Progress Report: Feathers and Scallops

"a thread from the edge" - what is the deep meaning to the name of this blog? First - it's me - there is no deep meaning to anything I do, period, I am just not that complicated. I do drive myself to being the best I can be - some think I have a perfection complex - and in quilting, that philosophy can lead you to the edge. Case in point - here is a sampling of my current quilt - those are all of the threads I pull to the top of the quilt, which I will eventually bury in the batting - when I'm good and ready. Until that time, they sit on the top of my quilt, getting tangled, getting in the way, and getting on my nerves - moving me closer to the edge.

I've been busy working on my feathers in an attempt to impress you. I think I'm improving daily. I admit I am still chalking in some of the feather motif, but I am getting better at "free birding" my feathers. Have a gander at the twin feathers on my one corner block - not bad - eh?

Scallop Update - no, silly - not quilted scallops, dinner scallops. I'm going to try to give you a healthy dinner entree every day this week, and tonight's dinner entree includes the lovely sweet mollusk, scallops. Two large scallops cost you a whole of 25 calories - perfect protein source while you are trying to keep the calories in check. The secret is you need to watch your preparation method. Tonight's entree, Seared Scallops with Fennel Salad and Kumquat Vinaigrette, is a reduced calorie version based on the original recipe from epicurious. A kumquat looks like a small orange, about the size of an olive. They are in season and readily available now. I love to eat them plain - you need to squeeze them between your fingers to release the bitter oil, and then eat the whole fruit - the skin actually has sweetness, while the pulpy inside is quite sour - eaten together they balance out. I'm playing with my photos today - here are my kumquats as seen by the impressionist eye.
And, here is a still life of my ingredients - kumquats, radicchio, fennel, scallions, and tarragon (it pains me to buy tarragon - in the summer it becoms a weed in my herb garden).
Here are my changes to the original recipe - I made the dressing as written but used only 4 ounces of olive oil in the dressing, and added 4 ounces of water - savings of 800 calories. The original recipe had you use the entire amount of dressing - I used only 1/4 of the dressing in the final dish and have the remainder to use in the future. I seared the scallops in only 2 teaspoons of olive oil - that's all you need if you have a good hot pan. My scallops seared perfectly - and I saved over 300 calories in the searing process. All I did was cut excess olive oil from the recipe and I saved over 1100 calories. This dish is chockful of beautiful crunchy veggies - calorie-wise they just don't count; flavor-wise they are amazing. I served 6 scallops per serving - 75 calories of pure protein. I accompanied the dish with a slice of whole grain bread rubbed with garlic and toasted under the broiler.