This past weekend, I didn't have a show scheduled so James and I were able to enjoy some quality time with our furry friends, Foxie, Max and Phoebe. We love taking them on long walks in the many great parks here. They love it too as you might have guessed!

I was in the mood to visit a new park and since we had our handy Discover Pass, a great deal at only $30 if you ask me, we made our way to Larrabee State Park, near Bellingham. Turns out it's Washington's first state park established in 1915, starting out with only 20 acres donated by the Larrabee family. With additions through land grants and purchases through donations, today it's huge at 2683 acres!
I gave my trusty driver, James, directions and we made the trek about 2 hrs north of Renton. It was a beautiful drive after we got off of I-5, around Mt. Vernon, through the flat but very picturesque farmland (love the old barns!), to the gorgeous vistas of the winding, cliff hugging road near the park.

We got our hike on and totally tired the dogs out. Tired dogs are good dogs!

On the way to the park, we noticed a shellfish store and decided to take a look on the way home. Have you heard of Taylor Shellfish Farms? We had not and I'm so glad we stopped in! They raise shellfish there and they have a retail store where you can get the freshest shellfish ever! Shellfish heaven! Available are all different kinds of clams, oysters, geoduck, mussels and Dungeness crabs. They have picnic tables and BBQ's outside of the store so that you can get your fresh oysters and eat them right there! They'll shuck 'em for you or lend you a tool to do it yourself.

They even offered cooked Dungeness crab so we had to get one as a post hike snack. They loaned us a crab-cracker and gave us a ton on paper towels and newspaper to crack our crab. I should have used a towel as a bib because it was messy but the crab was delectable! Well worth the work and slightly stained clothing! We were going straight home anyways. :')

We also picked up 4 lbs of Manila clams. They were already purged and cleaned so I just had to rinse them off before cooking. I found an easy recipe online for Manila Clams in Garlic and Beer and they turned out great! When I make these again, I'll add less salt and pepper and more garlic! Make sure to have crusty bread for dipping in the broth...delish!

What am I talking about? Well...let me tell you!

So I've never been a great cook and never particularly creative when it comes to cooking. I love eating AND eating out, trying new restaurants, and watching cooking show competitions...Top Chef especially...but trying to cook new stuff has never been my forte.

As mentioned, I love cooking competitions, and in watching the latest incarnation of Top Chef, which was filmed in Seattle by the way, I kept seeing pan-seared scallops. They looked so delectable in the shows that I was actually inspired to try cooking them. The lovely golden brown pan-seared crust against the delicate white color of the jumbo sea scallops was just too much for my eyes and stomach to ignore!

I searched online and found a manageable (for me) recipe with a nice picture of how they were supposed to look after pan-searing. The recipe had a bonus ingredient also....something that would save me if the scallops didn't quite turn out right. Yep...it's BACON!

I went to seafood counter at the local grocery store, pretended I knew what I was doing and requested a dozen jumbo sea scallops. Did you know they can be quite pricey? I certainly didn't! For 1 1/2 lbs...about 12 scallops...it was $30...talk about sticker shock. No wonder they prepare them on those cooking shows and not in any old restaurant!

Well, long story short, I got all the ingredients, followed the recipe, and was rewarded with the most tender, divine tasting scallops ever. And the bacon made them even better, of course. lol

Below is the picture that was with the recipe (L) and the picture of what I made (R). OK...their pic looks a bit better but I'm proud to say....for a first attempt...they are pretty darn close!