Distracted by Life!

Well hello, you!  I hope you're all dandy and wonderful.  I'm so sorry that my time here seems to be so sparse.  It's not my intention to be so neglectful, I promise!

I've just been a bit distracted recently.  More so than usual, that is.

Partly because I've been sleeping like a newborn baby.  You know, waking up every couple hours at night, cranky and wanting something to eat...then wanting to nap the day away.

Plus, I've been baking up a storm.

And then there's the children's goings-on.  Especially one in particular that keeps me on the edge of sanity.

So perhaps that's why my mother-in-law insisted on coming over tomorrow to help me spring clean!

That, and this:

My goodness.  Help is what I need, for sure.  And medication, and a nanny, and a personal assistant, and....

In other words, if you aren't busy, swing by my house and we'll make a party of it!


I'll put the coffee on.

How to Make Perfect Scones

Good Saturday afternoon to you, my sweet friends!  I hope your weekend is off to a relaxing start.

I don't know about you, but I sure do think that scones are pretty much the most delicious and scrumptious companion to a cup of tea (or coffee, of course) that was ever invented, ever.  I don't have a huge sweet tooth, so scones are really so perfect for me!  Just a little sweetness, sort of like my demeanor these peri-menopausal days...just a little bit sweet.

Anyway, I make them all the time to sell.  Everyone just loves them!  I mostly sell them unbaked and frozen, making them super easy for recipients to pop in their own oven and enjoy them the way God intended.  Hot and fresh as can be!  

And here's my recipe!

Here's what you'll need: 

flour (all-purpose and wheat)

baking powder

salt

sugar

2 eggs

butter

1/2 & 1/2

vanilla extract

chocolate chips

 (Pictures show a double recipe, making four scone rounds.)

Mix together two eggs, 2/3 cup half & half, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.  Set aside.



In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole-grain flour, 1/3 cup white sugar, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon baking powder.  Add one stick of cold unsalted butter, cubed. Using a pastry cutter, cut butter into flour mixture until butter is pea-size.

 Add egg mixture and 1 cup mini chocolate chips to the flour mixture.

Mix it in a stand mixer, just until blended.  You don't want to overmix!  I often have some flour left at the bottom of my mixing bowl, just incorporate it in in the next step.

Put the dough onto a floured flat surface w/ parchment paper underneath.  If there is flour left in your dough mixture, just gently knead it back into the dough, without overworking it.  Divide dough in half and press into two circles, about 6 inches each.

Then (and this is an important step!), put the circles (with parchment paper underneath) onto a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for about 30-45 minutes.  This gives the gluten a chance to relax (seriously, gluten has been so overwhelmed lately. Ha!) and for the butter to get cold and wonderful again.

Preheat your oven to 425.

After your oven is heated to 425 and your scones have been in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, take them out and cut the circles into wedges, and separate.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Then, put some coffee on and enjoy the heck out of them!  They are so yummy.  Crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside.  Perfection!

Recipe Recap:


Scones!

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-grain flour (or use all-purpose)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter
2 eggs
2/3 cup half & half
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips (or dried fruit!)

1.  Mix together two eggs, 2/3 cup half & half, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.  Set aside.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole-grain flour, 1/3 cup white sugar, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon baking powder.  Add one stick of cold unsalted butter, cubed. Using a pastry cutter, cut butter into flour mixture until butter is pea-size.

3.  Add egg mixture and 1 cup mini chocolate chips to the flour mixture.

4.  Mix it in a stand mixer, just until blended.  You don't want to overmix!  I often have some flour left at the bottom of my mixing bowl, just incorporate it in in the next step.

5.  Put the dough onto a floured flat surface w/ parchment paper underneath.  If there is flour left in your dough mixture, just gently knead it back into the dough, without overworking it.  Divide dough in half and press into two circles, about 6 inches each.

Then (and this is an important step!), put the circles in the freezer for about 30-45 minutes.  This gives the gluten a chance to relax (seriously, gluten has been so overwhelmed lately! Ha!) and for the butter to get cold and wonderful again.

Preheat your oven to 425.

6.  After your oven is heated to 425 and your scones have been in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, take them out and cut the circles into wedges.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until golden brown.

ENJOY!





Also....
You'll want to double the recipe like I did, and stick the unbaked leftovers in your freezer.  You'll be soooo glad you did when you need a quick, homemade breakfast treat on a busy morning!




(Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour.)

bake something!!

Today is Tuesday.

And Tuesdays are my baking days.

Like, hard-core baking.

I bake around 100 items each week for our church coffee bar.

It's really fun when it's not totally stressful.

So here's what I baked this morning:

*Banana Bread (three loaves)

*Granola Cookie Bars

*Baked Donuts, (Cinnamon-Swirl and Chocolate Chip)

*Chocolate Chip Scones

and....my newest creation,

*Almond-Chocolate-Espresso Coffeecake

Oh my.  It's super yummy!!

I think it's going to be a hit.

So anyway, if you're ever in my neighborhood on Tuesdays,

swing by and we'll grab something delicious and fresh out of the oven,

and a mug of coffee.

(Actually, don't drop in on my, please.  I am pretty spent by the end of all this.)

I really think there's a baker in all of us, you just gotta reach down deep,
practice A LOT, and balance the art of following a recipe closely,
and taking a chance by changing it up, to make it your very own.


If you need some inspiration AND a semi-tutorial in baking,
I highly HIGHLY recommend this cookbook:

Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook

I wish I was getting some sort of commission off of this recommendation, but I'm not. (Whatever.)
But truly, it's a GREAT resource and has amazing recipes and pictures.
This gal has been on Paula Dean's show several times and owns
a highly successful bakery in Georgia.
I want to be her when I grow up.
(However, I'm certain she's much younger than me.)
(So, maybe I'll be her if I ever get younger.)

