soup and salad

Just like yesterday, I felt the worst morning leading into noon, and somewhat bounced back in the afternoon. Odd. However, I went to CVS today and bought myself a magical elixir that starts with Ny and ends with Quil. If it doesn’t make me sleep tonight, nothing will!

This afternoon, post-grocery shopping, I refueled with a guilty pleasure of mine

Oh, coffee flavored Frappuchino light. Yes, it is fewer calories than a regular frappachino, but they are pretty empty calories. Maybe it has some calciumy milk in it? Whatev, it was delicious.

For dinner, I went with a perfect, classic combination: soup and salad.

My salad was a beauteous blend of greens tossed in lemon dressing, topped with radish, cuc, and a touch of black pepper.

My soup was YUM! I’ve made this before, and it made me gloriously happy once again. It’s bay scallop chowder, based loosely on this but with a number of modifications.

Ghetto Bay Scallop Chowder for One

1/4 cup onion, diced teeny tiny
1/4 cup celery, diced teeny tiny
1 tsp butter
2 tsp all purpose flour
2/3 cup diced red potato*
2/3 cup ish veggie broth** (maybe more- throw it in if the soup gets too thick for your liking)
1/3 cup skim milk (or whatever you have, but if you use a fatty milk probably don't use the half and half)
salt
pepper
3 oz. bay scallops
2 little packets half and half***
dash of hot sauce
Melt the butter in whatever pot you have (it should be smallish, as this recipe only serves one) on medium heat (maybe medium high if your stove isn't crazy like mine). Throw in the onions and the celery, cook til they soften a bit.
Sprinkle on the flour and mix around til the veggies are coated.
Throw in potato and liquid, and a generous amount each of salt and pepper. Even the salt. I'm in general a sodium-phobe, but it's worth it in this.
Bring to a simmer and then lower heat.
Cook 5 minutes or so, til everything's warm and the soup has thickened a bit.
Add the scallops. Cook two minutes.
Remove your pot from the heat, and stir in the half and half and hot sauce.

*take a whole red potato. stab it a few times with a fork. microwave it on high for two minutes in a bowl with a little bit of water. flip it over, microwave it another two. let it cool for a few minutes, dice it up, and save the rest of it for another use

**ideally use homemade veggie broth cause it's delish and CHEAP and environmentally friendly- just, whenever you have leftover usually just garbagey things like celery hearts, carrot tops, pepper tops, turnip tops, onion tops, kale stems, etc., throw them in a bag in your freezer. Then, whenever you have a lazy day at home-- in my case, the snow day on monday-- throw them all in a big pot with a whole bunch of water-- like probably double the liquid volume of the stock you want, cause it evaporates!-- a few whole cloves of garlic and a splash of wine vinegar or wine if you're allowed to buy it, which I am not, and some salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for like 4 hours ideally. Then you can freeze it!

***stolen from the nearest coffee establishment. This is ridiculous of me, I know, but I’m not going to buy a pint of half and half to use like two tablespoons (or is it teaspoons?) of it. So I just took a couple of packets when I bought coffee!

These sweet little bay scallops were definitely the star of this dish. I saw that they were on sale for $1.99 a pound, which is marvelous for any seafood, let alone scallops! I did a bit of internet research and actually everyone said that in terms of flavor they are SWEETER and BETTER than big scallops! I guess it’s just that they’re small so you can’t do super fancy presentations with them? Whatever, their affordability is a wonderful mystery. I’ve used them to make pasta fra diavlo with equally marvelous results.

I’ll leave you with a picture of my fruit bowl, which is looking lovely now that I’ve restocked!