Sea Scallops

Sea scallops are popular seafood items.  Prized by cooks and diners, they are considered by many to be the most appealing of the shellfish.  The premium products among scallops are the largest specimens, which have a delicate flavor and tender texture.  Scallops are at their peak flavor when fresh, but may also be frozen.

Scallops are bivalve mollusks.  Various members of the scallop family are found worldwide.  The edible portion is the adductor muscle of scallops.  The muscle is larger and more developed than most shellfish because they are active swimmers.  Scallop shells are symmetrical, attractive and highly collected by sea shell enthusiasts.  Scallops can swim by rapidly opening and closing their shells.  This method of propulsion is used as a escape technique when threatened.

Commercial Scallop Harvesting

Scallops thrive off the mid and North Atlantic Coast of North America.  Here scallops are found in offshore waters out to the continental slope.  Ports that are important to the scallop industry range from Glouster, Massachusetts down to Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Cape May, New Jersey, Chincoteague Island Virginia and Virginia Beach all have active fleets of scallop boats.  Scallops are trawled or dredged, and quickly returned to port or shucked at sea and kept on ice for the trip ashore.  The commercial scallop fishery in the USA is heavily regulated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Cooking Scallops

Scallops are prepared in a variety of ways.  Their delicate flavor and texture allow for a variety of cooking methods.  They can be easily breaded and fried, sautéed, broiled or used in seafood soups, stews, chowders or salads.  One of the most popular recipes calls for scallops to be wrapped in bacon, then broiled.

The scallops' versatility in taste lends itself well to various cuisines from around the world.  In addition to American dishes, sea scallops are a frequent ingredient of Asian, Mediterranean and South American cuisine.  Japanese cooking utilizes scallops in sashimi and sushi dishes as well as using the scallop roe as an ingredient.

Make Eating Healthy Foods Fun

Children everywhere in the world have an on-going love affair with junk food such as hamburgers, pizza, candy, soda and salty foods like potato chips and french fries.  Unfortunately, it's hard to find a single child who has these same strong feeling for the healthy food that they need such as grains, vegetables, fruits and foods reach in nutrients such as meat, beans, fish and nuts.

Fortunately, there is one tied and tested strategy to make kids eat the kind of healthy food that some of them may not want -- that's by making it fun.

That's right, make eating healthy food fun.  And how do you do that?  Here are some tips:

1. The Sneak Attack.  Try sneaking in some of those fruits and vegetables along with the kind of food they like, say, making muffins out of bananas or apples.  There are lots of vegetables the you can throw in when you're serving the kids pizza.  You could also make them look funny by arranging them creatively on a plate or making them stand up like people.  Sure, some people don't want their kids playing with food, but if it will help them get healthier, it may be worth the effort.
2. Funny Name Game.  If your kids are below the age of four, here's a nifty trick that gets them every time.  Give the fruits and vegetables funny names and concoct elaborate stories.  Some stories will end with these funny-named vegetables getting swallowed alive by the giant child.  In another version, the vegetables run for cover and hide from their enemies by entering a big cave that happens to be your child's mouth where they quickly get gulped down.
3. The Taste Test.  Kids dislike vegetables because they don't like the taste.  Therefore, make the healthy foods taste better and your child will love them.  For instance, put peanut butter on celery or add a dash of flavor to broccoli with ranch dressing.  I'm sure you can think of dozens of ways to spruce up healthy food.

The key is to find creative ways to make your children enjoy eating healthy food.  And once they've acquired a taste for it, eating healthy foods will be second nature to them.