less words more scones

step zero: want scones for a couple of weeks, and do nothing about it.

when you finally want to: dice 1-2 jalapeño peppers, and cook in about 1/2 tbsp of butter until soft. i would use less/more peppers INSTEAD of removing the seeds, cause i did that and could taste nothing.

toss peppers and 100g diced cheddar cheese with tiny bit of flour, taken from

your bowl of flour mixture: 2c all purpose flour (i substituted 1/2c with whole wheat flour), 1 tbsp baking powder, 1tsp salt, and i added ground black pepper.





mash 1 stick (1/2c) -- minus however much you used to cook the peppers -- of butter into the flour mixture with a fork, until it looks like

that. what does that look like? when you have that, whisk 2 eggs and 1/2c of heavy cream (i used half and half) together, and stir that in. try to take a picture of it awkwardly.

when it's almost all mixed in, add the cheese/pepper dices. then dump onto table or board or cutting surface. for cutting.

brush with one beaten egg. you won't use it all. ask the tiniest chicken you can find for a tiny favour? after egg wash, you can freeze them on the tray, and then put away in a bag when frozen. fresh scones anytime without having to poke michelin man's dough child.



bake at 400ºF for 15-25 minutes, depending on how big you cut them, and whether they're frozen. it's not delissio, they are scones. hum hum hum

serve with soup and giant thumb! enjoy :)

d-d-d-decadence

there was a bbq potluck at a friend's this week. i didn't want to go grocery shopping, and i wanted to avoid using his kitchen/grill since they will probably be busy enough, so i offered to make dessert. i remembered to take pictures!

because i have a 2kg bag of chocolate chips i don't know how to use, melting some (a lot) down to make cookies seemed to make sense at the time. so that's what i did. to make chocolate toffee cookies (*see below), melt 1 pound or 453.5g or 16oz (did you know google converts measurements for you?) of chocolate with butter. the recipe recommended using a double boiler, but i used the microwave because it pains me to think about washing a pot that's only boiled water; i am lazy.

while the melted chocolate cools to luke warmish (maybe there's no point in keeping it warm and natural physics dictates that heat travels from high capacity to low anyways, but if you say it the first way it sounds like you're in charge of your cookie components), chop your insanely sugary candy bar of choice. i wanted to stick with the toffee thing so i used skor bars. if someone made this with snickers, i would eat it in a heartbeat, though that would probably be my last one.

unless you're a robot with a motor arm, an electric mixer is recommended when combining the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla. i used the wire whisk cause it looked a lot easier to wash.. ha. but i don't think the mixture got as pale and as thick as the recipe meant for, and:


that may or may not be the reason why the batter (egg mixture + chocolate + flour mixture + skor + walnuts) was on the runny side, while it is apparently possible for you to roll the dough into logs before chilling (so you can slice and bake, instead of scoop and bake).

i put the whole bowl in the fridge for about an hour, and the whole time i could only scoop. make sure you use something nonstick (spray/parchment) when baking! unless you like half-stuck cookies. later the bowl migrated to the freezer between scoops. the dough was easier to maneuver when cold. also, instead of baking them at 350 for 12 minutes, i did 325 for 13. for me and the frozen chocolate mess, the latter seemed to bake more evenly.


results! sometimes i break off (eat) the toffee parts that ooze out of the cookie.

here's a macro shot of a half one, while the other half was in my mouth. can you feel my teeth ache? at potluck, people topped it with maple nut ice cream and they said it was good.

it was fun melting a pound of chocolate and using almost 2 cups of brown sugar when the recipes i normally go for don't require half that. i felt like a fat/phat food network superstar. a cookie with almost 50% chocolate can't be half bad (the math, do you see), and it wasn't, but i don't know if i'd make this again without having at least 40 people to help me destroy the evidence... and if/when i do, i would go for better quality chocolate, instead of chipits.

