Foodie Friday: Triple Chocolate Scones

I just checked out the book "The Modern Baker" at the library and YUM!! Everything in it looks so tasty. I decided that my first project would be "Triple Chocolate Scones." I am a woman who loves a scone and chocolate. (In fact I am in love with any food that makes chocolate socially acceptable for breakfast.)

Last Saturday was the day to make this deliciousness my own. I woke up early enough to bake a breakfast. (That is what happens when you fall asleep while watching the movie that you rented. At least M could stay up and enjoy "Traitor." If you want to know if it was good, you will have to ask him.) And since it is back to being freezing cold here, why not heat the house up a bit with the oven?

These are very, very, very good. It took all of my will power not to continue eating them all morning long. So, here is what you do:

Ingredients:

-3 oz. milk chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (I used left over Hershey's kisses from Christmas)

-1/4 c. baking cocoa

-1/3 c. sugar

-2 2/3 c. flour

-3 t. baking powder

-8 T. butter, cut into 16 pieces

-6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

-1 egg

-3/4 c. milk + additional for basting

-coarse sugar

Preheat oven to 400 with rack in the middle. Combine milk chocolate, cocoa, and sugar with mixer. (He suggests that you use a food processor for all of the mixing. I don't have one anymore as we don't have room in our kitchen. I just used my KitchenAid, and as previously stated, these were delicious.) Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter. (After mixing the butter for about a minute with the beater, I used my pastry blender to incorporate it the rest of the way.) Mix in the bittersweet chocolate.

Whisk egg and milk together, add to bowl, and mix.

Place dough on floured work surface and fold it over on itself several times.

Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Pat each piece of dough into a 5-inch circle. Place circles on parchment covered baking sheet and divide each into 4 equal wedges. (Make sure to give each circle room to expand.) Brush each wedge with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake scones about 15 minutes. (Until they are firm, well-risen, and a deep golden color.)

These little guys are so good they deserve another picture.

C-Y-O: Glass Etched Window

As promised, here is a post on our glass etched window. This project idea began when my friend and I were driving around town on large garbage week looking for treasures. The two treasures I cam away with were old windows. M wasn't so sure when I brought them home and then again when we had to move them, but I knew they were beauties in the making.

The white eight paned window is still waiting for its beauty treatments, but the brown three section window has found its home in our bedroom. (At least for now. We may end up hanging it on the wall or moving it to a different room entirely, but for now it is cozily adorning the wall next to a dresser.)

I have always wanted to try glass etching and decided that was just what this window was in need of.

I started by cutting clear contact paper to the size of each glass section and applying it. I then traced on the images that I wanted to etch. After all

three sections had been traced, I cut out the parts that I wanted etched with a razor blade. Here is a picture of M making sure that the edges were firmly adhered.We then applied the etching cream. (I got mine at Michael's.) We applied it with foam brushes. After trying a sample on some glass I stole from an old picture frame, I knew to apply it nice a thick so that you don't see the brush strokes. We worked together so that we could get the cream on in a timely manor. After letting the cream sit for around 5 minutes, we put the entire window into the bathtub and rinsed off all of the etching cream with the shower head.

Once the cream had been rinsed thoroughly, we peeled off the contact paper and were left with the etched image on the glass. The etching isn't super dark. If you look at it from the right angle it is easily seen, but from the front it is faint. M is trying to come up with ways to back light it to help the image show up a bit more. But for now, I am satisfied.

Nursery Planning

The time has come to start working on the nursery! We have been talking about what we might do for a long time now. (Even during the building process, we took into consideration where we would keep any future offspring.) Now it is more reality than dream.

Here are the current plans:

1) Move the office into the other spare room which is currently the craft room.

2) Move the futon from the downstairs living room into room that will also be the office.

3) Create a craft nook in the downstairs living room.

4) Change the current office into the nursery.

What needs to be done for the nursery:

1) Paint the walls. We are thinking that we will paint the walls a pale aqua and then add a chocolate brown stripe around the top of the room.

