Scones

Cherry chip, pineapple coconut, sausage n' herb, apple-cinnamon.................whatever the variety, I LOVE scones! This morning though, I was in the mood for some plane, simple scones to enjoy with my morning coffee. They came out beautifully...............here is the recipe just in case you want to give it a try. 

Simple Scones

3 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

3 teaspoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

 1 egg, beaten

Turn on oven at 375 F

Measure all ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, brown sugar, and salt.

Using a whip or spoon, stir dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed.

Using your fingers, incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients until it looks like crumbs.

Flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and butter mixture

In a separate medium bowl, combine milk and beaten egg.

Milk and egg mixture

Add the milk/egg mixture to the flour mixture and bring together to form a dough.

Dough

On a greased baking pan, press dough to form a circle about 1/2 inch thick.

Pressing out the dough

Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 8  segments.

Cutting the scones into segments

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.

Finished Scones, fresh from the oven

Enjoy your scones with butter and a nice cup of mocha flavoured coffee.

Scones with a lovely cup of Mochachino

Maple Syrup

Have you all ever wondered how to make maple syrup?
Honestly it never did occur to me until I had the opportunity to see how it is made. I was in Canada in 2011 and was privileged to be part of a group to visit the home of a very warm Mr. Hart.

The Woods, where Maple Trees can be found

I learnt that the Maple Trees found in the woods are tapped to get syrup. When an extremely cold night is followed by a warm day during the months February through April, the temperature will be perfect to get a good flow of sap. It takes forty gallons of sap to get one gallon of maple syrup!

The syrup is boiled for hours until the desired consistency is attained then filtered to produce the perfect maple syrup.

Filter used to in the maple syrup process

I do hope you remember this post the next time you enjoy your Maple Syrup!

Home-made Maple Syrup bottled in 2009

Lunch is served!

I awoke this morning, knowing exactly what lunch was going to be. Although my morning ritual, some days I think I put together my meals still sleeping as nights tend to be too short at times. I despise purchasing lunch for several reasons, among them the stress of getting something worth my money. I think the biggest drive for me to create magic in the kitchen on mornings comes from knowing who is dependent on me. My loving husband whose pounds are all courtesy me, the baby who became mine overnight, my brother in law whose wife’s unexpected death left him a single parent, my mother in law and the baby sitter look forward to their meals from me daily. Many mornings I get up, walk into the kitchen and get pots on the stove before I can decide what I want to prepare.

Not this morning though, I know exactly what I was going to whip up. Three pots on the fire at the same time resulted in a stove-top barbqued chicken, wrapped in a blanket of slowly simmered  rum infused sauce. Who said whole-wheat pasta was for old folks? In my determination to be somewhat healthy, I wrapped my twirls in a zesty dressing of packaged mayonnaise which was accented with fresh garlic and dotted with green peas, shredded carrots and crunchy corn. Simple can be effective and I proved it at lunch! A vegetable fried rice, golden brown and dotted with orange carrot cubes, whitish-green christophene cubes and whole corn kernels made my fried rice a success. One hour ten minutes and I was done with lunch and ready to devour my breakfast.