“Capellinini” with asparagus, scallops, lemon, fresh tomatoes, and a side of modest steak slices!

Well, here we are in the fourth week of the Easter season and I hope it never ends!

I was speaking with a good friend the other day in the church parking lot in Clinton, Massachusetts and we were talking about how a certain well known blogger, that both of us often read, is in the habit of blogging his own dinner creations.

I was laughing about it and jesting about what sort of person would do this. Imagine blogging one’s own dinner!

Well hopefully my friend will not see this-because here I am blogging my dinner.

The reason is simple. I made this dinner, and I think I really impressed my wife!

Fortunately, living close to the grocer, I first went hunting for a few scallops. After seeing the $19 per pound price tag, I told the  lady at the deli “I think I can afford four of those scallops.”

She understood the modest order very well, but did add that there were indeed some people who in fact “did buy scallops.” And by that I think she meant that there were people who actually bought whole pounds of scallops. Wow!

Then I found two small slices of “eye of round”  steak which I thought just looked scrumptious.

This is the season for asparagus so I have been eating as much of it as possible and was able to find a nicely packaged handful for $1.81. Great price!

As we all know, asparagus, like pasta (especially capellini!) has got to be watched with the closest attention if it is to be enjoyed as it should be. I love my asparagus just on the other side of crunchy. I guess “al dente” is the phrase- but I think that even that might be slightly overcooked and it loses its fresh flavor.

Fresh tomato slices are always a perfect compliment to a white pasta meal, but so are slices of fresh lemon.

My wife and I discovered the joys of a slice of fresh lemon squeezed on pasta while honeymooning in Bar Harbor. I remember admiring the brilliance of this idea – so simple, yet so powerful. I suppose any new culinary idea gains additional magic when it is discovered on one’s honeymoon.

But forgive me – this is getting a tad personal I suppose.

I did attempt to seal in the flavors of the eye of round steak by first giving them a good quick sizzle on the frying pan before placing them in the oven. But I think neither the frying pan nor the oven were quite hot enough to achieve what I was imagining. Nonetheless, although I was aiming for a rarer steak, I did manage to catch them at medium rare before all the flavor vanished completely.

The scallops were simply cooked with as much garlic as I could slice up in a minute, and butter and olive oil. Then I added some sherry which is the perfect compliment to scallops cooked in butter.

Whoever invented the idea of cooking with sherry was brilliant!

Served with chardonnay. Wonderful!