Welcome Home Scones

If your Facebook feed looks anything like mine, you probably are under the impression that everyone in the world is:

a. buying a new house

or

b. getting pregnant and having babies

Seriously, my Facebook feed is nothing but photographs of fetuses, bellies, and babies, and exterior house shots, stacks of boxes, and shiny new house keys.  Oh, and there are still a lot of photos of cats and food (but not cat food).  These are my friends, after all.

Because these are my friends, fortunately I don’t see a ton of the inappropriately first-person-plural updates about infant waste elimination. (You know what I’m talking about: “We’ve already filled five diapers with poop today and it’s not even noon!”  We?? I really hope that’s not something you’re doing with your baby.)

In fact, I felt rather proud of one of my best friends when she posted something referring to a poop situation as a “pants disaster.”  Understated, humorous, and leaves something to the imagination, even if I choose not to imagine it.  Now that’s what I’m looking for in classy baby-related status updates.

I actually still owe this classy new mom and her husband (also a wonderful friend) a post-baby dinner.  I have a terrible habit of offering to make things for people and then not following through with it. Not because I don’t want to follow through or because I’m flaky and forget about it.  I end up with performance anxiety about the final product, whether it be a painting or vegetarian enchiladas.  There’s something unsettling about trying a new recipe and sending it off for someone else to consume, without having tasted it yourself first.

So, when our friends moved to a new house with a baby, I remembered that I had told them several months before that I’d make them a meal after the baby was born.  Oops.  In the midst of packing, moving, and unpacking, knowing dinner was waiting in the fridge or freezer would probably be really helpful. But I still hadn’t had a chance to test an enchilada recipe. Guilt and obligation versus perfectionism and procrastination.

I ended up compromising by baking scones.

In their old house, we shared lots of evenings together. Games were played, movies were watched, and bottles of wine and pounds of cheese were consumed.* For some reason, separate nights eating strawberries and gingersnaps also stand out to me. So strawberry & ginger scones seemed like a good idea.

Something sweet with a little spice.

I used Smitten Kitchen’s recipe.  She calls them biscuits, but also refers to them as scones. I just think they’re delicious. I’ve made buttermilk scones before, but these use heavy cream instead. They really do taste creamy, which is lovely with the strawberries.

I followed the recipe exactly except for also adding in about a tablespoon of fresh grated ginger.  They did not turn out very gingery, although I wondered if I just did not thoroughly stir in the ginger and someone got a very gingery bite.

If I was going to make them again, I might sprinkle a little raw sugar on top.  I like when scones have a bit of crunchy crust on top, and since these are not very sweet to begin with, a little extra sugar wouldn’t make them too sweet.

Oh, one more thing. I didn’t feel like using biscuit cutters, so I shaped the dough into a rectangle, about 3/4 inch thick, and divided it into 8 squares. Further halving each square diagonally yields a good scone portion, in my opinion, but if you want a larger, more indulgent scone, I fully support your decision.

*Let’s just assume I mean cumulatively over the years, and not per evening.

Last Night’s Dinner: Nick’s Grilled Chicken and more, Part 2

This is the second part of the Grilled Chicken menu- fruits and veggies (well, fruits in the form of dessert).  If you’re looking for the actual chicken recipe or some awesome duck fat potatoes, go here.

Marinated Grilled Zucchini

Grilled zucchini doesn’t require a lot of fanciness, as far as I’m concerned.  But if you are in the mood to kick it up a little, briefly marinating the zucchini is all it needs.  For the two of us, one giant zucchini, cut length-wise into inch-thick spears, was plenty.  I whisked about two parts olive oil and one part balsamic vinegar together (3 tbsp of oil and 1 1/2 tsbp of vinegar was enough to thoroughly coat the zucchini spears).  Mix in a few chopped fresh basil leaves.  Toss zucchini in marinade, season with salt and pepper, and let it sit for about thirty minutes.

These cook fast.  Just a couple minutes on the grill until you have some nice grill marks and they’re tender, but not floppy.

Sauteed Broccolini

Even easier than the zucchini.  Place the broccolini in a skillet and add a little water (about a quarter inch deep).  Cover the skillet and heat over medium-high heat for about 4-5 minutes, until the broccolini is bright green and just a little tender.  (Or let it go another minutes or so… I like my vegetables crisp.)  Drain the water, add a little olive oil to the skillet and over medium heat, saute the broccolini for a couple more minutes.  Drizzle with lemon juice, if desired, and sprinkle with salt (fancy pink sea salt works particularly well with this).

Balsamic-Glazed Strawberries and Basil over Vanilla Ice Cream

From Epicurious: Balsamic-Glazed Strawberries Over Ice Cream.  I love when dessert recipes actually are written for two servings, although sometimes I worry that it won’t be enough since Nick can often eat two servings by himself.  The nice thing with this is that if it’s not enough, just throw another scoop of ice cream in the bowl.

The recipe calls for 6 large strawberries.  I don’t really know what qualifies as a large strawberry.  Are we talking about the larger ones from a package of average-sized berries?  Or the giant ones that barely fit in your palm?  (Well, my palm at least… I have small hands….)  Anyway, I just decided the remaining berries I had looked like a generous two-servings worth (probably yielded about 1 1/2 to 2 cups, sliced).

Hull the strawberries and slice them into wedges.  In a small saucepan over moderate heat, stir two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar with two tablespoons of brown sugar.  Stir until the sugar dissolves and then simmer for a minute.  I actually let it simmer for a couple minutes to thicken a little bit while I ran outside to get a few basil leaves.  This isn’t part of the original recipe, but I’ve seen other desserts that combine strawberries, vinegar, and basil, and it sounded awesome.  Also, the recipe says to remove the mixture from heat and then toss the strawberries and serve immediately.  Instead I left the pan on low heat and stirred in the strawberries and just let it sit for a minute or two, to let the flavors meld, as some reviewers had suggested.

Scoop out some vanilla ice cream (we used Stonyfield Ice Cream, which was delicious) and top with the strawberries.  Sprinkle some sliced basil on top.

This took no more than ten minutes to make, and tasted amazing.