Unwrapped Bacon Scallops

When we jumped off the vegetarian wagon, we really jumped off. This past week, in addition to a chicken, we bought scallops, shrimp, and ... bacon! Just two slices of the thick cut bacon from the butcher counter at Whole Foods, but it still counts.

Lately, I've been coming up empty handed with my Simple and Delicious magazine. More than lately. It had been three or four issues since anything even vaguely caught my eye. But this last issue, I found three things to try and they all were successes to varying degrees. We'll start with the biggest success: Unwrapped Bacon Scallops.

I had never made scallops before. I had only ever had a couple of bites of scallops off of Brett's plate (the grilled scallops at Legal Seafood are great). Brett is a big fan of scallops. As an elementary student he proudly proclaimed scallops his favorite food when all of his peers were saying pizza and burgers. So he was excited to try making our own, and a little nervous about it too.

I chopped up the bacon, sauteed it, and then set it aside to drain and crisp up a bit. I reserved a little bit of the bacon grease and cooked some onion, zucchini, and garlic in that. I didn't like that the onion cooked much faster than the zucchini. Next time I will put the zucchini in first and then add the onions and garlic. When that was almost done I scooted it to the outer edges of the pan, added the scallops, and sprinkled them with salt, paprika, and fresh thyme. The recipe called for seafood seasoning, but I didn't want to invest in a big can.

We let the scallops cook for almost three minutes on one side and then flipped them and let them cook for another two minutes.

How's this for a pretty plate? You all know I'm terrible at presentation ... so naturally, this is Brett's handiwork. I love the bacon sprinkled around the edge :)

It tasted great! We will definitely make this again.