Twice Baked Potatoes Au Gratin and Creamy Bacon and Onion Scallops

Nick’s Birthday is today and so…Happy Birthday Love!

I’m taking Nick out to dinner tonight and so last night I cooked him a special Birthday dinner. I was fairly impressed with last night’s meal, especially since our meal was composed of completely new recipes that I imagineered last night. They turned out great and Nick and I were both pleased.

Serving size: 2

Ingredients:

4 potatoes

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

3 strips of bacon, uncooked and chopped

½ tsp garlic salt

½ tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

½ cup of milk

1 tsp corn starch

1 tsp onion powder

½ tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic salt

pepper to taste

1 cup jack and cheddar cheese blend, grated

6 green onions, chopped

1 tsp butter

8 medium sized scallops

½ cup of heavy cream

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Clean and wash potatoes, stab them with a fork and place in microwave for about 4-5 minutes until they are more than halfway cooked (once the potatoes are done in the microwave, remove the potatoes and set them aside to cool).

3. While potatoes are microwaving, begin sautéing chopped onions and bacon together in a large pan. Onions will sauté in bacon grease. Make sure everything in the onion and bacon mixture is finely chopped (if bacon was too hard to cut raw then try to chop it after it has cooked awhile).

4. Add ½ tsp garlic salt, ½ tsp garlic powder, and salt and pepper to the onion and bacon mixture, mix well. Cook mixture until onions are transparent, then turn off heat.

5. In a medium sized bowl, mix milk and corn starch together with a whisk until smooth. Mix in 1 tsp onion powder, ½ tsp chili powder, 1 tsp garlic salt and pepper, until well blended.

5. Remove half of the onion and bacon mixture from the pan and add to the milk mixture, stir. Then add cheese mix and mix well to create a sauce, set aside.

6. Take potatoes and slice them into ¼ inch slices. Grease the inside of a loaf pan and then place sliced potatoes in layers in the pan. Pour Cheese mixture over the top of the potatoes and try and spread out sauce evenly in hopes of fully coating each potato. Top with cheese and green onions and stick in the oven for about 25 minutes. Once potatoes have been in the oven for about 20 minutes, begin next step.

8. Turn the pan with the remaining onion and bacon mixture back on, wait until pan is quite warm and add butter and after butter is melted, gently place all 8 scallops in the pan for about 30 seconds on each side. This is just to brown the scallops, not cook. After 1 minute, remove the scallops and set aside.

9. Mix in the heavy cream and the lemon juice to the remaining onion and bacon mixture and bring to a boil.

10. Once boiling, place scallops in the pan and stir in sauce and cook until scallops become opaque, about 2 minutes or less on each side, remove immediately from heat.

11. Take potatoes out of the oven and dish out one serving, about a scoop, onto a dinner plate. Place 4 scallops on the plate as well, making sure to scoop up some of the sauce from the pan to top off the scallops. Serve Immediately. Enjoy!