Weeknight Baking // Cranberry Orange Scones

 

The hidden benefit of being stuck at home in the evenings for Roger's 6pm bedtime, is that on nights when I used to be busy with church, I get some me-time. I do miss going to the evening services with Dave, but I can't tell a lie, the solo time has been W O N D E R F U L. 

Last night I put on some comfy clothes, threw on some Needtobreathe, and sang along as I made scones. The recipe I used as a base for all that precise, leavening-and-fat-and-flour-ratio business uses fresh raspberries and all purpose flour, but I am almost out of regular flour so I mixed in whole wheat like no big deal. And we had no raspberries, so, I improvised, and I think it worked out.

R E C I P E

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Cranberry Orange Whole Wheat Scones

Adapted from Martha Stewart's "Fast Raspberry Scones" (which I am addicted to making!)

I N G R E D I E N T S

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1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) frozen unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup buttermilk

1 large egg yolk

3/4 cup dried cranberries

The zest of one orange (about a tablespoon), divided

M E T H O D

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Preheat oven to 400. In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/3 cup of the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or use your hands to pinch the butter into the flour until pea-sized pieces form. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, half of the orange zest, and egg yolk. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the buttermilk mixture into it a little at a time, folding the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until dough just comes together. 

Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and roll it out to about 1 inch thick. Press cranberries firmly into the dough and sprinkle remaining orange zest over the top. Fold dough in half and roll it back down to 1 inch, then fold and roll one more time. Gather and pat dough into a 1-inch-thick square (if you care about cutting uniform scones, which I obviously didn't) and cut squares or triangles out to form your scones. Place pieces, about 1 inch apart, on a large parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle tops with 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake until golden brown, 12-16 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through. Let scones cool slightly on wire racks. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These little dudes would taste magical with lemon curd or maple butter. Or just eat them as is. I ate about 3 of them for breakfast this morning.

If I had more time I would have used the juice from the orange I zested and mixed it with confectioner's sugar to be a finishing glaze. Maybe next time.

a day in the life

Yesterday I had a pretty typical Tuesday as a nanny to four, mother to one. My day began long before dawn, with the welcome refreshing of a shower after a night of pee and spit up and baby sweat all over me (my baby is a sleep-sweater. Maybe that's why he wants to nurse all night long: to keep hydrated.) Weekdays must begin around 5:30am if I want to make any semblance of effort with preparing myself (and not just Roger) for the day ahead. I have officially become a morning person, because of how much better I feel when I give myself time to be by rising earlier.

Roger had a crabby start to the morning, which was no surprise given his restless night, but I was still able to make myself open-faced egg sandwiches with sharp cheddar, sriracha salt, and chives... Somehow. The details are fuzzy on what was occupying my baby while I cooked that miracle breakfast.

Then off to work, fighting Roger into his car seat (which he has decided to hate again.) Once at the house where I nanny, Roger becomes the happiest chap you ever met because he's with all his BFFs and you'd never know he had such a rough night.

The day zooms by. Really, my days never drag. With two babies, a toddler, and two "big boys," I have plenty to occupy the hours. 

5pm, I struggle against my little anti-car-seatist until he submits to the straps and buckles and it's homeward we go.

After parking in the driveway, I gather a fair amount of garbage and dirty dishes left in the van by a certain tall, bearded man I know, and rescue Mr. Grumpy from his evil car seat and head inside.

So here's the hidden gem of my day: I walk in the door and as I ascend the steps of our duplex, I am greeted by the smell of cooking aromatics with that distinctly savory tang that means someone used fish sauce (my favorite thing that is nasty on its own but completely necessary for umami in certain dishes.) I think, ok, could be from the neighbor's kitchen, which often emits the lovely scents of their cooking (they are fellow foodies), but could be ours. Don't get your hopes up, Libby. Be happy with any effort on Dave's part and don't hold him to unreal expectations.

I open the door, hand Roger to his daddy for hellos, and after I complain and nag to Dave for a full minute about the trash and dishes I had just brought in with me from the car, I look at the table and realize he had made Thai-style turkey cabbage wraps (I posted the recipe on my old blog a while back). Hence the smell. Instant guilt. Haha. 

Sometimes I have to let go of making my points. Even when I've asked him specifically not to do something, maybe multiple times, I still can and should season my words to (and my thoughts about) him with an underlying belief that he is awesome. Because he is. He's just not perfect.

He serves me my dumplings with their spicy dipping sauce and casually says there's dessert too. [ok maybe he is perfect.] I'm crumbling the insides of a turkey dumpling onto Roger's high chair tray while he giddily stuffs his little face, and I'm like, "Huh? Did you make a dessert too!? What did you make?"

"It's just strawberries." But he has a tone. A Norwegian tone; the extra dry kind that us non-Scandinavians have to be extra attentive to catch. I didn't really catch it myself, I just thought he was acting a lot less excited than he normally would be for having cooked a great meal for us. He says a few more dismissive things about the strawberries, gets them out and a tub of what I thought was yogurt, and then, all coy-like, he pulls out a container [hidden] from the top shelf of the pantry with H O M E M A D E   B I S C U I T S inside. 

Yes. He baked. And the yogurt container had fresh whipped cream, made by him, inside. And the strawberries were macerated and ready to go. Out of nowhere: strawberry shortcake!

David, you sly dog.

So I was pretty much the happiest wife and mama in the world for that dinner hour. David even did the dishes afterwards, while I put our cranky boy to bed. 

Some days start out mundane and end in magic. I'm in a good place when I can see the beauty of my life in the midst of it.

