Honey-Yogurt Scones

The Fiddlehead Restaurant, which I mentioned back in this post, had a fantastic bakery. The food there was also very good, but the bakery was where it was at. In particular, their scones were to die for. When my good friend Hannah (she also gets credit for the Moosewood Cookbook from the Broccoli-Cheddar Pie post) sent me their cookbook for the holidays, I flipped right to the baked goods section to make sure it was there. Sure it enough, there they are. I made two batches, the first without anything extra and the second with wild dried blueberries instead of currants. The first set didn’t have anything in it because I just wanted to make them so badly and didn’t have any of that stuff available. The second batch was made a little later when I realized that the 6 I had made were not going to make it over to my friend’s house and I wouldn’t be able to share.

These are ridiculously easy to make. All told, it takes about half an hour and then you have warm, yummy scone goodness to eat. I will be making these in a bunch of new varieties soon. They are that good.

Honey-Yogurt Scones from The Fiddlehead Cookbook:

Makes 6 scones

4 Tb. butter
1 Tb. honey
½ c. plain yogurt (substitute sour cream or buttermilk if necessary. I used Nancy’s yogurt because it’s just so good)
1 egg
1¼ c. unbleached white flour (for delicious nutty flavor, decrease to 1½ c. flour and add ¼ c. graham flour. I did not do this)
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ c. dried currants, dried cherries, pecans, or raisins. Or wild blueberries! Thank you Trader Joe’s!
1 egg, beaten (optional. I didn’t do this because I don’t like my scones shiny).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place rack in center of oven.

Melt together butter and honey in a small glass bowl in microwave, or in a small pan on stove over medium heat. Remove from heat and whisk in yogurt and egg. I did the latter as I don’t have any glass bowls and I like doing stuff on the stove anyway.



In a medium size mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (or just mix them together…I don’t have a sifter.) Stir in blueberries. Pour egg mixture over flour mixture and, using a fork, very gently cut together until dough is beginning to come together but is not quite completely combined.



Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat into a 6-inch circle. Fold dough in half and pat out again. Repeat two or three more times, taking care not to over work or knead the dough. Pat into a 1-inch thick circle (about 6 inches in diameter) and cut into 6 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking pan. Brush lightly with egg (optional) and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.



Remove from oven and serve immediately with lots of butter and homemade jam. Try not to eat them all at once.

Broccoli-Cheddar Pie

For the holidays this year, I was quite fortunate and received three new cookbooks. Among these was The New Moosewood Cookbook, which is filled with fun vegetarian recipes. I tried my first one tonight and man, it was good. Of course, I modified it a bit. The recipe below was originally called Cauliflower-Cheese Pie, but my husband isn’t a huge fan of cauliflower, so I subbed in broccoli. I think it gives the pie a nice color contrast. Plus, I love broccoli. This was make for a great lunch/dinner/potluck dish. I was very, very pleased.

Broccoli-Cheese Pie modified from Cauliflower-Cheese Pie in The New Moosewood Cookbook:

4-5 Servings

Crust-
2 c. (packed) grated raw potato
½ c. grated onion
½ tsp. salt (I used kosher)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Flour for your fingers
A little oil (I used extra virgin olive oil because of its great flavor)

Filling-
1 Tb. olive oil or butter (I used olive oil)
1 c. chopped onion
2 medium cloves of garlic, minced (It was more like 4)
½ tsp. salt (kosher, again)
½ tsp. basil
¼ tsp. thyme (both dried)
1 medium broccoli, cut into small pieces
2 eggs or 1 whole egg plus 1 egg white (I went with the two eggs)
¼ c. milk (I used 1%)
1 c. packed grated cheddar
Paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oil a 9” pie pan.

Combine grated potato and onion, salt, and egg white in a small bowl and mix well. If you have a food processor, you can make quick work of this pie. Grate the cheese, potato, and onion in that order. You don’t need to clean in between. I don’t have one, however, so I did it by hand. Transfer mixture to the pie pan and pat into place with lightly floured fingers, building up the sides into a handsome edge.



