Buttermilk Scones

I've been going to an ongoing Bible study at a nearby church for many years, actually since my older daughter was about 1 1/2 years old. I started going for a number of reasons:

1. I felt the need for talking with other adults at least once a week after having been a stay-at-home mom for a while.

2. I thought Bible study would enrich my life and help me get to know God better.

3. The group of people I joined had lifted me up and prayed for me when pregnant with my first daughter.

The other day, I volunteered to bring a little something to nibble on for fellowship time and picked a recipe for scones that I found in my present church's cookbook. So here it is. Adapted from the cookbook, "Real Lutherans Cooking":

Buttermilk Scones

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup butter

1 cup buttermilk

2 tsp. orange zest

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

1 cup dried blueberries (or other dried fruit), optional

white sugar to sprinkle on top

Preparation:

Drop tablespoonfuls of the batter onto a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle white sugar on top before baking. Bake at 400˚F for about 15 minutes. This is a great recipe served with lemon curd, jam and/or clotted cream (or just plain whipped cream in lieu of clotted cream!).

Variation:

Instead of making the scones with walnuts and dried blueberries, try dried cherries, or craisins and white chocolate chips. It's so good!

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

It's late, but I'm still waiting for a loaf of banana bread to finish baking in the oven (the bananas really had to be used tonight), so I thought I'd write down our favorite preparation for fingerling potatoes as I'm reliving the wonderful flavors of tonight's dinner that we prepared for our guests, Jazz musicians Jana and Adam Meckler: grilled top sirloin steak, roasted fingerling potatoes, and green beans Asian-style.

Fingerling potatoes are quite literally the size of fingers and are sold in stores as small gourmet potatoes. Some stores sell a variety of different kinds in one bag, others sell just one kind. Either way, they are delicious and very easy to prepare. We like them roasted and very simply prepared. The following recipe was enough for six servings:

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes:

2 lbs. fingerling potatoes, washed and dried

olive oil

kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Spread fingerling potatoes on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. (I used pure olive oil because it has a higher smoke point than extra virgin and virgin olive oils, but I realize that I have to do more research about cooking with olive oil and which olive oil to use for what temperature.) Then use your hands to cover the potatoes with olive oil from all sides, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and roast in the oven at 400˚F for about 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream with Blueberry Sauce

Dessert tonight was simple and delicious: store-bought vanilla bean ice-cream covered with warm, homemade blueberry sauce.

To make the sauce, combine in a saucepan:

2 cups fresh blueberries

2 Tbsp. water

3 Tbsp. honey

Heat everything on medium heat until the berries are soft, about 5 minutes. Remove and purée in a blender. Serve over ice-cream. Store left-overs for up to a week in the refrigerator.

By the way: this sauce is also good over pancakes and waffles for breakfast!

The consequences of living well…

You know how I can tell that I've put on a little extra weight? You may think it's because the pants don't fit the way they used to, and that may be so to a degree. But, no, I notice weight-gain when my sunglasses hug my temples just a little tighter, almost as if the frame of the glasses squeezes my face ever so slightly. I felt that squeeze on my face this morning after dropping off my older daughter at high school, so she can rehearse with all the choirs for next week's big concert. At home, I stepped on the scale, and confirmed what the fit of my sunglasses had already told me: I had lived a little too well the last couple of months.

Time to get back in shape. With spring and Lent fast approaching, I'm wondering if I should try something new this year and actually give up something for the time of Lent. I've thought about the concept of giving up something during Lent for several years, but have never had the discipline or will-power to do anything. I have yet to decide, but here's my list of things that I could be challenged with giving up:

1. Late nights up. (That'll be a tough one, since I got a double-whammy to be a night-owl from both sides of my family…)

2. Coffee. (I've heard people who gave up coffee actually start feeling better. Mmh.)

3. Sugar. (Chocolate is one of my favorite food groups…)

4. Meat. (Giving up meat wouldn't be a problem for me, but since I'm cooking for the family, it could be a serious problem. Got to think about that one.)

