Ode to Vermont and Canada

I'm so not feeling the Christmas spirit this year. I want a shirt that says, "Bah. Humbug." However, the bright sunny morning cheered me a little and I decided to celebrate the first day of me not checking my Blackberry all day with some scones.  Not just any scones -- maple-glazed pumpkin scones to be exact. I wanted to make these over Thanksgiving, but a family emergency kept me from my kitchen most of my time off.

You've seen the scone recipe before, so let's get to it. It starts pretty much the same; pulse dry ingredients in the food processor.  Add cold butter.

Here's the departure:  make Trader's Joe's Pumpkin Butter your friend. Y'all might even be best friends after this :-)

Mix it into the cream really well. Instead of a full cup of cream, I used 3/4 C. Add the cream to the flour mixture. 

CI has you do this by hand, I just added mine to Miracle and pulsed until it formed a dough.

                                     

Now comes the messy part. Dump the dough on the counter. Knead very gently to incorporate all the dry bits. Form a ball or two, depending on how you will shape your scones.

I made two balls because I used a 6" cake pan so I could have mini scones.

Press the dough into the pan.

Invert.

Slice (do a better job than I did.) Remember to press straight down. I'll show you what happens later when you don't.

I did better on the second round.

I started with refrigerated instead of my usual frozen butter, so I parked these in the refrigerator while I took a bacon detour. 

I did say MAPLE pumpkin scones. No way I was going to have a hot oven, maple syrup on the counter and bacon in the refrigerator without making maple-glazed bacon again.

Back to the scones.  I heated some butter and maple syrup together.

I gave the scones a beautiful brush-on tan and to the oven they went.

Here's what I got.

Absolutely delicious! The texture was closer to a biscuit or even cake. I prefer my scones on the drier side, but the flavor made up for the break with tradition. The pumpkin butter was pretty sweet, so I would knock out some of the sugar when I try these again. The maple syrup kept the outside of the scones from getting hard, so next time, I'll make half with the glaze on before baking and put the glaze on the other half after baking to see which I like best. 

With Teavana's English Breakfast Tea, these made a wonderful morning treat. On a side note, here's another vote for Silpat -- the burnt syrup just flakes off. Easy cleanup.

Remember my note to press straight down when cutting? Here's what happens when you don't. He's all crooked :-( I'm working on a granite counter, so I use my bench scraper to cut dough. Moving to a cutting board so I can use my knives is too much work. And even still, I think it's just the way I cut and lack of wrist strength. I sometimes have lopsided biscuits too.

Tools of the trade

• Kitchenaid Food Processor
• Wilton Cake 6" Deep Pan
• 2-Cup Pyrex Measuring Cup
• Silpat
• OXO Pastry Brush
• OXO Bench Scraper

"Unofficial" Pasta Cabonara

One would think that since I haven't made anything blog-worthy in a while, the "come back" dish would be a sophisticated, technically-difficult something.  Well sorry, Charlie.  I'm at the point where I hang out in my sewing space until I'm so hungry that when I go to the kitchen, I eat the first thing I see. I've gotten away from meal planning.

Two handfuls of Craisins later, I decided on pasta cabonara – my way.  If I'd bothered to look up a recipe, I would have realized that I wasn't too far from the real thing. However you make it, it is simple and delicious.

Let's do it. You'll need some al dente spaghetti. I mix regular with whole wheat. Boil the whole wheat for two minutes by itself and then add the regular spaghetti.

While the pasta boils, fry up some bacon. I'm rolling with turkey bacon.  Doesn't that look great?

Try not to eat too much as you chop it up.  I was proud of myself – I only had a small pinch. Excuse the blur.

Beat an egg.

The following is not an exciting picture, but it's what I have to show for the next steps.  Take a ladle of your hot pasta water and warm a mixing bowl.  Pour the water out and get ready to move quickly. This may not be necessary, but this is the way I do it. (I don't want to lose any heat.)

Add the egg to the warm bowl and get the hot pasta in there.

Toss the pasta & egg and watch the magic.  First it gets frothy.

