Ham & Cheese Scones

I like scones, but I haven't made them in the past because they don't keep very well and it's hard for just the two of us to get through a batch before they're stale. 

These scones are essentially a meal.  They are large, and filled with ham and cheese, making them filling, savoury and delicious!

Making the scones isn't difficult.  The hardest part is working the butter into the flour, but it's not that tricky.  Just rub it together with your fingers until it's all incorporated.  

If you have leftover roast ham, it would be great in this!  Country ham would be fantastic.  I didn't so I just bought a ham steak from the grocery store and diced it up. You'll want a thick piece of ham for a nice dice.  

The dough has plenty of cream in it and is quite wet.  Pat it down on parchment into a round.

The dough gets cut into triangles and topped with lots of cheese before baking.

The finished scones are great warm or at room temperature.  If you can't finish them the day they're made, pop them in the freezer and thaw before eating, or warm them in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. 

Here's the recipe, enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt4 tablespoons cold butter cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup cold cooked ham, diced
2 green onions, chopped
3/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded1/4 cup milk3/4 cup 18% table cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Add the butter and rub each cube between your fingers into the flour until it dissolves and the flour resembles coarse meal. 

Add the ham, onions and 1/4 cup of the cheese to the flour mixture and toss to combine.  Add the milk and cream and mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until combined into a shaggy dough. 

On a floured work surface, pat the dough into a 7-inch circle, about 1 inch thick.  Cut into 6 wedges and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Sprinkle each wedge with the remaining shredded cheese.  

Bake 25 minutes until golden and eat these for breakfast, lunch or snacks.  Great with soup too! 

Blueberry Peach Buckle

I can't believe I've never shared this recipe. It is so simple and delicious! You can have it for breakfast, a snack, or dessert.  It keeps well and freezes wonderfully. You can use fresh or frozen fruit and the rest of the ingredients are pantry staples. 

A buckle is essentially a cake filled with fruit and (optionally) topped with a crumble topping. Buckles, along with similar evocatively-named desserts like grunts, slumps and cobblers, are a great way to use an abundance of fresh fruit before it goers bad. 

At this time of year we still have a lot of fresh berries and stone fruits in the local markets. This recipe uses peaches and blueberries, but you could use any berries you like, or even plums. 

This recipe comes from The Joy of Cooking, and I've been making it for years.  I like to add oats to the crumble topping, but you can leave them out or skip the topping altogether (but I recommend it!)

Recipe (slightly adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

Buckle
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
2 medium peaches, pitted and diced
1 1/2 cups blueberries

Crumble Topping
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons butter

For the buckle, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the butter, sugar and egg until fluffy.  Add the milk slowly and mix until combined. Stir in the dry ingredients until just mixed. The batter will be quite thick. Carefully fold in the peaches and blueberries. 

Spread the batter evenly in a greased 9-inch square baking pan.  

Mix the crumble topping ingredients together until combined and sprinkle over the buckle batter. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Cool 20 minutes before serving. 

Road Trip - Bayfield, Ontario

Wow, it's been a while since there's been a new post on this blog! Since we moved last December there has been lots going on and now that it's summertime, we're really enjoying our new yard and garden. 

This is one of the things we've been spending time on.  Our house's previous owner planted beautiful perennial gardens so every week brings a new surprise.  

But last weekend we decided to take a break from our garden and head on a little road trip to Bayfield, Ontario.  Bayfield is a little village on the shores of Lake Huron, between Goderich and Grand Bend.  It's only about an hour from home.  We've been there on day trips several times but this time we stayed overnight at The Little Inn of Bayfield, located right on Main Street in the centre of town. 

The Little Inn is an historic property recently under new ownership and it was a perfect place to stay. We had a little room with a king sized bed on the second floor. Service at the front desk was beyond friendly and helpful. In fact, service was absolutely fantastic everywhere we went in the Inn and its restaurants and bars. 