Bake for 20 minutes, then brush the crust with a little oil and bake it 10 more minutes. Remove from oven, and turn the temperature down to 375 degrees.

While the crust is baking, prepare the filling. Heat the olive oil or butter in a large skillet. Add onion, garlic, pepper, and herbs, and sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the broccoli, stir, and cover. Cook until tender, stirring occasionally (about 8 to 10 minutes).





Spread half the cheese onto the baked crust (OK if it’s still hot). Spoon the sautéed vegetables on top, then sprinkle on the remaining cheese. Beat the eggs and milk together, and pour this over the top. Dust lightly with paprika. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until set. Serve hot or warm.



My husband, ever the meat eater, suggested mixing in some chicken next time. I think it would go rather well. This seems to be a recipe that can be adapted and modified all over the place. There are leftovers, but I don’t know how long they will last.

Pummelo

This one isn’t actually about cooking or even garlic. It’s to proclaim my undying love to my very favorite fruit, the pummelo. If you’ve never heard of it before, check out this article. (I love you wikipedia). It’s like a grapefruit, but bigger and sweeter. I don’t have them very often, but I always am so very happy when I do. I never cook with it either. It never goes into fruit salad. I never experiment. I just eat it standing up in the kitchen. Winter is a great time for citrus and this is my very favorite kind of citrus.

The pummelo is part of why I wanted to do this blog. I wanted to share my love of food and although this isn’t cooking, I really do love this fruit. Go find it and eat it. You’ll be happy you did.

Oven Baked Fries and Stuffed Buffalo Burgers

This entire meal was my husband’s idea, which I loved. All I had to do was prep. Although I don’t eat much meat, I do really enjoy buffalo. My hubby makes a mean buffalo burger, which is a good alternative to beef and a nice change from turkey from time to time. This all came out very well and it’s nice to know how to do fries. Especially when I can just do prep and watch him make it! The original fries recipe can be found here.

Oven Baked Fries modified from recipezaar.com and Stuffed Buffalo Burgers:

Makes 2 large servings

About 2 small heads of garlic plus a few cloves, minced, for both the fries and burgers.

Fries-
2 large baking potatoes, cut into thin strips
1 Tb. olive oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. paprika
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Burgers-
2/3 lb. ground buffalo
½ - 2/3 c. finely shredded cheddar cheese (or cheese of choice)
¼ of a medium yellow or white onion, chopped
1 Tb. steak and chop spice mix (Trader Joe’s makes an excellent one or your choice of spices)

Heat oven to 450 degrees.



Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Combine all dry ingredients with potatoes in a medium size bowl and toss to coat. Add olive oil and ½ of the minces garlic, tossing again to coat. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on baking sheet and for about 35 minutes or until golden brown.



For the burgers, mix the buffalo, the next three ingredients and the rest of the garlic together in a small bowl. Form into two patties. You can do this while the fries are baking. About 10 minutes before they are done, heat up olive oil in a medium saucepan. Place burgers in when the oil is hot. Cook for about 5 minutes per side, until browned and cooked through.



Garnish burgers and serve with fries. The fries taste awesome on their own, but do go well with ketchup and other traditional fry sauces.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Bread and Honey is one of my very favorite food blogs and part of that is because they are in Portland too. So as these girls went through Snowpocalypse 2008, so did I and soup was totally on the mind. Granted, I did not actually get around to doing this recipe until after the snow had melted, but it’s still cold, so that’s that. Plus, I had to wait for my stock to thaw.

I made a few changes, as I tend to, so you can check out the original here. The pictures are much nicer anyway. This soup was made possible by my dear husband not only grating all of the cheese, but preparing an appetizer for our guests while I made the soup behind schedule (stupid studying!). He’s such a good guy. This soup is even better the next day, just make sure you warm it up slowly on a double boiler or it will separate.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup from Bread and Honey: A Food Blog:

Serves at least 6

1 pound of cheddar cheese, grated finely
1 finely chopped onion
4 cloves minced garlic (because I love garlic)
"a big chunk of butter" (for me, this ended up being about ¼ c.)
a handful of flour
3-4 c. of stock (Mine was about 4 cups, veggie, from this recipe)
1 cup of milk
4 smallish heads of broccoli, chopped into small bites (I wanted it extra broccoli-y)
bay leaf
a little bit of white pepper





Lightly steam and blanch the broccoli. Set aside.

