best ever scone recipe

This recipe is from the Joy of Cooking and it called cream scones. It is honestly a no fail always turn out and usually impress recipe. I have made it in various forms (including allergy free!) which I will share below.

The basic recipe is
Preheat oven to 425
in a large mixing bowl mix:
2 Cups Flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
whisk together with a fork to combine.
add 1/2 cupish of whatever extra you are adding ie chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit (trader Joes golden berry mix is delightful)
add 1 1/4 cup heavy cream.
mix to combine and then knead in the bowl about 10 times to get it all sticking together. it will be about the consistency of shortbread dough. Pat it onto a flat surface in to the rough shape of a circle and then cut as you would a pizza. spread pieces on a greased cookie dough sheet and bake for about 20 min. you can brush the tops with cream if you wish.

I made these at high altitude and didn't have to change the recipe. I have made them with mashed banana or pumpkin puree and have then taken some of the cream out. (if you do make a dough that is to wet just treat it like drop scones which is to say plop spoonfuls of dough on the cookie sheet giving the scones some room)

you can also make them gluten free by using a gluten free flour mix either bought or made. I love Jules gluten free all purpose but you can make your own mix and there are a ton of mix recipes online. You can also replace the heavy cream with coconut milk but then I would add something else wet like apple sauce or pumpkin puree as nut milks tend to be a little more drying.

if you use self rising flour which is nice if your making a ton. you can just use two cups of that and skip the baking powder and salt as it is all ready in it.

enjoy.

Meatloaf

Meatloaf is an interesting dish to me. There seems to be a great love for it and I am always asked for recipe and a lot of people wax on poetically about how mom made it but almost no one seems to cook it these days.

If you know me you know that I don’t have recipes per say. I have ideas how to cook things. So here are a few of my ideas and I hope you can make them your own for your family.

Lets start at the meat:
I either use 1/3 ground beef, 1/3 ground turkey thigh and 1/3 pork sausage. OR 2/3 ground beef and 1/3 Turkey and cover with a bacon.

“bread” filler and egg:
If you don’t have allergies smashed Ritz type crackers are great. I however have gluten intolerance so I use one of the following. Gluten free crackers, gluten free oats, rice, or gluten free bread crumbs. This usually has to do with what I have on hand in the pantry more then anything else. I also use an egg but you can either leave it out or use a substitute if you have allergies.

Veggies:
I use garlic, onions and carrots shopped super fine in a food processor. I also use a green bell pepper or celery depending again on what is in the fridge.

Flavor.:
So here is where you can get creative and go with your families likes and dislikes

Ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, salt and pepper, thyme.

Can of chopped tomatoes, basil, oregano,

Soy sauce and ketchup, or teriyaki sauce add Chinese five spice, garlic powder

Make sure your sauce is on the thick side and make enough o put 2/3 in the meatloaf and the other 3rd on top.

Another good tip is to make twice as much as you need for one dinner

Take a large bowl and mix the meats, filler, veggies and sauce. Your hands are the best tool for this. Once it is all mixed together, separate into two parts. Take one part and put it in a freezer ziplock bag. Squish so you get the air our of the bag. Put in freezer for a homemade meal later. Take the other and put it in a greased (I use coconut oil spray) loaf pan or on a half sheet pan with parchment paper on it. Cover with sauce and then cover with bacon if that is your wish. Cook at 375 for about an hour. I use and meat thermometer that beeps when the right temperature is met and it is AWESOME! I cannot recommend it highly enough. Serve with a big salad and mashed potatoes Enjoy 

Helen's Borscht

I have a thing for soup. It always makes me feel better and I can always eat it or drink it even if I can’t really eat. The other day I decided I wanted borscht. I have only had this soup once and that was about 20 years ago but I decided I wanted it; and the beautiful thing about being a cook is that if you want something you can make it! I looked up the recipe in my joy of cooking (copy right 1964). Good recipe but not quite what I had in mind so I tweeked it. The results were very very good. My husband said he was surprise how sweet the soup tasted as he expected it to be “more earthy” he went on to say “every beet I have ever cooked has tasted like dirt” the rest of the crowd seemed equally happy and it and the color is just so pretty! Cooking time is somewhere between 30 and 60 min.

