scones aux fraises

We have friends coming from Oregon today! I have been busy with work, but I wanted to make something ahead of time for a breakfast or snack/dessert item with all of my Strawberries.

Scones instantly came to mind, but I wanted to make Fresh Strawberry Scones. I had a heck of a time finding any recipe that suited what I wanted to make. I tend to not like anything with cooked chunks of fruit, and wanting to use fresh strawberries, not jam. I just wanted the flavor of my fresh strawberries to come through. Finally after going through a ton of recipes that just were not going to work, I created my own

scones aux fraises
or simply translated: 
Strawberry Scones
2 cups gluten free flour
3 TB. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
4 TB. butter, cold, cut into 1/2 in. cubes
3/4 cup Pureed strawberries
1/4 cup plain yogurt

Glaze
 leftover strawberry puree (just a hint that is left after you poured it into the bowl)
add:
2 TB. half and half
confectioner's sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Stir together dry ingredients. With a pastry cutter , cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in strawberry puree and 1/4 cup yogurt.
3. Turn dough onto floured surface and with floured hands, knead a few times. Press dough into a rectangle, about 1 1/2 inches thick. Fold Rectangle into thirds, like a letter. Cut into 8 equal triangles.

4. Place scones into scone pan or on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Remove to rack to cool.
5. Whisk strawberry leftovers, confectioner's sugar into half and half, adding more sugar until desired consistency is reached. Frost scones while warm.
Makes 8 scones.

I also made strawberry cake for an after dinner treat. I also have enough for some strawberry shortcake too. Now watch, they will be allergic to strawberries. That would be my luck.

Vin rouge Bifteck mariné au prosciutto, fontina et basilic avec le Cabernet-échalote de réduction

I am so happy to be back in my kitchen and getting into the regular groove again. Last night I opened a wine that wasn't my favorite. So I poured it back in the bottle and decided I would make something for dinner tonight that used up the not so friendly wine that will be perfect for cooking, but not so perfect for drinking. I have a collection of 2 bottles now that I have done this with over the past week. Perfect. I will use that up no problem.  They had so many specials on steak this week I am totally set. Did I mention my grocery bill for the last several weeks has not topped $175. I am feeding anywhere from 8 to 10 people with this budget. My favorite special this Sunday was Strawberries. I am making a lot of Strawberry items this week because It was $2 for 4lbs of strawberries. Yum. Ok on to dinner:

Vin rouge Bifteck mariné au prosciutto, fontina et basilic avec le Cabernet-échalote de réduction
Translated: Red Wine Marinated Steak with Prosciutto, Fontina and Basil with Cabernet-Shallot Reduction

4 shallots, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry red wine, such as Cabernet
1/4 cup olive oil
2 pounds steak, trim off fat and butterfiled
Salt and pepper
1/4-pound thinly sliced bacon
1/4-pound thinly sliced fontina cheese
14 fresh basil leaves
Olive oil
Cabernet-Shallot Reduction, recipe follows

Directions
Whisk together shallots, wine and olive oil in a large baking dish. Add the steak and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Remove the steak from the marinade and blot with paper towels. Lay on a flat surface, cut side up, and season with salt and pepper. Cover the surface with the bacon slices, then top with the cheese and a layer of basil leaves.

Starting with the side facing you, tightly roll up the steak around the filling. Using kitchen string, tie the roll in 2 places.

Brush the outside of the steak with oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook steak in skillet over high heat until browned all over, 8 to 10 minutes. Turn the steak 4 times as it cooks. Put Steak in oven at 350 degrees 15 to 20 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 125 degrees F for medium-rare. Remove from the grill and let rest 5 minutes before slicing. Slice against the grain into 1/2-inch thick slices and drizzle with the Cabernet-Shallot Reduction.

Cabernet-Shallot Reduction:
2 teaspoons olive oil
3 shallots, finely chopped
1 bottle Cabernet wine
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
Salt
1 tablespoon honey
Heat oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the shallots and cook until soft. Add the wine and peppercorns, bring to a boil and cook until thickened and reduced to 1 cup. Strain the mixture into a bowl and season with salt, to taste, and honey.

