We had a lovely Labor Day weekend which didn't involve any hectic traveling or doing too much craziness. Instead we did the whole homeowner thing and worked on the house and I did a little baking! We did a little yard work but the thing I was most excited about was our new interior decor. We moved around a few bookcases back into the laundry room to make more open space in the main room and also to uncover one of the windows. Once we had all open windows we also hung up new floor to ceiling curtains! I've been paining over curtains for a while now wanted to make some but unable to find a good fabric and wanting to buy some but they were all so expensive (or at least the ones I wanted were). Finally I found some simple and really long ones at IKEA and went for those ones. I love the way they turned out! We also hung a more decorative accent curtain over the window next to our new teal door. The curtain matches some new throw pillows we got too.
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| New Curtains |
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| Ben thinks the new pillows are for him...SPOILED! |
Another project we finally finished this weekend was our kitchen table. We started it a while ago but needed to trim down the last piece to make it fit and finish it. We did that this weekend and put a sealer on it and finally have it in place at the end of the kitchen island. We can be big kids and eat at a table now!
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| Table Construction |
While doing lots of house work I also took a little tile to make a few batches of scones.
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Blueberry Scones
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
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1/4 cup butter, chilled
1 cup fresh blueberries
3/4 cup half-and-half cream
1 egg
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Directions:
| 1. | Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). |
| 2. | Cut butter into mixture of flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add blueberries and toss to mix. |
| 3. | In separate bowl beat together cream and egg, and slowly pour into dry ingredients, stirring with rubber scraper until dough forms. Knead just until it comes together, 3 or 4 times. Don't overhandle. |
| 4. | Divide dough in half. On lightly floured board, shape each half into a 6-inch round. Cut into 6 wedges. |
| 5. | Bake on ungreased sheet about 20 minutes at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Serve warm!! |
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Strawberry Lemonade Scones (these were my favorite!)
8 medium strawberries, quartered
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup heavy cream
Juice from half a lemon
Icing:
Juice from half a lemon
Powdered Sugar
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Arrange your cut strawberries in a single layer and press down on them with a paper towel to remove some of the moisture.
Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a large bowl. Cut your cold butter into small pieces and then mix with a pastry blender or two forks until it resembles coarse crumbs. Gently fold in your pressed strawberries. Add in the cold cream and lemon juice and shape the dough into a ball. Form it into a flat circle about one inch thick on your counter. Cut into 8 wedges. Place the wedges on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes until light brown. Let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before serving.
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| Ginger Peach Scones |
[I halved this recipe]
4 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
5 tbs. sugar
2/3 c. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2/3 c. half and half
1 c. plain greek yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. of fresh peaches, skin peeled off, cut into roughly 1/2″ cubes (or smaller)
1/3 c. candied ginger, chopped very finely
3 tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1) Preheat the oven to 440ยบ.
2) Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar.
3) add the cold butter to the bowl and cut with a pastry cutter until the butter chunks are just shy of pea sized.
4) in a separate bowl, mix the half and half and greek yogurt together (you can substitute the yogurt for sour cream if you want to)
5) Add this to the dry ingredients along with the peaches and ginger. Mix until just incorporated.
6) plop the batter (it should be fairly sticky) out onto a floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll it into 1/2″ thick rectangle.
7) Use either knife/pastry blade to cut the dough into triangles, or use a biscuit cutter for rounds. Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
8) In a wee little bowl, mix the remaining sugar and vanilla together. Spread a little bit onto the top of each scone before putting into the oven.
9) bake until golden brown… this will depend on the size and thickness of your scone. Mine took about 8 minutes, but were modest-sized scones.
