Our daughter and her family stayed with us for a few days before they moved north, which was very nice for us. It was great having them real close before they moved away. It's a mom/gramma thing! One of her family's weekly excursions is a trip to Starbucks for "coffee" and blueberry scones, so I decided to make some scones that could knock Starbucks socks off!
Let me say they were amazing! We all enjoyed them very much. I had to hide two of them in the cupboard so my son-in-law and dear hubby could enjoy one the next morning. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them, but the great recipe comes from "The Joy of Baking" blog and you can find the recipe for Blueberry Streusel Scones at this link. You should try them! They are so good! I will definitely make them again. My son-in-law told me they were the best scones he had every eaten, so of course, that made them extra special!
I found myself thinking about those scones several times after they were gone and considered making them again, but I decided it was mainly having our family staying here with us that made me think about them so fondly. Once I realized that, I decided I would wait until they were back for a visit before I make that recipe again. One thing for sure, all that thinking about scones made me decide I had to make a batch of scones. I had several bananas and peanut butter always sounds good, so I decided to make scones with banana, peanut butter and a few chocolate chips!
You can see little white chunks of bananas in the picture. I don't like to mash the bananas too vigorously because I like little bites of banana. I added crunchy peanut butter as the fat, but you can use creamy. As these scones began to develop, I made mental notes of getting the ingredient ratio right because it's all about getting the dough right; not to sloppy wet and not too stiff. Once you have the ingredients mixed together, you don't want to over mix them because that will make them tough as rocks! They turned out even better than I had hoped or expected. They are so easy and very fast to put together. I'm not going to call them super "healthy," but they don't have butter or cream which is a staple in most scones and they are certainly healthier than many others I have made! :-)
When dear hubby came home and saw them on the counter I told him they started out as scones and ended up more like a big cookie, which puts them somewhere between a scone and a big cookie, so I am calling them "skookies."
I put them in the freezer the same day and it has been nice to take one out to enjoy every couple days. They are still very moist and are just as good straight out of the freezer. I have tried very hard to wait until they are completely defrosted before taking a nibble but, alas, I don't think I have managed to do that yet!
Stew is such a great meal for those cool (cold and wet) fall and winter days, here in the northwest, but as I was making this chicken stew a couple of weeks ago for dinner, it was 93 degrees outside! I must have lost my mind, but it sounded so good, I couldn't help myself! It must have been that good old fashioned smell-a-vision that convinced me. Central air helps too!
Two days before, I had watched Giada De Laurentiis make this recipe on "The Talk" and it looked great and I was convinced that it would fill the house with wonderful smells. I don't remember trying any of her recipes, but I have decided that I need to take another look at her recipes. This recipe was very simple and easy to make and other than the homemade broth, it was ready within an hour.
I always keep boneless skinless chicken breasts in my freezer, but this recipe called for two chicken breasts with ribs so we bought a whole chicken. Adding the chicken with bones and skin adds more flavor. Dear hubby cut it into pieces for me and I used the "extra parts" (neck, back, organs) for making a nice broth. I made the broth early in the day, refrigerated it and skimmed the fat off before using. I will probably try making it with boneless skinless chicken breasts in the future. I will use a little Fond de Poulet Gold, which you can find at Amazon.com if your grocery store doesn't carry it. This should give the stew the extra flavor you get from cooking the chicken with bones and skin, without the extra fat.
We served it with a slice of rustic bread for dunking into the broth. The second time around, dear hubby made some garlic toast from the leftover bread which was really good too. It made me realize that I was missing the flavor of garlic in the stew. I will be making this again in a few weeks, when fall is actually here, and I will be making a few changes. It wasn't as full of flavor as I expected it would be. I'm thinking that I will add more fresh basil, more onion, fresh garlic, and I want to play around with some spices. If I come up with something I like better, I will update the printable recipe.
