Delicious Sour Cream Berry Scones

I've never been a big fan of scones, since most tend to be dry & really crumbly. It wasn't until we were at a friend's house, and her mom made some homemade blueberry scones that were to die for, that I decided to give them a second chance. After stuffing myself with 3 of them, I begged her to tell me her secret. She said, "Sour cream".

So today when I was looking for something yummy to make, I decided to search the web for a sour cream berry scone recipe. The following is what I found, and if it's any indication of how good they are, my family could have easily eaten the whole batch in one sitting.

Delicious Sour Cream Berry Scones
recipe from Recipezaar--Kittencal's Jumbo Bakery Shop Blueberry Sour Cream Scones
Serves 12

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 large egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or use 1 teaspoon vanilla)--this is what I did as I don't care for almond
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 cups all-purpose flour (measured 4 cups exactly)
• 1 cup sugar (can use a few tablespoons more)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (or use 2 semi-heaping teaspoons)
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)--I used 1/2 teaspoon & it was great!
• 1 cup very cold butter (cut into small cubes)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries--can also use frozen berries, and a mixture of berries
• vanilla glaze (optional)

Directions:

1. Set oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease.
3. In a small bowl blend the sour cream with the egg, vanilla and baking soda; set aside while making the rest of the recipe.
4. In a large bowl mix together the flour with sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, salt and cinnamon (if using).
5. Using a pastry blender cut in cold butter cubes.
6. Add in the sour cream mixture; mix JUST until moistened.
7. Gently mix in the fresh blueberries.
8. Roll or pat the dough into about a 1 to 1-1/2-inch thick round.
9. Cut dough into 12 even wedges.
10. Place the wedges onto the prepared baking sheet about 2-inches apart.
11. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until the the bottoms are browned.
12. Drizzle the top of each warm scone with glaze if desired or when the scones are cooled dust lightly with confectioners sugar.

I dare you to be able to eat just one :-) Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone!

Classic Berry Crisp

The other day we were looking for something to do, so we decided to go pick raspberries at our local U-pick garden. Unfortunately, their fall raspberry crop was just getting started, so the pickings were pretty slim. However, their blackberries were in full force. As a general rule, I have a hard time paying for blackberries, since they're practically the state's weed. But we were there, really wanting berries, and they were thorn-less, so that in itself, was worth it. We ended up picking around 8 lbs of big, juicy berries in little less than 2 1/2 hours--not bad.

We brought them home, and decided to make homemade blackberry jam. We used the little 8 oz jelly jars, and made 9 beautiful garnet colored jars of yummy jam. Then we noticed there were still berries left over, but not enough to make another batch. So, without further ado, one Berry Crisp, coming up! And here's the recipe, so you can make your own delicious crisp. Enjoy!

Classic Berry Crisp

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Serves 6

Ingredients:
4 cups of berries, washed--we used blackberries, but you could use any combination of
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup quick cooking rolled oats
4 tablespoons soft butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place berries in a greased, deep baking dish. Sprinkle them with lemon juice and granulated sugar. In a separate bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon & oats. Cut in butter until mixture is evenly blended and crumbly. Spread mixture on berries, and bake for 40-45 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite ice cream or whipped cream.

Homemade Strawberries & Cream frappuccino

In my quest to avoid caffeine, which by the way, is not going very well :-(, I decided to investigate some of the other things Starbucks has to offer, as I didn't want to give up the whole "going to coffee" thing. I noticed they also made frappuccinos, and one of them even had no coffee---the strawberries & cream frappuccino. Okay, this is just heaven in a glass! Unfortunately, it's also major calories--not a great trade-off.

So I decided to go home, and try to make a homemade version that's a little less bad for you...Besides it's fruit, right? This is what I came up with:

Homemade Strawberries & Cream Frappuccino
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 containers of strawberries, washed & hulled
1/2 cup of milk--I used 1%
3 large ice cubes
1 cup whipped cream---I made my own from 1 pint of heavy whipping cream, a couple teaspoons of sugar and a couple teaspoons of vanilla, whipped with a hand mixer until firm---you will have some left over. For a quicker option, you could also use Ready Whip or Cool Whip.

