Can you tell

that our two "J" contributors are sisters? ;O)

Apricot Scones

Thanks, Anne for inviting me to post after I shamelessly asked you to invite me! hee hee...


The other day I read that one of my favorite blogfriends made scones, and ever since then I had a craving. So I lifted this recipe off of the King Arthur Flour website. If you've never visited their recipe section, I suggest checking it out. It is a treasure trove of decadence.


It really was silly for me to make these, since I'm basically the only one who will end up eating them and they are very rich. They're really better suited for company, so my advice is to plan a nice little tea party. Get out your nice linens and invite the girls over for some:


Apricot Cream Cheese Scones


3 1/4 cups (13 3/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8-ounce package cream cheese (cold)
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) cold butter
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) diced or slivered apricots
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup (2 ounces) milk
white sugar, for topping


In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the cream cheese and butter, using your fingers, a pastry blender, fork, or a mixer, until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, then stir in the apricots. In a separate bowl whisk together the egg, vanilla and milk.Combine the liquid and dry ingredients and stir until the dough becomes cohesive. Don't mix and mix and mix; the more you work with the dough, the tougher it'll get. Remember: an iron fist in a velvet glove does the trick!


Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, and fold it over several times, until it holds together. Pat the dough into a 3/4-inch thick rectangle.Cut scones with a round cutter, gathering the scraps and re-rolling the dough. Or simply cut the dough into squares or diamonds. Brush the tops lightly with milk and sprinkle with sparkling white or pearl sugar.Place scones about 2 inches apart on an ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet.


Bake them in a preheated 425°F oven for 8 minutes. Turn the oven off, leave the door closed, and continue to bake for 8 more minutes, until the scones are a light, golden brown. Serve hot, with clotted cream and jam or raspberry curd. Yield: about 18 medium-sized scones.


I actually used a scone pan, which only makes 8 large scones, so I ended up baking them for twice the amount of time given. Also, I used generic Safeway flour and still turned out great. It was hard to keep little hands away long enough to take a picture of them, which I took as a good sign!

Beer Cheddar Soup and Chili- not together of course..

Ok so i've been astray for a tad, so I'm playing catch up here..

To whomever was looking for a great chili recipe, I just made a white chicken chili last week and it was incredible. I enjoyed it better than beef chili. I made an enormous pot of it and me and four of my girlfriends ate almost all of it! It is a modified version of a chicken chili receipe from the Silver Palette cookbook. My mom had recommended searching for it (online) that way. I guess The Silver Palette is a well-known cookbook? Maybe not so much to us newbie cooks! since I am at work, I just googled the recipe and found it again, so we'll see how well it copies.

First some thoughts on the recipe:

1) It calls for the chicken to be cubed and sauted, but my mom took liberties and went a different route. (she cooked the chicken, I made the chili). She placed the breasts on a baking pan, sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper and drizzled them with olive oil and baked them . Then instead of cutting them into cubes, we shredded them and threw them in the pot.
This might help little ones with small teeth? ;)

2) the end of the recipe calls for adding chocolate. My mom who has been cooking for many years, does not recmmend this. It's your call. We did not use it.

3) I do not like peppers, so we skipped that step, I think I substituted a can of different beans instead, to make up for the food mass loss. I recommend chickepeas...yum yum

4) It calls for adding 1 bottle of beer. I am not a beer drinker, but the flavor was actually quite wonderful, not overpowering at all (due to the massive amount of food you're about ot make). We used LaBat Blue (I think tha'ts how you spell it. Nothing fancy.

Ok-enough already, here it is:

Modified from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook

In a dutch oven heat 3 tablespoons of oil and brown:

3 pounds chicken breasts, skinned, boned, cut into 1" cubes
Set the chicken aside. In the same dutch oven heat 3 tablespoons of oil and sauté for 5 minutes:

5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 large onion chopped coarsely
Add and sauté for additional 10 minutes:

2 sweet red peppers, diced
4 jalapeño peppers, diced
Stir in and cook for 5 minutes:

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Pinch ground cinnamon
In the dutch oven add the chicken and:

1 28-ounce cans of puréed tomatoes
2 15-ounce cans pinto or cannellini beans
1 bottle beer
Simmer for 30 minutes then add:

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
salt, to taste

Okay, also I am looking for agood Beer Cheddar Soup. I just tried making it on Tuesday night and failed miserably, I think because I didn't let the soup cool enough before adding teh milk and c heese and I think they curdled... :( :( This is the SECOND time this has happend when Itry to make this soup. Another problem, I perfer thick soup, and soups that have been pureed. This recipe called for potatoes , carrots, celery an onions nad beans. We didn't have potatoes, carrots or celery , so I just put in a TON of onions and beans, but it wasn't enough to get it really thick when pureed. I don't like cooked carrots and we don't eat the white potatoes much because it's too much white carbs. So i am looking for a recipe that calls for other added food items that I could try. any suggestions??


thanks ladies!!! Anne, I hope I did the post the label thing right..

Scrap Chili

It could also be called Red and White Chili - a little bit of ingredients for red chili, a little bit for white chili.

