I found this recipe in this month’s Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine.  I love very dry, crumbly scones but have never dared to try them.  This recipe sounded easy and looked good.  The only thing I would do different next time would be to press the circle out a little flatter.  But otherwise they turned out great and taste good.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Scones

3/4 cup cold heavy cream

1 large egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 t. vanilla

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

6 T. cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces

1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Whisk together heavy cream, egg and vanilla.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  With a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with a few pieces of butter remaining.  Stir in blueberries.  With a fork, stir in cream mix until just combined.  The dough should be crumbly, do not overwork.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a 6 inch circle.  Cut into 6 wedges and transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake until golden, about 16-18 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through.  (I actually cooked mine almost double because I made a double batch and had two circles to cook.  Enjoy!

My nephew Henry is already 9 months old!  I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.  It feels like it was just yesterday that our immediate family was at the family rental cottage that my parents rent every year and my sister was waking me up at 1:30am, crying and saying she thought she was in labor!  She was 4 weeks early and didn’t want to interrupt vacation week with something like delivering a baby 🙂  But Aunt Cookie came to the rescue and drove her back into Grand Rapids in time for Henry Paul to come into the world.  What a sweet little man!

So tonight I wanted to make a homemade Caesar salad.  Unfortunately, I forgot to purchase canned anchovies.  And I don’t think you can make an honest Caesar dressing without them.  So I took the ingredients I had on hand and threw this salad together.  Turned out great.  Easy to throw together and even the hubby enjoyed it.  Enjoy!

Roasted Romaine with Crusted Chicken Breast

1 head of romaine lettuce

boneless chicken breasts

sliced parmesan cheese

cherry tomatoes

dried cranberries

oil, salt, pepper

Take the romaine lettuce head and slice in half the long way.  Place on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  Roast in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

The crusted chicken can be any type of crusting you like.  I actually used Kraft’s chipolte lime crusting package found in the packaged cheese isle.  I used the crusting crumbs and added  a bit of regular grated parmesan cheese.  I crusted the chicken breasts and fried them in olive oil until crispy.  Then I transferred them into the oven to finish baking with the romaine for about 15 minutes.  Once the chicken is done, slice and lay over salad.  Drizzle with your favorite dressing.  I used a great poppy seed dressing.  My hubby prefers the plain, old fashioned French.  Enjoy!

And FYI, I also roasted up some extra asperagus I had on hand, we love to eat this with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Yummy!

This recipe is an old one, my mom would make these all the time when I was growing up.  I have no idea who she got the recipe from, but the name of the recipe is “Bushel of Cookies”.  This is a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, but it supposedly makes 96 cookies!  I must make them too big, because I never get that many out of a batch, but it is a big batch with 5 cups of flour in it!  And out of all the chocolate chip cookie recipes I’ve ever made, this is by far the best dough to eat raw.  Yummy!  Of course, there are raw eggs in it, so eat at your own risk.  Me, I risk it all every time I make these and eat half the dough before it even makes it to the pan.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 c. butter, room temp

1 c. Crisco (I used butter flavor)

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. white sugar

4 eggs

2 t. vanilla

5 c. flour

1 t. salt

2 t. soda

1 bag chocolate chps

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream together butter, Crisco, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Stir til light and fluffy,  (I used my stand up mixer).  Add flour, salt and soda into the creamed mixture.  Add chocolate chips.  Drop by teaspoon full onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-9 minutes or until lightly brown.  Enjoy!

I just had to post this picture from a recent night of fun.  This wonderful group of women have been friends for almost 10 years, after getting to know each other in a small group at church.  It sounds like a few of them still go to that same church, but there are also others who have moved to different churches, moved out of state or are moving out of state soon.  They decided it would be fun to do a photo shoot to capture them all together one more time.  And I was blessed to be able to take the pictures.  Thanks ladies, for including me in your fun night!  May you all be blessed as you live out your separate lives, all the while remaining friends.