Bacon Wrapped Scallops and Cranberry Spinach Salad

Oh my word, has it been a long time...
What a hectic summer! I'm sorry I've been gone for so long. Yard work, family weddings/get togethers, and um, auditioning for MasterChef Canada (no big deal or anything...) time just flew by and then I realized, holy crap, it's been months since I blogged. My bestie said to me the other day, "You know, it's been a while since you blogged." And she was right. It has been too long in fact. So here we go again!

These recipes are actually recipes that I thought I had shared a while ago but when I went to check on my blog a few weeks ago, this post was nowhere to be found. Much to my dismay actually because it was a particularly long one that I had taken lots of time with. So honestly, that's another reason I haven't blogged in a while, because I was ticked off at whatever glitch had deleted my entire post. I feel at this point that I've gotten over my frustration, so let's try this again..

Bacon Wrapped Scallops:

I made this recipe quite a while ago but actually this summer my friends and I had a debate about how to make bacon wrapped scallops. My one friend asked how you would cook the bacon and scallops together so that the scallops wouldn't be ridiculously overcooked and the bacon wouldn't be raw. I'll tell you the secret, cook the bacon a for a little while ahead of time. Then you wrap partially cooked bacon around the raw scallops and no one is over/under done. Brilliant.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (at the time I did not have Dijon so I used whole grain mustard)
12 large sea scallops, halved
12 sliced smoked bacon, halved
24 toothpicks
2 tablespoons brown sugar.

Disclaimer: I ended up using about 40 medium sized scallops (because it was cheaper to buy so many small ones as opposed to 12 large ones) so I actually ended up having to double the recipe. Also, this recipe is adapted from this recipe on All Recipes.

Stir together the maple syrup, soy sauce, and Dijon mustard in a bowl until smooth. Add the scallops, and toss to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and marinate at least one hour.

While those are marinating, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with tin foil. Arrange the bacon on the baking sheet so they do not overlap, like so...

Bake in the oven until some of the grease has rendered out of the bacon, but the bacon should still be soft and pliable. About 8 mins in the oven should do it. Remove bacon from the sheet and pat with paper towels to remove excess grease. Drain or wipe grease from baking sheet.

Once the scallops are finished marinating, wrap each one in a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Sprinkle scallops with brown sugar.

Bake in a preheated oven (same temp as you cooked the bacon at) until the scallops are opaque and the bacon is crisp, 10 to 15 mins, turning once.


I served this as an appetizer with Jaime's Cranberry Spinach Salad, the only difference being that I candied my almonds.

And if you're wondering,  yes, my husband and I ate all 42 scallops. No, we don't like to share all the time.
Oh and for anyone else who is curious, I didn't make it past the Winnipeg audition of MasterChef. Not gonna lie, I had a little cry when I found out but it was still such a cool and fun experience that I'll definitely do it again if I get the chance. And hopefully someone from my audition group made it to Toronto so I have someone to cheer for!

Thanks for being patient, my (three or four?) dedicated fans...

xoxo

Ash