Lemon Ginger Blueberry Scones

Cabin fever has driven me to continue baking- I truly believe it is a symptom. I bought a big tub of crystallized ginger a while ago, thinking it would be a good snack to keep at work. Oh boy was I wrong. I really had no idea how spicy this stuff was! I cannot eat it by itself so I've been looking around for some other ways to use the whopping 1 lb. of crystallized ginger I have sitting in my cupboard.

Luckily, I came across this recipe on Epicurious for Ginger Scones. This recipe is an adaption since Blueberries were also on sale at Sunflower Market and I had a lemon hanging around:

Lemon Ginger Blueberry Scones (adapted from Epicurious):

(yields 16 scones)

• 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• Juice of of 1 lemon, plus zest
• 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen
• 4 1/2 ounces candied ginger, finely chopped into 1/4-inch pieces to equal 2/3 cup
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 pint of blueberries
• 1 egg, beaten
• Love

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder, and combine with a whisk. Add the lemon zest and butter, then use clean hands to incorporate butter into the flower untl the mixture is pale yellow and the consistency of fine meal.

3. Stir in the ginger and blueberries. Make a well in the center and pour in the cream. Using one hand, draw in the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.

4. Wash and dry your hands and dust with flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently knead a few times to gather it into a ball. Cut in half and roll each piece of dough into a circle about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into eighths, like a pizza.

5. Place the scones 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg- this will make the tops shiny. Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, until the surface cracks and they are slightly browned.

6. Once they come out of the oven, while they're still hot, squeeze the juice from the lemon on top- hold back the seeds. It smells delicious and I mostly just love the way it sounds. (I wanted to add some powdered sugar to the lemon juice and frost them but I ran out of powdered sugar! I plan on doing this next time)

 

Enjoy!

Fire and Ice

I don't know if you've heard but we've been in a blizzard here in Colorado. I just measured the snow outside and we got 18 inches! As I'm writing this, it has just stopped snowing and the sun is coming out. I've been shoveling the driveway and the porch all morning so I'm already exhausted! It was nice to get outside though, I didn't get out yesterday but ended up cleaning the house and cooking like crazy. 

I took a snow day yesterday and didn't go in to work, thank goodness because I would probably be writing this from my cubicle now- the roads are still in pretty bad shape. Today probably won't be much different- lot's of cooking and hanging out! 

Here's a few photos so you can see what it's like here:

Max- he's like a polar bear!

Layla loves the snow :)

Look at this!!!! That's 18 inches of heavy snow!

Stella loves the snow too! She has to wear a little sweater so she can stay out a little longer with the big dogs.

This was the fire! I just found a little Crème Brûlée kit that I was psyched out of my mind about. Crème Brûlée is my FAVORITE dessert and I asked for a blow torch for Christmas but did not receive one. This was so much fun to make, here's the recipe:

Crème Brûlée Recipe (adapted from the back of the box):

(Makes 4 tiny four ounce ramekins)

-1 cup heavy cream

- 2 Tbs. plus an additional 1/3 cup sugar

- 2 extra large or jumbo egg yolks (the orange-er the yolk, the better)

- 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

- Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

- Love

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a kettle of boiling water

2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine cream and 2 Tbs of sugar; cook, stirring occasionally until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pan, 5-6 minutes. Set aside.

3. In a bowl, beat egg yolks and vanilla (extract and seeds) until smooth and light. Pour small amounts of hot cream mixture into egg yolks, beating continuously until well blended. If you pour in too much at once, it will scramble your eggs. I start with a teaspoon at a time at first. Divide mixture among four 4 oz. ramekins. 

4. Arrange ramekins in a baking pan (about 3 inches deep) and place on the middle shelf of your pre-heated oven. Fill the pan with the boiling water to halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil. Bake until custard is just set, about 30 minutes. Shake the pan very gently to determine if the custard is set- let it go for a little longer if you need to. Mine took about 40 minutes. Use caution when removing the ramekins from the oven as they will be very hot! Chill for 2-3 hours.

5. Sprinkle the remaining sugar evenly over the top of cooled custards. With your torch, move the flame continuously over the sugar until the sugar melts and becomes golden brown and bubbly (I burnt mine a little bit!). You can serve these immediately or put them back in the fridge and eat later.

