What's cooking?

I haven't shared any recipes lately, so I thought I'd pass along a little taste of what I've been cooking and baking in the last couple of weeks.


Lemon Blueberry Scones
I made these for my friend Shannon when we went to visit them in Manhattan one weekend after we had moved out to the Bronx.  I remember them being tasty but without enough lemon flavor for my liking, so this time I combined a couple different online recipes and came up with these.  They were delicious!  I made them one afternoon this week with Riley while Leighton was across the street playing.  I sent him back over with some to share after dinner, and he was once again SO excited to cross the street by himself.

scones

2 cups flour

3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder

5 Tbsp salted butter, chilled 

(add in 1/2 tsp salt if using unsalted butter)
1 cup cream
zest of one lemon

juice of one lemon

1 cup blueberries

lemon glaze (optional but recommended!)

powdered/confectioner's sugar

lemon juice

cream

Mix first 3 dry ingredients (I am sure the rules are to sift, but I don't!).  Use 2 knives, two forks, a pastry cutter or your electric mixer to cut in the butter.  You want the butter to end up in pea sized pieces.  Add in cream and lemon zest and juice without overworking the dough.  Slowly fold in blueberries carefully so they don't break and make a purple mess of your dough.  Press dough out into a rectangle (you can roll it but I just use my hands) that is about an inch thick.  You can cut out round scones or use a knife to divide the rectangle into squares and then in half to make triangles.  Put on baking sheet.  Brush the top with a little heavy cream.  Bake at 400 for 18 minutes.  I think my last oven would have done it in 16!  While scones are cooling, whisk together the ingredients of the glaze and then drizzle on scones.

Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes
I had read about these online many months ago and was interested to try them based on the rave reviews.  I finally made them tonight and they definitely deserve all the high praise.  They are fantastic.  You MUST make them.  A perfect mix of crunch and soft.  Yum!  All 4 of us enjoyed them, even Riley who will clamp her mouth shut whenever a potato or sweet potato comes her way (unless they are in french fry form, of course!).  Here is the recipe - I followed it pretty closely.  Except I used fingerling potatoes.  And I brushed the tops with butter not olive oil (but I did have the olive oil on the bottom).  And I skipped the rosemary/fresh herbs.  So for a recipe with so few ingredients and so few steps, it may seem like I didn't really follow the recipe very well after all!

Mango Ice Cream
I have made the Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream and Peach Ice Cream from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop several times with great success (just made the strawberry when Grandma and Papa were her visiting, in fact), but thought this time I'd give mango a try.  I just subbed mango into the peach recipe since he doesn't have a recipe for with mango in the book.  It worked!  I don't have any pictures, but I can assure you it was delicious!  I think next time I make the peach or mango I might skip the cooking of the fruit part.  After a little research, it seems as though it isn't a crucial step and you can maintain a more fresh fruit flavor by omitting it.


Nameless Cookies
I found this recipe online and had to try it because I love the texture of the oats in the homemade nutter butter cookies and I always love anything with coconut.

1 cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup butter
1 ¼ cups flour
1 ¼ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
¾ cup coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter and sugars. Add egg, and mix well. Slowly add in dry ingredients, mixing until combined. Fold in oats and coconut.  Roll into 1" balls and press down with a fork.  Bake for 12 minutes until just lightly golden.  These will be really soft when you take them out, so wait a minute or two before transferring to a cooling rack to help avoid cracking them.

We all liked these.  A lot.  It was hard to keep fingers away from them while they were cooling before dinner (Papa!), and I finally gave in and passed around a little sample to everyone while they were still warm from the oven.  After dinner, we all indulged in a full cookie (or two!) of our own, and I even made Leighton an ice cream sandwich using them!  I sent some with Grandma and Papa on their airplane trip home and forgot to ask how long they lasted before ripping open the baggie and eating them.


Dill Pickle Dip
I am a chip-o-holic - potato, tortilla, plain, flavored - doesn't matter.  I love chips!  And so it should come as no surprise that I am also a fan of chip dips.  I used to enjoy a good pickle chip dip from time to time, but it is difficult to find dill pickle chips or dip in the US.  So, you can imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this dill pickle chip dip recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago.  I didn't waste much time before trying it out!  It's a keeper :)


Cute Quesadilla Plate
So, this is not a recipe, but just a picture of Leighton's lunch yesterday.  I made us some quesadillas and before I put the peppers on his plate, he asked that I put them in the middle to keep the square.  I put the peppers in to make a design and he was pretty pleased.  We both then grabbed our cameras to take a picture.  We're silly.  We know.  That's how we roll (once upon a time that would have been a pun, but now that we use digital cameras instead of cameras with rolls of film, the pun is lost!).