~ Scones: A Recipe ~

Tea Time Scones

Scones are quite simple to make, so we usually make our own.   You can add all kinds of extras to your scones, depending on your taste.  Try cut-up apples, currants, ginger, orange zest, almond flavoring, cinnamon, apricots, fresh blueberries, cranberries, or even chocolate chips – our favorite!

           

2 c.  flour           

1 T.  baking powder

2 T.  sugar

1/2 t.  salt

6 T.  butter – very cold

1 c.  buttermilk, or whole milk

Egg wash ( 1 Lightly beaten egg with 1 T water )

Sugar, or cinnamon sugar for sprinkling on top

Mix dry ingredients.  Cut in 6 T.  butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. (If you want to add anything to your scones just mix it in before the buttermilk)  Make a well in the center and pour in buttermilk.  ( If you do not have buttermilk or lemon juice than just use regular milk.)  Mix until dough clings together and is a bit sticky- do not over-mix or you will get bricks instead of scones :) Turn out dough onto a floured surface and shape into a 6- to 8-inch round about 1 1/2 inches thick.  Quickly cut into pie wedges or use a round biscuit cutter to cut circles.  The secret of tender scones is a minimum of handling.  Place on an un-greased cookie sheet, being sure the sides of the scones don’t touch each other.  Brush the scones with the egg wash for a shiny, beautiful brown scone.  Sprinkle sugar or cinnamon sugar on top.  Bake at 425°  for 10 – 20 minutes, or until light brown.

Health Course Giveaway!

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{ A Recipe }

Caramel Macchiato

I just love Caramel Macchiatos!  Here is my “base” recipe…change it up to taste – you can’t go wrong!

4 Tablespoons Caramel Sauce (Recipe Follows)

1/2 Cup Freshly Brewed Coffee

1 Cup Very Warm Whole Milk

Stir together the Caramel and Coffee in a Large Mug.  Pour the Hot Milk over Caramel Mixture.

Caramel Sauce:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1 tablespoon water

In a 3-quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the cream, butter, sugar, and water. Stir over medium heat until the mixture is smooth. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 240 degrees F, about 5 to 7 minutes. Let the mixture cool for 30 seconds.

Hope yall enjoy this!

~~Laura Elizabeth

{ Snowed In }

So what do you do when you get snowed in?  You go sledding, of course!!

You take fun photos of your jumbo-size french mugs.....

Which happens to have homemade Caramel Macchiato in it.... 

You decide to get your ice skates and skate on the driveway....yes, our drive was compact enough to skate on!

You also take time to edit photos, and plan tomorrows blog posts :)

Happy Tuesday!

~~Laura Elizabeth

The House Made Out Of Gingerbread... Part 2

Today we said goodbye to our Gingerbread House!  We tried a new recipe this year, and this was the sturdiest house we had ever made!  It took some MAJOR pulling and pushing to get this house to come down.  As you can see, the roof came off in a big chunk, and only a section of a wall would come off....

Well, for those of you who have only experienced fragile, and frail gingerbread house recipes, I thought I would share ours from this year!  :D

~~  Laura Elizabeth

Gingerbread House

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand

I once made a ginger bread house with my Banquette chef Bill at the Pump Room that was big enough to walk into. It was a life size gingerbread playhouse and took days to build. Have fun!

Prep Time:

2 hr 0 min

Inactive Prep Time:

3 hr 30 min

Cook Time:

15 min

Level:

Difficult

Serves:

1 house

Ingredients

Gingerbread:

• 8 ounces unsalted butter (16 tablespoons or 2 sticks), softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 1/4 cups cake flour
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Gingerbread House Templates, recipe follows

Royal Icing:

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, plus more as needed
• 2 egg whites*

Assemble and Decorate the House:

