Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Scones

There is no better treat than homemade breakfast during the week!  On Friday, our schools had a two hour delay so I was able to whip something up for breakfast. I usually make pancakes (from scratch) because that's what my mom always did.  I decided not to because I made pancakes last week and caught the stomach bug.  Let's say I wasn't ready for pancakes again.

On that note...

As I stayed snuggled up in my bed and on Pinterest, each recipe I thought sounded great, I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand.  Then I remembered seeing a pin for Chocolate Chip Scones that looked good.  For whatever reason, I hadn't pinned it.  I found the recipe for Chocolate Chip Scones from Sally's Baking Addiction.  Luckily, I had everything I needed (basically).

Ingredients:
-8 Tbl. of unsalted butter (cut into chunks)
-2 C. flour
-2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/2 C. heavy cream
-1 egg
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips

I used the same measurements that were posted on Sally's Baking Addiction.  My only ingredient change was that I didn't use the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. The scones were great with regular chocolate morsels.


The process I used to make the scones differed slightly.
Here's what I did:
First, cut the cold butter into chunks.  Place it in the bowl of the stand mixer.  Stir in the flour.  Allow the flour and butter to mix until the butter is broken into small, pea-sized pieces.  Then add the remaining dry ingredients.






In a separate dish, gently whisk the heavy cream, eggs, and vanilla.








Next, pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.  Last, add the chocolate chips and stir until the chips are nicely distributed.




Once your dough is set, I divided it into two mounds of dough.  I rolled out each mound of dough to about a 1/2 inch thick disc.  Then I divided each disc into eight slices and placed on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  This resulted in 16 scones.  I baked the scones at 400 for 17 minutes.

I was a fan of these scones! I decided to call them Cinnamon Chocolate Chip scones because the cinnamon flavor isn't subtle.  This process for using the mixer is the same way I make all of my scones now.  This method has worked out well for me and was the one I shared back here with Lemon Cream Scones.

As always, happy baking!

Red Velvet Oreo Truffles

A few weeks ago, in  a post, I mentioned how I bought these:  Red Velvet Oreos.

When I first heard that Nabisco was making Red Velvet Oreos, my very first thought was "Red Velvet Oreo Truffles?!"

Have you ever eaten Oreo Truffles?  The recipe is all over the internet and can be found on Kraft's website.

Let me tell you...The first time I had Oreo truffles I thought I had eaten a tiny, bit of heaven.  A neighbor had made them and given some to my mom.  My mom was raving about them and was generous enough to share.  I've made Oreo truffles many times.  They take almost no time, but are incredibly delicious!

I have even made brownies and topped them with Oreo truffle and then topped that with melted chocolate.  That's a recipe I should bake again!

Anyway, I tracked down some Red Velvet Oreos the day they were released- February 2.  Who knew that cookies had a release date?  I bought two packages and was waiting until Valentine's to pull open the seal and try these Oreos.

The cookie by itself was good, but definitely not my favorite kind of Oreo (am I right, Sarah?)  That could start me on an embarrassing tangent about , but I won't go there...
Oreos

What You Need:
-2 packages of Red Velvet Oreos (for truffles you need 36 and these only come in small packages)
-8 oz. of cream cheese (I always opt for the 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese- that way they're "healthy")
-melting chocolate of choice, I use Candy Melts
-Sprinkles or additional crushed Oreos for decoration

In a food processor, crush 36 Oreos.  Transfer Oreo crumbs to stand mixer bowl.  Stir in softened cream cheese.

Then mold the mixture into small balls and place on a cookie sheet.  Freeze the truffles for about 15 minutes.  This step makes the dipping easier.

Then dip in your favorite melting chocolate.  For this, I used white chocolate.  Candy Melts also has a Red Velvet flavor which I was tempted to try, but I didn't want the truffles to be too overpowering in their red velvet flavoring.

After making many cake pops, I must say that dipping these truffles without being on a stick was a pain!  When you make cake pops, you can tap off the extra chocolate and end up with a smoother coating. Before the chocolate hardens, top with your choice of sprinkles.  Keep in the fridge and enjoy!

I have to confess that I have only eaten one. One. Yes,  you read that correctly. I am recovering from the flu and haven't gotten my appetite yet.  Everyone who I've shared them with loves them though!

Steak and Onion Sandwiches

Our final recipe from the week was Steak and Onion Sandwiches and it was by far our favorite!  This recipe can be found on Martha Stewart's website or in her book Everyday Food:  Great Food Fast.

This was once again, a quick and flavorful weeknight meal. We loved it so much we made it again for lunch over the weekend.

The recipe calls for onions, EVOO, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, Steak-umms, and country bread.

