Morning Morsels of Marvelousness

Mmmm.

Mmmm.

Mmmmm.

Scones. I love scones-they've become my new favorite baked good. Sweet or savory, scones=love. They are the perfect little accompaniment to a steamy hot mug o' ______ (Fill in the blank please)...seriously.

Coffee + scone=YES. Tea+scone=YES. Soup+scone=YES, YES, YES!

I'm partial to the S'bucks cinnamon chip and pumpkin scones but damn(!) in this economy? I'll be making my own, thanks! Which, by the way, is sinfully easy to do. The key to a good scone is cold, cold ,cold! Bowls, beaters, cream, or butter-whatever-it needs to be very cold...and don't overwork the dough. That's simple enough, right? Really-I am not a skilled baker-I suck at baking because I'm so sloppy and impatient. Baking is mathematical and precise in nature-cooking is throw it in there and tweak it like this, tweak it like that...I want to be a good baker though-so I work at it. Scones are perfect for me-they are so easy and quick to throw together, and the end result is always perfect bites of light flavorful goodness. They are so simply perfect they make people who don't know any better think they have to be difficult to make.

I have yet to make a savory scone at home-but I will be trying a recipe out soon. I just purchased a little scone cast iron pan to make the process even easier. YAY!

Anyway-these babies are yummy! I threw them together last night on a whim. I've been obsessing over making a new scone this week, so I looked in the pantry and saw some leftover toffee chips. Hmmm...googling I a went.

I came across THIS lovely recipe at Recipegirl.com

I did tweak it a bit-so here is the recipe for the version I made:

TOFFEE CHIP SCONES

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup granulated sugar

1 Tbs plus ¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 cup chopped Heath or Skor bars (or use toffee bits)

2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

TOPPING:

2 Tbs (¼ stick) unsalted butter, melted

granulated or coarse white sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; mix well. Stir in toffee bits.
3. In a large, chilled mixing bowl (chill bowl and beaters in freezer for 15 minutes- or in fridge for an hour), whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream into dry ingredients; combine well. It will be sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead gently until a soft dough forms; about 2 minutes. Form dough into 2 balls. Pat each ball out into a circle. Place each on a cookie sheet, and cut pie-like into 8 wedges. Pull each wedge out a little bit to create about 1-inch space between each wedge.

5. For topping: Brush scones with melted butter. Sprinkle each scone with a bit of granulated or coarse white sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 18 to 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

Yield: 16 small scones or 12 big ones

Dead Batteries and Thai Peanut Noodles

Make these noodles! If you are a visual person like me, seeing a picture of the recipe you are about to try is an important factor in deciding whether or not to make it. I love pretty, colorful food. I eat with my eyes as well as my mouth. so, that being said I totally suck for not having a final product picture to provide with this fantastical peanutty pasta-y recipe-the camera yelled, "CHANGE THE BATTERIES" at me just as I snapped the completed dish's pic. DOH! I thought there might be a slight chance that it saved that final snapshot-but no, it did not.


Ah well, trust me-this is good stuff. I was able to snap a few pics during the preparation so maybe that will help you food voyeurs out just a little bit.


Thai Peanut Noodles from Epicurious.com

8-10 oz. linguine or flat rice noodles
8 green onions
3 small garlic cloves
1 T. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 medium carrots
1/2 large red bell pepper
2 T. sesame oil
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. creamy peanut butter (I used crunchy peanut butter)
1/4 c. soy sauce
3 t. unseasoned rice vinegar
1/4-1/2 t. red pepper (optional)
1/2 c. mung bean sprouts
1/3 c. chopped peanuts (I used plain, unsalted)


Whisk together honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and red pepper and set aside.




Cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente. Julienne the green onions, carrots, and bell pepper; and mince the garlic. Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the carrots, saute for a minute or two, then add the garlic, bell peppers, onions, and garlic. Saute until crisp tender.





Add the liquid ingredients and heat through, stirring gently.




Then add the pasta and toss until coated.
Garnish with the chopped peanuts and bean sprouts...and eat. MMMMM.

Back in the Saddle Again

Hello, my name is slackadasical. I'm BAAAAAACCKKK!

Meh-wow, it has been a ridonkulously long time since I blogged. I'm not sure what happened-but I do tend to have a personality reminiscent of the latest Katy Perry song. You know how it goes, "You're hot then your cold, you're yes then your no. You're in then your out, you're up then your down..." That's me. I often times dive head first into things-full throttle-balls to the wall-can't get enough and then over time I get bored, stagnant and really just completely over whatever the latest passion is and I dump it off in some corner only to collect dust until the next time something sparks my interest in it again.


