First off, I love cheese so I knew I would love these scones (and I did). Dorie Greenspan knows how to bake, that’s for sure.

But, I kind of messed up and had less cheddar than I thought I did. A travesty! I rummaged around the fridge and came up with some Robusto cheese (kind of a cross between gouda and parmesan). I used about half cheddar and half robusto.

Was that it? Well, no. I couldn’t find any dried apple pieces at the store by me and so it was between dried mango pieces an apple chips. Yeah, apple chips — the kind that come in a bag like potato chips. What the hell, full steam ahead, I used those for the apple (although, I am intrigued by the thought of mango).

My substitutions aside, these were great. I can only imagine how good they are with the correct ingredients! The one other thing I did differently, is I brushed a little milk on the top of each and on half, I grated extra robusto. On the other half, I sprinkled a little raw sugar (I love sparkly scone tops). The verdict: I liked them with both sugar and cheese! So did jwa. They are all gone. The end.

I got 9 scones. Expect anywhere from 8-12 scones depending on how big you cut them.

Cheddar Apple Scones
From Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan
1 large egg
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1/4 cup cold apple cider or unsweetened apple juice
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup finely diced dried apples
Optional: 1 tbsp milk, a little extra grated cheese and/or a little raw sugar

So sad, only about a 1/3 cup of cheddar…

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Next, stir the egg, buttermilk and apple cider together.

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour.

Quickly, working with your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You’ll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between - and that’s just right.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be very wet and sticky, comes together. If there are still some dry ingredients in the bottom of the bowl, stir them in, but try not to overdo the mixing. Stir in the grated cheese and dried apple.

Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or turn it with a rubber spatula 8 to 10 times. Then, because the dough is very sticky, the easiest thing to do is to turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface, pat it into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick and, using a dough scraper or a chef’s knife, cut it into 12 roughly equal pieces. You can just spoon out 12 equal mounds onto the baking sheet.

Place the scones on the baking sheet. (At this point, the scones can be frozen on the backing sheet, then wrapped airtight. Don’t defrost before baking - just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.) If you are adhering stuff to the top, brush each scone with a little of the milk and add the cheese and/or sugar.

Bake the scones for 20 to 22 minutes, or until their tops are golden and yoru kitchen smells delicious.

Transfer them to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for the scones to cool to room temperature.

We had these with a Sunday breakfast that also included some potato, red bell pepper and zucchini hash with poached eggs.

I kind of just made that up or I’d list the recipe. Add the diced potatoes, garlic and onions to a pan with olive oil, then after a few minutes add the bell pepper and zucchini. Salt and pepper. When it’s all looking kinda golden and good, it’s done. Poach eggs. East scones. Mmm!!

I look for any excuse to use my smoked paprika. I love smoked paprika. Get yourself some and you will never be sorry. Here’s a good resource for your smoked paprika needs.

We had this chicken with a bunch of pan roasted asparagus (olive oil + heat + salt + pepper = tasty) on the side and also some orzo that I cooked in spinach-y chicken broth (add broth and handfuls of spinach to a food processor, and *whir* *whir* to combine. It’s green!), with some tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. A great weekend meal. And, since there are only two of us, we got about three meals out of this. Always a good thing.

The original recipe called for 500 degrees F at 30 minutes, however, I doubted my oven’s cleanliness to handle that high of a temperature. I decreased it to 475 and added on a few minutes. Worked fine and my kitchen remained smoke free!

Paprika Roast Chicken with Sweet Onions
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp paprika (Use smoked paprika if you have it, you won’t be sorry!)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 pounds), cut into serving pieces
1 sweet onion, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
Garnish: Orange wedges

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F with rack in upper third.

Mix oil with spices, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl, then add chicken and onion, tossing to coat. Arrange chicken, skin side up, and onion in a 3-quart shallow baking dish.

Bake until chicken is just cooked through and skin is golden, about 40 minutes. Use a thermometer to know for sure, and start checking for doneness after 30 minutes. You may be taking different pieces out at slightly different times. White meat should be around 160 and dark meat 170 when you take them out of the oven. Skim any fat from pan juices in dish.

While the chicken was resting for about 10 minutes (covered with fol ha! foil), I added some wine and chicken broth to the pan juices to make an quick jus. Very tasty!

