I like the sections with tomatoes on them most, then the eggplant ones.

You can use any kind of roasted or grilled vegetables. You don’t even have to grill them yourself! I bought some jars of grilled vegetables in oil at the grocery store–things like eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, and mushrooms. I also picked up a pint of cherry tomatoes, cut them in half and roasted those with some olive oil. I had a slight preference for the sections with tomatoes on them, but the eggplant was a close second. The great thing about having a mixture is that if someone doesn’t like the flavor of a particular vegetable, there are still several others to choose from.

If you keep the jarred vegetables on hand and some puff pastry in the freezer, this recipe can almost be made at a moments notice. All you need is some goat cheese–those logs seem to last a while anyway. You can even use ricotta in place of the goat cheese. (I did encourage experimentation yesterday, so try it!) I actually combined the goat cheese with a bit of ricotta to tame the flavor a bit and make it a bit more spreadable.

Use the biggest knife you have and just press down to cut it. Try not to drag the knife through or the layers of puff pastry may seperate.

It’s also great for a crowd because the puff pastry can be baked ahead of time and the rest can be assembled later in the day. In fact, the entire thing can be made several hours ahead and just kept loosely covered on the counter. To further reduce the prep time, you can go ahead and make the cheese mixture a couple of days ahead and keep it covered in the fridge. Allow it to come to room temperature or warm it very gently on low power in the microwave to make it spreadable again. I thought they were great at room temperature. If you wanted to serve it warm, you could just reheat it in the oven for 10 minutes at 400F.

The only prep work to do is to roast the tomatoes and mix the goat cheese and ricotta. The tomatoes are easy; Cut them in half, toss with oil, and bake for 15 minutes. Mixing the cheeses isn’t difficult either, but it does help to have a stand mixer or a food processor. Mixing it with a wooden spoon works just as well, but machines were invented for a reason. Any way you do it, simply mix the goat cheese and ricotta together with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to help make it spreadable.

Roasted Vegetable Tart
Serves about 12-15 as an appetizer. Recipe can be halved.
Ingredients
two sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
11 ounces goat cheese
5 ounces ricotta
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons herbes de Provence
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 or 2 jars roasted/grilled vegetables (in oil) (red pepper, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, or anything else) – or – fresh roasted/grilled vegetables
1 pint roasted cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar, for drizzling

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. If your vegetables are packed in oil, drain them, then pat the excess oil off with paper towels.
3. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place them in a large bowl. Add a tablespoon of olive oil, a few cracks of black pepper, and a pinch of salt. Toss to coat. Place the tomatoes, cut-side up, in a baking pan, and roast on the top shelf for 15 minutes.
4. Place a sheet of parchment paper in a sheet pan and lay the puff pastry on it. Place another layer of parchment paper on top of this, then another sheet pan. The puff pastry should be sandwiched between the two layers to prevent excess rising. Bake on the lower rack for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove the top pan and the top parchment paper. Bake for 10 more minutes, until the dough is a golden brown (check after 5 minutes).
5. Remove the baked pastry to a cooling rack and allow to cool.
6. In a mixing bowl or food processor, add the goat cheese, ricotta, tablespoon of olive oil, herbes de Provence, and black pepper. Mix thoroughly to combine until smooth.
7. Using a nonstick spatula, spread half the cheese mixture onto the baked puff pastry. Top with roasted vegetables. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar if desired. Cut into bit size portions and serve.
-repeat everything with the other sheet of puff pastry-

Good stuff, eh.

Not much going on in the looks department here.

These didn’t taste bad, they just don’t look like much. But that sometimes happens when you try new things. In fact, this post is less about introducing a new recipe as it is an encouragement to try experimenting in the kitchen. Not all recipes have to be clever, unique, or look astounding. Start with something you like and let your curiosity take over. Make a few small changes, try a different seasoning, switch some vegetables…

(If you do want this recipe, click this link for the roasted chickpea recipe, and reduce the baking time to 30 minutes, check after 20. I made the savory version.)