* chocolate toffee cookies -- recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. if we didn't claim we are food wannabes ahead of time, i wouldn't have bothered -- that there is a real food blog :P

Easy-Bake Thin-Crust Shrimp, Sun-Dried Tomatos and Mozzerela Pit-za

This was a pizza made from a slew of random ingredients in the fridge. Several days ago, my father and I went on a mission to make sun-dried tomatos out of tomatos we picked from our backyard garden. It took about 36 hours, and the amount of electricity we used probably exceeded the cost of actually buying a jar of those little buggers. But, they turned out really great.


So, this is an easy-bake pizza because I did not make the dough (you'll have to ask Kristen for dough making tips), or even used pizza dough at all. Instead, I used thick, large, flat pita from the fridge, which seemed perfect for the occasion.

The other kinda interesting thing about this pizza is the sauce I used. Due to the overflow of tomatos coming from the garden, I decided to make a large pot of tomato and beef stew last week. After a couple days of heating, and re-heating the pot, the beef and vegetables had significantly broken down. So, in a moment of pure genius (or grossness, depending on your threshhold), that stew became the sauce base for this pizza!

Sounds totally weird, I know. But it worked!

So, anyone who is curious about what actually went into this pizza, here's a faux-cipe. You're not going to get any sort of measurements, because I don't work like that (see previous post!)

• 1 large flat pita
• a spoonful of tomato beef stew (or if you're squimish, a bit of tomato sauce will do!)
• some uncooked frozen shrimp, defrosted, peeled,and deveined
• a generous amount of shredded mozzerela cheese OR crumbled feta
• some chopped kalamata olives, deseeded
• a few chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• a sprinkle of dried basil
• a sprinkle of red chili flakes, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lay out the large pita bread on a baking sheet. Spread out the sauce evenly over the surface of the pita, being sure to leave the edges clean. Evenly place the shrimp, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes around the pita. Top with the shredded mozzerella. Put in the center rack of the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown. Sprinkle with dried basil and chili flakes, to taste. Voila! Pit-za!

Marry Me Eggplant

For all the years Kristen and I have know each other, our conversations have been filled with all things FOOD. We have shared many recipes with each other, and stories of our adventures and misadventures in the kitchen. We both love to bake things, although she is the only one who is actually good at it.

I love trying new tasty delights, but I don't have very much patience or precision. I inherited this from my mother, who raised me on some of her culinary creations--peanut butter and cheddar sandwichs, liver and dates puree, and tomato and cinnamon soup, were just a few of the delectable delights I grew up with.

I am far better at cooking savoury foods because there is slightly more margin of error. Too salty? Add more liquid! Too sour? Add more sugar! Too sweet? Add more vinegar! Too spicy? Don't be a wimp! Etc. Bottom line: keep adding stuff until it tastes good! Conversely, most of my baking endeavors have resulted in an epic fail. One time, I mis-read a recipe for banana bread and instead of putting 1/2 teaspoon of salt, I put in 2 tablespoons. And there is absolutely nothing you can do to fix that, except perhaps making a quadruple batch (which I did consider, and would've done if I'd had enough flour...but that was another issue). So I'm sort of a Foodie Imposter that way.

We were sharing a yummy almond croissant today at the Baguette , and we were both marvelling at how much we love to eat and make things to eat. I am absolutely obsessed with eggplant--I could pretty much eat anything that is related to eggplant. My favourite sandwich of all time is the Purple Caboose, found at the coffee shop beside my college in Rochester, NY. It was made of a lightly battered and fried slice of eggplant, a thick slice of fresh buffalo mozzerella, and savoury tomato pesto, all squished between two slices of foccacia bread. It also comes with a honey mustard sauce, which is the best in this world, I think. It's thinner than most, and has a more vinegary taste. I always ask for the sauce on the side so I can dip the sandwich into it's sweet and sour goodness, without taking away from the crunch of the eggplant. Simply heavenly! It is THE perfect sandwich!

I wanted to call this blog MarryMeEggplant, but Kristen refused. Then I suggested Mrs. Eggplant. Rejected. I Heart Eggplant. Rejected!!!

We settled on Tuning Forks because aside from being foodie imposters, we're also both music geeks.

So, I was going to post a picture of a pizza I made, as a way to sort of christen this blog, but that will have to wait. I'm off to watch The Next Food Network Star finale!