healthy breakfast

Breakfast for Erin is always a challenge. She doesn't always like to eat unless. She does like pancakes and waffles but not the frozen kind and I don't have time to make them often. Did I mention that she is not a fan of fruits and veggies. We started the school year with a new agreement. She needed to find healthy breakfasts with fruit that she could make herself and would eat. She did a great job. Last week she made Pumpkin waffles. Made the batter at night cooked up a big batch, froze the extras and has been eating them all week. Last night she mixed up Mary Fran’s scones using mixed dried fruit, she not a fan of raisins but likes dried cherries and strawberries. I think she still has plans for some pumpkin pancakes. We'll see what else she comes up with.

To make it easier I am editing the post to add to more links, thanks Bridget, Katie and Caitlin.

Breakfast cookie

On the go options

Breakfast cookie option 2

Scones

Kate, Is your scone recipe posted on here? I couldn't find it? Do you bring your butter to room temperature first?
Thanks!

All Things Pumpkin

So, I admit it, I’m in Fall Mode. I am going to start wearing sweaters and browns and oranges and pick apples and pumpkins and make crisps and pies and pumpkin scones. You may have made one variation of my cousin Mary Fran’s scone recipe: traditional, cinnamon, cranberry-orange, blueberry, double chocolate, but now I want to make pumpkin scones from that standard recipe. (You may know I love a standard recipe that is versatile enough to become several different recipes. Fewer things to remember, but you still get to experience variety.)


Pumpkin scones
makes 12 large or 18 medium scones

2 sticks butter
1 t salt
4 t baking powder
4 c flour
1 c brown sugar
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t ground cloves
1 t ground ginger
1 c canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 c milk (I prefer buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine dry ingredients with butter into a coarse mixture. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, and milk. Make an indentation in the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Stir together with a fork to moisten. The less stirring the better, stirring makes for tougher scones. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Serve warm.

At lunch yesterday, a woman said, “When I have a cup of coffee at someone else’s house, it always tastes better. When I even have a cup of tea at someone else’s house, it tastes better.” That confirms two of my “food beliefs” ­— food always tastes better when someone else has made it, and it always tastes better when it’s shared with someone else.

I’m always surprised by the number of people who say they can’t cook. I’ve eaten at a lot of tables, and I’ve never sat down to something inedible. When there’s good company, laughter, fun, and love, the food always tastes good.

It doesn’t need to be fancy or pretentious, in fact, it’s better if it’s simple and from the heart. Make brownies or a cake from a box, put on a pot of coffee or a kettle for tea, and invite a friend to sit with you. You’ll both enjoy the company and the food.

When I’m having a friend for tea, I make these scones. The recipe originally came from my cousin, Mary Fran. One of the nicest things about this recipe is its flexibility — it can be changed based on tastes, or what you have on hand. I adapted it to chocolate scones when my son was in 3^rd grade because he wanted “something chocolate” for his teacher, and I’ve made them with dried cranberries or dried blueberries or whatever I have. My neighbor Lynne has made it her own cinnamon scones recipe by substituting cinnamon chips (in the baking aisle, with the chocolate chips, but they’re hard to find, if you see them, buy two!) for the raisins. Today, I’m making them with cranberry relish I’d made for Thanksgiving, and it never got eaten, so it went into the freezer. Now that I’m baking for Christmas, I need freezer space — yet another repurposing of leftovers. Also, I'm feeling inspired, so I think the teachers are getting an assortment of scones with a pound of coffee as gifts this year.

Mary Fran’s scones
makes 12 large or 18 medium scones

2 c raisins, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes to plump them (or 2 c dried cranberries or dried blueberries or currants) (Don’t do what one of my sisters did, I won’t name names, and boil the raisins in the water, and leave them on, and ruin your best saucepan ...)
2 sticks butter
1 t salt
4 t baking powder
4 c flour
½ c sugar (or less)
2 eggs
1 c milk (I prefer buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine dry ingredients with butter into a coarse mixture. In a separate bowl, combine eggs and milk. Make an indentation in the dry ingredients and add the eggs and milk. Stir together with a fork to moisten. The less stirring the better, stirring makes for tougher scones. Add raisins and stir just until they’re combined. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Serve warm.

Will’s chocolate scones: Replace raisins with 2 c chocolate chips and add 3 T good-quality cocoa powder to the dry ingredients.

Lynne’s cinnamon scones: Replace raisins with 2 c cinnamon chips

Katie’s cranberry-orange scones: Replace raisins with 2 c cranberry-orange relish.