Here is where things got a little different. In the original, the onion and garlic is sautéed and flour added to make the roux. I started making the roux and forgot to cook the onion and garlic. So, after the roux was toasted and set aside, I quickly cooked up the onion and garlic with a bit of olive oil until glassy in a separate pan and added that to the roux.

To make the roux, melt the hunk of butter in a large pot and toss in bits of flour at a time. Whisk until you have a roux and continue to cook until slightly toasted. Add in the cooked onion and garlic. Then add the stock a little at a time, whisking continuously. Add the milk in the same manner. Add the bay leaf and then the cheese, much like the stock and milk. Season with white pepper (just a little or it gets a weird taste) and stir in the broccoli. Cook until the broccoli is warm and the soup has thickened a little.





Serve immediately. We had ours with some French bread and it was fabulous. I also had some last night with garlic toasts and that was also quite wonderful. This is the first Bread and Honey recipe I’ve tried, but after ogling the pretty photos and tasty recipes, I’ll have to actually make some more.

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

I have been told a number of times, mostly by my husband and former roomie, that I make amazing chocolate chip cookies. The thing is, I don’t really do anything special. The recipe I use is on the back of the chocolate chip bag and I never change anything about it. So what follows here is less a recipe and more tips on what I do specifically that might make your chocolate chip cookies a little more fantastic. I replaced 1½ cups of the chocolate chips with peanut butter M&Ms as my husband and I had part of a bag left over from when we snuck some into the movie theater the other day. The other ½ cup I did with mini chocolate chips so they wouldn’t be too obtrusive and also because I have a bunch left over from this project.

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies (basic recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag):

Makes about 24, but I rarely get the same amount as I like cookies of varying sizes

2¼ c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ c. granulated sugar
¾ c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1½ c. peanut butter M&Ms
½ c. mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.



Before getting started, take your butter out of the fridge and let it get soft. This is part of how it will get really creamy and make your cookies extra chewy and delicious. Take it out and go do something else for a bit. Set it on top of the warming oven. Come back when it’s softened. I use my KitchenAid for the whole process and it makes quick work of it. Muscle power, a bowl and a spoon also work well. Cream one stick of butter and then the other. Let it get really soft and whipped up.

In the meantime, mix the flour, baking soda and salt into a small bowl. Set aside. Once the butter is really creamy, add in the granulated sugar. Once that is fully incorporated, add the brown sugar. Again, wait until it is incorporated and then add the vanilla. Once everything is well mixed, add in one egg and then the other, again waiting until the first egg is incorporated before adding the second. Slowly add the flour mixture. Wait until each little bit is mixed in before adding more. Patience is key here. Once that is fully mixed in, add in the peanut butter M&Ms and the mini chocolate chips. Once it’s fully mixed, you’re ready to get them into the oven.



Lightly grease at least two baking sheets. When I say lightly, I mean lightly. If you use too much grease, the cookies will spread too much and they’ll stick together or become too thin or too crunchy or all of the above. Using a spoon, take out a tablespoon-ish sized blob and place it on the baking sheet. I sometimes use a spatula and form a palm sized ball in my clean hands and then put it on the sheet. I have small hands, so they don’t end up huge. Make sure you don’t place them too close or they’ll stick to each other. This time, I had 12 cookies on each sheet. In the past I have ended up with fewer because my roommate would not only be stealing cookie dough while I was making it, she’d also steal it from the pan. It is pretty dang good.

