Food -n- Flix ~ Eat, Pray, Love

What a way to start the culinary year!!   At Food -n- Flix we are being hosted by The Law Student’s Cookbook and we’re watching Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I love a year that starts by traveling to 3 different countries with 3 different cuisines!!

Gilbert shares her story of love, love lost, self lost, retreat, self discovery, and renewed love with us as she travels to Italy, where she works on healing her physical self…eating nurturing foods, cultivating nurturing relationships, and restoring her own identity amid endless plates of pasta, pizza and gallons of Italian wine.  Gilbert’s journey to India gave us a glimpse of a different life and cultural style, where young women are married off by their families, and prayer and meditation are the tools of self restoration and the journey to spiritual awareness and peace.  Finally, Gilbert returns to Bali, where, on a previous trip during her “previous” life, she met a “seer” who predicted she would return to Bali, live with him and teach him English, and find love.  Gilbert certainly does find love, in the form of a handsome man who runs her off the road, and later helps her home after a night of frivolity and tequila…  I loved the story so much, I ended up reading the book during the month as well.  *contented sigh*

I pondered over a load of recipes and thoughts to represent this movie, and in the end, I came down to my own major comfort food from Italy… Pasta e Fagioli… Pasta with beans.  This soup is like a warm hug for me.  It was cold…rainy…dark…yet this soup warmed us up and made us comfortable.  With warm bread added for good measure, this was a feast…and I shared it with my beloved…my best friend for the past 30 years…my hubby, Bruce.  We have done a lot of eating, praying and loving during that time…I wish for Ms. Gilbert the kind of peace I have in my heart!

Virtual Thanksgiving Dinner…Blogger style!

Delicious, Creamy Mashed Potatoes by The Pioneer Woman

I’m very blessed to be carried along by a fabulous bunch of folks on-line.  I’m not even sure there’s a name for the group…it’s a mailing list of like-minded-always-learning home chefs-in-training.  I can’t always play, but I truly appreciate the continued invitations!  When the idea of a Virtual Thanksgiving Dinner came up, I knew I had to jump in!  Bless Phyl, I was assigned “Mashed Potatoes”.  Trust me…with my schedule lately, mashed potatoes was even a challenge!

I know…I know… Mashed Potatoes is elementary!!  That’s why I’m stepping out of the box a little and doing a Potato Mash-Off between 2 highly recommended recipes:  Ina Garten’s Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, and The Pioneer Woman’s Delicious, Creamy Mashed Potatoes (my personal favorite).  I reduced both recipes by half on a night when I was planning to roast a chicken and we could try the potatoes side by side alone, and then sauced.

Both recipes start out with Yukon Gold, or other potatoes for mashing,  boiled in salted water.  Ina uses milk heated together with the butter and The Pioneer Woman uses room temperature cream cheese.  Ina finishes her potatoes with buttermilk to achieve creaminess in the end.  Okay.  Got it.  Grab your spoons and taste, please…

Our “blind” taste-tester was my hubby, Bruce.  After tasting both samples he announced that there was no single winner, really.  The potatoes tasted different enough that it was like comparing valencia oranges and naval oranges.  Bruce felt Ina Garten’s potato recipe had a more distinctive potato flavor.  It would be a really good mashed potato anytime “just potato” flavor is desired.  That being said, he said if he were to choose one he could eat without gravy or sauce, it would be The PW’s recipe.  The creamy richness of the cream cheese brightens the color and the flavor of the potato.  It’s kind of like a mashed, scalloped potato flavor…they totally enchant me…and I can’t bring myself to use quite as much butter as she does!  LOL!

Now, the final taste-test…sauced!  Bruce scored the recipes about the same as his earlier rating.  He really enjoyed both servings, but still favored Pioneer Woman’s recipe more.  Admittedly, Bruce could simply favor the Pioneer Woman’s recipe out of a sense of familiarity.  This is, after all, the recipe I use for holiday potatoes.  Ina’s recipe is much closer to the recipe I use day to day for mashed potatoes, so it would seem that recipe would be familiar as well.

Which takes me to the question of…how do  you select a “favorite”?  Is it the recipe you use faithfully, day in and out because it tastes really good and it’s reliable?  Or is it the recipe you put extra work in to, a few times a year, when you want something a little more special?  The Pioneer Woman’s recipe is my favorite.  I wish I could fix these any time we have mashed potatoes, but there’s a LOT of dairy fat in this recipe, and we must be moderate in all things…

Thank you Kayte for keeping me in this loop!  I loved participating!!