Keep in mind that if you are feeding a crowd, which it seems I am always doing these days, you will want to double the recipe. It is wonderful served over garlic mashed potatoes. I also made my garlic, butter Broccoli. Have to have the greens.

Everyone said this is to be part of my regular meal rotation.

Poulet rôti au citron et aux herbes avec pommes de terre

Monday. Enough said. I got all my work done and set out to make dinner, but got distracted by a ton of things. One of which being my fridge. Yuck. I guess it has been a while since I cleaned it. Having teenagers around all the time, They do not tell me when they spill. An hour later I have a clean fridge and am ready to get started on dinner. I am going for:
Poulet rôti au citron et aux herbes avec pommes de terre (Lemon And Herb Roasted Chicken With Potatoes)

1 (4 to 5 pound) free-range chicken

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, halved
1/4 bunch each fresh rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano
1/4 cup olive oil
11/2 pounds potatoes
Directions
If using a reynolds oven bag Preheat the oven to 350.
If not Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Rinse the chicken with cool water, inside and out, and make sure to remove any giblets, neck etc... then pat it dry with paper towels. Season the cavity with salt and pepper, and then stuff the lemon, garlic, and herbs inside. Place the chicken, breast-side up, in a roasting pan. Toss the potatoes around the chicken. Season the whole thing with a fair amount of salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Roast the chicken and potatoes in around the chicken.

Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If you don't use an oven bag, don't forget to baste the chicken with the drippings and rotate the pan every 20 minutes or so to insure a golden crispy skin. If you use a bag, you don't have to do anything but wait. The chicken is done when an instant-read thermometer says 165 degrees F when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh (the legs of the chicken should wiggle easily from the sockets too.) Remove the chicken to a platter and let stand for 10 minutes, so the juices settle back into the meat before carving. Serve with the roasted potatoes on the side.
Easy, quick and yummy.

I also made lemon garlic green beans because they accompany this dish nicely. Green beans, garlic, lemon, butter and olive oil. Cook for 15- 20 minutes.

I also made strawberry shortcake

It was a hit. 8 teenagers tonight

They all loved it.

Even Taylor and Tots had 2nds. haha

Mother's Day

For Mother's day my kids and husband asked me what I wanted to do, where I wanted to eat...etc.. My reply was. "I want to get in my jammies, lay in bed and eat junk food while I watch tv." Guess what I am doing today! I have my night shirt on that says: "Mommy's taking a timeout". My daughter brought me a breakfast bagel with eggs, cheese, sausage (something I stay away from since it probably has all my daily calories in just that one meal). For lunch, my husband is bringing me Pei Wei Pad Thai. We will see if my stomache will be able to handle dinner. In the meantime, no new recipes today. I am taking the day off. Happy Mother's day to all the Mom's out there!

Cranky, time for cake

Have you ever had one of those days, weeks, months? Well today I had all of them combined. My day was actually good, just my body was achey and I don't feel well. I need comfort food. Sometimes it is the only thing that will do. I follow a cute blog http://fieldsofcake.blogspot.com/ I had yet to ever make one of her recipes. So I decided today was the day. I know I have to eat other things besides cake or I would end up feeling worse. My husband spent $90 on olive oil and balsamic vinegar last week at the farmers market. So I made some italian bread from scratch... good enough! But anyway, back to the cake... I adapted this recipe from the above blog. As always I changed it up. But the base idea is from her. Her cakes/cookies etc.. always look so amazing. So here is my attempt at her "cupcake that almost made her cry"... but my version of it of course.

First use:
1 (14-ounce) can NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Sweetened Condensed Milk
Pour sweetened condensed milk into top of double-boiler pan; cover. Place over boiling water. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 60 to 75 minutes, or until thick and light caramel-colored. Remove from heat. Beat until smooth I added chocolate chips, no nuts, to make chocolate caramel.