The first thing we did when we arrived was make a beeline to the Inn's weekly Backyard BBQ, every Saturday this summer from 11:30 am until 3:30 pm or until the food is gone. It's all you can eat for $19.99 per person and the food was surprisingly delicious!  We had pulled pork, ribs, chicken, brisket, corn, potato salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, amazing biscuits, and even pie for dessert. 

We also ordered some craft beer for Matt and a bourbon sour for me.  The BBQ is served outside in a lovely back garden with plenty of sun and shade. The service was once again terrific, especially from the young man handling the grill.

Next we headed for a walk down Main Street, which is great for shopping.  And then we walked down to the marina and main beach.  There are three beaches in Bayfield and we had a lovely time swimming in the lake.

For dinner we headed to the Black Dog Village Pub. We've had lunch here many times and we were looking forward to being able to stay longer and enjoy their extensive beer and cocktail list.  Unfortunately, service wasn't quite up to their normal standards so we were only able to order one cocktail each with dinner.  

The food was fantastic though!  This cauliflower & quinoa salad was so good I can't wait to attempt to make it myself. 

After dinner we were still thirsty so we headed to the Ashwood Inn's bourbon bar.  This place has been nicely renovated and has a huge patio.  

We headed back to our Little Inn for one last cocktail in their wonderful bar.  

We had a great sleep and in the morning we were delighted to find that breakfast was included with our room rate.  The breakfast buffet had eggs, bacon, sausage, cold meats and cheeses, excellent chicken and roasted vegetables, salads and desserts, plus juice and coffee. It was an unexpected treat. 

Before leaving Bayfield we stopped at the cutest bird store I've ever seen. Porter's Hill has a great selection of bird feeders and seed, plus other great gifts. And the service is extremely knowledgeable and friendly.  We will be back here for sure. 

On the way home we stopped by one of our favourite places, Twin Pines Cider House. We've been here several times but were pleased to see they now they have a new tasting room on the main floor.  We picked up some cider and glasses and headed home. 

It's so great to have such a wonderful getaway so close to home. Bayfield is definitely close enough for a day trip, but it was very relaxing to stay overnight. We will be back soon for sure!  

  

Southern USA Road Trip - Lexington, Kentucky

We spent the first night of our road trip in Lexington, Kentucky.  Normally when I plan our trips I verge on over planning.  I research hotels and restaurants and make spreadsheets of the best locations and an itinerary of things to see each day.  We can be flexible, but it's nice to have an outline so we don't miss anything we really want to see. 

But on this road trip we wanted to be a little more spontaneous.  We hoped to make it all the way to Lexington on our first day, about a 7-hour drive and we'd read we could get a hotel easily enough without a reservation so we played it by ear. Unfortunately we don't follow horse racing.  Little did we know, two of the biggest horse events of the year were happening in Kentucky the two days we would be travelling through.  In Lexington, it was the Rolex, Kentucky and the city was almost booked to capacity.  A week later we hadn't learned our lesson and had to skip Louisville because it was Kentucky Derby weekend.  So we've learned to check the calendar for horse events when visiting Kentucky in the future.  

But we managed to find a room for the night, and Lexington was good to us.  Everything came together almost magically without planning.  We used the Rate Beer Places app to find a bar with craft beer that was open nearby.  When we arrived we saw a taco truck in front of another bar across the street.  So we went over and ordered some tacos.  

We were shocked and delighted when the taco guy asked whether which bar we wanted our tacos delivered to.  He said he'd bring them to us across the street!  It was a nice change from our home town where they've just voted not to allow food trucks on city streets at all.  

Southern USA Road Trip - Bourbon, Bacon, Biscuits, Beer & Barbecue

We just returned from a seven-day road trip through the US South.  We drove through Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina and we ate and drank everything!

Before we left I made a list of regional specialties I wanted to try.  We managed to hit almost all of them.

