation of bagels and lox.

The capper, though, was last night’s pan seared scallops with blueberries and almonds, steamed asparagus and baked sweet potatoe fries - yum, despite a few technical difficulties…

First off, I must acknowledge that the scallop recipe is a take off on a recipe from a blog called “Noble Pig”. The recipe detailed in Cathy’s post: A Tiny Addiction is for pan seared scallops with champagne grapes and almonds. I substituted blueberries for the champagne grapes and sweet onion for the shallots - everything else per her recipe. I have never had champagne grapes so I can’t compare but the blueberry sauce was wonderful with the scallops.

The technical difficulty - actually “user error” - was that I did not let the butter and pan get hot enough to sear the scallops and make the crusty exterior. The scallops were more pan poached than pan seared but they were not overcooked or rubbery. And because they were excellent, large and fresh scallops, they survived my mistake with good grace!

…will have to get more scallops and blueberries and try again…

A note about the blueberries - the Oregon blueberries have been both plentiful and delicious this year - plump, juicy and sweet!

Bill thought last night’s dinner arrangement was so pretty that he requested a photo… It was pretty! - and delicious…ribs ala Bill, sweet corn, sugar snap peas and stuffed avocados by me. We both love to cook and love a variety of food. Bill is the meat man primarily and I do the sides. I’m a fresh veg - the less cooking, the better, girl. Bill has been converted from canned…

Successful biscuits - they rose, they baked to a golden brown, they pull apart and are light and flaky inside… (the thing I did different was going a bit heavy on the buttermilk and the shortening - per commenter Jim…) But the thing is, I really don’t care for biscuits all that much. I’ve been a bit fixated on them since I had such difficulty in Florida making even a decent biscuit. See Southern Biscuits failure.

I mixed this batch up on Saturday morning just because I KNEW what I did wrong the night I wasn’t feeling well and I could tell even from the consistency of the dough that they would be good. And then I realized I didn’t even want them - not even hot out of the oven slathered in butter. The night before we had the leftover creamed chicken on thick slices of homemade 100% whole wheat bread ( Suzanne McMinn’s Whole Grain Grandmother Bread ) and I enjoyed that much better than the biscuit scenario. I’ve mostly converted to whole grain stuff… My apologies to all those who think there is nothing better than a good biscuit - I’m over it and this is the last post about biscuits!

After making peace with the biscuit thing, Karl and I headed to town for early morning grocery shopping. But first we stopped in Somers and walked the historic railway path. It was beautiful, quiet and just a slight breeze off the lake and over the fields to where we walk.