Cheddar Scones

Last time I talked about an exciting fondue night for which I made Angel Food (Cup)cake. Unfortunately, it got rainchecked and I ended up with all these ingredients - two huge bags of white and sharp cheddar and of course the angel food cake and bread. Solution? Like a good girl I brought it all to my parents house and the angel food cake simply evaporated. Even on the second or third day, if you keep it refrigerated, it maintains its texture perfectly for about a day and then slowly gets a little wetter though it retains its tastyness for up to 4 days (I haven't checked beyond that). The bread I brought back got eaten as bread does but the cheese posed a problem...almost.

Saturday brunch has always been a big meal in this family. We sit down together under a bright sunny skylight and eat cheeses, eggs, or anything else that strikes our fancy. One of my mom's best brunch recipes is for these savory scones. You can put anything in them and they always comes out flaky, filling, delicious, and never too fatty or soggy or dry. They're this beautifully balanced thing. So this morning a whole bag of cheddar went in and here is what came out.

The recipe as she described it was as follows:
2 Cups flour
1.25 Cups heavy cream
nearly a table spoon of baking powder
Salt to taste
And of course any kind of cheese, vegetable, or flavor you desire

Ingredients are mixed together and kneaded by hand, folding the dough over on itself as often as you have patience in order to produce that flaky texture. Warning! This dough is going to be tough, you will sweat. Roll out the dough into about 1/2 inch thickness and cut into squares. Bake at 400 F for 10-15 minutes. I believe she made about 18-24 of these.

Now you might wonder how long these guys keep. Clearly they're best right out of the oven but they aren't super dry on the next day either. Unfortunately, things like this really aren't meant to survive for more than 24 hours and in this house they usually don't, so I'm not sure how long till they actually go bad, but past 48 hours they just aren't the same.

I promise to post a more precise recipe once I have a chance to get my hands dirty and make a batch.

Angel Food (Cup)Cake

Alright, so tomorrow is one of my weekly-ish game nights. It's gonna be some risky business with a lovely game of Risk which, coincidentally, was put off last time due to food business. So this time we are making food business simple, fast, and really fun for the group. Therefore I'm setting up a fondue night!
Now you might think "oh no, I have no fondue pot". I've been thinking this for most of the day, but that's not a big problem. You get a double boiler or a bowl sitting comfortably on a pot and use that instead of the fondue pot. To keep things warm a little longer keep everything assembled when you bring it out. Plus, if it needs more heating, it's easy enough to stick it back on the stove for a couple minutes.

Now I know that's not a very fancy way to present the food but alas I am a poor college dummy who happened to get rid of the only fondue pot she ever owned.

Enough on that though, tonight I'm just focusing on prepping for tomorrow. The cheese fondue is simple with some veggie, apples, hot dogs, and bread dippers. For the dessert portion there will clearly be berries and banana, but I also wanted to have angel food cake. It's light and sweet and requires only egg whites. Oh wait, that last one sucks. So here are some improvements.

First off try to really estimate how much people will be eating. With everything else that I have going on tomorrow and a fairly small crowd of about 5-8 people I figure I don't need much. So I took a basic recipe and halved it.

Basic Recipe:
12 egg whites from large eggs
1.5 cups sugar (split in two)
1 cup flour
1.5 tspn cream of tartar
vanilla/almond extract (tspn or so)
Baked at 375 F for 20-30 minutes

What I used:
6 egg whites
~3/4 cups sugar
0.5 cup flour
little more than 0.5 tspn cream of tartar
and I eye balled some vanilla
Baked at 375 F for 15 minutes for the cake and 13 minutes for the cupcakes.

The cake came out great which means that perfect measurement isn't required in this cake. Thank goodness. Though personally I'd put in a little less sugar next time and add the almond extract. Also I might go as low as 3 eggs since my cake tin is only 5 inches in diameter and I had to use cupcake tins to finish off the rest of the batter.

The method is quite simple and you'll see this in many recipes involving egg whites. Simply whip up your eggs till frothy, add the cream of tartar and extracts, keep whipping to soft peaks and add half the sugar. Whip to hard peaks. Your eggs should hold their shape at this point and have a lovely gloss. If you added brown vanilla extract, you will notice your eggs will lose that color a bit as you keep whipping them so no worries.

In a separate bowl mix together the remaining sugar and flower and give it a quick whisk to loosen up the mixture and add in some air. Finally fold your flour mixture gently into your eggs. You often hear that folding is a gentle process and in no way am I saying it isn't, but don't be afraid to get it all mixed up. More folding and less squishing but get it all mixed up.

Finally, dump the whole thing into an ungreased pan. The pan should be oil free to allow the batter to climb up the sides as it cooks. Bake it at 375 F for about 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a little crisp. Once it's done I recommend placing it upside down on a cooling rack to cool. This will keep it from deciding to deflate as some of my attempts have done when I was young and naive. All that's left now is whipped cream and an empty stomach. Enjoy :)

Strawberries and Sour Cream

Hooray! Second post. This one is tiny though.

Lately I feel like so many desserts, although delicious, are too heavy especially after a large meal or for those sweet cravings late at night. So here is a simple, light dessert. Nothing closes off the day like this little treat and a nice cup of peach tea :)


Above are simply cut-up strawberries with sour cream and sugar dip. You can moderate your sugar by deciding how sweet you really want it or substituting it with artificial sweetners. Sour cream is again a great dairy product and though it is high in fat it is not high in trans fats and 2 tablespoons won't kill you. Most importantly it's delicious and like most yogurts it contains bacteria that is friendly to your stomach.

Light, healthy, delicious.

Bento Box

Finally I get to write my first post! Very exciting. The purpose of this blog, besides just bragging rights, is to discuss nutrition, explore recipes, and develop my cooking and baking skills while sharing with my readers any secrets I've learned.

So after a really lazy weekend of doing nothing but looking at food-porn, playing Katamari, and shopping, I've decided to make my day of classes and work tomorrow a little brighter. The result is a pretty little bento box to take with me.


So I'm no photographer....let's hope I get better in time. Either way, above is a compilation of a sandwich cut in half with cream cheese, basil, arugula, and tomatoes and scallions on the side ready to go in. Next is two onigiri filled with tuna and mayo. In the front left corner is a salad made with Israeli couscous, white beans, canned tomatoes, basil, and black olives all seasoned to yumminess with garlic, salt and pepper. In the back left corner are strawberries and blueberries because no meal is complete without something sweet :)

Okay, I'm done bragging but really consider all the things involved in this meal. In total there really isn't a ton of food here, but it's all very filling making it reasonable to take with you to work, school, or wherever. The bean and fruit salads are served at about 1/4 cup each and there is only 1/2 cup of rice total. More importantly, though, there is a full array of nutrition. There is your protein in the tuna, fruits and veggies for your vitamins, bread for grains and even a little bit of dairy.

All in all I feel that the Japanese know how to eat well and it might be worth taking some pointers from them.