Don’t be afraid to take one idea and apply it to another. Look for contrasts or similarities. Let’s use these (or any) roasted beans as a launching point. Start by considering their texture: crunchy. What is their flavor like: fairly neutral, but easily modifiable (they originally taste like beans, obviously). What else is crunchy, but has a neutral, easily modifiable flavor… croutons! Consider using dry roasted beans as a garnish on a salad. Maybe roast the beans with a bit of garlic powder and some herbs to make them more like garlic croutons. See, that was an easy and original twist for your next salad.

Don’t be afraid to trying new things in the kitchen, you may be happily surprised. And if you aren’t, well, you don’t need to blog about it. You can leave that to me :)

The garlic-rosemary ones are in the front, the sweet ones are in the back. They are both great.

Putting chickpeas in the oven is not new here at The Food Spot. I’ve made a toasted chickpea salad before, which–if I may be modest for a second–was terrific. (Wait a sec… that’s the opposite of modesty, oh well.) In that version the chickpeas were only lightly toasted–the centers of the chickpeas were still chewy–so it turned out more like little self contained balls of slightly crunchy, roasted-flavored hummus. This time I just kept cooking them. I cooked them for nearly twice as long–almost an hour. What this yielded was a super crunchy snack–almost closer to a nut than to a bean. I took that as a not so subtle hint and mixed in a few pistachios and cashews.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the whole “two ways” thing that this post is supposed to be about. Well, when you look at nuts, you normally see them as either sweet (e.g., honey roasted) or salty. So I basically adapted that concept for these: one batch was made with brown sugar and chili powder and the other with garlic and rosemary. I don’t know what possessed me to add chili powder to the brown sugar one, I just figured that sweet and spicy would also be tasty. Fortunately, I was right.

See the brown sugar caramelized on some of the nuts? That's a little but of awesome.

You can mix your own versions of spices, but if you are short on ideas, feel free to use mine. Either way you won’t be disappointed. It’s a ridiculously simple snack to make. I served them with an aperitif before dinner and munched on the few leftover the next day.
Here’s how to do it:

Spicy Brown Sugar Chickpeas
Ingredients
1 can of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), drained, rinsed, dried
1/4 cup unroasted, unsalted cashews
1/4 cup unroasted, unsalted pistachios
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 packed tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Drain and rinse the chickpeas in a colandar. Allow to dry.
2. Toss chickpeas with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread out on a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until they look browned and rattle when you give the pan a shake. Move them around on the sheet every 15 to 20 minutes to prevent any burnt areas.
4. Toss the remaining ingredients with the warm chickpeas and bake for 10 more minutes.

I don't know if another photo will convince you to make these or not, but hey, they look good, so why not?

Savory Chickpeas
Ingredients
1 can of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), drained, rinsed, dried
1/4 cup unroasted, unsalted cashews
1/4 cup unroasted, unsalted pistachios
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp rosemary

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Drain and rinse the chickpeas in a colandar. Allow to dry.
2. Toss chickpeas with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread out on a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until they look browned and rattle when you give the pan a shake. Move them around on the sheet every 15 to 20 minutes to prevent any burnt areas.
4. Toss the remaining ingredients with the warm chickpeas and bake for 10 more minutes.

Bonus
These are built in make-ahead foods. Not only can you prepare each recipe until step 3 then finish later to serve still warm, but you can also simply make everything and store them in an air-tight container and serve at room temp. They are good either way.

Bite sized awesome.

I liked the idea of lahmacun, but wanted to change a few things so I could serve it as an appetizer and tie in a few more Moroccan flavors. Why Moroccan? Well, you’ll see the details of the main course on Thursday. So how did I change up the lahmacun? I made bite sized portions and classed it up with a Greek yogurt and harissa mixture. That’s another word that you may not know, “harissa”. It’s essentially a hot chili sauce common to the north of Africa. Recipes and heat levels vary, but you can buy it pre-made (I did).

This was really good though. I mixed a combination pine nuts, mint, some caramelized shallots, and coriander with ground lamb. I toasted some pita then baked some of the lamb mixture on each bit of bread. The Greek yogurt was mixed with more mint and a dollop of the harissa. To serve, I put some of the yogurt on each pita and a little more harissa with a tiny sprig on mint. They tasted even better than they looked.

Make this. You'll like it.