So…what’s new with you?

I feel like I’ve fallen off the face of the cooking earth!  Well, maybe not so much “cooking” as “blogging.”  Which would be much more accurate.  I really have cooked!  A LOT!  At some point I’ll post “Battle Zucchini”…probably during the winter when I wished I had some of the squash again!  There have been a lot of distractions…   A new boss again this year (makes the start of the school year a little more work the first few years), a few new tasks added to my job and the learning curve that goes with that, and then there are the girls…

All my life I’ve wanted a horse of my own…  A little over a year ago I discovered Horse Plus Humane Society, which was called NorCal Equine Rescue at the time.  These absolutely AWESOME folks rescue unwanted or uncared for animals, primarily horses and other equines (donkeys, burros, mules…).   Willow (the red-brown, properly called either Chestnut or Sorrel in horse circles) came to live with us in July of 2010.   H+HS has been blessed to be able to save a record number of equines this year, but that also means they have an abundance of fully adoptable to semi-adoptable (horses with less training who may require “finishing”) to totally untrained horses.  Enter Shasta…the light buckskin (light body color, dark mane, tale and points (ears, feet, muzzle).    Both horses are mares (girls), Willow is 17 years old, and Shasta is 5 years old.  With 2 horses, more of my free time is spent doing something I love…being with my girls, working on their training.

That doesn’t mean cooking has stopped, but it does mean I’m not blogging much if at all, and I’m not cooking according to any schedule.  I’m still cooking up a storm.  We eat a lot of Mexican food because we’re in a good area to be able to get supplies, and it’s quick after work.  I might spend 7 hours cooking up a pork roast on the weekend for carnitas, but then I’ve got quick suppers a couple nights during the week.  The same goes for a poached chicken…it can become either Mexican food (makes the best enchilada meat) or into Asian food.  And then…a French roasted chicken…who can complain about one of those?  Again…usually left-over meat that can be re-purposed.  Carne asada sliced beef or flank steak comes in very handy for carne asada tacos or fajitas.  We also eat quite a bit of rice because it goes with everything I’ve already mentioned!  LOL!  While we had fresh tomatoes coming out our ears, we also ate a LOT of pasta with any kind of fresh tomato sauce I could put together, and a lot that didn’t have recipes!  LOL!

Everything is pretty much good here… We have a new way to weed and fertilize the garden…  Shasta is a tricky girl. She’s one smart little mustang!  She opened the gate and went into the garden to do a little weeding.  This would be okay…and will be when I’m sure no one has left any gardening implements lying around.  The gate is firmly fastened now…little stinker!  There’s plenty of compostable material here now…no question about that!  With our heavy clay soil…that’s a good thing!  LOL!

There’s plenty of mischief and mayhem that goes along with living here…not only did we adopt the horses from H+HS, we’ve also adopted chickens.  I have 4 cute little bantams running with the big buff orpingtons!  They don’t seem to bother each other at all.  The two roosters each tend their flocks and everyone is happy.  Except Mr. Raccoon.  He’s been going hungry.  Maybe he’ll go somewhere else to find a meal…

I do miss you all…  I’m still reading, watching movies and even reading posts now and then…time is just a bit hard to come by right now.  I wish you all the best, and I’ll get back here…surely as the winter draws the curtains on outdoor activities!  TTFN!

Food ‘n Flix: Fried Green Tomatoes Round up!

The Food ‘n Flix movie for the month of August has been Fried Green Tomatoes, adapted from the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg.  More of a chick-flick than a foodie flick (however food is the ribbon that ties everything together), Fried Green  Tomatoes is a reflection on 20th century Old South values and lifestyles, challenges and triumphs, and how lessons of the past can shape the present.  I offered to hostess this flick because it’s one of my favorites, and I had a feeling I’d have an abundance of green tomatoes by August! LOL!  Ok…maybe a little selfish on my part, but I’d prefer to call it excellent planning! *Ü*  Now, let’s see what’s in the Round up!

Heather our founder, from girlichef, chose Fried Green Tomatoes with Carolina style pulled pork as her submission.  Fried Green Tomatoes is one of those flix that Heather enjoys pulling out now and then… “Listening to old Ninny Threadgood’s lively stories of Idgie and Ruth’s adventures as she relates them to Evelyn never fails to make me want to go barefoot, charm bees, and eat some good Southern food.  Some days, I just need to yell…. TOWANDA!”  Heather has shared her source for breading for the fried green tomatoes and the recipe for the pulled pork with us…can’t wait to try her pulled pork recipe!  Thanks so much Heather!

