I never had a scone that wasn't dry! Until... I started getting them from Starbucks 6 years ago. Any time you think of scones you think of this dry tasteless bread pastry that is never #1 on your guilty pleasure list...until you've had one from Starbucks... warmed! I would get my coffee before work once a week from Starbucks as a treat to my day of insurance. blaaah! And that fateful morning where I met my new guilty pleasure...the scone. I ordered by grande macchiato as always from Jen, yes we were now on a first name basis now(this is when you know you go too often), and I ordered a raspberry scone with it. Then those words which I will never forget, Jen asked, "Do you want it warmed?" "Warm? Yeah!" I didn't know you could warm anything there. As I checked out, she handed me that warm brown bag, my mouth was already watering! This was in no way a scone, it was moist and sweet with pretty decorative sugar on top. When I bit into it there were these delicious pockets of raspberry jam or some kind of raspberry filling chips. After that day my trips went from once a week to the occasional two or three times a week for coffee with a warmed raspberry or cinnamon chip scone. Yum!
Once I quit my job to stay home I missed my specialty coffees and warmed scones so I decided to find a recipe to make my own scones. I've gone through a few recipes over the years picking things I've liked from one and carrying it on to the new recipe and so on until I came up with my own moist warmed cinnamon chip scone! Once you make these you won't have to go to Starbucks you can make them in minutes in your own kitchen!
Cinnamon Chip Scones
2 C. flour
1/3 C. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 C.-1/2 C. buttermilk (measure out the 1/2C but you may not need all of it)
1/2 C. cinnamon chips
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
1. Mix first 5 ingredients on low in mixer with paddle attachment
2. Cube the cold butter and mix into the dry mix until you get the crumbled look
3. Add egg and vanilla
4. Start to add the buttermilk slowly until the mixture looks wet but not runny! You may not use all the buttermilk which is ok.
5. Lastly add the cinnamon chips folding them in until they are mixed in well but do not over beat or your scones could be tough (but they will still taste good)
6. Scope your dough; 1/3 cup; onto the tray 2 inches apart. Slip into the oven for 15 minutes (if you mixed more buttermilk than you should have you may need to keep them in for a few more minutes to cook the inside) Then take them off the tray promptly onto a cooling rack.
You can find a good icing recipe to top them with, but I like them without, so I never perfected an icing.
We like granola bars in our house to snack on. You feel like you are eating something healthy yet tasty. I found this granola recipe on pinterest from a blog called Back to the Cutting Board. They are so easy and so good! I adapted the recipe she adapted from Rachel Ray and made the S-mores bars and then made my own by using the chocolate chip recipe. All three recipes have the same 5 main ingredients to make the granola bars, honey, brown sugar, unsalted butter, oats, and rice crispies.
Using her recipe I added the necessary ingredients and then added my own. Think of them as cookies, experimenting, add what you would to a cookie
Base Ingredients:
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1/4-1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1/4 C honey
2C. plain granola (I use Back to Nature Granola)
1C. Rice Crispies
1- 1 1/2 C. added goodies (see ideas below)
First I made Chocolate Toffee Bites adding a 1/2 Cup Chocolate chips and 1/2 cup Heath bar broken up into chips. The reason they were Chocolate Chip Bites was because I did what she said NOT to do, freeze or refrigerate them! I was getting impatient and decide that a minute would not matter, well...I forgot about them and a minute turned into a lot more! The were rock hard, like she said they would be. So I made one bag of bites and another of crushed for a yogurt topping. They still tasted good!! I learned later that if this happens you can leave them at room temperature for an hour and they soften enough to cut stripes.
toffee bites
crushed bits for yogurt
Then I made a Peanut Butter Marshmallow adding 1 cup of Marshmallow, which needs to be added while the oat mixture is still hot to melt them a little, and 1/2 cup peanut butter chips. They were pretty good!
One of my favorites was the Mint Chocolate Chip Bars!! I added 1C. Mint Chocolate baking chips to the base recipe This past week I made a double batch of Cran-raisin bars. I separated the batch making one half into White Chocolate Cran-raisin Bars. To make these I added 1C of each ingredient (half measurements for 1 batch), raisins, dried cranberries, and 1/2 C. white chocolate cut up into small pieces. They were my family's favorite! After I made each batch I set them in a 10 x 10 baking pan and let them set together. Then I cut them into 16 bars and wrapped them like she said in her blog, with parchment. They do look nice like that and it is easy to label them with a marker.
cut square into 16 - not great example but you get it hopefully
Well I hope you have fun making your own! If you have a discount store like I do this can be a very inexpensive treat. My total cost for the ingredients was $7 for 32 Bars, otherwise this may not be something you will be making a lot of. Unless you make your own granola, that seems to be the biggest expense for the recipe.