Bacon!!

If I were following a recipe, I'd add chopped garlic sautéed in bacon drippings. Since I didn't do that, my next step is to add plenty of black pepper, Italian seasoning and Parmesan. (This was an on-the-fly meal; I didn’t have any fresh parsley.)

Let us pause to thank Italy for its contribution to food.

I mean earnestly thank the Italians.

I leave you now to ponder the goodness of bacon, eggs and pasta.

Tools of the Trade

• All-Clad Asparagus Pot
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• Shun Santoku
• Glass mixing bowls

Redemption

Warning: This is a long post.

Space

For many years, I've lived in fear that someone would come and snatch my Southern card. My shameful secret was that I could not properly maintain cast iron nor could I make biscuits. I could hear Paula Deen and many an unnamed black cook from back in the day making their way to my front door. No amount of sweet tea and fried catfish could save me. Most recently, I had my Negroness questioned because I don't know how to play bid whist, but that's another story. (I stand on the fact no one under 40 knows how to play bid.)

I digress. Lodge threw me lifeline years ago with their pre-seasoned cast iron. To date, I've only messed up one pan and that's because I was using it for something I should've picked another pan for and then I forgot it was in the oven. It was a 6" skillet, so I'm mot even worried. As long as the 8" (cornbread) and 10" (fried catfish and chicken) are okay, I'm cool.

When I bought my pieces, the brand was Lodge Logic. It has become so popular that Lodge stopped making unseasoned cast iron altogether. I think Lodge dropped the Logic brand name and just made the line its entry-level product. I know, too much marketing for a cooking blog. Hey, I do live in both worlds.

Now to the biscuits. For those who live in the South and have been graced by Bojangles, it is the standard to which I hold all biscuits. Even Sunny Anderson had to give it up for the Bo'. These are the fluffiest melt-in-your-mouth biscuits you will ever taste. Back in day in Little Rock, you could get one of these biscuits sliced in half with a spicy chicken breast in the middle. Oh my damn. (And yes, it was way better than the Chic-Fil-A version.) Sometimes, I got a plain biscuit with cheese. Yum.

After many failed attempts, today I achieved biscuit perfection! I can hold my head high as a woman of the South and go back to longer vowels and dropping the g off words! This is truly a momentous occasion. What a wonderful birthday present to myself. I'd like to thank Cook's Illustrated, White Lilly Flour and wherever I read that biscuits needed to be cut thick.

Walk with me now ...

This recipe is from Baking Illustrated. I'll give you some helpful hints along the way. First, start with a food processor. (This was Miracle's first showing in our new home.) Dump in all your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. The sugar surprised me. I figured it was thrown in for moisture and browning. Pulse the stuff a few times to aerate and mix everything well.

A note about flour. White Lilly is the way to go. CI recommended half cake flour and half AP. The AP was for a crisp crust. Who in the hell wants a crisp crust?!! I think that's pure Yankee foolishness or as my quite foolish co-worker would put it, dancing for French fries (don't ask.)

While you're assembling your dry team, preheat the oven and put the buttermilk and flour in the freezer. I like these to be extra cold. Warm biscuit dough, like warm pie dough is not a good look at all. Go ahead and flour your board too.

Cut the butter into cubes. (I always use a bench scraper for this.) Distribute evenly on top of the flour mixture. Toss the cubes in the flour to help keep them from clumping together.

Take everything for spin via a few quick pulses. That looks perfect.

Pour the buttermilk evenly over the top. Pulse it just until you get some clumps. Gluten is the enemy here. Over mixing will give you some tough, chewy biscuits. Dump everything on your board and bring it together as quickly and gently as you can.

I wanted to shape the dough by hand (this had nothing to do with the fact I had no idea where my rolling pins were.) The recipe yield was 12, which certainly calls for more surface area than I had here.

Move quickly! You do not want the butter to melt. My dough was getting warm by the second re-rolling and cutting. For the third pass, I just picked up the scraps and shaped them. Yeah. These are some thick, country biscuits. I can hear folks miles away looking for some sausage gravy!

