Bling bling scones

Growing up in New Zealand I enjoyed afternoon teatime with cucumber sandwiches and english scones with my cup of tea. Here, unless you make it yourself english scones are not heard of. So what does a girl do but try to find a good American scone recipe since I can't seem to find an english scone that I like. I don't really have an issue with american scones but that they are on the drier side and like everything not homemade, you never can tell what's inside.


So, I flipped through my "bread bible" book and found a scone recipe that didn't require me dragging my post-Christmas body to the grocery store. I made half with chocolate chips and half with blackberries. Have you guys noticed the price of blackberries?????? So although they are not million dollar berries, they are quite expensive for the number of berries you get. Aside from the price they were delicious but this is the last fattening recipe that I will be gobbling down myself. I'm going to try to bake healtheir in 2009!!!!!

FLAKEY SCONES - The Bread Bible

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Unsalted butter, cold - 1 C

All purpose unbleached flour - 4.5 C

Sugar - 1/2 C

Baking powder - 2ts

Baking soda - 1/2 ts

salt - 1/4 ts

heavy cream - 2 C

currants (I used chocolate chips and blackberries) - 1 C

1. Cut butter into 1 in cubes and place in freezer for 10 minutes
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter with fingertips until size of small walnuts. Stir in cream to just moisten flour into large clumps. Stir in chocolate chips and knead together. (For blackberries I added them when I shaped the dough)
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F 30 minutes prior to baking and have baking stone inside oven as it preheats.
4. Flour top of dough and counter lightly and roll out into rectangle 1 in thick. I added a few blackberries on the dough now. Then fold dough like you would croissant dough. (Fold right side to the center and then the left side ontop) Repeat 2 more times adding blackberries everytime you roll out dough.
5. Cut the dough into triangles and place onto parchment time baking stone and bake for 15-20 minutes until edges begin to brown and tops are golden brown and firm enough when pressed lightly with a finger. Let cool.
   
   
   

Stuffed full of Christmas!

It's been a looonnnng and exhausting month this December. The older we get and the more married couples that have entered our lives, we see ourselves attending more and more couples activities. It doesn't get as event oriented as December.

Ladies of VT-35: Me, Hye Sung, Megan, Andrea

VT-35 Squadron had a mandatory Christmas Party. Mandatory and Christmas together seems uninviting but because all of our good friends would be there it seemed less daunting. It actually turned out to be super fun and Brandon even won two free meals at a Mexican Restaurant.
Christmas morning baby Leben got to sniff the presents and was the first to open a present. He sure loves Christmas but he is still getting the hang of opening up the presents.
This picture of Leben should belong in a movie of some sort, perhaps one about the Mafia. He actually stole my candy cane I had sitting on the table and was shocked when he got caught.



This year I decided to test my craft skills. I really didn't have any craft skills to be honest. I'm not the perfect homemaker and I don't sew nor own a sewing machine but I found the sewing kit my mom gave me like 3 years ago and after a trip to Joanns fabrics, the stockings above popped out after a month.
I also decorated the stems of the wine glasses with frosted cranberries and a tiny ribbon. I didn't know what else to do with the extra cranberries I had.
My other crafty thing that I attempted to do was make a Christmas centerpiece for our dining table. Considering that I've never done this before, it turned out ok even though it was hard to wrap everything around everything else. But with my arms of steel, I managed. :-)
Here is the dinner table with the ham, double baked potatoes with scallions, onions, green peppers and cheese, and green bean casserole. Cye brought over the mac and cheese and a beautifully presented salad.

I made a selection of breads. From left to right I made soy dinner rolls and mini challahs and on the right normal butter dinner rolls.

When all was quite in the Adams household and all their guests had finally left, a baby Rotti fell asleep on the couch, wrapped in his favorite blanket of all.

Pinot Noir Party

How I needed a Saturday off. Finally I got one and I took the chance to have Neil and Renae over since I didn't have to go to bed at 9pm and I wanted to see what they thought taste the best with my wine for my school project. I chose an Oregon wine because I miss it so much and what is more popular in Oregon than Pinot Noir? So I went on a quest and there is only one Oregon Pinot Noir in Corpus. So I definitely didn't have much of a choice but it actually turned out to be an amazing wine.