Enjoy! (Don't you love cracking the top? It reminds me of Amélie)

Fancy Pants

This year was our second annual tradition of high tea with Grandma! What can I say? We like to be fancy and the Brown Palace is one of the fanciest places in Denver. It made us feel rich.

Rachael and Grandma- who looks thrilled to be there!

Grandma and I

I know it doesn't look like much but they give you as many three tiered plates of goodies as you can possibly consume in one sitting. The bottom plate has warm and fresh scones that you put lemon curd, cream, and jam on. The middle plate is filled with teeny tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off! Yes! The top plate has itty bitty desserts which I didn't get a decent picture of because the thing was so freakin' tall.

I highly recommend it!

Dear Oreo Cakesters,

Why did you have to be on sale at Target the other day? You know I can't help myself. You are like a little pillow of love. When I think about you just hanging out in the cabinet above my desk at work I get anxious, but in a good way you know? I like how you have a dark and mysterious exterior but your extra soft on the inside (because you're double stuffed).

You complete me.

Love,
Stephanie

It's here....

Autumn! Yay! My absolute favorite season is finally here! To celebrate I wanted to combine some of my favorite early fall flavors and make a salad. I also wanted to prove to my dad that homemade vinaigrette is way freakin' better than the stuff in the bottle so here you go my friends:

Johnny Apple Salad and Cornbread Puddin':

For the salad:

Package of Spring Mix

5 strips of bacon, cooked to a crisp and crumbled

2 Gala apples, diced

1 Small shallot, minced

1/2 Cup toasted almonds

4 T Olive oil

1 t Apple cider vinegar

1 glug of runny hunny

Salt and Pepper to taste

To make the vinaigrette, combine the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and shallot. Add the lettuce, almonds, apples and toss. Sprinkle with the bacon and almonds and enjoy!

Cornbread puddin':

2 14.75 oz cans of creamed corn

3/4 C Sour cream

1 package of Jiffy cornbread mix

1 egg

1 stick of melted butter

Combine all ingredients and pour into a greased casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and serve warm.

enjoy!

Seattle

 Day two! Sometimes family vacations sometimes get a little weird....

Like the fact that the sun was shining in Seattle. Not what I was expecting but I enjoyed it.

Good news! My paleness was not out of the ordinary in Seattle. There were pale people everywhere. I felt so loved and accepted that I wore shorts. 

There were flowers everywhere and I cannot even explain their affordability. Huge bouquets were like $10 which is unheard of in Denver.

Now I'll be quiet and let the food do the talkin'

Chowda! Just as good on the West Coast

We went to the EMP (Experience Music Project) by the Space Needle! Probably the best museum I have been to in a long time, I highly recommend checking it out. We actually got in fo' free! The place was only open for another hour and a half so we asked the guy if there was a discount, apparently the discount was 'free'. Thank you EMP guy, you made our day.

They had a really great Nirvana exhibit but I loved the Jimi Hendrix exhibit and I got to see his Woodstock Fender Stratocaster. If you're there, check out the Sound Lab too, they have interactive stations where you can learn differnent instruments. They also have jam studios where you and your sisters can act like total idiots and feel like rockstars for 10 minutes.

I tried to scrounge up some more pictures but my memory card crapped out on me halfway through the trip, what the eff?!?! It was brand new! I lost a ton of pictures but I'm still working on retrieving the rest.

Here's a few pictures from where we stayed on Camano Island, our cabin was just 2 blocks from the ocean:



Lindsay told us there was an abundance of crabs walking along the shore but when we got there we didn't find any! I'm a midwestern girl so I've never really seen so much "sea stuff" the only way I can describe it. Not exactly a beach for laying out on but it was beautiful.

Jelly!

I have to say, I have some pretty good ideas. One of the best has to be Rachael and I's new monthy brunch tradition. It combines many things that I love: good food, coffee, my sister, breakfast food, going out, not meeting till 10:30 so I can sleep in. Did I mention food? okay, good.