Y'all know I discriminate against dark-skinned baked goods. These were probably pulled too early for most folks, but this was perfect for me. This also makes sure they don't get too brown when I reheat them. If I had the butter to spare, I would've brushed the hot tops with melted butter.

Something told me this was going to be a triumphant biscuit day, so I rocked some maple glazed turkey bacon and turkey sausage with scrambled eggs. The meat was easy; I cooked it in the oven on the baking stone.

Lightly oil a skillet. Place the bacon and sausage in it. I added a little extra oil to sausage. I made sure my links were well coated. Slather the bacon with maple syrup. Coat the sausage evenly with the syrup. Place on a hot baking stone. Turn the sausage periodically for even browning.

Look at what cha get.

Now that's a breakfast! My Daddy would be proud, as would my biscuit and syrup eatin' uncles. I'm a purist. Unless it's a biscuit sandwich, all I want on mine is butter. Syrup, jelly and gravy (especially gravy) are gross.

And yes, that's sunlight streaming through my kitchen. How happy am I?
Tools of the trade:

• KitchenAid Food Processor
• OXO Bench Scraper
• All-Clad 8" Fry Pan
• Biscuit Cutters

Quickly Impressive

I have a love-hate relationship with salad. I love to buy the pricey ones at restaurants. I hate it when for weeks on end I buy salad greens only to let them rot in the refrigerator. I don't know what it is, but I have the best of intentions when I buy salad greens, but my good intentions rarely lead me to refrigerator to make a salad before the greens go bad.

I've done better this last time around. The greens were in the crisper for a week before I made my first salad and they hadn't gone bad! Now when I'm in the mood to make a salad, I have a couple of killer ones. One is apple and bacon, the other is citrus. I'm working my way up to a fennel version. I also have one I learned to make salad with halloumi and grapes, but that's another post. Salad is really simple, but in a flash can be a real show stopper. This is the bacon apple salad.

Wash and spin dry your greens. If you are the epitome of lazy like me, grab a few handfuls of greens rinse them and blot with paper towels. A note on salad greens: I hate iceberg lettuce, unless I'm at a steak house and someone has drowned it in blue cheese. I prefer the dark greens, which are actually better for you. I get down on watercress, baby spinach and baby arugula too. Baby arugula is my favorite. I love its peppery bite. Oh yeah. I like Bibb lettuce too.

I digress. You'll need a crisp apple. For salad, I tend to go for any variety other than Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith. Grab some pecans, dried cranberries, fresh parsley, fresh mint and blue cheese.

A couple of slices of cooked bacon would be nice too. This is turkey bacon.

Let's make the dressing. I don't measure anything. I use the mini bowl in Miracle. Throw in a little Dijon mustard (it makes the dressing creamy so you don't have to use so much oil.) Honey, salt, pepper and cider vinegar round out the party. I really, really wished I had a shallot, but no luck. I don't like garlic with this salad.

Take everything for a spin. Once everything is well mixed, leave the food processor running and drizzle in the oil. You can see when you've added enough oil because the dressing will be creamy. The ratio for acid to oil is 3:1, but you can cheat this because of the mustard and honey.

Now, get ready for assembly. I really like this salad in layers. Finely chop the parsley and mint. I have braces, so I have to chop the pecans too. Chop the bacon.

Dress the greens. I keep it simple. I pile the greens on a plate and add a couple of tablespoons of dressing. I mix it up with my hands. I sprinkle the chopped herbs next. The dressing helps the herbs stick. For some reason, I like the herbs in the salad instead of in the salad dressing. Sprinkle on the dried cranberries and blue cheese.

Slice the apple and arrange it on the salad. I know mine is not quite neat. If you have any apple left over, rub the cut side with the salad dressing or cider vinegar and wrap in plastic wrap. Top the salad with bacon and pecans. Drizzle with extra salad dressing.

Yum! Yum!

Tools of the trade:

• Oxo Salad Spinner
• Shun Sankoku
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• KitchenAid Food Processor