Yesterday I woke up, make a nice pot of coffee and listened to an old sermon (06/26/11) by pastor. This resulted in a great start to the day with a cup of coffee. Something about God's word that energizes me! Then I got out of my pajamas and put together an outfit that I fell in love with. I never manage to do this, so I was so proud of myself that I clicked some pictures to share! The bathroom had the best lighting so sorry for the photo shoot location. ha ha.
love the green cup to complete the ensemble
Top
My Outfit: 35.50$
Sleeveless Blouse - Ann Taylor Loft - 12$
Belt- Fashion Exchange Thrift Store - 2$
Floral Multi Strand Necklace- Ann Taylor Loft -9.50$
Earrings- I made- Free from stuff I had from long ago! lol.
Old Navy Diva Jean (roled up 2x's)- Sweet Charity Thrift Shop- 6$
Ruffle Ballet Shoes (teal!!) - Target Online - 6$
Topped with a cute 'Mom of toddlers' pony tail.
(I also have a cute brown leather hobo bag I purchased from Nine West that goes great with the outfit - 13$)
PAINTING
After putting together my outfit and clicking some pictures, I was ready for my day! The kids have been asking to paint so I gave in. I cut 2 brown grocery bags and duct taped them together. Then I tossed a bunch of paint sticks in the middle. They threw on their smocks and painted until nap time! It was great!
paints
paints
PASTA
While they painted I made my pasta sauce for small group. unfortunately it is different every time, but here is what I did for this batch.
What I used for this batch:
1lb of italian sausage
1lb of ground beef
2 small onions diced (whatever you have is fine- I had purple)
1 small green pepper diced
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 pt. cherry tomatoes chopped in half
1 big tomato diced (thought it needed a bit more tomatoes)
about 1 tsp salt
about 2 tsp. oregano
1 heaping tbsp minced garlic
8 leaves of fresh basil- rolled and chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1. Brown beef and cook sausage in oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes- covered with foil, I like to cut them into 1.5 inch pieces so they cook faster- or cook on stove top.
2. Drain meats, then using same pan toss in diced onion, pepper and garlic, saute.
3. Now toss all ingredients into Crock pot on low for 8 hrs or high for 6.
Last night I combined Spaghetti and Capellini to toss in with the sauce because that is what I had on hand. Serve with fresh garden green beans boiled, drained, and mixed with EVOO, salt and pepper. and garlic bread.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! I am sorry it is a little out of sorts but hopefully you get the general idea of ingredients needed! Also I love to use a mix of tomatoes and not always canned. If you are just using fresh tomatoes for this, cut up about 7-8 cups of meaty tomatoes (it is really your preference in how much you want in your sauce). Fresh always tastes better to me! Have fun cooking!
The cookbook was first published in 1908, but I have a 10th edition published in 1939. It is the Rumford Complete Cookbook 'Revised'.
Do you love old books, especially old cookbooks? I do, I don't have many but I love looking through the ones I have every now and then and choosing something to make. A few weeks ago my husband came home very hungry, with no leftovers from the night before, he had no lunch for work that day. The kids were hungry and well, the whole house was wanting food and willing to eat just about anything. It was 6pm and we all had a cookbook in our hand. Flipping through the pictures the kids wanted pizza and burgers, John was just as hungry agreeing to anything they wanted. I decided to pick up my old cookbook from which I had made french pancakes from before which are basically crepes. I was flipping through, already making a list in my mind of things to try; Scotch Shortbread, World War Cake, Plain Plum Pudding, I could go on. I found a simple recipe for Fried Chicken. Man was it good!!! I added biscuits, gravy, corn, and mashed potatoes calling it our own KFC. I am giving you the full recipe because I love this!
Fried Chicken
1 Chicken
1/2 Cup lard or butter
Salt, Pepper, and a little flour (this is literally what it said)
A little cold water
Clean the chicken, remove pinfeathers and oil bag, and cut into convenient places for serving. Dip each joint into the water and then into the flour, salt and pepper sifted together, shaking off all that does not cling to the chicken. {I used a ziploc bag and threw the flour mix in with the chicken shaking it up until the chicken was covered) Heat the butter or lard in a frying pan( I used a cast iron skillet) and cook the pieces of chicken slowly that they may be done through, turning often while cooking. Keep hot till all are done, serve with white sauce or brown gravy.
(copyright 1939, Rumford Complete Cookbook)
The Gravy I made was with boxed chicken broth, flour, milk, salt, and pepper.
Now on to dessert!
That Saturday it was so hot and I was flipping through my BHG magazine while the kids played in their pool and found a recipe for Melon Sorbet. YUM! I thought. I had all the ingredients and decided to try this! I had never made sorbet before, this was going to be so fun!!