Make Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup cooled, strong coffee
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F In a large bowl, stir together the flour, 3/4 cup cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs, coffee, buttermilk and oil. Stir like crazy until smooth.. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 25 minutes. Cool

Caramel Ganache:

1 pkg. chewy Werthers caramels unwrapped and chopped into thirds
1 Cup cream
8 ounces dark chocolate chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
4 Tbsp. butter

Heat cream in medium heavy bottomed saucepan until boiling, turn heat to medium, add caramels and stir until completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat, add chocolate and carefully stir until smooth, add butter in 4 additions stirring until smooth.


Vanilla Buttercream
1/2 lb. unsalted butter (softened)
1 stick salted butter (softened)
1/2 pkg. french vanilla instant pudding mix (a cheat, I know, but I was in a hurry and it rocks!)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup (or more to suit your tastes) powdered sugar

In mixer set on medium speed, beat the butter until smooth and silky. Turn the speed to low and add the pudding mix, when it is all incorporated, slowly add the cream, a little at a time. When fully incorporated bring speed up to high and beat for 5-7 minutes. Turn speed back down to low and add powdered sugar, continue beating until fluffy.

To assemble, you cut a cone out of the center of each cupcake. Then fill it with the chocolate caramel. I topped with a chocolate chip.

Then I topped the cupcakes with the buttercream and the caramel chocolate ganache.

According to Taylor, the best cupcake she ever had.

Taylor and Kelsey had 2.

HOLY Cannolis

I have never had a Cannolis before. It is usually something I see on the dessert tray at a fancy restaurant that I plan to order, but then am too full by the time the dessert tray comes around. So I decided to make them. I bought these cannoli forms a while back and this is my first chance to use them. Nifty little tools. I did learn you gotta take extra care and make sure the dough is on their firm, or it opens like a taco instead of a tube.

For the shells I adapted several recipes and came up with this:
Ingredients

1 1/3 cups flour
1 tablespoon shortening
1 pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
white wine (chardonnay)

Directions

Mix together flour, shortening, salt and sugar.
Add enough wine to make a stiff but workable dough.

Roll dough into a ball and let it stand for about 1 hour.
Roll dough out 1/8 inch thick.
Cut rolled dough into 5x5 inch squares.
Place a cannoli tube across dough square on an angle (from top left corner to bottom right corner).

wrap one corner around the tube, then the other (which should overlap the first).
Press together to seal seam.
Fry in deep fat, one at a time, until deep golden brown.
Carefully remove fried cannoli shell from tube.
Cool completely before filling.

For the filling:
2 cups Ricotta Inpastata cheese
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons rum
1/2 pound semisweet chocolate, melted

Directions

In a mixing bowl, whisk the cheese, sugar, vanilla and rum. Mix well. Fill a pastry bag with the cheese mixture. Fill each cannoli shell with about 1/4 cup of the filling. Line a baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper. Dip each end of the cannoli in the melted chocolate. Drizzle chocolate over the remaining middle.

Here is my daughter enjoying the Cannoli

Ravioli alla Carbonara

I love Carbonara, but I wanted to do something different. So I decided to make it in Ravioli form. Made my pasta dough using 4 cups flour, 5 eggs and 1 TB olive oil. Put in the handy
kitchenaid mixer

I roll out the noodles with my kitchenaid pasta roller

Then I cooked up bacon, cutting it into 1 inch pieces. I didn't have pancetta on hand, but had a lot of bacon.

Cook it until it is brown. This picture it is not fully cooked yet.

I put 4 eggs, 2 cups freshly grated parmesan, 1/4 cup whipping cream in a bowl and mixed in the bacon.

Then I filled each ravioli:

For the sauce I used the same egg/cheese/bacon but added 1/4 cup white wine and 1/4 cup butter. Sprinkle it with fresh trimmed basil leaves.
YUMMY!

This is by far my favorite Ravioli I have ever had. I am going to make it a staple in this house.

Brioches à la cannelle CARAMEL

Tonight for dinner I made steak with a Bernaise sauce and some sweet corn on the cob with butter, salt, lime, and cholula.
For the steak, I tenderized the Tbones that I had bought on special at Vons Sunday.
 Then I sprinkled them with basil salt that I bought at williams and sonoma a while back, it is good stuff. I tenderized it then I waited for them to come to room temperature.

