Monthly Archives: October 2012

ACORNS FALLING AND HALLOWEEN’S COMING

Posted on by
1

Acorns are everywhere this year!  They’re covering the sidewalks, bouncing off my car, and hitting me on the head.  According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, the area’s oak trees are dropping acorns at a rate that is 5 to 10 times the normal rate.  This abundance of acorns happens every decade or so and is known as a “mast” year.  Although no one is exactly sure why it happens, scientists think that this year’s bumper crop is likely related to last year’s drought — the trees are trying to perpetuate their species by expending energy producing seed.

Oak tree branch heavy with acorns 

 Acorns everywhere 

My son’s birthday was yesterday, and although sending a birthday snack to school is getting kind of old for him now that he is a teenager, I am not quite ready to give it up.  Having acorns on the brain, I decorated sugar cookies to look like acorns and dropped them off at school.  The kids will probably think I’m nuts.  😉

 Acorn cookies 

And speaking of things in trees, I noticed that the neighborhood is looking very festive for Halloween this year.  There are great big hairy spiders hanging from trees:

And cute little ghost families:

And this traffic-stopping display of hanging pumpkin buckets (seriously — it even made the front page of the newspaper):

In the Halloween spirit, I made a favorite appetizer for a party last week.  I call it Severed Hand Raspberry Chipotle Cream Cheese Dip, and you kind of have to have a sense of humor to serve it and to eat it.  I am particularly fond of this recipe because I won $500 for it from Better Recipes.  I didn’t have a lot of time to sculpt the hand, and several people thought it looked more like an animal claw, but like I said, you have to have a sense of humor.

Preparing the severed hand

Don’t be afraid

Print
SEVERED HAND RASPBERRY CHIPOTLE CREAM CHEESE DIP
Author: 
Recipe type: Halloween
 
Ingredients
  • 8-ounce package cream cheese
  • 5 smoked almonds
  • 1 cup Fischer & Wieser Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce*
  • Wheat Thins or favorite cracker
  • *If you prefer, you can make your own raspberry chipotle sauce by mixing together ½ cup raspberry preserves, 2-1/2 teaspoons raspberry vinegar, and 2-1/2 teaspoons adobo sauce (from can of chipotle chiles).
Instructions
  1. Place cream cheese in center of serving platter. Using a sharp knife, cut 4 lengthwise slits in cream cheese, equally spaced, approximately halfway down the block of cream cheese, cutting all the way through the block of cream cheese.
  2. Using your hands, shape five "fingers" from the cut sections of the cream cheese. Round off opposite end of block of cream cheese to resemble palm. Place smoked almonds at the tip of each finger to resemble fingernails. Pour raspberry chipotle sauce over palm end of cream cheese. Serve with crackers.

CINNAMON CHIP SCONES WITH HOMEMADE CINNAMON CHIPS

Posted on by
3

Arrrr!  I came across this little wooden pirate on ebay.  It’s actually one of a set of three nesting pirates.

Why didn’t the pirate take a shower before being forced to walk the plank?

 He knew he’d wash up on shore later.

These nesting dolls bring out obsessive-compulsive disorder tendencies in me.  See how the large pirate’s top half is not quite aligned with his bottom half? I won’t be able to rest until I get them perfectly aligned.  And wash my hands.  And make sure all the hangers in my closet are facing the same way.

These scruffy little guys reminded me of the pirate-themed party I had for one of my son’s birthdays.  It was remarkably like the birthday party Martha Stewart threw for her granddaughter Jude’s first birthday.  Martha held the party at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurant Perry St in Manhattan.  Thousands of dollars worth of Steiff animals decorated the table.  The birthday girl wore a “candy coat,” which was handmade out of cashmere hand-dyed in pastel colors.  The “cake table” had three cakes decorated with marzipan animals, which according to Martha, “aren’t too hard to make if you have the patience” (red flag alert).  The birthday lunch menu was simple:  butternut squash soup with Mimolette cheese and pumpkin seeds; asparagus with mesclun, enoki mushrooms, avocado, and black truffle vinaigrette; ricotta ravioli with herbs and tomato sauce; pain de seigle (not even going to bother to look this up); and the three birthday cakes.  For party favors there was a “menagerie of animal sugar cookies, sticking to the color scheme.”  And here’s the kicker — there was only one kid there other than the birthday girl.

Just like my kid’s party — NOT.  Give me a break!  That kid’s first birthday party was nicer than my wedding.  For my son’s third birthday we threw a pirate party at a playground because we didn’t plan it enough in advance and all the fancy restaurants were booked.  Instead of Steiff animals for decorations, we used plastic pirate figurines that I found on ebay, which the kids fought over.  On the  “cake table” was a single cake — a tres leches sheet cake from the Mexican bakery La Ideal (which, by the way, was awesome).  We decorated the cake with more plastic pirates, which isn’t too hard to do, if you have the patience.  For party favors we had pirate eye patches (the ones made out of hard plastic that hurt to wear and the elastic breaks the first time you put it on), and treasure chest banks filled with candy and gold coins and little plastic toys.  There were about 20 kids, and they were all having a great time, until it rained.  Of course.  Just like being on the high seas.  So we gathered everything up and raced to the cars, someone yelling “grab the cake” (it really was THAT good).  My son loved his party, being with his friends, his birthday cake, and, of course, opening his presents.

Like Martha, I kept the menu simple — coffee and cinnamon scones and muffins for the adults, snack mix, fruit tray, and juice boxes for the kids, and birthday cake for all.  Inspired by the nesting pirates and the memory of my son’s pirate party, I made a batch of Cinnamon Scones with Homemade Cinnamon Chips.  These Cinnamon Scones are worthy of any special celebration, and they disappeared quickly at the birthday party.  What makes them special is the homemade cinnamon chips, which “aren’t too hard to make if you have the patience.”  (I don’t recommend substituting with the odd-tasting  commercial cinnamon chips).  They’re even more special if you can serve them warm out of the oven.

Print
CINNAMON CHIP SCONES WITH HOMEMADE CINNAMON CHIPS
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • For Cinnamon Chips:
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon solid vegetable shortening (i.e., Crisco)
  • 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
  • For Scones:
  • 1-2/3 cups flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup butter, chilled and cut into 12 pieces
  • ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon half and half or whipping cream, divided use
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
  2. For Cinnamon Chips: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix with a fork until ingredients are thoroughly combined and crumbly. Spread on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until melted and bubbly, approximately 25 minutes. Cool completely, then crush into small pieces. Set aside until ready to use.
  3. For Scones: Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees.
  4. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Add butter pieces and pulse on and off until mixture is the size of small peas. Stop the processor and add ½ cup of half and half or whipping cream. Process just until the dough begins to clump together. Transfer dough to a medium mixing bowl, and gently stir in half of the cinnamon chips (reserve remainder of chips for another use).
  5. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Shape dough into a ¼-inch thick circle and cut into 8 pie-shaped wedges. Brush tops of scones with remaining tablespoon of half and half or whipping cream. Transfer scones to a greased baking sheet and bake until golden, approximately 18 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
  6. These are especially good served warm.

 Mix the cinnamon chip ingredients until nice and crumbly

 Crush the cooled chips into small pieces  

 Ready to go in the oven 

 Fresh from the oven 

Arrrr! A special breakfast treat