maple-oat scones

oh my heavens. home from vacation, and first-day-back i thought it would be fun to work 11 hours at the office, go to the gym, have dinner and shower, make bread dough and prep the crock pot for tomorrow’s dinner, pack tomorrow’s lunch, finish laundry and read some blogs. what? is this my normal?

yes.

and our poor dog probably thought we gifted him to our bffs Joel and Molly while we were away for eight days. psych, Wallace! you are still our stinky puppy.

we had the best time in New York, visiting my sister Celeste, and her boyfriend Luis. Brooklyn is wonderful, the weather was delightful (sunny, but chilly), our Thanksgiving dinner party was a huge success! Celeste and I cooked for two days: mushroom stuffing; kale and brussels sprout salad; potato and fennel gratin; roasted sweet potatoes with coffee-bourbon-caramel drizzle (you HAVE to try making that beauty yourself!); Celeste made an incredible pork roast wrapped with prosciutto, kale, apples and mushrooms; she also made parker house rolls from scratch and i ate six million of them!! i made white bean dip and ginger-pomegranate champagne punch for the pre-dinner cocktail hour; and for dessert there were pumpkin panna cotta with candied hazelnuts and brown-butter apple pie. some of our guests brought delights such as Tibetan dumplings and seaweed salad, which were so good! (the amount of dumplings i consumed while in new york city numbers in the hundreds.. i’m positive.) we played catch phrase with our friends til 3am, and i ate more rolls and dumplings!

our Thanksgiving dessert plate

Celeste’s beautiful pork roast!

Thanksgiving sisters!

we also saw some sights, shopped some stuff, and ate a lottt. as far as celeb-sighting in The City (cause i know you care!), Jesse Eisenberg was totally on our flight over to NYC, and we spotted Katie Holmes both in Central Park and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw the Warhol exhibit. which was incredible! my favorite part: seeing the Avedon portrait of Truman Capote IN PERSON, like, i stuck my face right in front of it. since studying photography in college and shooting portraiture for a living, it was breataking to see Avedon’s beautiful work, up close. just absolutely astounding… Avedeon was really the master. i’m still dreaming about it.

my husband and me, waiting for the F train on a chilly night

Soho sunshine

we had a wonderful time.

as we’re trying to keep up with catching-up, these days i am drinking large, large amounts of coffee. which i think deserve a sweet treat alongside, don’t you agree? i bring you homemade oat-nut scones — easy enough for ME to bake! i’m not that great at baking (though i land griddle scones in the winning column every time), i’ll admit. and scones, especially the store-baked type, can be a dry disappointment, filling me with simple carbs and regret. i know! combine those symptoms with the $4 i have to spend on a coffee-shop scone?….

sad sophie.

these are so easy and just as delightful as a scone should be — soft, a hearty crumb, not too sweet and not too large (go ahead and eat a whole one!) oh yeah, and coffee’s best friend. we’re enjoying these as an afternoon treat when the fifth cup of coffee for the day sounds really perfect. i really like the chopped pecans, and the nuttiness brought by toasting the oatmeal. a maple glaze gives a simple, cozy sweetness.

i hope you had a wonderful holiday, and if you’re still being stared at by leftover turkey, may i suggest my favorite part of post-Thanksgiving? turkey pot pie!

enjoy.

adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

makes 8

• 1 1/2 cups oats (Old-Fashioned rolled or quick oats will work)
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (pure or homemade)
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 10 tablespoons butter (cut into pieces and chilled well)

toast the oats and pecans in a 375-degree oven (or if you’re me, in a dry skillet on medium heat, walking away just long enough for them to nearly over-toast — so keep your eye on ‘em) until browned and fragrant, and set aside to cool. if you’re smart and used the oven method, increase oven temp to 450 for baking scones.

whisk cream, egg and maple syrup together, pouring just about a tablespoon of the mixture into a small bowl for brushing tops later.

