A Little Something

Scones-R-Us?

Michael came home this evening looking for his hot cup of tea and a scone or two, as usual, before dashing out the door to lessons with a pianist in tow. 'What flavor do we have today at Scones-R-Us,' he inquired. I replied, 'You're not at Scones-R-Us, you're at The Sign of the Dancing Sconey!'

Today's flavor was a very unconventional Chocolate Chocolate Chip. I followed my chocolate chip scone directions on my Cheat Sheet, adding 2/3 cup cocoa and extra buttermilk as needed. The buttermilk makes these so light and tender, yet they are still unmistakably chocolate as well. They just might make you dance (or prance). Yum.

Recipe Cheat Sheet

One of my kitchen utensil drawers used to be chronically stuffed with recipes on little scraps of paper. These were the recipes I used all the time, so I wouldn't bother to ever file them away in my regular recipe holder. This mishmash of recipes sat in an untidy heap on top of the stuff that actually belonged in the drawer, and it always took a fair bit of rummaging to find either the right recipe or anything else in there.

I have finally gotten all the recipes cleared out of the drawer and replaced it with - drum roll please (or just bang a wooden spoon on your mixing bowl)...The Recipe Cheat Sheet.

This brilliant yet so very simple idea comes from Amy Karol, author of Bend-the-Rules Sewing: The Essential Guide to a Whole New Way to Sew and her blog angry chicken. The idea is to compile your most frequently used recipes all on one sheet for quick reference. Because they are all recipes you are familiar with you don't need lots of directions on mixing technique and so forth, so you can fit a lot on one sheet. Amy Karol's cheat sheet is here. She has some everyday things as well as some desserts.

I made up my own sheet of our regular daily fare and popped it in a page protector. It has things like pancakes, waffles, biscuits, breads, coffee cake and a couple of cookies. We use it every day - it's cute, convenient, and reduces clutter.

Here is mine: Download Recipe_Sheet.pdf 

A few notes: You can find details for my various scones, and muffins in other posts. I use King Arthur flour and do most of my baking with some combination of white whole wheat (ww) and unbleached white flour. The bread and other yeasted doughs are made in our bread machine; the rolls are shaped, set in a greased 11x15" pan and set to rise again before baking.

If you have any questions about any of my recipes just ask. And if you make up your own cheat sheet and would like to share leave a comment with a link to your blog - I would love to see it! And if you have already used a cheat sheet for years just smile and wink to yourself and feel free to share all of your other great ideas with organizationally challenged folks like me.   

Baking Center

We enjoy baking on an almost daily basis, mainly because we like eating fresh baked goods on a daily basis. Doing our own baking is also more healthful, economical, and delicious than purchasing store bought goods. When we get home from morning Mass every day we like to have a fresh baked snack, the sooner the better. I've found the ideas in Confessions of an Organized Homemaker: The Secrets of Uncluttering Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life to be very helpful in organizing my kitchen for speed and efficiency. The author stresses the importance of storing items at their point of use, and grouping items for storage that are used together rather than by the type of item it is.

To facilitate everyday baking it really helps to have a 'mixing center', as Mrs. Schofield calls it, set up in the kitchen. I store my two types of flour and sugar on the counter in glass jars. I keep a one cup plastic measuring scoop in each flour jar, and a smaller size in the sugar, so that we can just scoop and measure in one quick step. In the cupboard directly above I keep all of my extracts, honey, cocoa, corn meal, chocolate chips, more measuring cups and the like. I also keep the baking powder and soda here, and I try to keep a measuring teaspoon in the container for quick access. This saves time and also dishwashing, as we don't have to wash these measuring spoons and cups every time they are used. We also keep salt out in a 'salt pig' with a little spoon in it - again it's a lot faster than finding a measuring spoon and pouring salt from the carton each time we use it. (I found mine for a quarter of that price. You can also just use any little decorative crock.) 

Right under this counter spot I keep my large mixing bowls. We like these stainless steel bowls for mixing as they are nice and big and unbreakable, and they were very reasonably priced in the 'restaurant section' at Sam's. We use a bit of non-slip stuff under the bowl to keep it still while stirring, and I store that right there as well. Brown and confectioner's sugar, my nut chopper and other small frequently used appliances are also in here. My other cooking utensils are in the drawers so things like spatulas and whisks are close at hand too.

All of this careful storage makes the daily baking a breeze as there is no running back and forth across the kitchen to gather supplies. Mr. Gilbreth would certainly approve of all the motion saved, and my family certainly approves of all the scones, and cookies, and bread, and muffins...