Summer Berry Scones

It'll be June tomorrow. Finally! I've been holding this recipe back until fresh fruit abounds in our markets. How fortunate we are in South Florida to have fresh fruit all year; we are spoiled. Although most of the larger markets nationwide now carry fresh fruit year round, it can be pricey.  But hopefully, you now have berries available whether at your grocery or farmer's market and you can try these fabulous scones. I really do think it's important to use fresh, not frozen, berries.

I had family visiting recently and they love fresh berries for breakfast so I thought it would be fun to spoil them with these scones. I was worried they'd be soggy what with the raspberries, certainly not the driest fruit, but they weren't. As long as you cool them on a rack, the bottoms hold up perfectly. I love the raspberry jam in them and those raspberry and almond flavors marry beautifully. My favorite sweet mini muffins have raspberry jam and almond paste in them. 

The recipes in Once Upon a Tart are practically no fail and the only additional advice I would add to this recipe is when mixing the dry and wet ingredients, use your best kitchen tool: your hands. It's rather a stiff dough and it's hard to mix with a spoon. However, I did use a big spoon for mixing in the berries. Very. Carefully.

Wouldn't this be wonderful to use for a fruit shortcake? Slice the scone in half and put some berries in the middle and top with whipped cream. Another bonus: I had some left over and put them in the freezer. A week ago, I thawed them in the fridge overnight and stuck them in a convection oven the next morning. They were still perfect.

Summer Berry Scones
From Once Upon a Tart by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audureau
  

Ingredients:
4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 sticks (20 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, diced small
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract)
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 tablespoon raspberry preserves
1/2 cup dried currants
3/4 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried on paper towels
2/3 cup raspberries, rinsed and dried on paper towels


Method:
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a food processor, pulse the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar to mix. Add the butter all at one time. Run the processor for 15 seconds. You want the mixture to look grainy like moist crumbs and with no chunks of butter. Pulse if you need to (I didn't)but don't overwork the dough.
Dump the crumbs in a big bowl. Whisk the eggs, add the buttermilk, extracts, preserves and currants. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until there is no flour visable. I did this with my hands.
Add the berries and mix gently, trying not to break them up anymore than necessary.
Using your hands or a 1/2 cup measure, scoop the batter onto the parchment paper, leaving 2 inches in between scones.
Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake 20-25 minutes, until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place baking sheet on a wire rack to cool for a couple moments, then transfer the scones to to the rack. Makes 12 scones.

Paris: Simply Irresistible

Anita at Castles, Crowns and Cottages is having a party. She's not only tres chic but a hostess extraordinaire. You'll love her parties....they are enchanting and imaginative. You won't want to miss this one, so go on over today and see who's invited and what fun you'll have with just a click or two. We're all going to Paris. And here's Anita's adorable button:

Isn't she talented? Such a happy drawing!

What could I possibly contribute that would be interesting to all of you AND Anita's stellar list of guests? Photos taken on our last trip to Paris, of course. Brought to you by four of us who think Paris is irresistible: daughter Tracy, son David, granddaughter Kensy and me. (Kensy's parents were not with us.)

Amusez-vous!

My granddaughter Kensy on arrival in Paris.

Simply irresistible!

Our funky hotel on the West Bank

Sacre Coeur: Ooo la la....those stairs!

Arc de Triomphe

So irresistible: Tuileries

Now where else would we lunch, my dears?

Musée du Louvre

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

So charming: Jardin des Tuileries

Quel plaisir!

My favorite: Musée d'Orsay

The Obelisk at  Place de la Concorde

The irresistible Seine and Pont Royal 

Hope you had almost as much fun as we did!
Paris IS irresistible.....au revoir!

Three Simple Non-Salads

Very rarely do I eat lunch out. And because I've been watching my weight, I've been eating a lettuce-based salad for lunch every day for months. B.O.R.I.N.G. Yes, yes, I know it's good for me AND it fills me up. I try to make them as interesting as possible by making my salads with endive and all the veggies I can find in the fridge, along with chicken or shrimp shredded on top. But still....I'm really getting sick of it and I confess: salads that are mostly lettuce, any kind lettuce, are not high on my preferred lunch list. I'd rather be eating non-salad salads or salads with little or no lettuce. Am I the only one?

When I eat out, I order quiche, caprese salad (It may say salad, but it really isn't.), chicken salad (ditto) or an omelet.  At home, if a lunch takes too much time to make or if the stove or oven has to be turned on, forget it. Not worth it for one person.
Now that summer is nearly here,  I thought I'd share three of my favorite non-salads that are easy and quick to make and perfect for 1 or 2 people. Not a lettuce leaf in sight. :) I bet all of you have your own favorite "non-salads" and I'd love to hear about them. 

The first I saw many years ago in one of Lee Bailey's cookbooks. He always has such clever ideas for entertaining and this one was for a company lunch. I changed it a bit and he served it with chicken, which I never do, but if you want, you could add a couple slices of chicken or turkey. If you insist, you can also add a lettuce cup under the cottage cheese. For presentation purposes only, of course! 
I can't even remember what he called it, if anything, because it was on a page full of quick lunch ideas, so I just named it:


Cottage Cheese Salad

Ingredients:
1 cup small curd cottage cheese (lo-fat)
1 tablespoon chives
3 radishes, sliced
1 red pepper, diced
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1 tomato, quartered
1/2 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
freshly ground black pepper
seasoning salt (I use Lawry's)

Method:
Mix cottage cheese with radishes, chives and red pepper. Top with pecans and serve with sliced tomatoes and hard boiled eggs. Season all with Lawry's.

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The second non-salad is something I invented a long time ago, although it wouldn't surprise  me to read in the comments that you make something like this often. I'm not much of a fan of pasta lunches, mainly because you have to cook the pasta and I'm usually in too big a hurry. But if the kids are here, this is an easy one to make. I usually use whole wheat pasta but the only photo I found in my file was one with regular pasta. Whole wheat gives it such a lovely nutty flavor, that I rarely make it any other way. I must have been out of it the one time I thought to dig out the camera. I add any veggies happen to be in the fridge.

It may say cold in the title, but often the pasta is still warm when I mix everything and I actually like it that way. So don't refrigerate it unless you have to.

Cold Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1/2 box fuselli pasta- regular or whole wheat

1 small can black olives, sliced

5 green onions, finely sliced, white and green

6 to 8 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 radishes diced

carrots, sliced , if desired

1 red pepper, diced

Freshly grated Parmesan

Your favorite vinaigrette

Method:

Cook the pasta, rinse in cold water and drain. Add ingredients, dress with vinaigrette and toss with some fresh Paremsan.

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The last salad came from my dear friend Nancy. She's not with us any longer and I miss her a lot and think of her often. She invented this herself and ate it frequently. I posted this back when I first started blogging. It's worth reposting.

Nancy's Cauliflower Salad

Ingredients:

1 small head cauliflower, in florets                                      

3 carrots, sliced
3 celery stalks, sliced                                                                                                                   

1/2 cup pimento stuffed green olives, sliced

1/4 cup salad oil

1/4 cup vinegar

seasoning salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method:
Make a simple vinagrette with the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Or use your own favorite vinaigrette. Mix with the other ingredients and chill.