I would soooooo love to own my own bakery someday.
But, it would only be open one day a week because I couldn't possibly
get up early every morning to do all this every single day.


And that's why I'm still a little stay-at-home-baker mom in the woods.



Enjoy your day.
And, BAKE SOMETHING, for goodness sake!

covered in flour

Golly, guys.

I am drowning in selling my baked goodies.

Particularly, things like this:

 This is the latest yummy in the lineup.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Braided Bread.

And here's my biggest problem with all this baking:

I can't say NO.

I am covered in flour almost daily filling orders.

Though I keep telling myself that I can't handle one more thing,

if someone calls to order something,

I'm like,

"Oh, sure...no problem!!"

I just find it so hard to say no to a few extra bucks.

So here's what I've been *dreaming* about:

It's a German made stone oven.

I want it so badly! Or something like it.

But a new one is over $4,000.

That's a lot of dough, ya know?

Oh well.

I'm sure things will slow down a lot after Christmas.

But until then, I will be in my kitchen if you need me.

And if you happen to come across an industrial size oven at a garage sale,

please let me know.

:)

betty.

First of all,

THANK YOU ALL for your GREAT advice regarding my last post.

You guys gave me a ton of info and I'm so grateful!!

Ya'll are the best, you know that?

I'll keep ya updated on my quirky situation.

**************

Moving on.

Can you guess what this is??

It's a baking stone.

I know that seems boring.

And in some circles, it is.  I suppose.

But THIS is very exciting to ME!

I've wanted this high-dollar baking stone forever.

And saved my bread-baking money for it.

And here she is!

Betty Baking Stone.

That's her new name.

She loves me and I love her.

I actually wanted a bigger one...but it wouldn't fit properly in my oven.

And that's important to its effectiveness.

So I settled for the smaller one.

And now the bread baking world is my oyster.

Betty and I have big plans, for great things.

Just you wait and see!

Amazing pizza.

Crusty breads.

And whatever else I come up with.

Mmmmmm!

sticky early birdy

 Once again, I was up WAY early this morning.

My middle name is Early Birdy.

But I fell fast asleep last night at exactly 9:22 (or thereabout),

so...with six hours of sleep, I am SO good to go.

And unstoppable!

I have nothing to blog about today,

except that to share with you that I now I have a raging sticky-note addiction.

My lists are stuck everywhere.

Which allows me to not have to keep one shred of information

stored in my brain ever again for the rest of my life!

My middle name is Sticky.

Sticky Early Birdy.

(That doesn't flow...but we'll keep working on it.)

I have been joyfully CRAZY-BUSY this week with baking & such.

(Heavy on the crazy. And busy.)

I've also been milling grains and putting together bread mixes.

I have lots of orders this week.

Sweet!

Don't ever try to hold back an entrepreneurial stay-at-home mom.

You can't contain such a woman!

Here are just some of my mixes.

More to go later this week.

If you are local and would like to shop for some gift ideas,

swing on over to my little business site!

Have a lovely Wednesday!!

what i'm doing today

Lest I unleash my fuming fury

over our so called, Commander-In-Chief,

frolicking around campaigning like a school girl

running for prom queen

instead of paying attention to the world-altering

attacks going on,

and shunning the leader of THE most

spiritually important country in the world,

(%$*#$*&@!!!)

I will tell you what I'm going to do today.

I'm baking!

Here's a couple of things I'll be making

for our church coffee bar for this weekend:

Baked Dutch Apple Doughnuts

Rustic Pumpkin Scones

Plus one or two other things that I don't have

pictures of.

And that's all I'm going to say.

Good day to you.

And hey, let's bless God, America.

Sparce on Chocolate Chips

Adoption Update: TODAY our I800A application & homestudy are being sent to USCIS!!! We have requested that they expedite getting us our case number. Once we have the number, our state Senator has promised to help us get through quickly (that word is relative of course!). But my friend Patty said she just heard of two families that got through in about 6 weeks without any help. Six weeks would be awesome!! In the meantime, I'm working hard on our dossier. Thankfully, it's not near as much work as the homestudy. Please pray that everything goes smoothly!!

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Lucy LOVES to help in the kitchen....I have to sneak to unload the dishwasher if I don't want here right there with me! Any task I'm doing she'll say, "I help you Mama!" Sweet little pumpkin!! But, we all know that she will outgrow it.


The minute she got word that I was going to make cookies, there she was, all ready to go. How could I turn down such an adorable helper??

It would appear here that I have just planted my elbow in Lucy's sweet little face, but I assure you that I did not! Here we see Lucy sneaking a cookie...she had no idea I was watching her until she saw the flash from my camera!

Everytime I make cookies I always make a double batch. I bake about a dozen or so then roll the remaining dough in balls & put it in the freezer. That way, we can pull out however many cookies we want at any time and plop them on a cookie sheet & have hot, fresh baked cookies at any time.

Well, this time when I added the chocolate chips I apparently didn't get them stirred through the dough well enough & my first batch was a little sparce on chips. :( As Brenden sat down to eat one last night he started to bite it then examined it...."Mom, I only see one chip in this cookie...*sigh*" Then with his charming sarcasm he says..."wow, I'm sure excited to finally get to the chocolate chip...(bite, chew, bite, chew)...I'm getting closer...(bite, chew)...look Mom, I'm about to get the chip!...yumm, that was great!" Smartie pants.