I've still been cooking just not really feeling inspired by anything as of late. I haven't really crafted much in the last couple of months either. I did make some fantastic ornaments at Christmas time and I hope to work a few arts and craft fairs later on this year and possibly sell some of them.


So I think I'm stepping out of my cooking rut and back into the recipe test kitchen again. Spring is near and it will be planting season again as well. I really hope I can find a way to get a large garden working this year. the drought and extreme heat really made it difficult to sustain the plants last year late into the summer. I've collected a few more books this year though so I'm hoping I will be off to a better start and can find ways to keep things going even if we do suffer yet another dry summer here in Georgia.


I am obsessed with planting dandelion greens and some radicchio this year to throw into fresh soring mix salads. I also want to plant squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, beans and some herbs.


I'm big into ginger and nutty flavors, Asian fusion style foods and oh yes...baking.

Over the next few weeks I've got a few things I need to accomplish to get rolling in the growing fooding and loving year of 2009.

Growing
1. Open up the gardening books and sketch out a plan and schedule of planting.
2. Make a rain barrel
3. Rent a tiller
4. Price soil, seeds and tools.

Fooding
1. Cabinet organization (It gives me kitchen zen)
2. Get a few new gadgets and tools
3. Re-stock the freezer and pantry

Loving (and living)
1. Reorganize the house (I'm so much nicer when things are organized and uncluttered)
2. Keep working on the basement
3. Get some things up and sold on Craigslist
4. Finish the bedroom sanctuary
5. Make STUFF-all kinds of stuff-just keep making it

Long Time, No Post...Caramel Apple Pie

I'm not sure what is up with me and the blogging world. I've sort of just been in a slump with cooking and life in general I guess. I haven't felt like doing anything but watching CNN or MSNBC. I am addicted to politics! It has consumed my life to the extent of not being able to cook or eat any decent quality meal for the last couple of months. All is well now though-I'm still addicted to politics-but the stressful part of it is over. Now I can enjoy life and what the future has to bring.

Blah, blah, blah...anyway...its Early Turkey Day here at work this week. Everyone gets together from our zone and brings in a dish and we cook and eat and talk and laugh and relax for the day. Its good times...(for being at work). I decided to make a squash casserole and a caramel apple pie. The casserole turned out great. I will definitely make it again.

The pie...well, the pie was: FRACKTASTIC!

I found the recipe on the foodnetwork website and it claims to be a blue ribbon winner. I believe it. It was wonderful. I did cheat and use a refrigerated pie crust. Blasphemy-I know...but it was still good. Really good.

I opted out of putting the top crust on the pie and instead just used a mini cookie cutter to cut out little apples and placed them on top of the struesel instead.

The filling is going to be my go to for anything apple I make from now on.

Here's the recipe:

Caramel Apple Pie-Food Network

Pie Crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter flavored shortening, chilled

1/3 cup ice water

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 egg, beaten

Filling:

6 cups apples (Jonathan or Granny Smith)

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purposeflour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter

Streusel Topping:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon butter

2 toffee bars or 3 ounces chocolate covered peanut or pecan brittle, crushed

Pie Crust:

Chill all ingredients, including the flour and vinegar. Combine the flour, salt and sugar. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles cornmeal. In another bowl, mix water and vinegar with the beaten egg. Add the liquid mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, to the flour mixture, tossing with a fork to form a soft dough.

Filling: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Peel and slice apples. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and add apples. Toss to mix. Add vanilla and cream. Melt butter in heavy skillet. Add apple mixture and cook approximately 8 minutes, to soften apples. Turn into pie shell.

Streusel Topping: Combine the flour and sugar. Mix in butter with fork until coarse crumbs. stir in the crushed toffee bars. Sprinkle over pie. Add top crust. Seal, flute edge and vent top. Brush with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 45 minutes longer.

Fracktastic Asian Burgers and Special Spice Sweet Potato Fries

I threw these together last minute on Saturday. They were fracktastic! I doubled all of the ingredients in the burger recipe because I had about 1.5 lbs of ground turkey to use-maybe more. I also subbed green onion for the reg diced onion and added some hot pepper flakes to the mix. I used a whole egg instead of just the egg white too. These burgers were delicious.

