Chocolate-Chip ... Scones!

This is my final week posting about scones (for now) and I've saved a very delicious (and questionably nutritious) recipe for this week. Chocolate Chip Scones - of the drop scone family.

Here are your ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter
1/4 cup and 2 T sugar
3 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Yes, really. 2 sticks of butter. And this recipe makes 12 scones.

First mix your flour and baking powder in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat the butter until it is creamy. Add the sugar to the butter and beat for about 3-5 minutes until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
Now add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each.
Scrape the bowl, turn your speed down to low, and add the flour mix. Only mix until it's blended.
Scrape the bowl again, then add the buttermilk. Again, only mix until it's blended.
Sprinkle chocolate chips over the batter and fold in.

Scoop 1/3 cupfuls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet - place about 2 inches apart.
Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 45 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Uncover scones and bake for 15 minutes. Turn heat down to 325 degrees and bake 13 minutes longer. The scones should be pale golden brown.

Cool uncovered on a wire rack.

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Instead of buttermilk, I used plain yogurt, but other than that, I followed the recipe to the letter. These things are addicting. I made them one evening when my family was out and about and I ended up eating probably 5 of them. I felt disgusting, but they're so tasty! They're like big, fluffy cookies!

If I make them again, I'll probably add more chocolate chips. I felt that the ratio of chips to dough wasn't high enough.

I love the part where you turn down the heat, though. I'd never seen that before in a recipe, but I guess it makes the outsides a little harder than the insides - which is often what you want on scones.

Well, I won't keep you any longer. Go forth and bake!

Love and Chocolate (wait - aren't those the same word?),
LeahJoy

Who Knew?

A lot of weird things happened this week, but by writing about them I'm either going to make this blog less family-friendly, or I'm going to be airing some dirty laundry my extended family didn't need aired. So, instead, I'm just going to give you a video that answered so many of life's questions!



I love going to the beach in the summer (when it's actually survivable in Michigan) but I always get so hungry. Why? Now I know!
And those seniors who do the pool exercises - so smart! ...Except they're probably in a heated pool, so never mind.

This explains why California is one of the thinnest states, but I'm finding no excuses for Florida being in the middle in this study (that I found after 5 seconds of intense internet research).

I guess this isn't so weird except for maybe the part that I'm actually sharing this with you, but I really enjoyed learning this! And I'll be hitting up the beach way more next summer! ("Get ready for swimsuit season" ads? Pfft, nothing gets you ready for swimsuit season like ... swimsuit season!)

Love and Lake Michigan,
LeahJoy

It's So Fluffy!

I finally slept last night!

For the last few days I've been really cranky (not sleeping will do that to you) and finally yesterday evening I got a really weird post on my Facebook wall that really ticked me off (a well-meaning - but ignorant - post on 5 days of little sleep will do that to you).  I finally slept, got over the post (mostly), and it's a new dawn (it's a new day, it's a new life for me, and I'm feelin' good).

So I bring you one of my favorite YouTube videos: the cutest clip from Despicable Me.  If this doesn't improve your mood, I don't know what will.

Enjoy!  (And feel free to watch as many times as you want.)




She's so cute I'm gonna die!

Love and Unicorns,
LeahJoy

The Monday Rant: A Hate Letter

Dear Insomnia,
Stupid Insomnia,
Hey, you!  Yeah, you!  Insomnia!  Yeah, I'm talking to you!

Who do you think you are?  Stealing from the rich and poor alike.  Thieving from men and women, boys and girls, college students and professors, and pretty much everyone.  Just stop it already!  It's really getting on the nerves of people worldwide.

For five nights in a row now, you have found it amusing to torture and torment me, holding sleep at an arm's length away.  While I listened to my husband's peaceful, even breathing, all I could do was choke back sobs of frustration and beg for mercy - for at least a few hours' sleep.  And have you shown mercy?  No, you have not.  You are cruel and heartless, to be rated near Hitler, Nero, Stalin, and Nickelback.

Insomnia, how do you sleep at night?

With cold hatred,
Leah

P.S. With my lack of sleep, a letter to a non-physical (or real) entity seemed a lot better of a choice than a rant at real people.  That could get ugly.

