Something for the First Time...

     Something for the First Time is the theme this year at my church, St. Luke's United Methodist Church.  Each week Dr. Bob Long encourages us to try something for the first time.  Since the beginning of the year, I have thought about many things I want to try.  Most of the time the road takes me to the kitchen.  I have always loved scones.  A cup of Chamomile tea, with honey of course, a scrumptious scone with lemon curd and I'm in paradise!  I can certainly see me at Buckingham Palace (with a beautiful hat of course!) having tea with the Queen or Princess Kate!  Everything about "high tea" intrigues me… the tea cups, pretty dishes, tiny spoons, little sandwiches and cakes.  Mmmmmm makes me hungry!  It's got to be tea time somewhere! Maybe I will start treating myself to high tea every day,  or maybe once a week!  I see a fancy tea party with my granddaughters in the near future!  Ok, back to something for the first time!  I have never ever made a scone and was honestly a little intimidated at the thought of baking them.  I tried several recipes; some too dry, some too crumbly.  After combining 5 or so different recipes, I believe I have the perfect scone!  Everyone says their recipe is the perfect one right???  Of course there is always room for improvement in anything!  For me, I love this one and plan to stick with my creation.  The best thing about this recipe is you can add fresh fruit, different flavors of chips or just enjoy them plain!  The first time I made them, I used mini cinnamon chips.  Ooo la la… they were yummy!  But… I forgot to save a couple scones and take pictures!  A senior moment I guess!

I recently discovered King Arthur Flour.  I ordered lemon chips and sanding sugar and couldn't be happier.  Check out their website, good stuff!

Enjoy these sconealicious lemon scones.  Put the tea kettle on and have yourself a "tea party!"

Scones

Ingredients:
2 cups flour + a few Tablespoons for rolling out dough
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (freeze the stick of butter, after frozen grate the butter with a cheese grater and place back in freezer)
1 extra large egg  (I use extra large eggs in all my baking)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups lemon chips
zest of a lemon
course sugar for sprinkling on top before baking (optional)

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 Tablespoons milk/half and half or cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
lemon zest if desired

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F degrees.  I place my baking shelf in the middle.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking sheet works great as well.

In a good size bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Remove the grated butter from the freezer and toss in the flour mixture.  Using a fork or pastry cutter combine until the mixture looks like course cornmeal.  Set aside.

Whisk the egg, sour cream and vanilla in a small bowl.  Pour over the mixture and then mix with a rubber spatula until everything is moistened.  Gently fold in the lemon chips.  Try to not over work the dough.  Don't start getting intimidated!!!  The dough is going to be pretty moist at this point.  Work the dough as best you can into a ball.  On a lightly floured surface pat the dough in an 8" round circle.  Cut the dough in 8 wedges.  Place wedges on the prepared baking sheet.  Give each scone some space.  Using a little cream, brush the wedges with the cream and if desired sprinkle with course sugar.

Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  The first time I made them I over baked them a tad!  Remove from the oven and let the scones cool down a bit.  Meanwhile… whip up the glaze.  Drizzle the glaze over the scones.

Scones are best if enjoyed right away, well wait till the tea is ready!  If you have any leftovers, the scones keep well in an air tight container at room temperature for 2 or 3 days.

Now it's time to sit on the patio, garden, watching a good movie or soaking in the tub, enjoying a hot cup of tea and a sconealicious scone!

Once again big thanks to my sweet friend Nelou.  You encourage me to do better every day!

new direction...

     I took a little "hiatus" from my blog.  Let's be honest, I haven't posted since July, 2014 and not often before then!  Over the past year I have dabbled at many things.  Learning guitar, blogging, reading, photography, cooking, & even taking French lessons on my computer.  And while I love the "idea" of doing so many things, I have discovered my true passion is being in the kitchen.  What warms my heart the most is making something yummy and then passing it on to someone else to enjoy.  I have been working the past couple of years with an amazing woman, photographer and a person I now call friend!  Nelou of nelougrace.com is so talented in so many areas- photography, computer skills, Lightroom, design and so on…  I have learned so much and look forward to learning more from my sweet friend.  What I have discovered over the past few months is when I have time to do as I please, I often gravitate towards the kitchen and whip something up!  While driving in the car the idea came from the back of the Suburban… "bake and take!"  Perfectly fitting, since I just adore to bake and take to family, friends, coworkers and whoever will be my guinea pig!  So I am putting my "big girl" camera on the shelf for a while and placing my primary focus on baking, along with taking pictures with my iPhone (seriously… so handy!!).  Don't get me wrong, I love my "big girl" camera and I plan to use it a lot, especially when we go to the cabin.  But for now… I'm finding the iPhone camera does an amazing job and is super simple when it comes to photographing my yummies for blogposts!  Thanks to Nelou for "re-designing" my blog!  Nelou has fantastic ideas and I highly recommend her services!

     One of my favorite treats as a kid were Rice Krispy Treats!  Mom made them all the time and she would vary the ingredients from time to time.  Today I am sharing her "kicked up treats."  These treats aren't your basic off the box recipe… no sireeeee!  They are soft and just the right amount of "goo!"  Altogether now… mmmmmmmm.

Ingredients:

5 Tablespoons butter

8 cups mini marshmallows

1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer smooth)

6 cups Krispie Rice Cereal

1/2 teaspoon salt

Melted chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

1. Butter a 9x13 pan, set aside.
2. In a large pot over low heat, melt butter and peanut butter.  Add 8 cups of mini marshmallows, stirring constantly until melted.  Add salt.
3. Once the marshmallows and peanut butter are melted, stir in the cereal.  Mix well and press into the prepared pan.
4. Allow to cool completely before drizzling chocolate or cutting into squares.  I usually put the pan in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process.  

Additional Notes:  You can omit the peanut butter if you prefer.  If you omit the peanut butter I would add 1/2 cup - 1 cup more cereal.

Adapted from my mom's recipe.  Thanks mom!

Grab a cup of tea or coffee, kick back and enjoy!

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