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
4 cups seedless melon chunks (watermelon, cantaloupe, or honeydew)
2 lemons or 3 limes, juiced (6 tablespoons)
4 5-inch sprigs leafy herbs (basil, mint, thyme, sage, tarragon, or your favorite herb) or 2 teaspoons crushed lavender flowers
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
1 Tbsp. honey
1/8 tsp. salt
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a food processor or blender, combine melon with half the citrus juice; cover and process or blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan combine fresh herbs, sugar, water, remaining citrus juice, honey, and salt. Bring to boiling over medium heat. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
BRING TO A BOIL
Strain herb mixture into melon puree. Place bowl over container of ice water; stir for several minutes or until mixture has chilled to about 40 degrees F.
Cover; refrigerate 2 to 4 hours.
3. Transfer chilled mixture to 1- to 2-quart ice cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Or use what I did, A metal bread pan. I set the pan in the freezer while the melon mixture was in the refrigerator cooling. I poured the mixture into the pan and with foil tightly wrapped it into the edges of the pan. Store, covered, in freezer.
I USED A BREAD PAN TO FREEZE THE SORBET. WORKED PERFECT!
Tonight I am making black bean burgers. I try to buy less meat/poultry at times to keep the grocery bill down. My Gram gave me a recipe for these burgers and I find that i usually have most of these ingredients in the house, which saves me 4.23$ at the grocery store. That's 1 bottles of mustard, 2 boxes of gummies and a pineapple OR 1 box of rice, 3 cans of black beans, a bag of carrots, and maybe 3 small clusters of bananas(about a dz. small/med. bananas) at the discounted grocery store I also shop. So it goes a long way!
Now you've made a good and semi-healthy meal and saved a few dollars to put toward something else you need.
The other thing I wanted to tell you about was my cute simple recipe card. I actually made the polka pattern in InDesign and saved it on Picasa where I added the text. I love love love doing this. I am not great at it but since my husband is a graphic designer I ask him to help me with any glitches I have. This took me forever and he could do it in 10 minutes, but I really like doing this myself. Yet another fun thing for you to fiddle with at home. This is something you can do on photoshop too. I am slowly learning new things and it is so much fun!
My mind moves a millions miles a minute, and after I have already posted this blog, 5 minutes later I have something else to add that is great savings! If you just had rice with your dinner and you have some left over, make this the next day instead of throwing it in the trash or leaving it in the fridge to mold until the next time you clean the fridge out. And those unwanted bread ends that the kids put there noses up at, throw them in the freeze for such a time as this, or to make your own bread crumbs for something else.These are other great ways to stretch your pennies. Happy Stretching!
Our little boy was turning 5 and I was trying to find an easier theme than the fire engine theme we've had for the last 3 years for his birthday. When we do the kids birthday cakes we try to do something special and really cool cakes with fondant. But this year I did not want to do a huge cake, something a little more simple. So I thought why not baseball, he loves baseball. So we made him the cutest baseball cupcakes and had baseball food with the Philadelphia Phillies colors for the decorations. I cheated with the cupcakes and just made boxed cakes, but I did use a Southern Living Buttercream recipe and added my own flare of extra confection sugar and almond flavoring. I thought this recipe was a little to buttery but test it before adding extra, you may like it this way.
Vanilla Buttercream
1 1/2 C butter or margarine, softened
4 Cups of Sifted powdered sugar
2Tbsp Milk
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
Beat butter until creamy, gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add milk and beat until there is a spreading consistency. add extract. { I added my extra 2 cups of confection sugar a 1/2 Cup at a time. Test (with different spoon every time, if you have baby spoons they are perfect for testing.-you are feeding this to others!!) it before adding in another half cup. do this until you've reached the taste you are going for.}
Again this recipe was from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook By: Julie Fisher Gunter
I colored the icing green for the cupcakes to look like a green ball field.
about 25 drops of green and 8 drops of black
Added 2 extra cups of confection sugar
looks spreadable!
Also I found great videos for applying the icing. I have never been to baking school but these youtube videos are great! Check out this one for the fluffy top look. I thought this was perfect for the baseball cupcakes since a big fondant ball was going on top.