Next, we’re off to Hawaii to visit with Deb of Kahakai Kitchen.  Deb had a little trouble finding green tomatoes where she is (how I wish I could have shared! LOL!), so she subbed a southern favorite, okra, in place of tomatoes.  Deb’s post and her Fried Okra Strips in Lime-Thyme Vinaigrette with and Celeriac dipping sauce look fabulous!  I’ve already tried the recipe for this breading, and it really is fabulous!  Unfortunately, Deb wasn’t as pleased with the okra… “still a bit too much of a slimy texture for me. That being said–the coating is tasty and cooked in the Lime-Thyme (excellent pairing of flavors by the way) Vinaigrette, the okra had lots of flavor. The Creamy Celeriac Sauce was also full of flavor and the leftovers will soon grace a piece of fish. So, I would make all three recipes again–vinaigrette, coating and sauce–I’ll just use them on something other than okra (green tomatoes, green beans, asparagus?). Fun to try cooking some new things and although I didn’t see any okra in the movie, a sufficiently Southern dish to represent. “  I used the breading on chicken tidbits and onion rings…wished I’d had zucchini to try…and but for the hour, would have slipped out to the garden to try the breading on green tomatoes!  Excellent share Deb!  Thanks so much!!

Presenting a lovely plate of Fried Green Tomatoes with Homemade Garlic-Basil Mayonnaise is Kim from Stirring the Pot.   Kim says, “These Italian-seasoned fried green tomatoes were perfect on their own, but were absolutely phenomenal once dipped in the homemade garlic-basil mayonnaise.  My Mom and I ate all ten slices with wild abandon.  After stuffing ourselves with fried green tomatoes we made a plan to stay out of the backyard.  It could be dangerous to the waistline.”  I can believe that looking at her basket of treats!

Rounding up the month are my fried green tomatoes paired with steak and eggs for a weekend brunch.  I used the recipe from Fannie Flagg’s book…it was good, but very plain.  Nothing more than seasoned tomatoes (salt & pepper), and a flour-cornmeal dusting, these have a very light crust.  We found that serving them with the recommended lemon wedge was helpful, because there just wasn’t a lot of flavor otherwise.  Fried Green Tomatoes may be one of my all-time favorite movies, but it’s going to be some before I develop a “hankering” for fried green tomatoes!  LOL!  I did have some pleasant memories of my Mom fixing these for my dad and herself when I was a kid.  Usually, during the summer, someone she knew had tomatoes growing and would gift her a couple green ones, just for this purpose!  Maybe it’s like okra…you have to develop a taste for them?

Thanks so much to all the participants this month!  I know it was busy… I had to go back to work early in August, and my days and nights have been plenty full as well.  It was a challenge to fit everything in!  I appreciate those of you who were able to participate and I love the array of fried green foods we have!  Now, I’ve got to go shopping for a pork shoulder to make pulled pork from…see ya later!

Oh…don’t forget to check out the September flick, Just Desserts, being hosted by Life in the slow lane at Squirrel Head Manor!

What a fun round-up this has been!

Announcing Food ‘n Flix for August: We’re hosting “Fried Green Tomatoes”

It is my distinct pleasure to offer for your viewing pleasure during the month of August, Fried Green Tomatoes.  With a screenplay by Fannie Flagg and Carol Sobieski, based on Flagg’s novel, “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe, we follow a dual story line…one of tales of the past of the love and devotion of two young women set in the deep south of the 1920′s and the second, the growth of a middle-aged empty-nest housewife of modern day.

Jessica Tandy, as Ninny Threadegoode, weaves the tales of Idgie Threadegoode (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker) to Evelyn (Kathy Bates).  Through a number of introspective and adventurous scenes we are treated to the South of the 1920′s  as experienced by two independent young women who take on the Whistlestop Cafe, an estranged husband, the Klan, and loss of loved ones.  Fried Green Tomatoes received two Academy Award nominations (Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Tandy, and  Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium: Flagg and Sobieski) in 1991.

How to participate in Food ‘n Flix:

1. Rent, buy, beg, borrow or steal August”s film selection (Fried Green Tomatoes) and watch it. Taking inspiration from the film, head into the kitchen and cook, bake or make something.2. Post about it on your blog with a link back to THIS post and a link to Food ‘n Flix. Use of the logo is optional.3. Your post must be current (during month of film). And of course we don’t mind if your post is linked to other events…the more the merrier.4. Have fun with it!