Helen's Borscht

Peel and chop
1 cup carrots
½ onion (I use white onions in all my cooking but I am sure yellow would be fine)
2 cups beets
Put in soup pot and barley cover with water. Simmer till tender. As you simmer the water will evaporate so add in chicken stock, keeping the level just above the veggies. When Veggies are tender add 1or more (depending on your taste) tablespoons of butter. Stir in and then CAREFULY pour contents into blender (unless you have an emersion blender in which case use that!) blend till smooth. Pour back into pot and add 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar. Stir in and serve with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Date night menu

Last nights dinner (Date night) both of us love garlic so you will see it just about every dish. This took me about 45 min in total, but that may be because I make small portions since there are only 2 of us. None the less a good dinner of good food and a good date night.

Quick fry chard
Wash and chop chard. Add some chicken broth to a fry pan along with some chopped garlic. Throw in the chard and cook till leaves turn bright green take off heat and squeeze lemon over it.
Buttery parsley potatoes.
Quarter red potatoes (lower glycemic index then russets) boil till tender. Drain and then add in a few pats of butter and some cut parsley. Swirl to coat evenly
Roasted Asparagus
Snap off the bottoms of asparagus and lay into a roasting pan. Add some cloves of garlic and a little olive oil to coat. Roast in an oven at 400 till done.
Broiled NY steak with mushroom sauce
Salt and pepper and herbs de provance both sides of the stake put in pan that can stand high heat and then put in oven under broiler. How long it stays there depends on how done you like your beef.
On stove top cook butter and garlic and sauté carmine mushrooms in it. add a flour making a roux. Add in chicken broth to get a good consistence. When serving pour sauce over steak.

What I want to eat right now

Breakfast
French omelet and fruit or hot cereals or toast with nutella or melon wrapped in ham coffee

Am snacks apples with nut butter, coffee

Lunch.
Broth or miso
Deconstructed lunch plate
Laughing cow cheese, heirloom tomato with oil and salt, olives, hunk of good bread, salmon
Iced chai

Tea
Green tea, baby carrots, sliced cucumbers, red bells and hummus

Dinner
Hearty soups like potato leek soup, beef stew, spicy veggie, lemon tea
Salads

Casual platter dinners.
Deconstructed roasted veggies. Roast meats

Holiday party
cream cheese salmon soup
pozole
Beef stew
Squash soup
good bread. Variety of wine champagne


family gathering deconstructed meal
cocktails/ champagne
salad bar/ soup bar
3 good breads
Make your own cheese cake minis

Where to find food?

My favorite place to shop for food hands down is the Aptos Farmers Market. This happens every Saturday at Cabrillo College. It is year round and fantastic. Of course unlike the florescent lit piles of produce in your local mega mart you cannot find all items all year. Farmers markets are so fantastic because you get what is in season now. This means that the flavor of food is at its peak. I once had a hankering for apples. It was not the right season and so I could not find them at my local farmers market. I made my way to Safeway and bought a bag. When I got home and took a bite of one, I was so incredibly sad. Compared to the flavor of the ones I was used to at the farmers market, it tasted like cardboard. Because I like to eat I prefer things that taste good and so that is one of the reasons I love my farmers market.

Another is money. These days money is on everyone’s mind. There are two very important financial reasons to shop at a famers market. The first is my pocket book. I like many Americans prefer to buy organic food. We are waking up to how important our health really is. (Tangent statistics: this generation of children will have a shorter lifespan then their parents due to obesity! One dollar spent in prevention will save you 10 dollars in cure) one thing I hear over and over again is that people want to eat better, they want to eat organic food but they think it is too expensive. I think this is because they go to the big box supermarkets and compare organic to non organic. However what costs me 25 dollars at my farmers market cost me 75 at Safeway. Pretty amazing! What’s more is that I get all the vegetables I need for my family of two, for a week, breakfast lunch and dinner, for 25 dollars! I should also let you know we are not little eaters. We love our salads piled high with all sorts of vegetables and we eat them twice a day. So in short I save money when I shop at my farmers market.

