Saturday, December 27, 2008

english scones

the finished scones. semi-sweet chocolate chip and craisins.
scones pre-bake with cream and sugar on top so that they'll be shiny. oooo shiny. craisin scones before cream/sugar cut the square into eight triangle shaped scones with a bench scraper.
shape dough into a square with the bench scraper.
mix dough lightly until just combined. don't over mix.
dump cream and eggs onto counter over the flour mixture
mix flour and stuff together on counter. get butter out of freezer/fridge. cut into pea sized pieces and mix with flour mixture. then mix in your choice of additive (usually choc chips, craisins, blueberries, cinnamon sugar balls (where can i get these? i love these!))
based loosely on this recipe (oh, martha)

Thursday, December 25, 2008

happy christmas!

i miss everyone i'm not currently with. especially you. you know who you are.
ps yes, i changed the picture...

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

best foods 2008

i stole this idea from another food blog....

  • sushi from osaka. if you like sushi, this place is sushtastic! they have the best buffet ever! they also usually have papaya which is one of the best fruits ever.
  • steak from abuelo's (papas anyone?)
  • hummus from deliman's grill
  • taramasalata from various hoity toity stores (i love you whole foods!)
  • bubble tea and dumplings from pho bistro (sadly the one near me shut down)
  • blue buffalo for the beasts (grain-free)
  • steak something and garlic bread from salerno's
  • diet limeade from sonic (gotta work the happy hour!)
  • corn casserole and sweet potatoes from thanksgiving
  • pretzels (toot toot!)
  • judy's snicker cookies in pittsburgh
  • la duni (everything!)
  • eat zi’s
  • prawns from empress of china
  • Lobster chops (with scallops!) from … red lobster (hangs head)
  • Jelly coconuts (every year)
  • nick’s pizza
  • beef and lemongrass noodles in houston at "Pho Something"
  • wild wing cafĂ© in houston
  • marble slabbery
  • vegas buffets (I wish they had some here… 19 bucks for all that and soda and dessert? Sign me up!) prime rib, sea bass, alaskan king crab legs, lychee fruit, dessert … mmmmm
  • fajitas, guacamole and flan at my vovo’s party (not all at the same time)
  • buffalo burgers from central market
  • jager schnitzel and fries with gravy and cheese (!) from max's allegheny tavern in pittsburgh

Thursday, December 18, 2008

happy christmas

the infamous scones. here they are.... enjoy! these are on their way to jim jam. chocolate chip english scones. matt says, "why do they like them so much?" i don't know matt, i don't know.

Monday, December 15, 2008

pretty pretty pretzels

red pepper flakes and sea salt. classy.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

turkaay

we had an excellent thanksgiving (barring the dog trouble). we went to houston where we had cajun turkey and other wonderful things jane and robyn made. most notably the corn casserole (i've never had it before) and the sweet potato casserole. it was all good and everyone seemed to like my desserts. we ended up taking some pumpkin rolls and some carrot cake balls with us to houston. we had fun with robyn and mike's kids too... michaela (matt's 4 year-old niece) had a bit of a cold and an adorable cold accent. we were talking about halloween at one point, she was a princess pretty princess and she said nadja (matt's older niece) was a scary "manpower." i couldn't figure out what that meant and she insisted i was saying the wrong word over and over. i was in agreement but i couldn't think of what she was saying. i finally figured out she was saying vampire. and then i made her say "manpower" a few more times because it made me giggle. "wait you were a vampire and nadja was a princess?" "no! i was not a manpower!" (or mad cow depending on where your imagination took you). she also told me that nadja was six, i think she made this executive decision because she obviously doesn't have 12 fingers.

besides the delicious foods, we got to see a christmas carol and hang out with dafne (gotta find the silver lining). it was really fun and ended waaaay too quickly. jane sent us home with a turkey that i cooked the day after we got home because it was already defrosting on the way home. i made stuffing and gravy, above you can see an entire turkey two containers of gravy and two containers of stuffing. we've been eating leftovers all week and they are wonderful. i looooove turkey and gravy and stuffing!!! yay!

we came home saturday to my vovo's housewarming party slash katie's graduation party. my mother took care of all the dogs while we were away (thanks!) and had a very full house with my brother and his wife, tiffany, staying through the holiday (tiffany had to leave friday so we missed her). at the party we had fajitas from christina's, a lot of neighbors, and a lot of family (my dad was the bartender). we also got to play catch phrase with my brother, sister and her two friends. my team, jimmy, me and jon, won(of course!). matt's team with katie and tiffany brothers lost!!! neener neener! all in all the whole holiday was fun, fabulous and fast. we packed in as much as we could, thank goodness we were done with our colds!

Friday, December 5, 2008

scarf

so, dafne needed a scarf, her neck is all shaved because of the ouchies. and she's just so cute. i think the color really brings out her eyes. can you tell she hates it? after this picture, she climbed on my lap and stared at me, no doubt using her formidable mind powers and subtly whined until i removed the offending material. she doesn't mind when we're outside in the winterness surprisingly. at least her neck is small, i don' know how people make blankets!