Guests At The Door

Do you like guests?

Well, who doesn’t, right?!

It’s a chance to show off your talents as a hostess/host and spend a day away enjoying food, conversation and a great company

But do you like unexpected guests?

Depends on a person you might say. To welcome some, you need to spend a couple of hours cleaning and cooking to feel like you’re up to par. And others come with “be as you are” attitude.

Hopefully your close family and friends belong to the 2nd category, they don’t care if you have no make-up on, or your pony tail has not been touched by a brush since morning (or maybe even yesterday). They come to see YOU, not the latest fashion and home organizing trends. And in turn, you should not care if their 7 year-old is doing cartwheels in your living room, just cheer on her latest gymnastics accomplishments 🙂

Yes, you may not have an uninterrupted adult conversation for more than 2 minutes at a time (due to the mentioned 7 year-old just being her usual “motor-in-the-butt” self 🙂 ), but you will enjoy the company, unexpected as it is, it’s more of a gift than a nuisance to carve out time in two busy lives to see your friend.

And of course, you’d want to share a nice meal with your loved ones (even if her 7 year-old is settling down just for rice and a ham sandwich, and your 15 year-old suddenly becomes a hermit, but hey, you can then, maybe, have that quick adult conversation). Oh, and peddle away the food of course!

What’s Cooking This Week

Even though you may have unexpected guests, you’d still want to show off your culinary skills and enjoy a leisurely weekend dinner rather than having some 30-minute meal you may’ve cooked on a rushed weekday evening. I think this recipe fits the bill to be quick yet absolutely amazing. Your guests will think you slaved for hours in the kitchen (or ordered the dish from a fancy restaurant). Only you did not.

Pan Seared Scallops In Lemony-Butternut Sauce

1 lb of scallops

2 cups of cut butternut squash

2 + 1 Tbspoons of Earth Balance coconut or oil spread (or butter)

1 Tbspoon of fresh lemon juice

1 tspoon garlic powder

seasoned salt and pepper to taste

fresh chives, chopped

fresh rosemary for garnish

oil for frying

Cook the butternut first but take care as not to over-boil, it will only take about 10 minutes.

Drain and let it cool off for a couple of minutes, then transfer it to a blender. Add 2 Tbspoons of oil spread, garlic powder and spices and blend it all together till everything is smooth.

Rinse and dry scallops on a paper towel.

Heat up a frying pan on a high heat, add some olive oil and sear the scallops a few minutes on each side. While scallops are cooking, warm up the butternut sauce in a pan, add more oil spread, lemon juice and chopped chives, mix everything well.

Serve scallops with rice and a side of greens, garnish with fresh rosemary, the sauce will compliment both the seafood and the rice.

You can also make this dish with any white “buttery” fish instead of scallops, either flounder, lemon sole, butterfish or even catfish will go nicely with the sauce.

And in case you’re wondering what we had for dessert, these were on a menu, chocolate cupcakes with fresh strawberry icing, made earlier in the day, just because life is definitely sweeter with cupcakes around 🙂

Enjoy!