We first paired the Pinot with some medium-firm cheeses. I chose a camembert, a sharp Gouda and a Jalopeno Havarti. Since Renae is Gluten-Free, I picked up some Almond Rice crackers and they went really really well with the cheeses to my surprise.

I went to HEB and got 8 lamb loins. They were small, that's why I got 8. Leben definitely approved of the lamb loins. He is SO cute! He also approved of the camembert because I found him seated on the dining room chair and his nose deep into the camembert. hahahahaha.

I marinated the lamb loins in olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper and let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple hours. I then seared both sides lightly and finished it off in the oven till medium-rare.

I made a side of red potatoes tossed in olive oil, basil, garlic and salt and pepper and baked it until golden brown. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Since I don't eat Red Meat (though I was REALLY tempted) I baked some salmon with diced tomatoes, diced onions, garlic, oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper. It went really well with the cherry flavor of the wine. Oh So Good!I was sitting in the office typing up my powerpoint presentation for my wine project when all of a sudden a blast of basil aroma shot up my nose. I found Leben in the other room with a stem of basil (the best looking stem of the bunch) haning out the side of his mouth. I was angry but at the same time it was SO funny. Our friend Karl calls Leben the OC dog because he is SO snobby when it comes to lifestyle. He does not like to be outside for more than 10 minutes, he has a $200 bed, he sleeps on the couch, on our bed, he LOVES cottage cheese in his food and he is extremely picky about his dog food. He savors his rib bones when I boil them for him and he definitely knows his cheese. ;-) Almost 1 years old and he is the joy of our lives. I can't imagine life without him greeting us at the dog, nubbin wagging and all. He is the biggest baby that I have ever laid my eyes on yet he protects me so well. We love him with all our hearts and he is the biggest daddys little boy in the world.

curried sweet potato fries

How I wish I could get my hungry little hands on some purple sweet potato. Emmm...when I was little, mom used to just poke a couple of holes in them with a fork and microwave them then in it goes into my belly! They were so delicious. Much sweeter and more intense in flavor than the usual sweet potato. I try and justify that if you bake a potato, it is healthier and sometimes a gal just NEEDS her fries. These are delicious baked in olive oil, curry powder and garlic powder. Toss it together and bake at 400 degrees F. Emmm yum yum!

Brandon has been doing night flights so basically when I get off work, he leaves for base to fly and I am stuck at home by myself. I have seen him for a total of hmm...15 minutes in the last 48 hours. It's tough and it's going to be tougher tomorrow when I get out of school at 1pm and have the rest of the ENTIRE day by myself. Usually, that would be something I look forward to if Brandon were home. So I have come up with an idea. I was watching the movie "The Jane Austin Book Club," last night and it really made me want to dive right into one of her books. So my plan for 'Val's day to herself,' is to go buy a jane austin book I haven't read before and have a book club of my own.

Oh! I unboxed my yoga dvd today after work cause I figured that it would help me with my insanely tense muscles and sore back and neck. Boy did it do wonders. I felt SO loose afterward, of course I am just a tense person and I can already feel the tension coming back. I totally need a professional massage - perhaps for my birthday??? hmmmmmm

Passion is in the air

We're rolling into that age group where all our friends are married. It's a scary thought actually, not marriage but that we're in the 25-30 age group in questionnaires. I feel old everytime I check that box. I literally hear my back crack and give way. In a way though, it is a great thing. Neither husband nor wife have to ask their friends "do you mind if my wife/husband comes too?" it is expected if not compulsory.

The last of our friends here in Corpus Christi just got hitched (lol). So there is absolutely no singleness around town. We were all unable to make it to their wedding because well the wives had work and the men had their planes to fly. So we all decided to be nice and surprise them with a "It's too late to turn back now," party. Kidding! We just wanted to show them we care. So we all got together at Dave and Andreas house for dinner last friday. Everyone brought a dish. Andrea said she was going to get a cake. I couldn't let that happen even though I was going to have a busy week with school and work. There was no way I could justify a store brought cake. Snobby? Yes.