The day before the party I made 44 cupcakes and a half batch of fondant, since all I needed was 44 baseballs that my amazing and talented husband would do the morning of. I use a great fondant recipe that I love and get positive feedback every time I use it. It is the simplest recipe and takes 30 minutes to make a batch. I have timed it before when I was doing my best friends wedding cake. And if you do a double batch it will still take 30 minutes! The plus to this fondant is that it does not taste like the fondant you buy in the store. I have used wilton and satin fondant and had no luck, I am sure I was not using it right but the taste was not great, it was definitely just for decoration. Here is what I use for the yummy fondant I make for all my fondant cakes:
1- 16oz bag mini marshmallows(white)
1/2 cup of crisco (leave it in the scooper)
2-5 Tbsp of water (I keep in a cup with T. measure for easier use)
1- 2lb bag of confectioner sugar
corn starch
Large glass bowl
Long wooden spoon
Apron...this will get messy
plastic wrap
1. Toss the marshmallow in the large bowl with 2 Tbsp of water and microwave for 30 seconds, take out and stir and repeat this step 4 more times.
2. Add 1/2-3/4 of the powdered sugar into the bowl of melted marshmallow.
3. Make sure you have a large smooth surface area to work on and that at least 16 inches is covered with a thick amount of crisco and your hands are well greased too before working with the fondant. ***This gets extremely sticky so make sure your greased above youe wrists a bit***
4.Then dump the bowl of marshmallow and powdered sugar onto your greased surface.
If you have ever kneaded bread dough, this is the same technique. knead a few times working in the powered sugar. You may need to reapply more crisco onto your hands (If this does not work I have washed my hand and reapplied crisco to them).
5. When it seems to be well kneaded dump the remaining sugar on the fondant and continue to kneed until you have reached a stretchy dough-like consistency. If it seem to get dry and tearing then you can add 1 tbsp of water to the fondant. knead it in and see if it changes back to the stretchy dough. Add another tbsp if still dry.
6. Once the powdered sugar is completely mixed in (best time to add color if coloring your fondant) and formed into a ball, of sorts, you will use a little crisco to rub all over the ball of fondant and wrap in plastic wrap and place in an air tight storage bag in your refrigerator. This stores for about 2 weeks.
When you are ready to roll out the fondant you can use a rolling pin or one of those bakers rolling sticks. I use my wooden rolling pin and it works just fine.
1. toss a little bit of corn starch over the surface you will be working on to keep the fondant from sticking to your counter.
***Make sure your surface is smooth or whatever texture your surface is that will be the texture you get for your fondant.***
Check out this sitehere to get more information on how big your fondant should be and other great tips. This is where I found my recipe for fondant and other great tips.
After John rolled out the fondant he cut 45-2inch circles for the baseballs and then added their stitching with a the same circle to make the imprints and a knife. Once every ball was done he added the red color to the stitching to make them look like real baseballs. this was so cool!
Adding stitches with knife
Adding color to stitching
It was a great party and the cupcakes went so quick I forgot to take a picture until half way through serving. Happy Baking!
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6
Today everyone in the Cheek household is learning something new! I am making pesto for the first time and the kids learned to make their sandwiches all by themselves. We all had fun finding something new that we can do. We are trying to slowly learn how to garden while living in a townhouse. Last year was the first time we have had any sort of garden since we lived in our old home. This year we planted green peppers, yellow and red tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and basil. I tried to pick the things we ate the most of since we only have a 4x4 foot spot on the side of our porch to "farm" haha.
If you love basil like I do than you will love that it only takes 5 ingredients to make pesto. I found the recipe on a random site from my search on "what to do with basil". I am hoping to make a post out of this once I have collected all my recipes that I am trying out this summer. (here is the site if you want it, I did make it my own since I did not have all the ingredients and it tastes fine.) I never realized how quick and easy easy this was. I am making this a new favorite for our dinner menus.
What you will need:
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/2 Cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 Cup olive oil
1/4 Cup Pine nuts (I substituted with walnuts)
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and cracked black pepper to taste
First make sure you wash your basil with cold water and pat dry before throwing it into your blender. Mix everything in your food processor or blender and pulse a few times. Make sure you scrap the pesto off the sides to get everything blended well. To tell it is done it will look more like a paste. The sauce still had a little texture to it but was definitely a pasty look to it. I can not wait to mix this tonight with my penne pasta and cherry tomatoes for dinner!
So, as I was making the pesto the kids were getting hungry and I thought why not let them try to make their own sandwiches. (Do not worry they used a butter knife) They were so excited. Johnny got out everything they needed to make their sandwiches and they pulled their stools up to the counter. It was so cute. Liora had a big glop of mayonnaise on her bread which I forgot to take a picture of. i was cracking up. Sometimes I need to remind myself that they are learning and how else are they to learn but by doing. This was the perfect thing for them to make. I clicked a few pictures and was able to make my sauce in the few minutes they were making their sandwiches. They felt like big stuff talking to each other about their sandwich they made showing it off toone another as little chefs. I was so proud of my 3 1/2 year and 5 year old for their first recipe (as they call it) with no help from mama. They also cleaned up together, putting everything away.
Accomplishing something new today was great and we all felt like we conquered something!