• Heavy cardboard base for the house
• Pastry bag with a medium plain tip and a small plain tip
• Frosted shredded mini-wheats for the roof, as needed
• Mini tootsie rolls for a fence, as needed
• White Hershey Kisses for roof top spikes, as needed
• Small candy canes for a lamp post outside the door, as needed
• Granulated sugar for snow drifts, as needed
• Necco Wafers for a cobblestone path, as needed
• 3 large marshmallows, for snow man
• Pretzel sticks, for snowman arms, as needed
• 2 whole cloves, for snowman eyes
• Graham crackers to build a shed, as needed
• Assorted candy such as gum drops, peppermint drops, M & M's, white chocolate chips, red hots, non-pareils or snow caps, silver dragees, green mint jelly leaves, Life Savers, and Animal Crackers

Directions

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time until incorporated. Add the molasses and vanilla and mix.

Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, and salt. Working in batches, and mixing after each addition just until combined, add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture. Shape the dough into a thick disk, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease 2 cookie sheets.

On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough in half and roll each piece out into a large 1/4-inch thick sheet. Transfer the dough sheets to the sheet pans; then cut out the required shapes with your templates (see Gingerbread House Templates below).

Bake until stiff and toast-y, about 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

Make the Royal Icing: In a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the confectioners' sugar and egg whites together. Add more sugar, if necessary, to reach a spreadable consistency.

Assemble and Decorate the House: Glue the house walls together by setting them up on the cardboard base, and piping the royal icing at the joints with a medium plain tip from the inside. Prop the sides up with wine or soda bottles and let set for 30 minutes. Attach the roof pieces, using the icing in the same way

Using a spatula to apply the icing, glue the frosted mini-wheats on the roof to look like thatching. Attach the front door, with hinges made from icing (leave it open to be more inviting).

Decorate as you like, following the suggestions in the ingredient list, using the icing as glue, if needed. Use a small plain tip for any filigree style decorative line work, you may want.

*RAW EGG WARNING

Food Network Kitchens suggest caution in consuming raw and lightly-cooked eggs due to the slight risk of Salmonella or other food-borne illness. To reduce this risk, we recommend you use only fresh, properly-refrigerated, clean, grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell.

Gingerbread House Templates:

Brown paper bags, as needed

You'll need to make 7 templates, by drawing the dimensions out on brown paper and cutting them out. Use the templates as a stencil to cut the dough into the required pieces. Here are the templates you'll need:

Two front and rear walls: 5 inches high by 8 inches long. Cut out 2 windows from each wall, and 2 1/2 by 1 1/2-inch door in one.

Two side walls shaped like a house (triangle on a square): 5 inches high by 6 inches long, with a triangle 7 inches high on top (cut all in 1 piece). Cut 1 window out of each side.

Two overhanging roof pieces: 4 1/2 inches wide by 9 inches long.

One door: 2 1/2 inches high by 1 1/2 inches wide.

A House Made Of Gingerbread

For the second year in a row, we have made a gingerbread house with a friend!  

This year, our wonderful neighbor Renee came over to help out....

We started working on the dough right before lunch, at lunch, put the dough in the oven, took the dough out of the oven, and let it cool.....end of story!  We were talking and laughing so hard during the "rollin out" process, that we ran out of time to decorate!  :D  

Well, we never could find a time to have her back over, so Lizzy and I finished it up.

We decided to make a log gingerbread house -- like our new house here in TN!  Though the scaling isn't correct, and our field here isn't that small, we think it represents our little farm pretty nicely!  haha

Our "puddle" of a pond .....the candies that we melted stuck to the pans and made a sticky mess!

Our "not so healthy" garden!

We really enjoyed making this candy house!

Renee:  we will have to give it another try next year.....and start in the morning next time!  :D

~~Laura

Fresh Bread Anyone?

Tomorrow we are having some friends over for a re-make of our Empress Tea!  This time we will be adding in some gluten free things as well as one WONDERFUL raw food dish.  Here is a sneak peak of one of the delights.........

More pictures and details later!

~~Laura

Come Join Elizabeth!

Come join Elizabeth at her new blogs!  Learn about what she eats at Life With Food Allergies and take  walks through nature along side of her.  These fun blogs are just starting to bud so keep on the lookout for new posts!  

~~Laura

P.S. don't forget to vote on her polls!  ;-)

The Best Smoothie In The World #2!

What is my new favorite smoothie?  The Blue Sunrise from one of our cookbooks!  The bottom layer has bananas, mango, pineapple, brazil nut-milk, vanilla, and liquid stevia.  The top layer is the mango mixture with blueberries and bee pollen added.  This was the creamiest smoothie I have ever had!

~~Laura

Lunch Time!

We don't have much time, but we thought we might share our "Elizabeth and Laura proof" lunch! It was completely gluten-free and totally delicious!  We have given the explaining to Muddy and so take a look at her blog in a bit.

Almond Milk

Mango Cherry Milkshake- with the Almond Milk

Raw Mexican Pizza

Elizabeth's Not Egg Salad

Raw Apple Pie

~~Laura

What can we say?

I know that "I'm sorry" really doesn't cut it this time. Our last break from blogging didn't have an excuse, but this time is different however. About 6 months ago we realized that Elizabeth had more food allergies than we could count. She and I also learned that we are gluten intolerant. All of this excess baking (and eating something that she was allergic to) really took a toll on Elizabeth and until recently she had been in and out of the doctor's office twice a week. Thank goodness she is doing better and is only going once every two weeks! We are now back to normal with a few additional activities that we can't wait to share! We have a lot of catching up to do, so hang around and see what has been going on around here. :-)

~~Laura

January Women's Luncheon Bazaar

Dinner in a flash...

What do you do with navy beans?


We made a pot of navy beans a couple of weeks ago and ended up running late fixing supper. So here we stand at the stove looking at our pot of beans and asking the above question.


The Answer -- Polenta with Herbed Navy Bean Broth


Sounds pretty fancy huh? Actually we just started throwing things in that sounded good. We first sauteed carrots and celery in coconut oil. Then we threw in a bunch of minced fresh herbs with some onion powder (Daddy's doesn't like onion chunks). We added enough bean broth to taste and ladled it over leftover grits that we "fried" in coconut oil -- thus the polenta. Here is the final result.

















The verdict? Here's the answer - It was SOOOOOO delicious. Daddy has asked for a repeat.





~~Sisters

Tuesday's Box

Our Tuesday box is here! Today we got -

Broccoli
Grapefruit
Yellow Onions
Mixed Greens
Oranges
Grapefruit
Meyer Lemons -- Some in the box as well as a case
Sunflower Sprouts
Cabbage Micro Greens
Carrots
Romaine Lettuce
Collard Greens
Sweet Potatoes
Red Potatoes
Baby Turnips

YUMMY!

~~Sisters

Tuesday's Box

"She is like the merchant ships, she brings her food from afar."
Proverbs 31:14

Well, not too afar. And we don't bring it. It comes to us.

We really believe in eating in season and locally grown organic produce (including from our own garden). Lot's more nutrition, and much better flavor. It's even fun to anticipate and wait for certain foods to come in season -- like the first tasty strawberries or juicy citrus.

It's been hard in the past to stick to, but now with a wonderful new delivery service, we have everything brought right to our door. There's a company called greenling.com based out of Austin that delivers beautiful in season, locally grown produce to both the Austin and San Antonio areas. They get the fruits and veggies from local farmers who use organic practices in growing their goodies.

Our boxes are delivered every Tuesday afternoon right to our front door. The fruits and veggies are bigger and better than we can find in even Whole Foods as well as items not even carried in any stores around here. We've been able to try different varieties than we've ever eaten.

They have FABULOUS customer service, and everyone is so nice and helpful. The delivery guys even write personal notes on our inventory sheets attached to the boxes.

We've been signed up with Greenling's for around 8 weeks now, and get really excited every Tuesday as if it's our birthday, wondering what treats we'll find in our boxes.