We decided to meet at Jelly, a new breakfast/lunch spot that just opened in Capitol Hill. Brunch can be a bit of a dilemma sometimes. You have to put up with waiting (like our 50 minute wait at Snooze), lots of hungover hipsters, and occasionally screaming kids. Luckily we were two for three on this one. We thought the wait would be long but it turned out to be about five minutes. No kids here but hipsters were abundant.

The wait for food is so much better with their scrumptious little donut bites! They actually make their own jelly here, hence the name. They are warm, crispy, and perfect on a Sunday morning! We should have gotten more. I was partial to the raspberry filled donuts.... I took a bite before I had time to snap a picture.



Raspberry jelly donuts forever!!



Chocolate and cinnamon sugar

There was a bit of a wait but we did have great service. I ordered the crab cakes benedict... gotta love a good benny! I only have two critiques: I like my yolks runny and my potatoes crispy/boldly flavored. Other than that it was wonderful, some of the best hollandaise I've had. (can you see all my sugar packets in the background? That coffee was strong!) Plus the prices are really reasonable so I felt like I could splurge! I think this was one of the priciest things on the menu for around $11.00.

Rachael and I had such a nice talk but I wish I would have taken more pictures of the place! You can see some of the decor in the photo below. They have retro cereal boxes lining the walls- brilliant! We were reminded of our little brother Jimmy because there was a box called "Quisps"-- we both laughed because that's how we would use our little Jim Jim accents to say "Crisps"! My favorite one is to the right of Rachael's head. It has Mr. Spock on it!


Rachael, Mr. Spock is checking you out!

Hope you're all having a great week! Always looking for more brunch suggestions!

Hit Snooze

So my sister Rachael and I have decided to start a little monthly Sunday brunch tradition. We have been wanting to check out several places around town that we think have good "brunch potential". This was our first Sunday and it turned out to be a success!

The only downside to Snooze that we could find was the crazy wait time, about 45 minutes. Luckily it was a gorgeous day here in Denver and they had complimentary coffee to sip while we waited out in the Spring sun. People even seemed to be having fun waiting to eat. The restaurant provided chalk for people to pass the time on the sidewalk and so there were no screaming kids!

When we did get seated we found out that Snooze was worth the wait. I ordered the 'Benedicto Tuscano' with tomatoes, white beans, kale, and squash on top of French bread with perfectly poached eggs, creamy hollandaise, and shavings of Parmesan. It was to. die. for. 









We stuffed our faces and enjoyed a few cups of coffee in the coolest mugs ever! Rachael says they remind her of the Jungle Book. Mowgli mugs. I thought they looked like honey pots.

The menu was not too 'spensive either. Under $10 for a meal and I  think next time I'll be ordering some Mimosas. (However I am scarred from spending about $30 on three of them when Amanda was in town last summer so I'd better be careful)

I love being able to spend time with my little sister. We got to catch up and we talked about all the things we want to do this summer. (White water rafting, camping, hiking, travelling. Can't wait!)

Next up... Jelly.

Homemade Runzas

So I finally did it. After 5 years living in Colorado nowhere near a Runza I finally made my own homemade Runzas!

At work, we usually have a little pot-luck about once a month so we had one on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate. My friend Gerri, a fellow Nebraska native, convinced me that Runzas were easy to make and that I should prepare them for 12 people. So I did.

Little did I know what an undertaking this was. They turned out to be delicious and everyone on my team was raving about my "credenzas" or "garbanzos" or whatever they were called.

I won't claim the recipe since I found it online, here's the link...

Let me just say that this was the first time I have ever prepared a recipe that calls for lard so I was a little hesitant. It calls for a half cup of lard and it does make quite a bit (about 12 runzas and I made a casserole with the scraps)

The dough was surprisingly the easiest part, although my trusty KitchenAid mixer did most of the work.

Here's the before and after of the dough. It's a yeast dough so I was just giddy with excitement to see what It looked like after rising!



Dough, before and after



The most time consuming part was chopping up all of the onions and cabbage and by the time I had to put them together I was pretty much over it. The dough isn't very easy to work with and it's difficult to seal the Runzas so they don't pop open when they bake.

Therefore I have decided that I will only make them again if the Pope or Bear Grylls are coming to dinner.

All in all they took about 3 hours so this does not qualify for an easy weeknight dinner but it is faster than driving back to Nebraska.



Yumm!!