It was only AFTER I had offered to make the wedding cake that I realised 'I have NEVER made a wedding cake before." When, am I going to have time to make this????? Anywhos, I made a mental sketch in my head. Something simple, something light blue. Out out popped this cake.

I baked 2 - 9" chiffon cakes and sliced each cake into 3 layers. Each layer recieved a generous helping of passion fruit syrup and a layer of ganache. I covered it marshmellow fondant and it was simple enough but this texas heat just made it 3 times more difficult than it needed to be. It stuck to everything! even though I kept smothering it with more powered sugar. You know, I was going to get those pretty pearl decorative balls. That was until I found out they were like $11-$14 for 40 of them. Then I said "Simple does it."

If you ever want to make a very moist, easy and tender cake I recommend the Chiffon cake. It keeps SO well and honestly, there was no need for the passionfruit syrup since the cake itself had no hint of dryness at. So definitely use this recipe if you ever want to bake a cake.

CHIFFON SPONGE CAKE - The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg

3/4 C vegetable oil

8 egg yo9lks

1 C water, room temp

1 tbs vanilla extract

14 oz cake flour

14 oz granulated sugar

4 ts baking powder

1 ts salt

8 egg whites

1. Line pans with parchment paper but don't grease the sides of pan
2. Whip vegetable oil and yolks together just to combine. Stir in water and vanilla extract
3. Sift cake flour, 1/3 sugar, baking powder and salt together. Stir into egg yolk mixture then whip on high for 1 minute. Set aside.
4. Whip whites to a foam and gradually add remaining sugar and whip to stiff peaks. Fold meringe into reserved batter. Divide between pans.
5. Bake 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes till cakes spring back when pressed lightly in center.
6. Invert and let cool on cooling rack.

Say CREAM CHEEEEEEEEESSSEEEE!

I have made this New York Cheesecake from JoyofBaking three times in 1 year and honestly, each time it has not failed me at all and I expect that it never will. It is absolutely foolproof considering the first time I ever made this turned amazingly close to perfect and it gets easier and easier to whip up with every attempt. I love the graham crust the most I think. It just tastes SO yummy!

I packed all my cookbooks, so now I will be baking and cooking from foodblog recipes, which is pretty much what I do most of the time anyways. I love pictures because it really makes the recipe more appealing, when I know what to expect as the end result. Enjoy!

Granola and steak roll-ups

It's been tough trying to figure out what's good for me and what is not and although carbs work well for me, it is making me feel a little too groggy at times. So, I figured why not make something that has carbs but with a healthier twist and so I decided to whip up some homemade granola. I've been wanting to make granola for a long long time, but have been afriad since alot of granola you find in the stores are jam packed with fat and calories. So here is my version of a more sliming homemade granola.

CINNAMON N FRUIT CRUNCH GRANOLA

3.5 C oatmeal

1/2 C chopped dried fruit ( I used cranberries, apricots and mangoes)

1 tbs cinnamon

1/2 C brown sugar

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs honey

2 ts vanilla

Grease a baking tray lightly with olive oil spray.

Put oatmeal in a medium sized bowl and mix in cinnamon and brown sugar.

Heat up olive oil, honey and vanilla in a saucepan and then mix it into the oatmeal/cinnamon/sugar mixture until combined.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes, stir and return to oven for another 10 minutes.

Add in dried fruit and put back in the oven for an additional 5 minutes or until oats are golden brown. Serves great with yoghurt.

Originally I had decided to make a philly cheesesteak sandwich for Brandon for dinner one night but he didn't sound too thrilled at the idea, so instead I used the thinnly cut meat to grill up some steak roll-ups.

3 slices thinnly sliced steak
1/4 of a red pepper, sliced into strips
1/4 of a green pepper, sliced into strips
1/4 of an odwalla/sweet onion, sliced into strips
McCormicks Montreal steak seasoning

Sautee peppers and onions with some olive oil till almost cooked through.
Place some veges down the middle of the length of the each steak, roll up and secure with toothpicks. Rub steak with olive oil and use montreals seasoning and rub outside liberally with it.

Heat Grill and before placing steak roll-ups onto grill, oil the grill with a paper towel soaked with olive oil. (Use tongs to hold paper towel). Grill on each side until cooked through.

