Scallop Piccata

This is a great recipe I got from Cooking Light. I really love it as does Jon despite the fact he doesn't like capers. Serve it over angel hair pasta or brown rice.

1 1/2 lbs scallops (about 12 - 4 servings)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
5 tsp canola oil, divided
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 cup vermouth. (I substitute white wine)
3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley chopped
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp butter
4 tsp capers

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. Pat scallops dry with paper towels. Sprinkle salt and pepper over scallops. Add 1 Tbsp oil to pan, swirl to coat. Add scallops; cook 2 minutes on each side until browned. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium. Add chopped garlic to pan; cook 10 seconds. Add wine/vermouth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook 2 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat. Add parsley, lemon juice, butter & capers, stirring until butter melts.

Drizzle sauce over scallops.

Fiesta Chowder

Fall is here!!!!  I absolutely love this time of year. The colors, the clothes, the food...I mean really, what's not to love about fall. I've got a great recipe for the season which I must admit I jumped the gun on a couple weeks ago. I got excited walking the dog one chilly morning, started craving some soup, so I made this a few days later. Granted the heat returned and it was about 80 degrees, but not now that fall has officially settled in...it's time to share because you have to try!

3 Tbsp flour
1 package fajita seasoning, divided
4 chicken breasts, cubed
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tspminced garlic
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
1 4.5 oz can chopped green chiles
3 cups water
1 cup uncooked instant brown rice
1 (2 1/4 oz) can sliced olives (optional)
1 10 oz can condenses nacho or cheddar cheese soup
3 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp line juice

Combine flour and 2 Tbsp fajita seasoning in ziplock bag, add chicken. Seal and shake to coat.

Cook chicken in hot oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat, stirring often, 4 minutes or until browned. Reduce heat to medium-high: add onion and garlic. Sauté 5 minutes. Stir in remaining fajita seasoning, corn, next 5 ingredients & if desired, olives. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low, cover, simmer 5 minutes. Remove lid, stir in cheese soup, 3 Tbsp chopped cilantro & lime juice.

Garnish with cilantro if desired and serve with breadsticks.


This delicious recipe is brought to you by Southern Living. Ignore any typos, I did this on my iPhone with a completely shattered screen! It's hard to proofread.

Bon appetit!

Lexington-style Grilled Chicken

This recipe calls for a whole chicken but I had chicken drumsticks which I used and turned out great. The red pepper gives it a serious kick which I liked but I warn if serving kids! oh, and I obviously divided this for just us two. recipe makes 8-10 servings. 2 c. Cider vinegar 1/4 c. Firmly packed dark brown sugar 1/4 c. Vegetable oil 3 Tbsp dried crushed red pepper 4 tsp salt 2 tsp pepper 2 (2 1/2 - 3 lb) cut-up whole chickens Stir together first 6 ingredients until blended. Place half each of vinegar mixture and chicken in a large ziplock, seal. Repeat in separate bag. Chill 2-8 hrs, turning occasionally. Remove chicken from marinade discarding marinade. Grill chicken, covered with grill lid, over medium-high heat 35-40 minutes or until done, turning occasionally

Cilantro-Garlic Sirloin with Zesty Corn Salsa

To make It easier to find what recipes I've posted I'll forego creative post titles. Time sure has been flying by it's amazing how fast a week can fly by despite waking up at 5 am EVERYDAY. That's right, my dear, sweet Costigan no longer is interested in sleeping in, it's quite unfortunate really. So, outside we go. My poor neighbors who see me walk the nieghborhood in glasses, pjs, & bedhead. What's a girl to do. I'll blame sleep deprivation on all the destruction I've been causing lately. If I'm not banging up the car (or both) I'm breaking my phone or putting holes in freshly painted walls! The holes in my clothes....well that's Costigan's fault, I won't take thAt one. Moving on...I keep our freezer pretty stocked and with jon's recent purchase of 50 lbs of pork, we are pushed to the brim (in both freezers!). So I'm going thru the books for new recipes and came across this one in Southern Living All-Time Favorites. I get a great sense of relief whenever I come across a recipe and I already have every ingredient. We really enjoyed this although sirloin is such a fatty piece of meat, I think substituting it with flank steak would work great. 1 c. Fresh cilantro 2 garlic cloves 3 Tbsp lime juice 1 Tbsp lime zest (I hate getting the zest out, so I cut this) 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cumin 1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground red pepper 2 lbs sirloin steak Process first 7 ingredients in a food processor until blended, rub over steak. Chill 2 hours. Grill, covered, over medium-high heat 10-12 minutes on each side. Let stand 10 minutes. Cut diagonally into thin slices. Serve with corn salsa and garnish with cilantro if desired. For the salsa: 6 ears of corn, husk removed 1/4 c. Lime juice 2 tsp olive oil 1/2 tsp lime zest (you know how I feel) 1 small jalapeño pepper, minced 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground cumin Grill corn, covered with grill lid, over medium-high heat 10 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove from grill, cool. Cut corn from cob into a bowl; stir in juice and remaining ingredients. Best thing about this recipe...we had lots of leftovers and for dinner the following night were able to pay homage to Chipotle with homemade burrito bowls!!!!

Italian pasta salad

So Jon and I had a pretty great weekend. All started Friday watching the lil nugget Maeve who we love. Saturday we had a date night, dinner at Seabar (which was excellent) followed by Memphis at Shea's. This was only Jon's second musical and he was not a fan of the first so I was a little nervous but it was excellent and we both enjoyed it. Looks like I get to go to more musicals, wahoo! So Sunday we had some of my work friends over for BBQ do Costigan could play with my friends' puppy. It was very fun and Costigan was wiped afterward! We just did burgers but I also made and italian pasta salad from southern living which was good. I'm sitting around in court waiting on attorneys so I'll share now, it's easy so I don't think I'll leave anything out. I did spiral noodles; 2 jars of artichoke hearts, quartered with juice; kalamata olive; 8 oz mozzarella, cubed, shaved Parmesan; fresh basil; 1/2 c Italian dressing; salami cut into strips; and roasted red peppers cut into stripes. Think I'll have some cooking time this week so hopefully more updates soon!

Bad Blogger

Yes it's official, I'm a bad blogger. It's karma really for the grief I gave others for not updating their own blogs as frequently as my liking. What am good at...excuses! And I happen to have several excuses for my lack in updates. First, as I've said before, I haven't been cooking much. With the onset of summer weather jon and I have taken that as an opportunity to eat horribly. We've been so busy so it's been all about data, grilling and booze. Which then leads to worse food. (cheeseburger brunch anyone?). Second, my laptop is broken so I have no way of uploading photos. I'm big on photos so if anyone figures out how to upload photos onto here directly from your iPhone I would love to know. And finally, my dog, my love, my sweet baby Costigan is very time consuming. Exhausting sometimes. While I could share lots of stories about him I know my audience and it isn't dog friendly. So instead I give my sincere apologies.

And puppy makes 3...

Yes, we got a dog. Welcome to the Lilley family my sweet pup pup Costigan. I am totally in love with my new pup though I must admit we are struggling with some things, mainly accidents and nipping. Jon really dislikes the ankle biting an I'm certainly not a fan either. But seeing as how our sweet pup is only 9 weeks old and has only been with us for a week and a half, we're a work in progress! Hopefully as we get accustomed to our new routine and Costigan gets used to his home, I'll be able to start cooking dinner again! (and get back to the gym, deadly combo)