Method:

Place all ingredients into a blender, and blend until smooth. I prefer the cream mixed in with the rest of the ingredients, but you could add it to the top after blending if you'd like. You might also want to add a little bit of sugar or Splenda, if you like your drinks a little sweeter. Enjoy!

Yummy Chicken Burritos with Black Beans & Chicken Nachos

It's been awhile since I've posted any recipes, but I just finished eating these amazing nachos, using the leftover filling from the chicken burritos I made up last night, and thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Yummy Chicken Burritos with Black Beans
Serves 4

Ingredients:

Burrito filling:
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup shredded cooked chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp cumin--I added more since we love cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt---I added a couple dashes of garlic salt instead since we love garlic

8 flour tortillas---we used the mini ones, so it actually made up 10 burritos
Nonstick cooking spray
Tortilla chips
**you can also add any of your other favorite nacho fixins', like olives or onions, to this recipe...it's very forgiving :-)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a large cookie sheet generously with cooking spray. Coat it well enough to see a thin layer of oil. In a medium mixing bowl, combine black beans, chicken, cheese and spices. Heat tortillas in microwave for 20 seconds so they don't break when you fold them. Divide mixture evenly among tortillas. Roll tortillas around filling and hold together with toothpicks.

Place on prepared cookie sheet. Spray tops of burritos generously with cooking spray. Bake 6 minutes. Turn burritos over and bake another 6-8 minutes until golden. Remove toothpicks and serve.

To make into nachos:

Place tortilla chips on microwavable plate and cover with burrito filling mix. Put in microwave on High for 30 seconds, or until cheese is melted. Enjoy!

May Day 2009

Last year we started a new tradition in our family: the celebration of May Day--see previous post here. So when May 1st came around this year, Kyra and I once again went to Michael's to get our craftiness on. And like last year, we delivered baskets to the neighbors on either side of us, as well as both Grandmas. One funny thing: Kyra really got into the "ringing the doorbell, and running and hiding thing" this year. And now every time we go visit our neighbors, she says we should ring the bell, and run and hide...

Here are some pictures from that day:

Flowers for Grandma A.

Flowers for Grandma H.

Supermarket Saver

We've all been there, or have been witness to this: The harried parent in the grocery store, just trying to survive the trip. The children, if not currently screaming, are pulling items off the shelves or taking "samples" from the bulk bins, trying to climb out of the cart, or finding new and improved ways of tormenting their brother or sister.

After several trips like this, I decided to search the web for a creative solution to save my sanity. I was so excited when I found the following at Parents magazine's site: Supermarket Bingo cards that you can print out right from your computer. Brilliant! You can find the link to the article and Adobe PDF here. You may need to create a free online account with them before you can actually download the cards. Sorry about that, but they also have lots of good info, as well as special offers from time to time.

Good luck, and here's hoping your future visits to the grocery store will be much more pleasant for everyone!

Hopping for fruit

We consider ourselves quite lucky, because our dear daughter loves fruit. So when I found this adorable Fruity Frog recipe on Family Fun.com, I was very excited: not only is it super-cute but she'll actually eat it :-)

Fruity Frog

	Green apple (such as a Granny Smith)
	Cream cheese
	Chocolate chips
	Green grapes

1. Cut the apple into quarters and remove the core. Cut a thin wedge from one quarter for a mouth. For the eyes, shape cream cheese into two half-inch balls, and set them in place. Insert a chocolate chip, point-side in, into each cream cheese ball. 2. Use the grapes, cut in half, for the legs and feet. Slice four halves to create toes. Arrange the pieces as shown and serve on a paper lily pad--I just used a green napkin.

Here's our girl & her frog: