Great-Grandmother Duff Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbs Crisco

1 cup buttermilk (probably use only 1/2 to 3/4 cup)

Cut in flour, Crisco, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together until well blended ('cut in' means to distribute solid fat throughout the dry ingredients using a pastry blender, fork, or 2 knives in a scissors motion). Add buttermilk slowly. Once balled up, knead dough about 10 times. Roll and smooth into large, round pancake. Flatten to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 8 pie wedges. Heat griddle to 400º F. Brown wedges on all sides and edges.

Notes:

These are poor Scottish scones my great-grandmother and her family cooked on a pan because they didn't have a proper kitchen with an oven. When she emigrated to the United States in 1911, she brought the recipe with her and taught it to my grandmother and then my mother.

I've written about my Great-Grandmother Sarah Duff in other blog posts because my family has stayed in close contact with our Scottish family because she stayed in close contact with her family in Ayrshire.

My family pronounces them "sc-ahns."

Ingredients.

Cutting in the dry ingredients.

The kneading hook on the blender.

The ball of dough after kneading.

At this point my uncle will put the dough

into a bowl and place the bowl into warm

water so that the ingredients will activate.

He said my great-grandmother taught him that.

Spreading flour on the roller.

Cutting the flattened dough into wedges.

Flour sprinkled onto the griddle.

Scones on the grill before browning.

Scones lightly browned.

Browning scones on all sides.

Fried Chicken & Such

Ingredients:

Chicken (or string cheese)

Flour

Bread crumbs

Eggs

Seasoning salt

Vegetable oil

Pour the flour into a bowl and mix seasoning salt or another spice into the flour for extra flavoring. Break and scramble a couple eggs into another bowl, and pour bread crumbs into a third bowl. Dip the chicken or string cheese into the flour, then the egg, and then the bread crumbs. Meanwhile, heat oil on a stovetop until the oil reaches 350º F (or until the oil reacts a little to a sprinkling of water). Put breaded chicken into oil and cook for 5 minutes or until thoroughly cooked. For cheese sticks, cook for a couple of minutes.

Homemade cheese sticks.

Fried chicken wings next to pot of heated oil.

I wasn't expecting to cook dinner when I visited my friend in Northern Virginia, but once I figured out that we were frying chicken and cheese I decided to go ahead and take some photos for the blog. The recipe I've posted here is just a rough description of what we did, so I didn't list the exact amount of chicken, flour, seasoning, and so forth. I once tried making fried chicken with a honey flavor, but it was only semi-successful. After making fried chicken in Virginia, I might try to perfect my old recipe with some variations.

The kitchen table after we breaded the chicken.

Though I enjoyed breading and frying chicken, I'm not sure if I would do it again unless I was trying to create a unique recipe. Breading the chicken was a very messy process, and I'm not sure if it was worth it or not. It would probably be cheaper and easier to buy a box of 'fried' chicken and cook it in the oven than doing this again. I didn't think this chicken tasted much better than something that would be easier to cook. That's why I'd like to try making several adjustments to the recipe to see if I could develop a unique flavor that is worth all the extra work.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:

48 Hershey's Kisses

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

2 tbs milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Granulated sugar

Heat oven to 375º F. Remove wrappers from chocolate. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Ad 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on un-greased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Bake for 30 more seconds until chocolate melts slightly. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Mixing all the dry ingredients into a peanut butter paste.

Yours truly baking cookies.

The balls of peanut butter paste as they go into the oven.

The finished product after melting the chocolate a

little bit in the oven.

Pasta Salad

Cook pasta as package instructs, and then add other desired ingredients and seasonings. For instance, this recipe included hard boiled eggs, seasoning salt, Italian dressing, mayonnaise, chopped onions, and tomatoes. Also, other ingredients that go into a normal salad would do well in this dish.

After mixing all the ingredients together, I placed the bowl into the fridge overnight so that the dressing and spices would soak better into the pasta. The next day the pasta salad was a bit too dry, so I mixed in a spoonful of mayonnaise to add some more moisture to it along with some more seasoning.

Ingredients used for this pasta salad.

The finished product before covering

the bowl and putting it into the fridge.

Crab Pies

1 package tart pastry

1 can cream of mushroom or cream of shrimp soup

8 oz cream cheese

1 stick of butter

1 small onion chopped

1 tsp Tony Chacere's Seasoning (or another cajun seasoning)

1 tsp Old Bay Seafood seasoning

1 lb crab meat (cooked)

Saute vegetables, put in soup and cream cheese. Stir in seasonings and crab meat. Brown the pastry tarts. Fill pastry shells. Bake about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

The ingredients we used for the crab pies.

We made two batches of pies, including one

with a spicier cajun seasoning and another

with a milder seasoning.

Sauteing all of the ingredients for the filling

except for the crab meet.

Baking the pie shells a little bit before filling

them up with the other ingredients.

Pouring in the cooked crab meat into

the pan before mixing it all together.

Pouring the cooked filling, including the

crab meat, into a baked pie shell.

At this point the pie can be covered and

then placed in the fridge so that it can

be cooked later. They can be easily heated

in the microwave. However, the larger

pie like the one in this photo did not

do as well as the smaller pies.

Buttermilk Brownies

My friend Sarah made me these brownies and gave me this recipe:

*These brownies must be made the day before you intend to eat them. Why they don't taste good the first day but are phenomenal the second is a great mystery that must be respected.

For the Brownies:

1 stick Butter
1 cup Water
1/4 cup Cocoa
1/2 cup Oil
2 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 cup Buttermilk
2 Eggs

In a saucepan, blend together butter, water, cocoa, and oil. Bring to a boil and stir until butter is melted and ingredients are blended. Remove from heat and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt, and soda. Pour boiled mixture in and stir. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, and eggs. Pour batter into a a greased baking pan (the bigger the better, because it should be almost a sheet cake). Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees F/ 205 degrees C.

The ingredients

Bringing the butter, water, and

vegetable oil to a boil

These ingredients don't like to mix,

so they need to be stirred until the

butter is completely melted.

Pouring the chocolate and butter

mix into the flour and sugar.

There's a lot of sugar in this recipe.

For the Frosting:
1 stick Butter
1/2 cup Cocoa
1/3-1/2 cup Buttermilk
1lb* Powdered Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla

In a small saucepan, bring the butter, cocoa, and buttermilk to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in powdered sugar (1/2-1 cup at a time) and vanilla. Pour over warm brownies and let sit overnight.

Mixing the powder sugar and chocolate mix.

The finished product

*You can buy powdered/confectioner's/icing sugar as it's called different places by the pound in the US. If you have too big of a bag or are in a different country, there is some discrepancy on how many cups make up 1 pound. General agreement rests on 3 1/2 cups. I find that 3 cups is usually fine, but based on altitude, humidity, and the consistency of your frosting once you've reached the 3 cup point, adjust as needed.

Jambalaya- Belated Mardi Gras

Ingredients (all measurements are approximate):

1 whole onion (any kind, but red)

1 whole green/yellow pepper

1 whole red pepper

Garlic

Chicken (we used one for this recipe)

Andouille, chorizo, or Polish sausage (we used 1)

Shrimp (we used about 200 g)

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 - 1 can tomato paste

1.5 - 2 cups of rice

1 tsp basil

2 bay leaves

1 healty tbsp cajun seasoning (we used Hot Slap Ya Mama)

1/2 tsp thyme

pinch of ground pepper

pinch of salt

2 tsp cumin (we accidently put too much in)

Dice peppers and onion and cook down in a small amount of oil and garlic. Make sure raw meats are cooked and then add sausage and chicken to the peppers with tomato paste. In another pot, bring diced tomatoes and 1/2 can full of water to a boil with all the seasonings. Add rice (we put in 3/4 of the can of diced tomatoes) and let simmer for approximately 30 - 40 minutes or until rice is tender. Add shrimp towards the end of that period (our shrimp had been cooked and pealed already). once the rice is cooked, add the meats, onion, and peppers for several minutes.

Optional ingredients: okra, celery, chicken stock (instead of water), lots of tobasco sauce.

Just before Mardi Gras a couple weeks ago, a friend from Wisconsin suggested we get together for a jambalaya dinner party at some point. Truth be told, I've never had jambalaya even though I grew up in Mississippi with a lot of family on the gulf coast. Therefore, she had to make it when we all had the dinner party a couple nights ago. She gave me permission to post the recipe on the blog as long as I emphasized that she is from the far north (not to far from Canada, eh) and made up the recipe by picking what she liked from other recipes. She doesn't want to offend any authentic southerners with her Wisconsin version of jambalaya.

Spicy Barbecue Sauce

Over Christmas break I asked Mom to teach me how to make the BBQ sauce she made when I was a kid. The original recipe makes almost 3 gallons. Since that is a ridiculous amount, we 1/4 the recipe.

Ingredients (Full Batch):

2 tablespoons of black pepper

2 tablespoons of paprika

3/4 cup salt

4 tablespoons of cayenne pepper

2 gallons of ketchup

2 cups of liquid smoke (hickory or mesquite)

1 1/2 cups of garlic juice

2 cups of yellow mustard

1/2 gallon of vinegar (brown variety)

Ingredients (Quarter Batch):

1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 t) of black pepper

1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 t) of paprika

1/2 oz of salt

1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper

2 quarts of ketchup

1/2 cup of liquid smoke (hickory or mesquite)

3 oz of garlic juice

1/2 cup of yellow mustard

4 cups of vinegar (brown variety)

Mix dry ingredients (black pepper, paprika, salt, cayenne pepper) with a small amount of the liquid smoke and garlic juice. Slowly add the liquid ingredients (ketchup, yellow mustard, liquid smoke, garlic juice) while blending with an electric mixer (DO NOT heat while mixing). Add vinegar last. Heat to a boil while stirring with a spoon. Store in glass jars (DO NOT use plastic).

Store at room temperature, no refrigeration necessary. Sauce does not need aging, but storing for 6 months or more will improve flavoring as it gets spicier.

