Bacon Wrapped Scallops & Pesto Bowtie Pasta

Another one of my new favourite quick & delicious meals!!!

PESTO BOWTIE PASTA
I've made my own Pesto before, but nothing compares to the Epicure Selections 'Pesto Herb Mix' It's so easy to whip-up in the food processor. Just add Olive Oil, Pine Nuts and Parmesan Cheese. Oh so yummy!!

Cook the bowtie pasta. My fave brand is PC whole wheat pasta. Toss with pesto mix and keep on low-heat until the rest of the meal is ready. This plate cools pretty quickly because there is no Warm-sauce, so keep on low-heat until right when you're ready to eat.

BBQ BACON WRAPPED SCALLOPS
The bacon-wrapped scallops are a cinch too... thaw frozen scallops - these are a new staple in my freezer - so healthy and delicious, plus they cook-up really fast, so they're good for quick weeknight dinners. Throw them into stir-frys, pastas and more. I digress... take a pre-soaked wooden skewer, alternate bacon, scallop, bacon, scallop... threading the bacon around the scallops each time it's looped onto the skewer like the letter 'S'.. keep going until the bacon is all used up, then you'll probably need a second piece. For me, each skewer uses up two piece of bacon and a handfull of scallops (# will depend on their size). Throw on the BBQ (or have your kitchen assistant do-so... this is even easier than doing it yourself)... for a few minutes and cook bacon to desired crispiness. These flavours are meant to be together - like a match made in heaven.

WINE
We enjoyed a 2-year old Peller Estates Riesling with this meal and it seemed like a perfect pairing. I'm no wine-pairing expert, but this was delicious! :-)

Mother's Day Brunch - the day-of

so... I didn't quite capture Mother's day on camera the way I had hoped... made too many dishes to have time to take photos of every step along the way.

I ended up forgetting to make the bubbly-syrup mixture for the French Toast before I popped-them into the oven, but remembered about it half-way through the cooking process, so I added it then.

Even with this mistake, everything turned-out great! Here are the photos to prove it :-)

oh... and My kitchen assistant knocked the table when we sat down to eat and spilt coffee ALL OVER THE TABLE, saturating the table cloth and soaking the placemats. No biggie (well, it was at the time)... we all survived and enjoyed a lovely Mother's day brunch.

The French Toast was a huge success - can't wait to make it again. Using French Bread is the key, and soaking it overnight really goes a long way in helping the flavours soak into the bread.

Yummm!! :-) It was almost like dessert instead of breakfast!!!

Spice ... 'helping' in the kitchen.. she can be such a bad girl sometimes.

Baking the Bacon... I read somewhere that baked bacon was the way to go.. the slower you can cook it, the yummier it can taste. No matter how it's cooked, bacon is pretty darn good. One of the best foods around if you ask me. In any case, don't bake for too long if you don't want it to be too crunchy.. about 30-40 mins on medium heat for a whole package of Bacon should do the trick. You can cook shorter or longer depending on how crispy you like YOUR bacon.

Here I am, cooking the syrup at the last minute, scrambling to get everything back in the oven. My kitchen assistant was happy to lend a hand with the camera work to make sure some of these important screw-ups were documented.

Laura.. cutting the fresh fruit - will be used on top of the French Toast - YUMMMM!!!

One of my favourite photos - everyone digging in! There were too many different dishes to serve at the table, so we set-up the kitchen island as a buffet.

Don't cry over spilt coffee... just get out of the way or you'll get it all over yourself!

All in all, Mother's day brunch was a great success... yummy enough to make again for sure!