5. Email me at cantbelieveweate@gmail.com by the deadline (August 31st) and include the following:

• Your name
• Your blog’s name and URL
• The name of your dish and the permalink to the specific post you’re submitting
• Attach a photo of your dish (or just give me permission to “pull” one from your post)
• Indicate “Food ‘n Flix Submission” in the subject line

Deadline for submission is: August 31st

(Watch for the roundup to be posted here shortly after this deadline!)

Food ‘n Flix: Letters to Juliet~

I was particularly excited to see this selection come up! Letters to Juliet had been on my list of “want to see” for awhile.  A big, “Thank You!” to Kim of Stirring the Pot for being our hostess for Food and Flix and selecting this movie!  She recommended we beg, borrow or buy a copy so we could enjoy the movie of the month, so I took the opportunity to score a copy…I love flicks like this when I’m stuck in bed with some grippe. I can doze in and out of love stories all day! I wasn’t about to snooze through this movie though…  Sophie is an aspiring writer, visiting Verona, Italy with her finace, who is about to launch the restaurant of his dreams…he’s on a research mission, she’s on a romantic pre-wedding vacation in romantic Italy…

I found I could relate to both characters in this movie…it’s something to do with the duality nature of Sagittarians…*giggle*  I could imagine poor Victor’s passion for food, and being on the ground in Italy to go in search of the tastes that will make or break his upcoming restaurant…  And bless Sophie’s heart…to be in Verona and be abandoned by her future husband…  How heart-wrenching!  However, it doesn’t take fledgling writer, Sophie, to find her niche in Verona…at the foot of the Capulet balcony…with Juliet’s Secretaries.

While I loved the movie, I didn’t get a lot of culinary inspiration…except for truffles…and it’s easier to get Hen’s Teeth where I live than Truffles.  Oh well… Back to culinary imaginings!

Since this is a love story…and tomatoes were once known as “love apples…” my offering for this flick is a simple plate of fresh off the vine, sliced tomatoes, dressed with extra virgin olive oil and a chiffonade of just picked basil…

Indeed, passionate love can be found in many venues…  This night it was nothing more complicated than sliced tomatoes, but the sounds emanating from my dinner table could have been mistaken for a different kind of passionate love!  Yes, the tomato was really that red…  I’m not sure what variety this tomato is because I believe this was seed saved from last year’s heirloom tomatoes.  I had been out picking mint leaves for another recipe when I spied about 6 really red tomatoes…this is the one that fell off into my hand…as if to invite itself to our table.  Thanks Mother Nature!

And our heroine…Sophie?  Now…what fun would it be if I spoiled the end!  Watch the movie and Sophie’s quest to find true love…for someone else…

I hope you’ll consider joining us for the month of August too… I have the honor and delight of being August’s hostess, and we’ll be watching “Fried Green Tomatoes”!  More on that real soon!

Cook the Books: Garden Spells~

Our latest reading at Cook the Books was Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.  A lovely and literally enchanting novel with echoes of the movie “Practical Magic” (setting, characters…and only the light aspects of the plot), this was a quick read that inspired the gardener in me to make sure we had plenty of herbs and other tasties growing in our garden this year.  Great timing for this one, Girlichef-Heather!

I was completely enchanted with the magical concepts Ms. Allen created…different herbs, fruits and veggies enhance different emotions…  As far as making magic in the kitchen after the food is in for prep…that was nicely portrayed as well, but I was most fascinated by the combinations of ingredients to create a desired emotional result!

My sharing for this read is a Zucchini Carpaccio, inspired by Tyler Florence’s recipe.

When I was out in the garden collecting mint for this dish, I realized we had mint in bloom…and it reminded me of  “fennel pollen,” so I had to see!  Sure enough, when I nibbled on a mint flower…looks rather like lavender with tiny lavender colored blossoms on a long stalk…

so I harvested a bunch of the little tiny minty flowers to use as part of my garnish…mint was an ingredient after all!  I chopped the mint leaves nice and fine, then mixed the tiny flowers with the mint leaves…  It’s even starting to feel magical!

The blank canvas awaits...