#1 Cincinnati Chili

The first regional specialty we came across was Cincinnati Chili.  For this we went to Skyline Chili, a chain with locations all over Ohio.  The chili is a thin meat sauce spiced with cinnamon and cloves, served over spaghetti in a variety of "ways".  Three-way is spaghetti topped with chili and cheese.  Four-way adds onions and five-way adds beans.  It's served with oyster crackers on the side.  I have to say, I wasn't expecting much, but this was really tasty.  I was surprised by the warm spice of the sauce and the amount of cheese on top!  Also, the staff couldn't have been friendlier.  When we told them it was our first time, our whole meal was free!  Unbelievable.  

#2 Kentucky Bourbon

We only spent a short time in Kentucky, but we managed to try a bit of bourbon.  We toured a bourbon distillery and tried some samples and bourbon cocktails.  I even brought a bottle home as a souvenir.

Banana Bread

Banana bread is such a nice treat.  It almost makes you look forward to overripe bananas.   It's a great breakfast or morning snack, and it freezes really well if you can't eat it all.   

Here's what you need:  

Orange Muffins with Chocolate Granola

If you wake up this weekend with nothing in the house for breakfast and a craving for muffins, you could do worse than this recipe!  

I love baking but I don't do a ton of it because there's very limited need for baked goods in a two-person household that's trying to eat healthy and rarely eats dessert.  

This recipe is adapted from the Joy of Cooking which is a terrific resource for baking.  You probably have most of these ingredients on hand, or ingredients for some other muffin variation.  Here's what you need:

Baked Eggs in Pancetta Cups

How about a tasty breakfast or brunch that's quick and easy?  These pancetta egg cups are a delicious way to get your bacon and eggs.  You can serve them with some toast or fruit salad to complete the meal.  

Here's what you need (for 2, multiply to serve more)

2 eggs
6 thin slices pancetta (Italian bacon)
chives
parmesan
salt & pepper
2 ramekins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Spray the ramekins with cooking spray and layer the pancetta inside overlapping to make a little cup.

Crack an egg.

Sprinkle in salt, pepper, chives and parmesan cheese.

Scramble it all together with a fork.

Then pour it in to one of the pancetta cups.  Repeat with the second egg.

Sprinkle the tops with a little more parmesan.  Place on a sheet in the oven and bake until the eggs are set, 15-20 minutes.

Remove the cooked eggs from the oven.  The pancetta will be nice and crispy.

Remove from the ramekin and serve.  Delicious!

Happy New Year! Dim Sum

Since we've been busy with the holidays and then away on a little trip, there's not much food in the house for New Years breakfast.  But there were some dumplings in the freezer so we had dim sum.

These are my favourites.  Also called shumai, these pork dumplings are delicious and easily steamed.  

I use my bamboo steamer and cut a piece of parchment to fit with a small hole in the centre.  This keeps the dumplings from sticking to the bamboo.  

Place the steamer over a pan of simmering water and add the dumplings.

Then top with the lid and steam about 10 minutes.

We also had some potstickers which are only slightly more involved and just as tasty.]

These ones are vegetable and chicken and they were extremely tasty.  Instructions are on the package.

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat until hot.

Carefully add the frozen dumplings.  You'll likely get some splatter when the frozen dumplings hit the hot oil, so step back. 

Brown one side until golden.

Then add cold water to the pan to cover the bottom.

Bring to a boil and simmer, covered for a few minutes. Then remove the cover and let the dumplings brown until all the water is evaporated.  Keep a close eye on them so they don't burn!

Mine got a tiny bit too brown on one side but were still super tasty.

I love hot mustard with the shumai.  This is English spicy mustard.  I also served some soy sauce and rice vinegar with a few chili flakes.  You can mix sesame oil, rice vinegar and a bit of soy sauce to make a nice dip for the dumplings, but I was being lazy and honestly they didn't need more than a touch of mustard.

These make a great breakfast, lunch or snack and are very easy to make with delicious results.

Enjoy them on New Years Day or any time!  Happy 2013!