Homemade Oatmeal Bread

I have one daughter who loves Brownberry's Oatnut Bread for sandwiches and toast, and another daughter who will not eat a sandwich to save her life, unless it's made with homemade bread.

So, tonight I attempted to make a new oatmeal bread recipe that I hope my dear daughter will like. I've made breads with kamut, spelt and quinoa flours before and she's liked them, but this recipe uses none of the ancient grains. I just took the loaf out of the oven and it smells wonderful, but I'll have to wait and see what my daughter says. In any case, here's the recipe I made tonight. It's slightly adapted, but pretty much the way I found it in "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison. As usual, I used the bread machine to mix the dough and let it rise and then baked the loaf in the oven.

Homemade Oatmeal Bread

Add to the pan of a bread machine:

1 1/4 cups water

2 Tbsp. canola oil

1/4 cup raw honey

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup wheat bran

2 cups all-purpose white flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp sugar

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

Process on the dough setting and let rise. Remove from the bread machine when dough cycle is done, remove dough, shape and roll in a mixture of wheat bran and oats, grease a 9x5 loaf pan and put loaf inside. Let loaf rise for about 30 minutes, then bake at 375˚F for about 45 minutes.

The Annual Sweetheart Dinner

Sixteen years ago, when we had a newborn daughter, no babysitter, and no reservations for a table at a restaurant, we decided to make a really nice dinner at home and invite the grandparents to come, too. This was one of the best decisions we ever made: we didn't have to think about Valentine's Day until the day actually happened, we didn't have to think about which restaurant to reserve a table at, we didn't have to dress up unless we wanted to, we didn't have to schedule a babysitter and pay her, we could eat and drink whatever we wanted and could afford, and, best of all, could spend it in the company of people who really mattered to us, playing music that we thoroughly enjoyed. Sixteen years ago today was the day we "invented" our "Sweetheart Dinner." 

I think this year we actually copied what we made 16 years ago, even though I don't recall what side dishes we served. The main dish, though, was pork tenderloin in yogurt sauce, a dish that was very tasty, but that I haven't made since. I lost the original recipe, but pieced together something from varying sources and this is what I came up with:

Pork Tenderloins in Yogurt Sauce

Ingredients:

2-2.5 lbs. pork tenderloin

1/4 cup+ butter

8 oz. grated gouda

1/2 onion, minced

4 cups whole milk yogurt

2 tsp Hungarian paprika

4 tsp instant chicken bouillon

salt to taste

Preparation:

Wash pork tenderloins and cut off skin, liberally salt and rub with paprika. Turn tenderloins in flour to dust and sear in butter all around.

Combine onions, yogurt, grated gouda and chicken bouillon and add to meat. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes until meat is done. Add chopped fresh parsley and finish sauce with a little corn starch or flour if desired.

We served this with oven-roasted fingerling potatoes and steamed green beans. Delicious!

Tip: The sauce will very easily curdle, even if you're very careful not to bring it to a boil. If curdling happens, just remove the meat and put the sauce in a blender and purée it until smooth. No one will know the difference and the taste is very nice and flavorful.

Morning Rush

As a kid, I remember a Heinzelmännchen cartoon on TV that depicted a little sleeping Heinzelmann that woke up when the alarm rang, hit the snooze button and proceeded to sleep with a smile on his face while a speech bubble above his head read, "only 15 more minutes." Or something like that. (Heinzelmännchen are, according to legend, little Black Forest gnomes that would come into the city of Cologne at night and do all the work for the people, so they could rest and be lazy during the day.)

This morning I had that kind of morning and overslept royally! Awakened by the soothing sounds of my wind chimes buzzer at 6 a.m., I hit the snooze button to stretch out for only one more minute and continued to sleep until 6:46 a.m. That spelled trouble! Of course I had planned on being up early and baking fresh rolls for the kids while making their school lunches, but with all the lost time, I had to make a new plan–and quickly.

