Selective Palate

Well at least it was for me! The other day I was having company at around 10am, so me being the good host that I am realized while making a pot of coffee that I had absolutely nothing to serve with said coffee. So I quickly jumped on the lovely internet for a quick scones recipe. I knew I had everything, or a least I thought I did. I was going to use an Ina Garten recipe because from my understanding scones are her thing, but she called for a whole cup of heavy cream. Now not that I have anything against the nectar of the gods but since I have been on this health kick, I didn’t have any on hand and I just could not sub an entire cup of reduced fat milk for cream so I moved on. In my quick googling I found a nice easy recipe from Anne Burrell. I like her and she only called for a 1/2 cup of cream and plenty of butter! That I thought I could live with. Scones also worked out well for a quicky breakfast because everything needed to be chilled and since I only had about 30 minutes to mix, bake, clean up, and set up I could have used all the time I could get! Well needless to say they came out great and I even I had a little dough left over for the next day.

To accompany the Cherry Almond Scones I made this yummy honey butter by just whipping up a stick of softened butter with a GOOD tablespoon of local honey. I couldn’t stop tasting it, you know to make sure it was good enough.

Well all tolled everything came out great but I had way too much left over; scones were my breakfast, lunch and dessert! The next morning I still had leftovers and the left over dough so I baked them off, and sent M to work with them. I told him he was not allowed to come home with left overs or I might do something crazy like ya know eat them! However, I was able to grab 1 hot from the oven to go with my coffee before he left and hoo boy when the butter melts on top… lets just say its as close to heaven as I will probably get!

If you’re interested in the recipe check it out. I subbed the cream for low fat milk and I only had about 3/4 cup of dried cherries left. You really could use any combo of dried fruit and nuts though it would all taste good. She also made her scones very large. I used a cup and cut them in circles and I managed to get a little more than double the amount and they were the perfect size.

Cherry almond scones with honey butter

So I know that January is nearing completion and though a little late I have finally jumped on the News Years Resolution bandwagon for the ?&^% year in a row. Only this time I have an accomplice! M has decided that he too needs to be more healthy and lose some weight. We have been pretty go so far, going to the gym, doing workout videos, eating better, and generally taking better care of our selves. My only fear is of getting bored! I have been making M’s lunch every day, I know I am such a good girlfriend! Here is an example of his daily lunch, so far he is liking it.

I have also been making healthier dinners, even using measuring spoons and all that fancy stuff. A few days ago I was watching A Lyon in the Kitchen. I guess he was a contestant on Next Food Network Star and got the boot and now he is on FitTV. I like watching his show, it gives me healthier ideas and his food doesn’t seem like boring diet food. However, I have never really tried one of his recipes, that is until last night. He had made a pork lion stuffed with a date chutney with a braised red cabbage that looked pretty good, definitely not boring, so I decided to try it out. Well, I was not that impressed. I will say that his cooking time on the meat was spot on (yes I followed the recipe to a tee!) but over all everything was too sweet! The chutney was made with dates, apricots, lots of red onion and graham masala. It was sweet but a nice filling used in moderation, none on the side was needed, at least not for us. But it was paired with a braised red cabbage that was made with more red onions and balsamic vinegar which when cooked down got very sweet. So the whole dish was…. yes I will say it again SWEET! on SWEET! I paired it with the fennel salad that he made and that was really the star as far as I was concerned. It was simple and refreshing and so not sweet compaired the everything else. Here is the link for those interested… Recipe

And here is what it looked like in the end, I hope my pic does it justice it was pretty.

So, as my millions of readers (HA!) may have noticed I have been away for quite some time. Let s recap shall we….First I drove down to New York City to pick my mother up for the holidays. We spent 4 great days in the city, did some visiting with old friends and family, some sight seeing, some shopping and of course some EATING! It was great! First my mother and I had a tradition to uphold and we found ourselves in a great bar eating clams on the 1/2 shell and drinking Bloody Mary’s. Aren’t traditions grand! My mother, who is born and raised NY now living in the south also had to fulfill the craving for a dirt water dog, I couldn’t help but grab a bite, totally worth it. For breakfast we indulged on real NY bagels with cream cheese and lox, I think I had that for breakfast most mornings either that or egg and cheese on a hard roll. What else did we indulge in, oh yeah how could a trip to NY not include pizza. I was a bit of a pig and ate 3 slices, but oh was it good. Then to round it all off we had some real good Chinese food. I don’t know what it is maybe the water from what I hear, but these foods just taste better in NY. When you move away you crave them, even dream about them or at least me and my mother do!

Well I was in such a frenzy shopping, seeing and eating that I totally forgot to take any pictures. So I drew these just for you!

So that only explains about a week. After we returned to beautiful VT, in a snow storm I might ad, we had a great Christmas. My mother an I shared the cooking and we created a seafood feast for Christmas eve and I made a wonderful prime rib for Christmas dinner. The only shot I managed to grab on Christmas was after a few rounds of Dominos and a few bottles of Champagne! Cheers….

In conclusion we had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant for New Years Eve then we drove back to NYC so my mother could catch her train back to Georgia.When I returned i promptly got a serious sinus infection and have been in bed ever since! Happy New Year!