My Cup of Tea

Admittedly this blog is a little late, but better late than never right? And even though I was busy enough that I neglected to write about the small tea party I had I figured I'd share with you now anyway cause it's like a dozen recipes all at once!

So yes, I decided to have a tea party. Which I didn't know meant I decided to have a cooking frenzy on a Saturday and a get together the next afternoon, but hey, I was in my element, right? Hope was my consultant on the food fare of traditional tea parties, and as much as I would've liked to stick to an old fashioned menu, I decided I'd rather cater to the taste buds of teenagers and let myself experiment with some really rich recipes :D. I'm not sure where to start... I guess I'll just show you the whole spread!

There were a few things I didn't really make, like carrot sticks and bowls of fresh plums and apricots (by the way, apricots are like my new favorite fruit, SO GOOD), but most of the tier and most of the plates are things that I did whip up myself. Ok, Hope brought along the little chocolate balls, I didn't not venture into the realms of cream puffs.

As I mentioned before, I spend Saturday night in the kitchen. I whipped up the scones that day that are piled high on the platters. First: Triple Chocolate Chip

And then Cinnamon Bun Scones!

Both of these recipes came from my favorite cook book, A Passion for Baking, and were admittedly more like desserts than anything else. Oh well! Who cares as long as they're delicious?

I also managed to crank a few dozen cookies out of the oven. I have a friend who is hypoglycemic, so I wanted to pick at least one sugar free recipe and I settled on a type of oatmeal nut cookie. Now although I really liked these, I think they are an acquired taste and are actually not really my idea of a cookie at all. They were a whole grain oatmeal cookie made with applesauce instead of butter (not only sugar free but also low fat now) and loaded with cinnamon, mixed nuts, and a small handful of raisins. They don't have the same crunch as a typical cookie, courtesy the applesauce, and they have more of a bread flavor since they aren't very sweet. You can kind of see them stacked on the bottom of this tier...

On the top of the tier I put a fleet of banana nut mini muffins. If you like banana bread, these are right up your alley. I wanted finger food, that's the idea of tea parties I'm told, so everything was supposed to be like a bite. I had a bunch of bananas that had seen better days, but banana bread didn't seem to be an ideal finger food to me, so I turned to these instead. Again, I pulled this recipe from A Passion for Baking and I think they are delicious. There were a ton left over and I later found out with a little peanut butter they make a great breakfast :).

There were sandwiches, too. I put together three different kinds on Sunday morning and stacked them all on this cute tier my mom picked up at Marshall's.

The top ones are simply mini tortilla wraps filled with hummus and strips of roasted red pepper, the middle are classic peanut butter and jelly, and the bottom are true to tea party tradition: crust-less cucumber and cream cheese. I think the hummus and roasted red pepper rolls went over the best, surprisingly enough. I ended up eating like two sandwiches worth of leftover peanut butter and jelly because they were neglected and I just couldn't bear to throw the food away...

That about covers the food table, I think. We also had ice water, sparkling water, iced black tea, and watermelon lemonade to wash it all down. I don't think I'll drone on any longer, besides I've got some wheat berries I need to go soak so I can make something delicious tomorrow!

Make, Bake, and Break!

So I wanted to leave the house early tomorrow morning. In her rant about how ridiculous it was for me to be getting out of bed my mother made the mistake of saying I could leaving after making my father breakfast. Hmmm.... Really.

I think my mother assumed my dad had to be awake for me to make him breakfast, which is not the case at all! Screw eggs, bacon, pancakes, french toast, waffles, or whatnot! Muffins, breakfast breads, coffee cakes and one of my dad's favorites, scones, are all super make ahead breakfasts. So it is now 1:30 in the morning and I just finished preparing cranberry and pecan scones. All I have to do is pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes in the morning and they will be ready to eat without me even being here!











Admittedly, there's no way I'd get away with sneaking out of here as early as I'd like, but this at least will put me a bit ahead! It's too easy to outsmart my mother... can't wait to see how they turn out in the morning and, more importantly, her face when she realizes she's raised a smart ass. Actually, more like is reminded she raised a smart ass.

*When making scones always make sure your butter is SUPER COLD. Unlike frostings, cake batters, and bar batters, you want the butter in scone dough to form small chuncks (aim for about the size of peas). When the butter pieces melt in the oven they release air that forms little pockets in the pastries, this causes the flakiness that makes them so delicious. Room temperature or melted butter with taking the puff out of your breakfast scones, making them more cake like than the true product is meant to be.

**The recipe I used actually was for blueberry blackberry scones, but I didn't have the berries on hand so I just used what was in the cupboard. For most scone, cookie, and muffin recipes, add-ins can be traded for other add-ins according to your tastes or available supplies. Consider things like dried fruits, baking chips, and nuts interchangeable and have fun experimenting with different combinations of flavors!






These are pictures that I took earlier this morning of the finished scones (seeing as it's now Sunday) which turned out absolutely delicious. They browned wonderfully on the outside but were still soft in the middle, perfect breakfast material. That's my dad enjoying one, he was a pretty happy camper. By the way, the scone plan got me out of the house a whole 90 minutes prior to my previously dictated departure time!

Happy Baking!

Carrots and Spice and Everything Nice

I have to admit, I made these quite some time ago, two weeks I believe! I was distracted with life and other recipes and put my hasty photographs on the back burner (figuratively ;) ), but better late than never, right? Besides, I wouldn't want you to miss out on yet another baked good! They are starting to feel somewhat rare these days...

I want to say it was a Saturday morning. Although I was up semi-early, which is unfortunately my nature, I was waiting on Taylor to find his way out of bed to start the day. I simply couldn't bring myself to wake him, so I, of course, decided to kill the hour or so with a quick recipe! It was still a little early to be thinking about cakes or cookies, so I turned to my favorite breakfast sweet, scones.

Anyone who claims they don't like scones is a liar. If you don't like scones, you're simply eating the wrong ones. The absolutely divine characteristic of scones is that they can be whatever you'd like them to be. Although in America they tend to be sweet, including ingredients like dried fruits, orange zest, cinnamon, pumpkin, nuts, poppy seeds, and so on, they also exist in a number of savory varieties available as well. The British often add raisins, currants, cheese, or dates. Potato scones can be found in Scotland, and other countries one may encounter scones with cheese, onion, and bacon! Um... YUM! They can be baked or fried, thick or thin, light or heavy, the possibilities are seemingly endless!

I, however, in my attempt to make my baked goods appear a little healthier, was attracted to a carrot cake scone recipe. Carrots and raisins folded into a thick cinnamon spiked scone batter was intriguing and a cream cheese glaze won me over. I will admit, I upped the health ante and replaced half the flour with whole wheat flour. Whole wheat is just has so much more depth of flavor, and feels so much better to eat!







Of course, where I make healthy strides I tend to counterattack them with equally unhealthy embellishments, and I didn't fail here! The cream cheese glaze was delicious, though not aesthetically pleasing enough for my taste. The recipe recommended decorating the scone tops with cinnamon or coconut, so I thought "why not both?" Coconut, in my opinion, is best when it's lightly toasted. Before my handful of snowy coconut was oven-bound, I mixed in a bit of cinnamon to infuse in the heat. And so each of my carrot cake scones received a light layer of cream cheese glaze and a dusting of cinnamon toasted coconut.





They were fairly well received, I quite enjoyed the one or two I ended up polishing off! They are a lovely breakfast go-to and would certainly make wonderful company to a cup of hot tea. The recipe is simple and quick, a wonderful go to for a homemade breakfast within an hour, for those of you who simply are too lazy to tackle the art of bagel making!