I'm to the point in the kitchen where there are very few food items left and really no money to go grocery shopping. So dinner today...interesting. I did brown 3 whole pounds of ground beef the other day, so that it would be ready to use. So I threw it in the slow cooker along with a can of whole tomatoes, a can of white navy beans, 1/2 an onion, some chili powder, cumin and oregano. Oh yeah, and I threw in the rest of some shredded cheese - a mix of mozzarella and Parmesan instead of the usual cheddar. The result is pretty good. I was going to be really creative and make a cornbread mix to cook on top of it, you know, like the dumplings on top of chicken and dumplings, but I'm not that brave. And I didn't want to ruin the chili if it didn't work. So if I do make some cornbread it will be in the oven like always.

Now for dinner the rest of the week...I'll have to get creative. That and make the meals that I had planned to make last week but didn't make because we went out to eat.

Burritos and Spinach and Salsa, oh my!

This was lunch today. And it was good! And easy to make. I'm glad there are leftovers!

A Hit!

On Friday night the O'Neils had a going away party at their apartment. I made a nacho dip which was a big hit...at least with my husband! :o) I liked it because it was a crockpot recipe - low maintenance.

Quick and Easy Nacho Dip

1 lb ground beef, browned
dash of salt, pepper and onion powder (if you have it)
2 cloves of garlic, optional (but really...who doesn't love garlic?!)
2 16 oz. jars of salsa (throw in homemade salsa if you want to)
15 oz. can of refried beans
1 1/2 c sour cream
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
tortilla chips

Add salt, pepper and onion powder to ground beef. Combine beef, salsa, bean, sour cream, and 2 cups of the cheese in the slower cooker. Cover and heat on low for 2 hours*. Just before serving sprinkle with the last cup of cheese. Serve with tortilla chips.

*My shredded cheese was still frozen, so two hours wasn't quite long enough to really melt it into the mixture...be sure to thaw your cheese first if you want it melted.

Tip for Avocado Lovers

I learned a great tip the other day; I tried it this afternoon and have decided to share the success.

Is anyone else annoyed when avocados quickly turn an unsightly brown color!? Fret no more. If you have half of an avocado left over (rare, but possible. :)) keep the seed in and put in plastic, removing all the air around the avocado, then refrigerate. I couldn't believe it when it worked! Supposedly, if you have leftover guacamole (again, rare, but possible) or if you've made it for a party and you don't want it to turn brown before serving, you can do the same thing-- put the seed in the bowl, cover, and refrigerate. I haven't tried that, so I won't vouch for it. But that's my tip.

My dinner tonight was a salad of fresh lettuce, avocado, grape tomatoes, feta cheese, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Mm, mm!

Simple Salad

We had pizza last night at my parents house for Dan's birthday. I decided to make a salad to balance out the meal.

Ingredients:
1 head of romaine lettuce
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small red onion, peeled and chopped
1 small cucumber, peeled and chopped
1/2 of a green pepper, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes
2 hard boiled eggs
1 cup low-fat bacon-bits
1 cup feta cheese

Directions:
Toss everything in a bowl and serve with your choice of dressing.

Busy Kitchen

We were busy in the kitchen this weekend...well Friday anyway. Laura came over to make Dan's apple pie. That was pretty much a big success and enjoyed by all of our game board playing guests. Which made a lot of dishes...but aren't friends worth it?!

I also tried out a new slow cooker recipe, which was pretty much a failure for me. But I don't blame the recipe Beanery Crockery, rather I blame myself. I am forever forgetting to cook these slow cooker recipes for less time than called for until I know what works with my slow cooker. And then in a furry of frustration and wasted food, I usually proclaim the recipe a failure! This Friday, however, I was extra bad. I left the slow cooker on warm overnight, after the dish had cooked all day. Gross! That called for a long-term soaking to get it clean!!

Tonight, plain and simple, spaghetti with Prego sauce and ground beef!

Soup Night

Supposedly, this is a "stoup," meaning it's thicker than a soup. Maybe I did something wrong, but mine wasn't that thick. But it was yummy! I used broth because I didn't have any stock, and it worked just as well, albeit maybe a little less flavorful than stock. I also left out the celery, the green beans, and the red pepper flakes. You know, just throw in what you have.

Rachael Ray's Tomato Bean 15 Minute Stoup

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 small zucchini, sliced
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomato
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (15-ounce) can small white beans or cannellini beans
1 (10 ounces) box, cut frozen green beans
Salt and pepper
1 cup fresh basil, torn or shredded
Grated Parmigiano or Romano, to pass at table
Crusty bread, to pass at the table

Add extra-virgin olive oil to the pot, 2 turns of the pan.
Add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes, stir then stir in the onions, carrots, celery and zucchini.
Cook 10 minutes, then add in the stock, tomatoes and beans. Bring soup up to a bubble and season with salt and pepper, to your taste.
Simmer 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and wilt the basil into the soup. Ladle up the soup and serve with grated cheese and bread.

Something was missing taste-wise... and it was the cheese! Whoops! Those Italians know what they're talking about... grated cheese on soup is fantastic!