Homemade Hat Rack

My post today is a bit later than usual, but I spent most of the morning feeling blah and trying to not feel blah.  Now I just feel sort of blah, so I bring you some easy instructions to make your own hat rack.  Or it could be a rack for something else, but nothing too heavy.

You'll need:

a yardstick

some clothespins

Strong glue (like, stronger than hot glue or Elmer's)

A vise or a C-clamp or something would be great, too

Paint, if you want it

First, decide if you want this horizontally or vertically.  You can hold more things horizontally.  If you want the hat rack painted, now is a good time to do so.  For mine, I had some red and silver spray paint sitting around, so I painted the yardstick silver and the clothespins red.  You don't have to paint either of them.

Next, glue the clothespins to the yardstick, one of the flat sides against the surface of the yardstick.  This is where you may want a vise to hold the stuff together while the glue dries.

Believe it or not, you're done!  

Here's a picture of mine:

You could also use this for displaying your kids' artwork or something.  I used hot glue the first time and deeply regretted it.  I recommend strong glue, especially if you ever plan to actually use the pins!  :)

And yes, that is a pink cowboy hat next to a fedora.  

Love and Hats,

LeahJoy

Jam-Filled Scones

We meet again on a Thursday, in October.  And once again, I have a scone recipe for you.  Without further ado:

Jam-Filled Walnut Scones (except we made them without walnuts)

2 cups flour
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp butter, chilled
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup strawberry preserves (/jam/jelly/whatever)

Oven: 400 degrees
Lightly butter a baking sheet.
In a bowl, stir together flour, walnuts, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Cut in butter (see last post, pointer number 4) until it resembles coarse crumbs.
In another bowl, stir together the buttermilk and vanilla.  Add this mix to flour mix and stir to combine.
With lightly floured hands, divide dough into 2 equal pieces and pat each portion into a 5" circle on a lightly floured cutting board.  Cut each circle into 6 wedges (like a pie) and transfer the 12 pieces to the buttered baking sheet.
Dip the point of a sharp knife in flour and make a slit in the top of each scone.  Spoon 1 tsp of strawberry preserves into the slit of each scone.
Bake for 17-19 min, or until tops are lightly browned.
Remove baking sheet to wire rack for 5 minutes.  Transfer scones to wire rack to cool.

===

Claire and Chloe helped me make these, and then my family ate most of them as part of our breakfast-for-dinner (so, with bacon and eggs).

Claire is allergic to nuts, and since we wanted her to be able to eat one, we left out the walnuts. (To which my dad expostulated, "Nuts!")  We also hadn't thought ahead to make buttermilk, so we substituted plain yogurt.  You use the same amount.  There are other possible substitutes, too, and that's why we have Google.  :)

Be sure to make your slits deep enough.  I cut them a little differently, and the more shallow ones spilled all their jam.

You can probably use a different flavor preserves/jam/jelly if you want.  Raspberry would be delicious.  Or if you have multiple ones in the house, make a variety!

These are delicious and perfect to go with a breakfast meal.  Or a snack.  Or anything, really.

I love scones.

Love and Preserves,
LeahJoy

I Can't Decide if This is Weird or Cool

Today's post is about spoon/fork/knife combinations.

They look like this:

And they come in all different colors which is pretty cool.  The advertisements all say that they're perfect for camping or hiking or in the office.  I guess I can see that, but I still think it's a little weird.  And bound to be messier than a spoon, a fork, and a knife.  Sure, you only have one thing to find in your lunch bag, instead of three, but if you need a spoon and a fork, one end will be kind of sticky or messy.  And if you use the knife to spread something, and then don't wipe it off all the way, you're going to have a pocket of peanut butter when you bite into your lasagna.  

Or whatever.

What are your thoughts, readers?  Would you use this gadget?

Love and Spoons,

LeahJoy

P.S. In case you were wondering, they actually made stuff like this back in the Civil War era:

The knife was separate, but had one end that would clasp onto the fork/spoon.  (I got the picture from a website where they sold this stuff.)