One local produce box is good for about a family of four, but since we eat mainly fruits and veggies, we order two (along with cases of grapefruit and meyer lemons...yummm).

Here are a couple of pictures of our box a few weeks ago.

~~ Sisters and Muddy

Orange Tea

While Muddy was at a hair appointment, we decided to fix a special lunch. We didn't realize, until it was completed, that it was all orange. Thus the name orange tea.

The top dish was spiralized raw sweet potato with an asian sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds.




This dish was a raw dip that tastes like nacho dip. It's our version of a recipe we got from Serene's cookbook. It's made with red bell pepper, tahini, nutritional yeast, cashews and a few other items. We used peppers, sweet potato chips and carrots for dippers.

And, of course, we served both dishes with a pot of green tea (the only non-orange item).

~~ Sisters

Farmers Market Again!

Our second trip to the farmers market in Santa Fe in 2007. Only this time it was coooollldddd! What can we say, we're from south Texas.

We filled our ice chest and all sorts of corners of the van as usual with treasures from the market. Aahh! The smells and colors. We love it!

~~ Sisters

Our Favorite Time Of The Year

Our favorite time of the year is 'Green Hatch Chili Season'. We will either get our roasted hatch chilis from Santa Fe, NM (if we are there in September ;-)) or we will get some from Whole Foods. (in the pictures below) We love to visit all the vendors at the Santa Fe farmers market who not only sell the chilis, but also roast them on site. The smell of roasted chilis can't be matched.

After packaging bags for the freezer, we then go to work.




Our first favorite thing to make with the fresh green chilis is homemade hot sauce -- YUMMY!
We use fresh tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, green chilis, lime juice and salt. Then we blend it all up in a food processor. While we are munching on chips and hot sauce, we start getting creative.




For this particular meal we made some chili mashers to go with Daddy's meal.




Here is Daddy's 'meat and potatoes' meal. We used grass-fed beef, organic carrots, the chili mashers, and of course chili season wouldn't be complete without roasted green chili french bread.


While Daddy was enjoying his steak we were enjoying our "BIG" salad. We start with a bed of greens, PILE on guacamole, sprinkle on corn and red peppers, splash on some of the roasted hatch chili hot sauce, and for an extra punch throw on more diced chilis.

Below is Muddy's salad ~~ Can you tell that we are from the Southwest? ;-)




To kinda cool the palate, this particular meal I made whole wheat sopapillas. We dipped them in plenty of raw honey ---- YUUUUUMMMMMY!

~~ Laura

Serving Muddy

Not only is Muddy a vegetarian, but she is also a raw vegan. We also eat mostly raw, so we enjoy our meals together. Here was a surprise lunch that we made while she was out. She enjoyed it so much that she had us repeat it for her lunch in the car on the way to Santa Fe.

The yellow dish contained a raw mock egg salad -- but boy did it taste like the real thing. We used fresh dill from the garden which made it extra eggy special.

The stuffed mushrooms were unbelievable! Raw shitakes soften nicely with the marinade.

Our favorite is always the SUSHI! We make it ourselves with all of the fresh veggies we can find. Sweet rice miso is a very nice substitute for the white sushi rice as well as ground jicama or cauliflower. We are showing two variations below--Elizabeth's and Laura's.

Just keep raw nori sheets on hand and voila! Veggie sushi in seconds.

~~Laura

Serving Daddy

It must be difficult for Daddy living with 3 vegetarians. Although we fix him meals with meat, sometimes we like to make them fun and "manly". This was a fun "diner burger meal". We still used our healthy ingredients, -- grass fed beef, whole wheat grain buns, organic cheese and veggies, and organic homemade fries.

A while back we purchased diner style baskets and condiment containers for mustard, mayo and catsup (those colorful plastic squeeze bottles) from World Market. This makes a FUN meal for Daddy (we will sometimes join him and make veggie burgers). We normally end this meal with organic ice cream sodas.

~~Sisters