I am not reposting my bernaise recipe. It is on the blog already and it is simple to make. When it came time to eat I had Randy throw them on the grill to everyone's liking. He likes his rare rare rare and I like mine medium. Jordan wants his to almost be burnt.

For the corn: I learned from reading Bobby Flay's book to never remove the husks from corn on the cob. Instead you Pull the outer husks down the near to the base. Strip away the silk from each ear of corn by hand. Fold husks back into place Place the ears of corn in a large bowl of cold water with 1 tablespoon of salt for 10 minutes or until ready to put on the grill.

Take out of water and shake off any excess. Pull back husks put some butter on the corn and salt, pepper and any other spices. Close the husks and tie the ends together with kitchen string. Remove corn from water and shake off excess.and place the corn on the grill,

close the cover and grill for 15-20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes, or until kernels are tender when pierced with a paring knife. Remove the husks and eat on the cob.



I also made my cheesey Garlic rolls.

I love my nifty garlic tool I have. It is called the garlic zoom. it is under $10 and I use it every day. Because a day without garlic does not exist for me. It is just another way to mince your garlic, it works fast and it is fun to use. I just smash my garlic with a cup ( i never use the large knife way of smashing, i just know one day I would cut myself so I stick with a cup). Then i put in all the garic cloves in the zoom

and roll it like a car a few times. Then Presto! It minces a whole head of garlic in 10 seconds.

Since I obviously was not going for a weightloss meal, I went ahead and made my caramel cinnamon rolls as well. I figured the kids can take the leftover rolls to school. I have been making these rolls for my kids since they were really little. It used to be a tradition that I would make them on Christmas eve and let them rise overnight and in the morning we would take them to Grandma Terry and Grandpa Rogers house to eat while we open gifts.

Brioches à la cannelle CARAMEL

4 ½ tsp yeast
1 c. warm water
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. shortening
1 tsp. salt
1 c. boiling water
1 egg
6 c. flour
----
Sugar
Cinnamon
butter

CARAMEL TOPPING:
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter
1 tbsp. corn syrup
2 tbsp. milk

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Cream sugar, shortening and salt. Add boiling water and beat well. Add egg and beat again. Add yeast and beat. Gradually add 6 cups of flour, stirring with spoon. Let stand 1 hour and form into rolls. If you have a bread machine, you can simply add all the ingredients in the order given and run on the dough cycle.

Roll dough into a rectangle.

Spread with butter, sugar and lots of cinnamon. Cut into 12 rolls. Put  rolls into a large lasagne pan.
Before pacing rolls in pans, pour caramel on top.

Let rise for 1 hour.
Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown.

Many styles of Caprese

Today was a great day. Mondays can be hard, a lot of work to be done, since the biz is closed every weekend it makes Monday mornings a lot busier than any other day. However, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed by 8am, hit work hard and was able to cook up a storm tonight. I am not posting the recipes. I can tell you I made a Caprese dinner, and a salad. However, HOW I do it... that is another story. Every good cook keeps their secrets.

I have to say, a highlight of my day... Devon came over and brought me a present for NO REASON. I haven't posted it on here, but I have been not feeling so well all weekend. Devon went to the local street fair on Sunday where she bought me an apron that says: " Wine is the answer, but I forgot the question" I LOVE IT!!!! I put it right on and started my cooking. Thank you Devon! Now I gotta find a gift to give you for no reason at all. =)

Back in the saddle again!

I just got done clipping my coupons for the week. It seems like it has been FOREVER! Feels good to be back in the saddle again. Grocery shopping day is Sunday of course. I am happy to announce that I do not have a Pet Industry event for 2 weeks. It is a much needed break, because after that we have one at least every other week!  I am really looking forward to doing the Temecula food and wine festival though. I have attended so many food and wine events in my life, but I have never been a vendor at one! I am looking forward to it!

So since I will have a break from work, I plan on getting some sun and surf in, and doing lots of cooking. Stay tuned!