The quickest breakfasts, and in all honesty some of the most nutritious, are fruit smoothies made in a high-speed blender. I use a VitaMix and love it. It can turn anything into a smooth puree. In any case, a quick look into the freezer and I found some frozen wild blueberries. The idea of a fruit smoothie was born. Bananas? Check. Yogurt? Check. I toasted two slices of whole grain bread and whipped up the following recipe in the blender:

Blueberry-Banana Smoothie:

2 bananas

1 cup yogurt

1 cup frozen blueberries

a good squirt of flaxseed oil

Blend everything until very smooth and creamy. Pour into two glasses. Makes about two 10-oz. servings–the perfect amount for the whirly-birds before school.

School lunches had to be done quickly, too, so I made sandwiches for the girls with ham and baby swiss cheese, cut up a whole orange for each one and filled their waterbottles with fresh water. Well, that was my rushed morning in a nutshell.

Buddy Dinner

Since I served the family left-overs from last night for dinner today, I had a little extra time and energy to cook for the buddies, our dogs, also known as Lenny and Louie (or Leonard and Lewis when they're in trouble!). They were very excited once they figured out I'd be cooking them a special meal!

I had a pound of chicken livers in the freezer that I defrosted and decided to poach for the boys. Basically, I brought a pot with water to a boil, added the chicken livers and simmered them for about 5 minutes. Then I drained the livers, but kept the broth, and rinsed the livers clean of junk that may have bubbled up to the surface during the poaching process.

Then I cut up a chicken liver for each buddy and topped their dry chicken kibble with it, spooned enough broth over the kibble to moisten it all and let them have THE FEAST.

Needless to say, they loved it, Poodle and German Shepherd alike.

Macaroni and Cheese

Homemade macaroni and cheese is one of those dishes we don't want to do without in the wintertime because it's simple and satisfying. And once I learned from Dorothy, my dear mother-in-law who is like my mother to me, how easy it is to make, I never looked back to any of the boxed varieties. Taste is definitely more important to me than convenience.

Now Dorothy is one of those cooks who are able to prepare a dish without a road-map, or recipe, so-to-speak. The first time I asked her how to make macaroni and cheese, she answered, "Oh, you just cook macaroni the usual way, then you make a white sauce and put some grated cheese in it, season to taste, mix it all up and serve."

Well, I've spent 20 years in the kitchen and have just within the last couple of years arrived at a place where I feel confident and comfortable enough to start cooking something without a recipe and actually know, sort of, what I'm doing and what the projected outcome may be. I guess it really is practice that makes you perfect. :)

Since making macaroni and cheese from scratch takes a little more time than preparing a boxed mix, I always plan to have time for cooking it. The ingredients are simple and few, and I usually have them on hand, but time is another matter. I would say it takes me about an hour from start to finish. I admit that I'm not trying to rush when cooking because I like cooking to be fun and an experience to be savored. There must be speedier cooks than me out there! No matter how much time is spent on cooking, though, homemade macaroni and cheese are always worth the extra effort. It's also a great way to use up a couple of different left-over cheeses. This is how I made macaroni and cheese today:

Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

1 lb pasta

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

3 cups whole milk, heated

salt to taste

8 oz. (or more to taste) grated cheese (today I used gruyère, fontina, and romano, but try Swiss–it's delicate and delicious)

toasted breadcrumbs for the top

Preparation:

While cooking the pasta to al-dente-perfection, melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the flour to make a roux and let the roux gently boil under constant stirring for about 3 minutes. Then slowly add the heated milk, constantly stirring to avoid clumps, and let the mixture simmer on very low heat until thickened to the consistency of thick cream. At that point add all of the grated cheese and stir the sauce until it is smooth.

To make toasted breadcrumbs, melt 1 Tbsp. butter in an oven-proof pan on the stove-top and add fresh bread crumbs made by processing about 2 slice of your favorite lighter-colored bread in the food processor. Mix the melted butter and bread crumbs well, then put the pan into the oven at 350˚F and toast the bread crumbs for about 15 minutes.