The second financial reason is that of the farmers. I appreciate that there are still people out there working to feed not only their own family but their whole country. When I buy the pound of potatoes at any supermarket only about 3 nickels of my dollar get back to the farmer. 15 cents! The rest goes to the chain of getting the food ready and shipped to my store. This is really unacceptable. We should value the hard working folk of our nation much more then 15 cents on the dollar!


Book to read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle a Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver

Of course not everyone lives in such a place with farmers markets though I think they are becoming more prevalent. What’s more some parts of the country have real seasons unlike the California coast. I would next turn to a local natural food store and then the organics at a supermarket. I know I mention Safeway above and it is not to pick on them I am happy that they have started to carry their organic brand. I would scout out your local area and find where you can get good fresh organic food that is local. Contemplate how many people your food had to go through before it comes to you and make the best choice you can.

Picky eaters

Picky eaters. We have all come across them and I hear this as a common complaint among my fellow cooks. I have come across several types of picky eaters. Two of my best friends are vegetarians and I myself was one for about 13 years. Of course as best friends do we often eat together so that needs to be taken into account weather dinning in or dinning out. I think because I was a vegetarian for so long this doesn’t faze me as much as other eating restrictions. Of course living in this area makes it a lot easier to find vegetarian fair. However I have found over my many years of not eating meat as well as eating and cooking with my best friends that there are always loads of option out there. I was able to find food in a steak house in Texas. I think most people with special diets like that, know how to find the foods they need in just about any situation. As far as feeding others I find that even those of us who eat meat can still appreciate a meatless meal. In our house we are enacting Meatless Mondays.

Fave veggie entre

Poblano peppers halved and cleaned

Roast in a hot oven until they start to look softish

Cook quinoa and mix with a can of black beans (or homemade black beans) you want a 2-1 rations of quinoa to beans

Mix in some salsa in or a can of chopped green chillies

Fill cooled poblano halves with quinoa mixture and top with a slice or so of cheese. Use Oaxaca or Monterey Jack.

Bake at 350 till done.

Serve with a big salad and a steamed veggie. Super healthy super quick and even meat-lovers will like this meal.

There are also people who have allergies which are very important. Many people have sever allergic reactions and so if you are cooking for other people you need to make sure you know about any allergies. This again is something that is fair and any good hostess / host will check with her/ his guest when inviting them for a meal.

The last group is the people that don’t like certain foods or worse yet are sure they won’t like it so they won’t try it. This is what we typically call a picky eater. I have several thoughts on this.

My first is that parents should stop being short order cooks. Teach your kids to appreciate the food they have on their plate. My mother is a great cook. She made dinner for us every night and served it to us as a family. (tangent here) family dinner takes 1 hour tops and is very important family bonding time. Check in, find out how days were and who the people around the table are. Yes we have busy lives and yes we have tones of schedule but we have an hour and if you don’t take that time your going to wake up one day and not know who your kids friends are what they do or what is going on with your spouse or if you’re a kid your going to think mom and dad don’t think spending time with you is important! How awful is that! Ok stop rant.

So my mother cooked for all of us and there was as the saying goes two choices for dinner. Eat it or don’t. Even the things we didn’t like (and I hate Brussels sprouts) we had to eat at least one of. I think this helped my brother and I learn to try new things not just in food but in life too.

I once talked to a friend of mine who was newly married to a past housemate of mine and she said “he is so picky! How did you get him to eat?” Easy I cooked it he ate it. Back to the two options eat it or don’t. If you have a complainer at the dinner table the best cure is to teach them to cook. They get one night a week to make a meal for the family and they can make the foods they like. Supervised by someone who can cook of course. For that matter it is great for every person to make a meal once a week. It teaches you so much!