DINNER FOR ONE

There is rarely a night when the husband and I don't have dinner together, but tonight was one of those very rare times. I decided to make one of my favorites, scallops. I used to hate them. It was a textural thing, but now I love them, although I don't have them as often as I would like. I served them with a bunch of sautéed kale, thinly sliced potatoes and pea puree. The whole dinner took about 15 minutes to put together.

I simply roasted some potato slices in a 400 degree oven. While the potatoes were cooking, I sautéed the kale with some olive oil, shallots and red pepper flakes and dropped some frozen peas into boiling water for a couple of minutes. When the peas were done, they were drained and pureed with a hand blender but you could use a regular blender or mini cuisinart. Using the same pan that I cooked the kale, I cooked the scallops, about 2 1/2 minutes per side. Easy.

Jess and Robin make a Spring Feast

Last night Robin was in town so we made dinner together, of course. Whenever we are together we cook. I picked up some of my favorite springtime vegetables-asparagus, fava beans and fresh English peas. Those made up our side dish of a really simple spring vegetable sauté. Robin brought over some crab, my husband rolled out some fresh pasta and in no time we had a feast!

Spring Vegetable Sauté
Serves 4

1/2 pound fresh fava beans, shelled and blanched and shocked*
1/2 pound fresh English peas, shelled and blanched and shocked*
1 bunch asparagus
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1-2 tablespoons mint, chopped
1/4 cup feta, crumbled (optional)
1/4 cup good quality olive oil

In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium. Add the vegetables and sauté for a minute or two. Then add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Continue to cook until the vegetables are cooked through. Toss in the mint. Remove from heat stir in feta and serve.

*Once you shell the fava beans, there is a thin shell surrounding each bean. To remove it, you want to blanch and shock them. First, drop the favas into boiling water for a minute or two, then shock, but placing them in a pot of ice cold water. When they are cool enough to handle, you can squeeze the favas from the shell.