The Senate is not in recess unless McConnell officially declares it to be in recess. Even if no one is there, they are not in recess.
Any appointee has to go through the Senate to be confirmed. I just heard that Scalia was pronounce dead by some one that wasn't even present, and his body was transported by State Police to be flown to Virginia to be buried, with no autopsy performed. Sounds odd to me.
The official cause of death was a heart attack. Yeah, right.