Arrange everything on a platter (whatever sides you are having with the chicken too) and it’ll look lovely.

Serve with the orange wedges. Nom-nom-nom-nom.

So, I originally made this one night for dinner when jwa was off doing some kind of geekery after work. Mainly, because he is not crazy about chili and is super picky about seafood. I tried this because I had frozen shrimp and bay scallops to use up and it sounded like an intriguing way to do that. But, wow, it was really good too!

I tweaked it a bit (original recipe was from the foodnetwork.com site), mainly by omitting clams, and adding the orange zest/juice and chicken broth. This is also a great use of frozen and defrosted bay scallops, as they are not being seared or anything, just cooked in the tomato-y broth.

Seafood Chili
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large white onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and sliced
4 tomatillos, papery skin removed, diced
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tbsp crumbled dried oregano
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper flakes, or to taste (optional)
1/3 cup dry, white wine
1 bay leaf
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
1 can black or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Salt
1/2 pound shrimp, shells removed
1/2 pound sea scallops, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into halves, depending on size
juice of 1/2 an orange (the one you zested)
Super Important Garnishes: diced avocado, diced red onion, crumbled Queso fresco and lime wedges

Heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium high heat. When hot, add the onion, garlic, bell pepper, tomatillos, oregano, chili powder, cumin, orange zest, and chipotle pepper.

Lower the heat to medium low and saute, stirring often, until the onions and peppers are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the wine, turn up to medium high, and stir for about 2 minutes.

Add the bay leaf, chicken broth and tomatoes, turn the heat down to medium and simmer gently, covered, about 20 minutes.

Stir in the beans, and add the shrimp, and scallops and cook just until the shrimp are bright pink and the scallops are white, and no longer glossy, about 5 minutes.

Add in the orange juice and the cilantro. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with all the garnishes.

Weekend Wedding in Downtown Portland!

We went to James and Shirin’s wedding Saturday and had a lovely time — Persian traditions, sherry toasts, smoked salmon, lamb stew, cupcakes and the the safety dance. It was a lot of fun! jwa was a groomsman and did a great job with his toasts and making his tux look all nice!

The aftermath of a rose petal toss on the sidewalk, after the happy couple made their getaway…

If I am going to eat something bad, it’s most likely going to be a (some) (all the) peanut butter cup(s). And most likely the white chocolate ones. A couple of years ago I bought bags of those for Halloween candy to hand out and, uh, well, jwa and I ate most of them. I have not made that mistake again (note to self: buy candy you don’t like!)

Anyway, I don’t know why, but I love the white chocolate ones better than the regular chocolate ones. And normally, dark chocolate is my favorite. Weird.

I made these last weekend and oh my, are they good. I approximated cup measurements for the ounces. I also found eating them upside down helpful, as the chocolate hardens a bit more than the peanut butter. I mixed it up a little and melted a little dark chocolate too, probably a 1/4 cups worth of those and 1 cup of white chocolate.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson
1/4 cup soft dark brown sugar
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cups smooth peanut butter
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips (dark chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate — use good quality white chocolate so it melts well!)
12 paper muffin tin liners

Place the brown sugar, powdered sugar, butter and peanut butter in the bowl of a food processor. Blend the mixture in a food processor.

Place 12 paper liners in your muffin pan(s) and fill with a little of the peanut butter mixture. I used a small (about a tablespoon size) ice cream scoop. You want to fill the cups up maybe 1/4 of the way. Press the mixture down into the cases as best you can to form a layer at the bottom of each paper case. It may help to spray your fingers with a little non-stick spray.

Place the chocolate in a bowl and melt in the microwave, melting using 30 second intervals. Stir after each microwave blast, until it’s almost all melted. Then, stir until it’s completely melted. Alternatively, you can melt the chocolate in a double broiler.

Spoon spoonfuls of the melted chocolate onto the top of each of the peanut butter base and spread to cover. Transfer muffin tin(s) to the fridge. Let them stay there and firm up at least an hour.

Since the filling doesn’t fill the whole cup, I found it looked nicer to unpeel the cups before serving. Spencer agrees!

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Yeah, that’s pretty much it. I made peanut butter cups a couple of day ago..I’ll try to post that tomorrow night. Also, seafood chili. Even jwa liked it! That’ll be (hopefully) this week too. If you become a fan of Stash Tea. ::evil laugh::