Serve on a bed of salad.

Cheesy Breadsticks

One of the greatest reasons why I make the recipes that I post up here is because of the memories that they carry with them. Alot of these recipes are from college memories, which I provise on and breadsticks is one of them. I wonder if that's the motivation for other cooks and bakers, but memories and food go hand in hand for me. So, back at Oregon State University, I remember going to Woodstocks breadsticks with a salad. They were SO delicious and of course like everything that tastes good when you eat outside of the home, they aren't always so good for you. ;-) So here is my version of breadsticks with a healthy olive oil pizza dough base. I got this recipe with my bread machine my parents got me for my birthday while I was still in college (wow..it seemed like an eternity ago) and it's from their website.

CHEESY CHEDDAR BREADSTICKS

1 1/2 C warm water

2 tbs olive oil

2 tsp salt

4 1/4 C flour

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp yeast

(makes 2 12" pizzas, or 4 medium sized breadstick rounds)

This is a breadmachine recipe so add the ingredients into breadmaker in order listed above.

Once the dough is ready, remove the dough and divide it into however many rounds you like depending on your size preference and shape/roll each on a floured surface till thin. This dough rises alot once in the oven so it will give a thick crust. Place on floured baking sheets and drizzle with olive oil and make finger indentations all over dough. Sprinkle dough with pizza seasoning herbs, garlic powder and shredded cheese on top.

Bake at 400 degrees F till golden brown.

Teeny no more!

I cannot believe how incredibly fast Zoe is growing up. She's quite the ball of energy and it is hard to give her alot of attention when I am at work all the time. She has taken a liking to my huge cow stuffed toy that I got for my birthday from Kels, katie and Kevin back in College. It's 6 times as big as her yet she tackles it like she's a tiger and the cow's a rat or something. She's a girl right????? Oh she is missing a nipple. We found out the other day while I was rubbing her tummy. Random.

'blue steel' dog style

'I'm too sexy for the camera,' look

We were talking about Asian food at lunch the other day at work and Korean food came up, so I decided to pick up some bulgolgi marinade and some short cut ribs. Easy as pie, easier may I add. I just marinaded it for 2 hours and then popped it in the broiler, basting and turning every couple of minutes to avoid burning and viola! Brandon said it was good, so this will definitely be a meal for one of those lazy days when you don't want to think at all.

Could I have missed homecooking?

We are finally back from our trip to Pensacola, Florida and Lexington, Virginia! I can't believe I am about to say this but it definitely is good to cook a homemade meal. Eating out kinda gets to ya after a whole week! That and our indecisiveness on where and what to eat.



All I really wanted the past two days at home has been a good bowl of soup with bread on the side and so I decided to make a vege-black bean soup.

VEGETABLE & BLACK BEAN SOUP

1 Carton of vegetable broth
3 celery sticks, sliced diagonally
8 baby carrots, diced
1 can of black beans, rinsed well
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/4 onion, diced
3/4 C frozen corn
1 chicken breast, diced
some pasta

Now, I am not an expert on making soup but this one actually turned out pretty satisfactory. It was tasty. All I did was sauteed all the vegetables together in olive oil for about 5 minutes then added the drained and rinsed black beans, followed by the tomatoes with it's juices. After that heated through, I tossed in the vege broth and added the chicken and brought it to a boil then let it simmer for a good 20 minutes, adding the pasta 10 minutes into simmering and it's done!

I also have been looking long and hard for a good irish soda bread recipe that didn't include butter and at last while browsing through bakingsheet I came across her wonderful recipe . The only alteration I made was using soymilk instead of buttermilk to make it IBS safe.

Like I said, it's good to be home and cooking again in my very own kitchen. The simple pleasures in life.

Doin the Jambalaya!!!

This probably sounds a little bizzare but some recipes just scare you to make. In the sense that it seems more complicated than it really is and so I have been putting off making this dish literally for months! After looking up dozens of recipes I finally found one from Nolas Cuisine . Her dishes are so wonderful and after looking over her recipe, it didn't seem like it would take long. It didn't either, I'd say the hands on work took only 15 minutes, the rest was up to the oven. It had a really wonderful mix of spices and cooking the chicken in with the rice in the oven made them so tender. I did leave it in the oven for longer than the specified amount of time just because the rice wasn't cooked all the way through, but I like my rice soft, so go figure. :-) Just preference I suppose. What's more is that my husband liked it, since he's usually not into tomato based dishes, nor into dishes where his food is already mixed up together. Just goes to show what a good recipe can do huh?