We decided we would use flank steak, slice thinned instead. We also bought a baguette for the bread.
Basically, you brown the onions in EVOO, until softened.  Then you remove the onions and cook the steak.  Season the steak with salt and pepper. Next, pour in the Worcestershire sauce and a bit of water.  Dump the onions back in to combine.  Then top on the bread.  The end!

We didn't follow the measurements that Martha gave, but we used it as a guideline.  We will try this recipe with Steak-umms at some point.  I think it would also be tasty topped with cheese.

As a side with this dish we made "Shredded Beet and Carrot Salad."  I couldn't find the recipe online, but it is in the book. I have no pictures of this because I finely shredded the beats using my food processor attachment to my Kitchenaid. This was way too fine and resulted in a juicy, but tasty, mess.

Garlic Marinated Chicken and "Grilled" Potatoes

Here's another quick and flavorful recipe from Everyday Food:  Great Food Fast.  We made Garlic Marinated Chicken with Grilled Potatoes.  I put "grilled" in quotes because we are not the type of people who grill year round so we broiled our potatoes.

Since it's just the two of us, we cut the recipe in about 1/3.  We washed and chopped the potatoes in half and created a foil pocket.  We stuck them in the oven to broil and began to marinate the chicken.

We allowed our chicken to marinade for about 15 minutes- the original recipe says 10-30 minutes.  We also roasted asparagus, like Martha calls for, but we simply roasted the asparagus with EVOO, salt and pepper.

The chicken and asparagus game together quickly.  We ended up microwaving our potatoes because after over 30 minutes of broiling, the potatoes were crispy looking but still very, very raw.  It is interesting to think the potatoes would have been done in less time and at a slower temperature...

Aside from the potatoes, this meal was a huge success!  Again, the chicken was moist and full of flavor. We ate the chicken and asparagus before the potatoes were done.

Check out some other quick weeknight meal ideas I've tried from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast:
-Lemon Parsley Pork Chops
-Beef and Orange Stir Fry
-Orecchiette with Sausage and Roasted Peppers

Lemon Parsley Pork Chops

Clearly I was unable to write posts each day last week to coincide with the new recipes we were trying from Everyday Food:  Great Food Fast.  I'll try to wrap it up this weekend!

The third recipe we made from Everyday food was for Lemon Parsley Pork Chops.  Yet again, this recipe provided a simple, fast, and delicious weeknight meal!  I actually followed the recipe completely, so be sure to check it out in the book or on Martha's website.

All that you need to make this tasty meal is lemon zest, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, EVOO, and pork chops. I love it when a recipe is so simple and it doesn't require 10 million ingredients being pulled from your fridge and pantry.  We served this green beans and baked potatoes.  The result was two very happy campers!

First you mix the first 4 ingredients.  

Cook the pork chops on the stove.

Once cooked, top the pork chops with the lemon and parsley combo.  

That's it! The pork chops were full of flavor.  There's no reason to not give this recipe a try!

Other Feedback from  the recipes we've Tried from Everyday Food:  Great Food Fast

Beef and Orange Stir Fry

Orecchiette with Sausage and Roasted Peppers

Stay tuned for 3 more reviews to come.

Beef and Orange Stir Fry

Up next in our recipes from Everyday Food:  Great Food Fast, we made Beef and Orange Stir Fry. The recipe is in the book and available online. You've read my rants for my love of Chinese food and Orange Beef is one of my favorites- especially from Fuji.  So of course this dish sounded quite appealing to the two of us.

Martha Stewart's turned out much prettier than mine did...

This recipe was very simple to make and required a minimal amount of ingredients.  The original recipe does call for boneless sirloin or rib eye and we used flank steak. We decided to use flank steak because when making Mongolian beef the recipe calls for sirloin or flank steak and it is much, much better with flank steak.  Aside from switching the cut of beef, we followed the recipe exactly.

Ingredients:
-3 oranges
-2 cloves of garlic
-2 Tbl. soy sauce
-1 to 1.5 lbs of flank steak
-1 Tbl. cornstarch
-2 Tbl. canola oil
-a few scallions

For the sauce:  Juice one orange and add the garlic and soy sauce.  We were both surprised this recipe didn't call for any ginger, which is probably something we'll add next time.

For the meat:  Slice the meat thin.  Then, heat the oil.  Coat the flank steak in corn starch and cook a few minutes on each side until browned.  Then pour the sauce in.

For the remaining oranges:  You don't want to peel the other oranges.  You are going to cut them in sections and remove the pith.  Once the steak is cooked and the sauce is added toss in the scallions and the oranges.

I am sure this would be great over rice, but I haven't wanted anything to do with rice since I've been pregnant.  We ate this with couscous.

As I mentioned, next time I think we'd add ginger to the sauce.  This was a quick and flavorful meal to make during the week.

On another note, I bought these today...

My first thought when I heard about them was Red Velvet Oreo Truffles! Mmm! I cannot wait to give those a try!