Zucchini Carpaccio

Recipe adapted from Tyler Florence’s recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini (or seedless portions of larger specimens)
• Kosher or freshly ground salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin lemon olive oil
• 1/2 lemon, quartered lengthwise
• 1 shallot, sliced thinly and separated into rings
• 2-4 ounce piece of Parmesan (Romano works equally well)
• Fresh mint leaves and flowers, for garnish

Directions

Using a mandolin or a very sharp knife, slice zucchini into very thin rounds. Overlap zucchini disks in 1 layer on a plate; scatter with shallots, season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the lemon olive oil and squeeze the lemon juice  over the salad. Shave very thin slices of Parmesan or Romano over the salad. Garnish with mint leaves. Serve immediately.

* Once the zucchini is sliced and arranged on the plate, it can wait while any other cooking goes on. Dress and garnish just before serving.

Tasting Notes~
Instant keeper!   One…when you’re looking for any different way to serve an abundance of zucchini…it helps to find something different, but two, when you run across a recipe that excites the tastebuds the way this one does…WOW!!  Zucchini is rather neutral on its own.  Pairing with lemon and olive oil as Tyler did, was ingenious.  Take that just a little higher on the ladder with local lemon olive oil, freshly picked mint leaves, shallot ( a little more bite, provided a really great contrast) and a squeeze of lemon juice…and you have a delightfully bright Summer salad.  It’s also quick to go together.  I have a mandoline, so it made the slicing quite easy, so I know we’re going to be having this salad again soon!

Great choice of reads for the Summer ladies!!  I’m looking forward to getting into A Homemade Life!

Thirty Minute Thursday: Fusilli with a Rainbow-Colored Sauce~

My selection from Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta for Thirty Minute Thursday this week is Fusilli Arcobaleno…Fusilli with a rainbow-colored sauce.  I used campanelle, which look like pasta lilies, instead of fusilli.   Once again, I’m featuring ZUCCHINI…  The sauce really is rather nice…zucchini, eggplant and tomato…with a bit of bell pepper and a dash of pepper flakes and a few other surprising ingredients…tossed with the pasta.  This made a really great late-night supper for us.   When it’s hot in the summer, we often don’t stop until it gets darkish…and that can be around 8-9 pm.   It’s too hot to eat at “supper time,” but by 9-something it’s much better.  This is just what you want on one of those hot nights…sauteed fresh veggies and herbs tossed with pasta and served with a crispy cold salad on the side.   There was a nice balance of flavor, and a bit of “meatiness” from the eggplant and zucchini…just be more judicious with the red pepper flakes than I was…whoo!

Round-up:
Kayte from Grandma’s Kitchen Table chose Spaghettini alle Erbe (Spaghettini with Fresh Herbs) as her recipe this week.  Kayte is blessed to have all these herbs growing in pots at home!  She & I are both having wondrous garden results this year!  She’s GOT some heat, and we aren’t sweltering as we would usually be this time of year.  I’m not complaining.  Kayte served this recipe as a side dish.  Although she didn’t mention what she served it with, it would accompany any of the major proteins nicely!  I think Kayte has the right idea…I wonder how this would be with zucchini added in…

This is the best time of year for this cookbook.  There are so many great opportunities to use fresh vegetables and herbs during the summer months.  I love going out to the garden to “pick” dinner!

If you’d like to cook your way through Thirty Minute Pasta, you’re welcome to join us!  My email address is on the sidebar.  As long as you get me your link by Thursday, that’s all I need…and the link to your post!  I’d love to have you join along!

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Spring-Summer Round up!

I’ve been so bad about getting recipes posted for the past 2 months…but bless Kayte from Grandma’s Kitchen Table…she’s stayed the courses with me!  LOL!  At this point, I think we have about the same number of posts either published, or (in my case) ready to go…  So…here we go!

My first dish is Linguine Carbonara…that’s what happens when you go to the pantry and discover that you cooked the last package of spaghetti earlier in the week.  I chose linguine because the two interchange frequently, and linguine is about the next size larger pasta that has the body to take on the sauce…

I love carbonara…  It’s a great solution to a very long day…combines breakfast with supper, and helps me SLEEP.  Big carbs…protein throughout, good taste…  No…it doesn’t taste like scrambled eggs and bacon…this time I did use American bacon…it was handy!  Yes…the sauce really was that yellow…it has to do with our chickens.  They have lovely deep yellow yolks.  A lot of my egg dishes are that yellow…  This is an always welcome quick supper at our house.  Little work, maximum enjoyment comfort food!

Over at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, Kayte fixed Linguine al Pesto di Basilico (Linguine with Classic Basil Pesto).

