how i did it

Several people have emailed or commented asking about the dish I made for the birthday potluck Crafternoon.

Here's what I did.

I used Giada De Laurentis's recipe for Orange Scented Quinoa.   I made a double batch of the quinoa so that I could pull some out and set it aside for vegetarians. I also doubled the dressing, but when I poured the dressing over the quinoa salad, I reserved a small amount.  The dressing by the way, was made ever so wonderful by some Cara Cara Oranges I found on sale at the Asian Fish Market where I bought the seafood. Daaaang, they were fragrant!

I grilled the scallops exactly as directed in that same recipe, but because scallops were a bit too expensive that day, and shrimp was on sale, I only used 1 lb of scallops and then roasted up a pound of shrimp Barefoot Contessa style (I also think the shrimp/scallop combo was awfully pretty and tasty, too). My shrimp were 16/20 per pound, so I only roasted them for 8 minutes.  Then I tossed the warm shrimp and scallops in that dressing I had reserved.

And that was it! 

This was perfect served at room temperature, making it a perfect candidate for a potluck dish. The seafood went quickly of course, so there was leftover quinoa...but the quinoa was delicious the next day. I ate it as a cold grain salad that I served over mixed greens and roasted vegetables.

The only think I'd do differently next time would be to toss in a bit more parsley into the quinoa (I was running short of what was called for), or I might consider adding some chives or thinly sliced scallions.

Yum!