Here's the recipe from allrecipes.com:

Asian Turkey Burgers

INGREDIENTS

1 egg white
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon pepper
12 ounces ground turkey


DIRECTIONS

In a bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Crumble turkey over mixture and mix just until combined. Shape into four patties. Cook in a nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray until no longer pink.



The Sweet Potato Fries:

I had a frozen bag of julienned sweet potatoes that I threw on an aluminum foil baking sheet sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. I then dusted the fries with cinnamon, cayenne pepper and my super secret special spice blend from Ohio. (I will be sad when I run out of this stuff) OK-so its Maple Cinnamon Apple spice-its not really a secret-I just don't know how to get anymore of it-it was sent with a gift basket a long time ago. anyway-I baked them at about 400 for 20 minutes or so-just until they started to crisp up a bit.

Served some steamed veggies on the side with the Rice Wine Oyster Sauce I posted a BLOG about awhile ago.

Meal Plan: Oct 12-Oct 25

Things are tight so in order to really stay in budget I have to stick to the meal plan during this two week pay period. I only got the things I needed at the grocery store and tried to get things that would use alot of the same ingredients so I could get the most use out of what I already have on hand in the pantry too. We'll see if I can manage to feed 3 on $110 for two weeks. (Mind you I have alot in my pantry so the actual cost would really be more)

Sunday: Asian Turkey Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries, Veggies with Rice Wine Oyster Sauce
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Crockpot Angel Chicken and Rice
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday:Beef Tips and Noodles
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Chili Dog Nachos
Sunday: Pulled Pork, Honey Roast Potatoes, Corn Casserole
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Cottage Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, Mexi Rice
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Chicken Butternut Squash and noodle Casserole, Salad
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Lasagna, Salad

Scones: Summer Meets Fall

I am in love with scones. Yes. I. Am.

They are officially my new favorite baked good. They are ridiculously easy to whip up and bake, and they go so well with steamy hot beverages.

I tried two different recipes this weekend, from two different bloggers and that represented two different seasons. Blackberries are a summer fruit and we all know pumpkins are like the fruit mascot for fall. I loved both of these recipes, but I'm partial to the pumpkin.

I had a little trouble with my blackberry scone dough. For some reason, it was very very sticky and I followed the recipe to a "T. Not sure what happened with that-but even though they look lumpy and not so pretty, they were tasty. A bit on the tart side-thanks to my extra tart wild blackberries (they are the ones I picked earlier in the summer and froze); I tend to like things that are tart though.

My favorite of the two recipes was the Pumpkin Scones...I mean I love all things pumpkin and these did not disappoint. I made up a small cup of pumpkin butter to double the pumpkin ecstasy and that sent these over the top. Imagine warm pumpkin scones fresh out of the oven with creamy pumpkiny butter spread over the top and a steaming pumpkin spice latte-ahhh that's pumpkin nirvana right there!

The pumpkin scones got the big thumbs up from both of the boys too and Red is now practicing saying the word "SCONE".

So anyway here are the recipes-make these now! Your tummy will be happy you did.

Blackberry Scones by Everybody Likes Sandwiches

1/2 c milk

1 egg

2 c flour

2 t baking powder

½ t salt

1/4 c cold butter, cubed

3 T white sugar

2 large handfuls of frozen blackberries

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk the milk and the egg together until frothy and then set aside.

In a large bowl, blend the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and blend the mixture with your hands until you have no lumps larger than a pea.

Add the sugar and the blackberries and toss about until the blackberries are coated with the flour mixture.

Add the egg mixture slowly until the dough comes together.

Leave any remaining egg mixture to brush on as glaze.

Turn dough out onto a clean counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately 1/2 an inch thick, and cut into 8 wedges.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat.

Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges with remaining egg mixture.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Pumpkin Scones by Pinch My Salt

1 C. all purpose flour
1 C. cake flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/4 t. ground ginger
6 T. unsalted butter
1/2 C. raisins (optional)
1/3 C. pumpkin puree
1/3 C. heavy cream
6 T. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper (not required but makes cleanup easy!). Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refrigerator. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and all spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer (refrigerator is fine if you have no room in freezer).

2. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer (or refrigerator) and take the other bowl back out. Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins if you are using them.

3. Get the liquid mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky.

4. Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it like a pie into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Bake scones for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees. They should be light brown on the bottom, the tops will darken as they cool.

**the only thing I did differently was use half and half instead of heavy cream.