Isn’t that just gorgeous?  She used fresh basil from her ONE little basil plant for this…Fabulous Kayte!

Our next pairing for you…*giggle*

Kayte fixed the other basil recipe this week and featured it with spaghetti…this dish is called Spaghetti al Pesto Ligure con Quayliata (Spaghetti with Creamy Basil Pesto).  Although they look a lot alike, the difference lies in the sauce…One is classic made with olive oil and parmesan, the other is more creamy, being made with ricotta.

My dish this time around is Linguine with Shrimp and Zucchini.

I’ll be featuring zucchini in almost everything for awhile…I should post about the many ways I’ve used zucchini lately…more on that another time…  Needless to say, we have plenty of zucchini, so I went ISO (in search of) any pasta recipe containing zucchini…and I found several…which you’ll see as we go!    We liked this one, but it cried out for more seasoning…shhhh…we broke out the parmesan!  That’s naughty because REAL Italians don’t use cheese with fish…very often…if at all…  Oh well!

Next up we have….Spaghetti with Zucchini in Saffrom Cream….

This is probably the most complicated of any recipe of Giuliano Hazan’s that I’ve tried…and it’s still easy.  There are just a few extra steps…simmering the saffron threads in the cream for instance…  This has a different flavor from what we’re used to, and I think it shows Hazan stepping into a slightly different zone…it was really good, but I need to replace my saffron.  *sigh*  It’s not quite packing the punch it used to.

Kayte, on the other hand, was equally adventurous at Grandma’s Kitchen Table…she fixed Spaghetti with Melon.

I love Kayte’s post on this recipe…it feels like my own thoughts when I read the recipe!  This is a keeper for her, but you’ll have to read her post to find out why!

Next up we have… Kayte’s Spaghetti al Mascarpone e Proscuitto (Spaghetti with Mascarpone and Proscuitto)…

And doesn’t that just look seriously yummy??  I could sure appreciate sitting down to a plate like that!

My offering is Spaghetti with Tomato and Bay Leaves…

I was amazed at the taste of this…the bay leaves really give the sauce a unique essence… It probably would have been stronger without the basil chiffonade….but gotta tell you…it was pretty WOW!.  This one’s a keeper!  And with the tomatoes starting to come on in the garden…it’s going to be “What do we do with tomatoes and zucchini?” for awhile!

Incidentally…had I been on time…this would have been my submission to Food ‘n Flix for shhh…May…to go with Under the Tuscan Sky.  I’ve really had a full life and then some DEEP recharging! I’ve read, I’ve watched, I’ve cooked…I haven’t posted! LOL!  If those are my greatest worries or skinned knees…I should be so lucky!

That catches us up through today… Tomorrow is Thirty Minute Thursday, but I’m ready! YAY!!  Now I’m off to catch up on a few dozen other posting projects…oy… *Ü*  Kayte…super Kudos for sticking with me!!  I know we both had a rocky end of year!  I’m planning on feeding staff a lot next year when I can’t cut it down to 2…

Bake! Cream Cheese Scones ~

It isn’t for lack of cooking that I haven’t posted…it was for lack of photo-editing time, and and getting the new camera squared away in my head.  And in the photo editing program. Different cameras…different settings… Oh well.  Here we go…

My host recipe for Bake! this summer was Cream Cheese Scones, found on page 182 of Nick Malgieri’s Bake!  I had the best intentions, even cooked my scones at the right time…the rest of my time avalanched!  *Ü*  These went together amazingly easily…and were soon ready to bake…

After an appropriate amount of time in the oven, the scones emerged nice and golden brown…

A bit of cooling and…voila!

These scones had a nice rich flavor…butter and cream cheese…how could it not?  And a really tender crumb…  While rich, these cried out for something a little “more” at serving time…  Butter…no…they were already buttery…ahh….  Homemade jam…choose your flavor!  We selected Pluot.  A pluot is a cross between an Apricot and a Plum…big as a plum, with flesh more like an apricot than a plum, and if you’re lucky…easy to release seeds!  And the flavor…oh!  That reminds me…it’s coming on to Pluot season!  Got to get some for snacking!

Tasting Notes~
These were good…but we didn’t gobble them up for some reason.  We polished off another recipe of scones in lightning fast time…so I don’t know if it was just this recipe, or we just weren’t in the mood…  Still, the recipe is great, reliable and clear, and the scones were rich and tasty.  I don’t know what happened this time!