2) Create bedding, curtains, and other accessories.

3) Get the furniture we will need for the nursery. (We have a plan for most of it. Crib, my dad will be building, Changing Table, take dresser from upstairs and make it into a changing table, Rocking Chair, get chair that is being stored at M's parents' house and refinish it.)

I had been tossing around two ideas for the nursery decor. I either was going to do a cowboy/cowgirl theme or brown and aqua. The later won out and I have started the collecting. I am looking forward to sewing the bedding and other accessories with the help of my mom. I thought that I might have a challenge in finding brown and aqua fabric. When I first started looking I wasn't finding anything. Then I came across a great Michael Miller aqua and brown plaid at Fabrics.com. It was on sale so I bought up 8 yards of it. Now to find some coordinating fabrics so the room didn't look like plaid threw up all over it. I headed out to Mill End Textiles and hit the jackpot. I found perfectly coordinating polka dots on their remnant table that was on sale for less than $2 a yard. I had to stop myself from buying all that they had.

What else could I need? Well, a brown for the background of the crib quilt and some splashes of other colors to liven things up a bit.

Here is a rough sketch of what I am thinking for the quilt:

Here are my main brown and aqua fabrics:

And here are some splashes of color:

Let the creating begin!

Recycled Room Re-Do

I don't know if it is the nesting instinct kicking in, but I am getting my motivation back for making this house our home. Things that I have been all too happy to let be have started to bug me and I am feeling the need to actually start decorating. Until this point I was just happy to be in the house and have it be functional for us. Now I also want it to look nice. Not such a bad thing. (As long as I can stay in our budget.) I knew that I wanted to tackle some problem areas in our master bedroom. And since I had last Monday off, I decided that would be the day. My dresser and nightstand were disaster areas. They were used as dumping grounds and little more. (As seen in this before picture of the dresser.)



(Now, my dear readers, you know how much I care for you to post such a picture. Or maybe how desperate I am for a good post.)



I started by putting things that have a place in their place. And one of those places was the garbage. Then I sorted out what was left in order to determine where it should go. One of the main causes of clutter was my jewelry. Apparently I have never graduated to the adult notion of a jewelry box. I just had little boxes filled with odds and ends everywhere. After doing some on-line shopping, I determined why I had never fully grasped the jewelry box idea. They are A) expensive and B) not really my style. So, I went scavenging. I found two small wooden cabinets that were not in use in our downstairs. Viola!--Jewelry boxes.





I also was given two new large Willow Tree figurines for Christmas to be added to the one that I already owned. I had been trying to think of a place to display these, but hadn't come up with a good solution yet. I added the trio to the dresser and then stood back to admire what I had accomplished--a simple room re-do without spending a cent.



M and I have been tossing around the idea of getting new dressers as a part of our grand reorganization for the baby. That might help this space out even more. (Do you think it is time for me to loss the primary color, hand-painted dresser I re-did in high school?)


Next on the agenda: finishing the etching of the recycled window to be added to the room. It is currently residing on our table awaiting the etching solution. I'll let you know how it turns out soon.

Foodie Friday: French-Onion Pork Chop Skillet

When M came home and saw this on the table, well really the counter, he asked if I had taken a picture of it for Foodie Friday. I hadn't planned on posting it, but after a reaction like that, I thought I would share. The original recipe is from KraftFoods and I really didn't do much to alter it.

-6 boneless pork chops

-2 medium onions, thinly sliced

-2 T. Worcestershire sauce

-salt

-pepper

-1 T. Liquid Smoke

-1 pkg. stuffing mix (chicken)

-1 1/2 c. hot water

-1 c. shredded mozzarella

Brown chops and onions in large skillet for about 10 minutes. Season chops with salt and pepper. Add liquid smoke and Worcestershire. Flip chops and cook another 5 minutes. Remove the chops and continue to cook the onions another 5 minutes.

Return chops and top with the onions. Spoon stuffing mix around the edges and pour water over the mix. Top chops and onions with cheese. Cover and cook an additional 5 minutes.