I had a relatively frustrating week. Nothing horrendous happened, but by Friday I was in a piss poor mood. Mind you, there were bright spots (I got to meet a longtime virtual friend, Norma, in person). But despite the bright spots, yesterday was just not a good day. However, I heard from two friends yesterday who are undergoing devastating situations, and as always, those things put everything in perspective. I've got my ups and downs, but I am very lucky.

So. Onward.

Lastly, I've made a few dinners of late that were ok, that looked good enough for my Instagram cooking feed lol, but were kinda eh. I thought the kiwi/cucumber/jalapeno salsa on salmon would be good, but it wasn't as flavorful as I thought. Perhaps more acid would have helped now that I think about it. Last night though? Oh good GOD we made a great dinner. We knew going in it would be pretty good, as we had Farmer Greg's first batch of asparagus, but we knocked it out of the park. I'd had some frozen scallops from Aldi in the freezer for a while. Yesterday, we finally pulled them out and tossed them in a bowl of cold water to defrost. When it came time to eat it came together pretty quickly. I took an overripe avocado and put it in the blender. Then I added a half cup of good olive oil, the juice of one lemon, 1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar, a bit of salt, and whirled it all up. I cut up the asparagus and put in a pan to steam. Then I dried the scallops and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. I got a cast iron skillet nice and hot and added avocado oil and some grass-fed butter. It started to brown pretty quickly so we put the scallops in and seared them on each side. Oh, oh, oh, and Ernie had made some tri-color quinoa (if you think you don't like quinoa and have had just the plain yellow, try the tricolor, I like it MUCH better). I made a bed of quinoa and put three scallops on top. The leftover oil/butter/scallop liquid in the pan got mixed in with the avocado dressing, then drizzled on top. I had forgotten to add the cilantro to the dressing so it just went on top. Another sprinkle of salt on top of everything.

It. Was. Amazing. 

It put the so-so meals into perspective. Good, healthy food, but not at the level of this meal.

It's all about perspective. EVERYTHING is about perspective, huh?

And yes, I know my plate is messy. We all have our strengths. Plating is not one of mine.