Scones

Years ago when we lived in Los Angeles my girlfriends and I would get together for tea at one of the nice hotels. It was a bargain to be able to sit for hours at the beautiful Hotel Bel Air.  For $22 we would get a glass of champagne, little sandwiches, scones, cookies and all the tea would could drink. Sometimes they would have to ask us to finish up because the dinner patrons were arriving!
That's what inspired me to start making scones at home. I used to make créme fraiche to go with them for special get togethers.
I still love them and make a batch almost weekly, more so in the fall/winter. Late in the afternoon with a cup of coffee or tea, they are a perfect treat. A great after school snack or for breakfast with scrambled eggs.
Our favorite kinds are cheddar dill, buttermilk currant and chocolate chip orange scones. My children absolutely love the chocolate chip orange scones and I've been asked for this recipe more times than I can remember so I'm going to share it here. Once Upon a Tart,  Barefoot Contessa and Joy of Cooking all have some great scone recipes too.

Chocolate Chip Orange Scones

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
 6 T.  cold unsalted butter (cut into pieces)
1 egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
grated zest of one orange
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender. Stir in chocolate chips. Whisk together cream, egg and orange zest then add to flour mixture. Stir with rubber spatula just until it comes together. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and pat the dough into an 8 inch circle. Cut into 12 wedges, place on baking sheet and brush with cream. Bake at 425º for 12- 15 min.
Enjoy!

Halloween

We carved pumpkins with the kids last night. ( I agreed just so I can get all of the seeds!)

I love to roast them. It takes awhile to clean them well but after they are clean and dry, I put olive oil (about 2 T.) and then various spices that you like and salt. This year I used chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and cayenne. Roast at 350º for 35-40 min.
I made one bowl less spicey. So delicious and good for you too!

Off to a school Halloween party. I made these brownies with skeletons. The skeleton icing was thinner than I had hoped so they ran a little bit but I doubt the kids will care. The head is a mini marshmallow.

My favorite thing to bring to parties for Halloween is a skeleton crudite platter. A cauliflower scooped out with dip for the head and then celery ribs, carrot arms, tomato joints etc. Always a hit.
These labels are really fun too. The big ones go on soda bottles and the smaller ones are for wine bottles. Instead of buying a terrible wine just for the fun label you can label whatever you like. I got these a year or two ago at maybe Dollar Tree?

Fall Cravings

As soon as the cool weather sets in and you can smell fall in the air I start craving soup. I make a lot of soup through out the fall and winter. This week I made a roasted potato and leek soup. Roasting the potatoes and leeks gives it so much more flavor. So comforting with a loaf of homemade bread.

That brings me to my latest favorite gadget, the immersion blender. I debated whether I really needed another appliance in the kitchen when I had a blender that could do the job. Well it is so worth it, and makes pureeing soup so much easier with less mess and clean up. I will get a lot of use out of it. It also emulsifies dressings with a whisk attachment. I would definitely recommend a cordless version.

Another fall favorite around here is caramel apples. My daughter Maddie asked if we could make some this week, but instead of regular size apples I bought these adorable crab apples.

I think they are the perfect size for a snack or they'd be great for a party.

Family Gathering

We had a warm up for Thanksgiving over the weekend with all of my brothers here. The guys said they would take care of the meat, Mom would do appetizers and I took care of the sides and desserts. We're getting out numbered by the kids these days but our total for Sunday supper was nineteen!

They decided on chicken and here's my brother Jack hacking them up, getting them ready for the grill.

He mixed up some rub from my spice cabinet to put on them.

I made roasted brussels sprouts which I just love. I put olive oil, salt and pepper on them and then roast them @400º for 30-40 minutes. A great fall side dish I think.

Then I did navy beans in the pressure cooker. Added a little salt, bacon (pepper bacon of course) and cumin.

Rounded that out with a baked macaroni and cheese and orzo with roasted vegetables. Everyone really loved the orzo. I've never made it before but it's a definite keeper in the recipe files. And there were delicious White House rolls from Ukrops (in Richmond).

Then there was dessert!! I figured I needed to make two with so many people. First I made a good ole  chocolate buttercream cake which chocolate lovers always dig.
When we were in NYC over the summer a new Magnolia Bakery had opened near us. It's hard not to be charmed by the place, although the prices are a bit high. My daughter wanted to try the
"famous banana pudding" one night. We all tasted it and then I saw that they had the recipe in their newest cookbook. I was shocked to see it's made with jello pudding.I thought it would be pudding from scratch for sure. I've been looking for a time to try it and it was fantastic and so simple to make with vanilla jello pudding, nilla wafers, whipped cream and bananas.