Tonights adventure is : SUSHI! I've been craving sushi for such a long time. I am so skeptical of the japanese restaurants here in Dayton, OH. So I purchased a Sushi Kit from work and we'll have to see how far my skills will go. Eek. With the lack of fresh seafood here, I can only make sushi with cooked meat, so basically leaving me to immitation crab. WHOOHOO. We'll see though, it might turn out well.

Oh, I have also noticed a very very weird fascination. I seem to be able to spend over an hour and a half wondering the supermarket aisles, almost lost in the wonder of the food selections. I am in my zone yet almost feels like I'm so out of it at the grocery store. I tell ya, the grocery store sucks you into it's world. I world of temptation.

The countdown to the cute rottie has been ongoing since the beginning of the month. We are so excited. Our trip starts March 19th when we will take a 12 hour drive down to Pensacola, Florida for a visit of the next town we'll be stationed at and to see the culinary school in Alabama that I am interested in. We'll stay there for 5 days and then drive another 12 + hours to Lexington, Virginia so that we can pick up our puppy!! Oh boy, it's going to be so exciting and so hard to pick one out! How are we going to do that? Then we'll travel another 6 hours back to good ole Ohio. It'll be a long but fun trip! Plus we get to see Scott and Denise before they head off wherever Helo takes them.

Retired Pizza

I hate to say it but sometimes the last thing I want to do after work is make a gourmet dinner. I'm more a baker than a cook, so that might explain it. I must admit that sometimes I make Pizzas for Brandon a little too much. hehehhee. Come on, it's easy, a lazy cooks dinner. So I must say farewell to the pizza for a couple of weeks so he isn't sick of them anymore.

Twice Baked Potatos and chilli chicken cakes

There are recipes that you enjoyed so much as a child that your mom would make for you as an after school snack. I had totally forgotten the amazing twice baked potatos my mom would whip up sometimes. They were so delicious and when I had remembered them, I decided to try it out. First off, I hate potatos because they take a butt load of time to cook but they are so yummy. I was running short on time, so I popped two potatos in the microwave for 10 minutes then wrapped them in foil and baked them at 400 Degrees F and they were baked in no time flat. I scooped out the flesh and mixed it with cooked diced onions, peppers, green onions, salt, pepper and cheese. I added mayo and bacon to Brandons and then mashed up the flesh and stuffed it back in the skin pockets, topped it with cheese and baked them at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes max.

Meanwhile, I diced up some chicken tenders and marinated them in soysauce, oyster sauce, pepper and salt and chili pepper flakes. I then formed them into patties and put them on the skillet. I topped them with avocado and tomatos mixed with lemon juice. Emm, easy and delicious.

Garlic Oregano Focaccia

I always try (try being the important word here) to plan my meals, especially for Brandon the couple days before since I basically can survive on veges and rice. I wanted to make him hamburgers but obviously would use the skillet since grilling in the snow typically isn't the thing I want to do after I get home from work. I didn't buy buns so I figured I would find a hamburger bun recipe and after looking a some, I realise I wanted to make good bread, not wonder bread like hamburger buns, so I browsed through http://www.Recipezaar.com and found an incredible recipe for Garlic Oregano Focaccia. It's made with the bread machine, so simple and ohhhh so delicious. It keeps moist for 3 days, by then all the bread should be gone!!!

Recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/34741

I split the focaccia in half and made the patties with beef and diced onions and green bell peppers mixed in it and cooked that on the skillet with some bacon. I topped the patties off with American cheese, bacon and some Avocado. I hate ground beef and I wanted a huge bite off it. So viola, this bread is definitely amazing.

Diaster!!!!!!

I suppose that making a Chicago Style pizza is a little more tricky than I had initially thought...results say ---> I will leave the stuffed pizzas for the Chicagoans.

The crust was too thick and the bottom was too hard. Blah!