in a food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder and salt until combined. add butter pieces and pulse 12 – 14 times; look for pea-sized butter in the mixture, or thereabouts. add this mixture to oats/pecans, then fold in milk mixture, just until dough comes together. (here i became worried that the dough seemed much too wet — i was imagining a dry biscuit dough — but don’t fret! press on.) turn out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a large circle about an inch thick.

cut into 8 wedges and brush tops with remaining tablespoon of milk mixture. set at least 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and bake at 450 for 12 – 15 minutes, until golden brown.

devour while warm with a big cup of coffee, or cool for glazing.

for glaze, stir 2 – 3 tablespoons maple syrup into 1/2 cup powdered sugar and drizzle over scones.

caramel corn

i have been working really hard all weekend on getting over this irritating little headcold: resting, not going to the gym, not going out with my friends…. not even getting out of my sweats, lets be honest. vacation is 1.5 days away and i need my health to return, immediately! so last night i really needed to scoot the tissue box closer, treat myself to two extra cups of tea, and to a bourbon for my throat and to one of my favorite Tarantino movies. and popcorrrrn!!

when we were growing up, my mom always made caramel corn in the fall, a tradition i have enthusiastically embraced. it really tastes of Autumn to me, the color of the crackly caramel reminding me of golden-colored leaves and early sunsets. a fantastic snack, if you like caramel corn. and even, if you don’t like it! my husband never cared for the stuff in his life before he ate some that i’d made with Mom’s recipe. now whenever it’s around, he munches on it every chance he can sneak some… even when i’ve made it for a party and scold him — “baaaabe! that’s for the ______’s party!” haha.

it is a little addictive. caramel corn has always been one of my very favorite sweets — i mean besides caramels – certainly thanks to the winning way my mom always cooked this up for us. she made hers — and still does! — in a giant enameled bowl that had chips on the edges. i can just picture it, full of caramel corn to bursting, but slyly covered with a kitchen towel in hopes we wouldn’t find it for a while. my sisters and brother and i would fight over mom’s caramel corn! her entire batch would disappear within hours of us knowing it was ready. it smells so enticcing when it’s in the oven, too…. you’ll feel as if you’re at the coast, strolling down a boardwalk past a candy shop that twists their own saltwater taffy and makes their own caramel corn from a big vat of bubbling, golden syrup. and the aromas make you so hungry for sugar! you know what i’m talking about? SO good!

this is a sinch to make and really, quite fool-proof. i’ve included directions that avoid the big clumps and small crumbs; instead you will find evenly-coated, evenly-sized bites of crisp (never sticky) caramel corn. i hope you try it, and love it as much as we always have! i also think that this is a wonderful cure for the common cold. i can feel my sense of smell returning…. mmmmm…. boiled sugar!

yields one huge bowl, or 25 – 30 servings

recipe source unknown

• 7 quarts (or enough to fill your large bowl/vessel) plain popped popcorn
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter (or substitute margarine)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

lightly grease two large, rimmed baking sheets with butter or oil. divide the plain popcorn between the two pans; set aside. pre-heat oven to 250F.

in a large, heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, salt and butter over medium heat. you’ll want to use a tough wooden spoon or a heatproof spatula with a long handle for this; it’s a warm job. once mixture begins boiling, continue to boil for 5 minutes (or until about 280 degrees on a candy thermometer), stirring constantly and making sure to scrape all sides and the bottom of the pan.

remove from heat and add baking soda and vanilla, stirring quickly, and the soda will cause the caramel to foam up. immediately pour over popcorn in the pans, dividing mixture in half for each pan as best you can. at this point, don’t worry about having the popcorn well-coated… you will get several more chances to stir and coat.

bake for one hour, removing each pan to give a good stir (and rotate between oven racks) every 15 minutes.

line countertop with waxed or parchment paper. pour caramel corn out onto paper from pans and spread into a single layer to cool, breaking up any large clumps. enjoy!

best eaten within a couple of days, and for best result and to avoid stickiness, store air-tight.