Place one sheet on the middle rack of your oven. Bake for about 10 minutes. It will depend on your oven and how big you made the cookies, but you need to watch this. It can go from underdone to over baked very quickly. The outer edges will be browned and the centers will have fallen in slightly. In short, they look like cookies instead of blobs.



Cool on a rack while the other sheet bakes. Don’t remove them from the pan too soon (unless you’re eating them warm, which does taste amazing) or they will stick to each other on the plate. Wait until they have cooled and then put on a plate. These were, for some reason, even better than last time. It may be the M&Ms adding a little somethin’ somethin’. In any case, I made these Wednesday night for NYE and they barely made it to New Year’s Day. They did not make it to today.

This is a really fast recipe and it tastes so good. I highly recommend it for that last minute party you got invited to or when your fiancé and roommate are staring at you and begging you to make cookies.

Crab Cake Benedict

I really wanted to start the New Year off well, so I decided to make a fancy breakfast for my husband and me this morning. Last night I made some murmurings about eggs benedict before bed and my husband kindly reminded me this morning. I’ve made hollandaise before, but never really attempted poached eggs. Some books make it sound so complicated, but as I learned today, it’s really not that hard.

To make it a little more fancy (and also based on what I had on hand this morning), I decided to go with crab cakes benedict. One of my most favorite breakfast places in Portland is Milo’s. If you haven’t been, go now. They do delicious benedicts, including a wonderful crab cake version. I was inspired by this as well as by a recipe in one of my new cookbooks, The Fiddlehead Cookbook, which is filled with recipes from The Fiddlehead Restaurant, a delicious place that used to exist in my hometown. Their description of poached eggs is how I was finally able to figure it out.

It was a good morning. I highly recommend eggs benedicts for fancy breakfasts. It takes a little time, but it looks beautiful and tastes amazing.

Crab Cake Benedict inspired by Milo’s/Crabby Eggs from The Fiddlehead Cookbook:

Serves 2 with extra sauce

Hollandaise Sauce-
3 eggs yolks
2 tsp. lemon juice (I used closer to 4 as I, like my friend Lindsay, prefer a very lemony sauce)
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, cut into small pieces

4 eggs
1 Tb. white wine vinegar

4 small slices of bread or 4 english muffins (I used slices of no-knead bread. It was perfect.)

4 crab cakes (I used this recipe, slightly reduced to make 4)

Prepare crab cakes first. Keep them warm on the pan or in the oven. I was also making country fried potatoes and needed the stove space.



Start the hollandaise. Prepare a double boiler with gently simmering water over low heat. Place egg yolks in top of double boiler and add lemon. Whisk until egg mixture is fluffy, about 1 minute. Continue to whisk gently, adding butter about 1 teaspoon at a time. When at least 6 teaspoons have been added, begin to add butter by tablespoons. This allows it to emulsify properly. If you add too much butter too quickly, it creates too much liquid and won’t be the right consistency for the sauce. Thoroughly incorporate each addition before adding more. I generally remove the top of the double boiler about half way through the butter process to ensure that the sauce does not become too warm and separate. Cover and keep warm until ready. You may need to whisk it a couple more times just before serving.



Lightly oil a large pan and fill with water to a depth of about 1 inch. Add vinegar to pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a very low simmer. Crack each egg into a small bowl and gently slide it into the barely simmering water. Cover the pan and cook for 4 minutes. You can do it longer if you like harder yolks, but I don’t.

While the eggs are poaching, toast your bread/muffins.



Remove the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon and place on plate/tray lined with absorbent towels. Trim the ragged eggs, if you so choose.



To assemble, place a crab cake on each slice of bread/muffin and add an egg on top of the crab cake. Spoon hollandaise over the top and serve at once with your favorite breakfast side dish, like fried potatoes.

As for the extra sauce, it can be refrigerated and reheated later. To do so, place the sauce in a double boiler and reheat in the same manner it was made: slowly over simmering water. Don’t do it too quickly or it will separate. Hollandaise is great over vegetables or other, simpler breakfast meals. Try it on a breakfast sandwich! It’s just so dang tasty.