He'll grow out of it

Nothing like getting about Z E R O sleep on a Monday night. My little almost-10-month-old made sure of that. Especially fun part of the night: the 3am nursing session where his diaper went past capacity and I could feel the hot pee soaking through his jammies onto yours truly. Of course, he then promptly fell asleep. So I pulled out some motherly super power and managed to change him out of his soiled diaper and footies and into fresh ones all while holding him asleep as a coma patient. Then I laid him in his crib, and... "WHAHHH!"

It's just not fair.

At least he is cute. Very, very cute.

Recipe: Double Duty Roasted Chicken

I took an unintentional break from blogging in January. It was more than likely due to the six New Years resolutions I was undertaking. And as arduous as such a commitment may seem, it has been mostly good. A catalyst for much life improvement! In one resolution though, I have really floundered: meal planning. I'm redoubling my efforts, however, and so since I am also redoubling my efforts to blog regularly, why not do both at once?

Typically, I forget to plan the week's meals on the weekend when I'm actually free, because hey, I like to chillax. This is a problem. Because I get home from work around the same time as Dave on weeknights, and we are often both already "hangry" before one of us even opens the fridge or Dave asks me what's for dinner (a question whose presumption never fails to irk me.) For the sake of our health and the economy of our food budget, I haven't stocked processed/easy meals in a while, except the rare frozen pizza for those nights when we're not even going to kid ourselves that we have time to cook. What we have is whole foods and pantry staples. Almost always, if we are in the desperate, post-work-day, need-dinner-now state, the only quick thing to make is eggs. So it's really refreshing for everyone when we not only have a plan, but we have all the ingredients ready, and part of the work done.

I give you... the dual-purpose dinner. For example, I had foresight this weekend and made a venison pot roast. Tonight Dave used the broth/juices to make a gravy, added it back in to the meat and veggies and added some peas. I made a double pie crust to put it in and baked that pot pie to perfection. (Yay for spousal team work in the kitchen!) Pot pies are amazing; it's pie, FOR DINNER. Yes, please. (I will be posting my recipe for that dual-purpose dinner sometime soon.)

Right now I'd like to share my dual-dinner go-to for winter (which is sadly still upon us. Yes, even I get sick of winter when March rolls around.) Part I: Roasted Chicken. Part II: Chicken and Homemade Noodle Soup + "Roughage" 

T H E  P L A N

•On Sunday, you roast your bird. 

Take a whole chicken (about 4-5 lb.) and rub it all over and under the skin of the breast with a mix of your favorite seasonings and 2-4 tbsp softened butter. That herby/spicy/salty butter is going to make your chicken sing.

Roast it uncovered with about a cup of liquid in the bottom of the pan (water, broth, white wine, etc.) at 300°F for about 3 hours, basting in the liquid about once or twice an hour. It's done when the chicken registers at 165°F in the deepest part of the breast.

•Sunday night dinner: Half of your roasted chicken, plus the crispy wings and legs, served with sides of your choice (like mashed sweet potatoes and pan-seared Brussels sprouts.)

•Strip the remaining meat off the chicken. Store in fridge for tomorrow.

•Save bones (and neck/giblets if you like) in a ziplock in the freezer. Once you have 2-3 chicken carcasses in there you can make your own stock! We use the necks/giblets in our stock, so it's more of a hybrid stock/broth, but it's really good.

•Monday night- you have half a chicken worth of ready-made, juicy, tender meat! The dinner uses are endless: chicken salad, mixed green salad with chicken, chicken tacos, fajitas, or burrito bowls, chicken fried rice, or, my favorite: soup!

And now, my Frankenstein's monster of a soup recipe—borrowing from several sources to make one happy pot of soup.

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R E C I P E

Homemade Chicken Noodle + "Roughage" Soup 

I N G R E D I E N T S

1 batch fresh egg noodles (I like this recipe)

1 tbsp olive oil 

2 yellow onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced 

5-6 medium carrots (about 2/3 lb), peeled and chopped

Meat from 1/2 a roasted chicken, cut into chunks

2 quarts chicken stock (may need more depending on how many noodles/veggies you use)

2 bay leaves

2 tbsp herbes de provence (a blend of thyme, fennel, savory, basil, and lavender)

1/2 tsp smoked paprika 

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Roughage of choice: spinach, peas, kale, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, etc., be creative!

Optional: lemon wedges and/or Sriracha, a quality loaf of bread (for dipping) 

M E T H O D

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot, on medium/high heat, until shimmering. Add onions and cook until softened and slightly transparent, stirring occasionally. Next add garlic and stir for about 1 min, until fragrant. Add carrots, chicken, stock, bay leaves, herbes de provence, paprika, and salt & pepper (to taste.) Depending on what roughage you're adding, put veggies on the more firm end of the spectrum in sooner, and more delicate veggies like leafy greens you should save for the last few minutes of cooking. Bring soup to a low boil, adding your heartier roughage and cooking for about 6 min, until veggies are just shy of tender. Add the noodles straight into the soup, along with any delicate greens you're using, like spinach, and cook for another 3-5 min. The soup is done when the noodles and vegetable are tender but not mushy - remove bay leaves before serving. Enjoy immediately, served with a squeeze of lemon or, my favorite, a swirl of Sriracha, and a slice of crusty bread to soak up every drip of broth.

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So that's my secret weapon of meal planning. What double-duty meals are on your regular rotation? I'd love to get more versatile recipes in my arsenal, if you care to share.