A Game of Scones

If I had to pick one food to eat for the rest of my life, it might be scones. An extension of my bread love, my scone love knows no bounds. After making the chocolate almond bread last week, I had some buttermilk left over so I decided to make a batch of cranberry scones.

This recipe is an adaptation of a plain scone recipe from one of my favorite books: Holiday Baking by Sara Perry. I decided to make cranberry scones because they're a favorite in our house, but I also think the scones taste wonderful without any added fruits, nuts, etc.

What You'll Need
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen), roughly chopped
1 cup buttermilk

Scone toppings: Clotted cream, and any jam of your choice (I prefer strawberry or raspberry jam on scones). If you don't want to make your own clotted cream, you can buy Double Devon cream from Fresh Market.

Dark Chocolate Almond Bread

I love bread. I could never give up carbs completely because I honestly love bread more than most things. My favorite bread is probably either the chocolate bread or the rosemary boule from Uppercrust in Gainesville. I've planned entire Saturdays around making a trip to Uppercrust just for their bread (...and their raspberry rose pastries. And their sticky buns. Basically, I would buy one of everything in their bakery if I could, its that good).

So when Annelih, Rhiannon and I decided to make bread for the second week of our recipe challenge, I was excited!

And of course I decided to make chocolate bread, come Hell or high water. Luckily I found a recipe for dark chocolate tea bread that was easy to follow (though it was very ingredient heavy and not in any way health conscious). This is a dessert bread rather than a yeast-based bread, but I still enjoyed eating it (and so did my family!). Definitely a recipe I would repeat in the future.

Apple (Pie) Galette!

Hello, hello! This post is a special one for me, because it's the start of a new tradition two of my friends and I are trying out! Two of my friend's from school have food blogs, and we've decided to do a weekly cooking/baking challenge, where we pick something to bake and then post our different interpretations of a dish!

You can find their fantastic recipes here: Rhiannon at Mini Betty and Annelih at Comfort in Cooking!

This week, we chose apple pie. Classic. Patriotic. American.

And being the lazy bum I am, I chose the easiest apple pie-esque recipe I could think of: an apple galette. It's like a pan-less apple pie. Rustic. Free-form. French (oops).

This week has been surprisingly hectic so I also used store bought crust because I wanted something easy, fast, and delicious. I've always thought that the Pillsbury pre-made crust tastes pretty good to be honest. One of these days I'll attempt to make my own crust, but not today.

Anyway, I adapted my recipe from this one over at Pinch My Salt. I did a few things differently (such as buying my own crust, womp womp), but overall this was a great recipe to use as home base, as it were.

Orange Macadamia Cookies

Happy Friday! If you're planning to bake up something wonderful for father's day, I've got a new recipe to share. I made these earlier in the summer during a baking day with my friend Sarah, and I shared them with the family. My dad was over the moon about them, so consider these father tested and approved!

The recipe is originally from Better Homes and Gardens' The Ultimate Cookie Book, and its definitely a keeper.

From the Garden

Summer means beautiful hibiscus blooms everywhere! We've got all different color blooms in the garden this year, and this is possibly my favorite of them all. It changes all the time, but yesterday was definitely a peachy kind of day.

To make up for the lack of posting, I've got two new recipes to be posted later this week. Orange macadamia nut cookies and my strawberry rhubarb crumble with gingersnap topping! I swear they'll be posted this week. No. Really.

Lily of the Nile

This week I'm participating in Snapshot Saturday hosted by At Home With Books for the first time!

I discovered one of my new favorite flowers while on a walk with our dog the other day. According to Dr. Google, its called Lily of the Nile and just about the prettiest thing I've seen in a while.

 There were a few white blooms as well!

Herb Garden Hodgepodge: Pasta Primavera!

School's out for summer forever! I'm officially a college graduate (who let that happen?), and since I have no idea what to do with my life while I jobhunt, I'll cook. Every summer I wish I had a vegetable garden, but I've missed the Florida planting season for most fruits and veggies I love by the time May rolls around and I'm back at home.

However, herb gardens are still fun. My basil and parsley plants have been doing surprisingly well considering how often I forget to water them (terrible plant mother). I added an oregano plant to my garden on Monday, and decided to make a little pasta primavera and throw in a little bit of everything from my herb garden!

It was surprisingly easy, and went great with pork chops. Just a yellow pepper, tomatoes, herbs and  linguine made for a deliciously light summer meal.

Ingredient list:

• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1/4-1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth (I used less than 1/2 cup but you could use more for a thinner sauce)
• 5-6 grape tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 large yellow bell pepper, roughly chopped
• Fresh parsley, oregano, and basil (to taste, I used around 2 tsp of each at first, a little more for garnish), roughly chopped
• Garlic powder (optional, to taste)
• 1/2 9 oz package of Buitoni fresh linguine, or any pasta you prefer

Cook pasta as per instructions, then set aside for later. I like Buitoni's fresh pasta because it only takes about 4 minutes to cook.

In a large sauce pan, saute the pepper in olive oil at medium heat, and add tomatoes once the pepper begins to soften. Add broth and garlic powder and allow sauce to simmer until it reaches the consistency you desire. Turn off heat and add pasta, coating it in the sauce. Plate the pasta on a large platter and toss in most of the herbs, leaving some to sprinkle on top as a garnish. It was pretty fantastic, honestly.

For this go around, I went a little light on the oregano because I was afraid it would overpower the basil and parsley. I think I'd throw in a little more next time around. Honestly, this dish is all over the place and all about personal preference, so you don't have to stick to the measurements listed. You could even add some other veggies you have lying around if you prefer. Happy experimenting!