As the next step, mix all of the pasta with the sauce, put everything into a buttered 9x13-inch casserole, top with toasted breadcrumbs, and bake the casserole in a 400˚F oven for about 15 minutes.

FYI, most of the steps for making homemade macaroni and cheese are largely based on "my" Dorothy's cryptic instructions and the more detailed instructions found in Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food.

Can't-Sleep Emergency-School-Lunch Tuna Salad

For some reason I can't sleep. There are too many things on my mind, and one of them is not having figured out school lunches for tomorrow. I didn't get to the grocery store, but with a few cans of tuna in the pantry, I thought I'd make myself useful at this time of day and make a tuna salad for school.

Here's what I tossed together:

1 6-oz. can water-packed tuna, drained and flaked

1 hard-boiled egg, chopped

1 stalk celery, minced

1 scallion, minced

1/4 cup cilantro, minced

2 Tbsp. canola mayonnaise

1 Tbsp. sour cream (only added because I didn't have enough mayonnaise…)

1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

sprinkling of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

The first taste test was encouraging. I really love the fresh cilantro in the mix. The salad will be refrigerated until the morning when I will put it on sandwich bread. Hopefully, the flavors will blend even better and be a tasty little lunch for the girly-whirls.

Somewhere, I have a recipe for tuna salad that is entirely dairy-free. I'll try to find it in the morning and make that recipe for comparison. :)

Update: Just wanted to add that the girls and dear hubby really liked the tuna salad and gobbled it all up, leaving nothing for me to taste, not even a teaspoon. I guess that's a good sign.

Feeling a bit like Julia this morning

A good French omelette is a smooth, gently swelling, golden oval that is tender and creamy inside. And as it takes less than half a minute to make, it is ideal for a quick meal.

(from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

I've been up early, and after sending the kiddos off to school with their home lunches, cleaned the kitchen and started reading the newpaper. Now it's time for breakfast, especially since I watched dear hubby stick his head into the fridge, take a deep breath and exhale in a sigh, as if to say, "What's there to eat?"

After having explored Julia Child's kitchen on the Smithsonian Institute's Web-site this morning, I feel inspired to cook a little like Julia. How about an omelette filled with sautéed spinach and feta cheese? L'omelette aux épinards et au fromage?

I have to admit I have yet to master the art of making a French omelette, and it takes me quite a bit longer than 30 seconds to make one–actually more like 5-10 minutes when they're filled. Also, being largely self-taught in the kitchen, I have developed my own way of folding omelettes, but thanks to a great non-stick pan and spatula I do a satisfactory job. I'm thinking about trying the French method some time when I have a surplus of eggs and time. It'll be an eggsperiment! (If you're interested in watching Julia make an omelette, click on the link!)

Today's spinach-and-feta omelette was large enough for two servings:

Ingredients:

3 large handfuls of fresh spinach

2 eggs

2 egg whites (left over from last night's chicken fricassée sauce!)

2-3 Tbsp. crumbled feta cheese (or more to taste)

1-2 Tbsp. chicken broth

1 tsp. olive oil

1 pat of butter

Sautée spinach in a little chicken broth and olive oil, just until wilted. Sprinkle spinach with a little salt if desired. Set spinach aside.

Whisk two eggs and two egg whites with a touch of water until well-blended and smooth.

Melt a pat of butter in a hot non-stick pan, pour eggs into hot pan and let them set. Add sautéed spinach and 2-3 Tbsp. crumbled feta cheese, fold omeletter over, divide in half and serve.

Julia Child's kitchen, by the way, designed by her husband in 1961 and used as a set for many years for her cooking show, was donated to the Smithsonian Institute in 2001. Click on the link to read all about Julia's life and her kitchen. It's kind of fun!

One more tidbit to share: I just remembered reading a book a couple of years ago that was fun to read, and apparently there's a movie based on it coming out later this year with Meryl Streep in the role of Julia Child. The book is called "Julie & Julia: My year of cooking dangerously," written by Julie Powell. It is based on Julie Powell's blog that chronicled her year of cooking her way through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."