Notes:

When making the recipe, I did not have garlic juice. Improvising, we mixed 1 T of crushed garlic with 3 oz of hot water. Mom came up with this idea.

Mixing the dry ingredients together.

Hopefully, I'll use some when I get back to the US. I tasted it before I left, and it was already spicy and good. Now I need a good BBQ recipe... maybe one with beef brisket or chicken.

Guacamole

Ingredients (starting):

6 avocados

1 tomato

3 stalks of green onion

1 handful of fresh cilantro leaves

1 lemon

Salt

Will probably need more ingredients to adjust flavor.

Peel avocados, remove seeds, and put into mixing bowl. Chop tomato, onion, and cilantro individually until they are very fine and then put them into mixing bowl. Cut lemon and squeeze juice into mixing bowl. Add a dash of salt. Mash all ingredients until they become a paste.

Here's the fun part: taste the guacamole; guess what is wrong. Then add and mix those missing ingredients. My guacamole's tomato flavor was too strong, so I included an extra avocado, a couple more stalks of green onion, some more cilantro, and another 1/2 lemon.

I almost never eat guacamole, so I didn't know how it should taste. Ryan liked how it tasted in the end, but Sarah wanted more salt. It all comes down to taste.

The guacamole went very well as a topping for Mexican Turkey Burgers.

Ryan had a special scoop (pictured in bottom

center) for the avocados, but I didn't like it.

I would rather cut and then pull the core

from the skin by hand. I did like the chopper

(pictured in the top center) and wish I had one

because I use a lot of chopped garlic and onion.

Even though I rarely eat guacamole, this recipe was fun because it represents the core of cooking. Subjectively, cooking is not about exact, scientific measurements or precise step-by-step instructions. It's a gut feeling. It's shooting from the hip. It's personal. It's art. That's what makes it fun. I've heard about people who are very exact about recipes and cooking, but that's not fun. It's also constraining. It doesn't allow experimentation, and experimentation lets me find new recipes. I'd rather make a few mistakes and know more about what I'm cooking, what makes it taste that way, and what makes it better.

I now want to learn how to make homemade salsa. I wonder how hard it would be to make homemade tortilla chips. I would also like to learn how to make BBQ sauce.

Expatriate Thanksgiving: we can cook a dang good turkey

A group of us who have been doing pub quizzes together for the past few weeks got together along with some classmates and their friends for an expatriate thanksgiving . I was in charge of the turkey. I've never cooked a turkey. When I lived in France a couple years ago, I carved a turkey but didn't cook it (actually, it was a chicken because we couldn't find the real thing, but the girls who bought it swore it was a turkey). At church last Sunday I met a lady who knew about American Thanksgiving this upcoming Thursday, and she asked me if I was going to celebrate. When I told her I was in charge of the turkey but didn't know where I could buy one (I've learned that not all countries have turkeys in the grocery store around Thanksgiving time... go figure), all the older ladies at the table told me what I needed to do. One even offered a pan to cook it in. I didn't need the pan, but I did learn that I needed to buy the turkey ASAP so that it would defrost in time. After I bought the turkey, a couple friends took it from me because I didn't have room in my fridge to put it. Besides, we were having Thanksgiving at their place. They defrosted it for a couple days, and the last day they soaked it in a bucket with water, salt, honey, and pepper. They read about it on the internet. Thursday morning I went over to start cooking it, and I spread melted butter mixed with chicken bullion all over the outside and inside the turkey. I read about doing that on the internet. We cooked it for 3 hours, 18 minutes because that's what the packaging said to do. Also, we covered it with foil except for the last thirty minutes so that it would stay moist. In the end, it was a delicious- I'd say it was one of the better turkeys I've had. The meat was so moist that when I carved it, everything fell apart. I tried to get some good turkey legs, but the meat wouldn't stick to the bone as I cut it away. Cooking the turkey had been a team effort, and we doubted whether or not it would be edible in the end. But the three men in the group did surprisingly well.

While carving the turkey, I accidently splattered

turkey juices all over my pants.

It didn't look very flattering.

Turkey post-carving- yum yum.

Booyah- Touchdown- we make miracles happen

Others brought the stuffing, wine, a rice-cheese dish,

apple pie, a sweet strawberry dish, gravy, etc.

Pancetta Pasta

Ingredients:

Fusilli Pasta

2 Eggs

150 g Pancetta Ham

Scala Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

Red Leicester Cheese

Salt

White Pepper

Italian Seasoning

Butter

Directions:

While cooking pasta, cook ham in skillet. Drain ham fat. Put 2 eggs into skillet and season eggs with salt, italian seasoning, and white pepper. Cook while mixing the eggs and ham together. When pasta and eggs are done, drain pasta and drop pasta into skillet. Mix together with sun-dried tomato pesto and butter while keeping skillet on low heat. Spread shredded red leicester cheese on top and serve.

Notes:

I watched one of my German flatmates cook pasta with ham and eggs, and I've tweaked the recipe here and there. The meal is a little heavy with the ham and eggs. I also think another kind of cheese would be better- perhaps a white cheese like edam.

Jo stealing my food.