Ingredients
20 mini pitas (cut in half to make 40 rounds) -or- pita bread cut into wedges (the rounds bake more evenly, use those if you can find them)
1/2 cup mint (cut up), plus more for garnish
1.5 tbsp caramelized shallot (made from one shallot, minced) (onion would also work)
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp pine nuts
1 egg
2/3 lb ground lamb
1 cup greek yogurt
2 tsp harissa, plus more for garnish

Directions
1. Caramelize the shallots. You should be starting with 2 to 3 tbsp of minced shallot, they will reduce in volume as they cook. Set your smallest skillet over low heat and add a bit of olive oil. Cook until they become golden brown and tasty, about 10-15 minutes. If needed, add water as they cook to prevent them from drying out and burning. This can be left largely unattended and can be made ahead.
2. Preheat the oven to 425F. Brush both sides of each bit of pita bread with olive oil and bake for 8-10 minutes on a cookie sheet, until lightly toasted.
3. In a bowl, combine the egg, shallots, coriander, pine nuts, and half the mint. Mix in the lamb.
4. In another bowl, mix the Greek yogurt, rest of the mint, and the harissa.
5. Put a rounded tsp of the lamb on each toasted pita. Bake for 8 minutes.
6. Top with the yogurt mixture and a little bit of harissa. Add a tiny bit of mint for garnish if desired (it spruces them up :) ). I also sprinkled a few more pine nuts on them as well.

As I was making this for a dinner party, I wanted to be able to make this ahead and enjoy the company of my friends. You can make all of this earlier in the day and stop at the end of step 5. Just loosely cover the cookie sheet with foil and set aside. Reheat for at least 5 minutes in a 425F oven, then continue with step 6.

MMmmm...

Given that I’m fond of onions, it’s only natural that I crave onion rings every now and then. I’ve never fried them myself, but I have been making this oven-fried version that I got from Cooking For Engineers. I like to think that because I’m not deep frying these, I’m eating something healthful. Onions are vegetables, right? That means it’s healthful, right? Don’t tell me the truth. Let me pretend.

These guys were quite good. They aren’t as good as some of the fried ones I have had in restaurants or bars, but they are a very good substitute. Quite a bit of flavor is in these courtesy of an uncommon ingredient in fried foods: kettle chips. Adding potato chips seemed unusual at first, but it’s actually a great way to get a bit of that fried crispness in there without actually frying them.

Anyway, I was in the process of moving and my camera was still packed away, so these pictures were taken with my phone. The colors are a little washed out, so let’s just pretend that these looked even better in real life and that they tasted even better than you imagine.

If you have never battered anything, be prepared to use several bowls and get an assembly line going. Let’s get to the recipe and I’ll explain as I go.

Tastes pretty cool

Ingredients
Serves 4. Again, this is from Cooking For Engineers.
2 Onions, cut into rings
about 1/4 cup AP flour, for dredging
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup AP flour
30 saltine crackers
4 cups (about 4 large handfulls) kettle chips
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Whisk the buttermilk, egg, salt, pepper, and flour in a bowl. Grind/pound/mash the chips and crackers in another bowl–it helps to have a food processor, I don’t, so I just used the bottom of a beer bottle to crush the chips.
3. Set the stage: The bowl of onions goes first. Next to it, place a bowl of the 1/4 cup of flour for dredging. After that comes the bowl of batter. Then finally the chips–I put these in a pie plate because it has a big enough lip to keep everything together, but small enough to stay out of the way. Then a plate, or something to set the battered rings on temporarily. I told you used use a lot of bowls.
Now it’s just a matter of following the order. Take the onion ring into the flour and dredge it to coat it in flour. Dip it into the batter, make sure it’s coated. Then press as much of the crumbs into the onion ring as you can. Don’t worry if there are bald spots, it happens. Then just set them onto a plate as you continue the process with the rest of the rings.
4. Once all the rings are dredged, add the oil to to a baking sheet and put it into the oven to heat it up (he says 8 minutes, but I have found that 5 may be enough in some ovens). Once the oil is hot, pull the pan out and arrange the onion rings as best you can into one layer. Bake for about 8 minutes, flip the onion rings over and bake for 8 more. Do try to allow then to cool enough so you don’t burn yourself.

It isn’t! If nobody questions Tyler Florence, Ina Garten, Emeril, and over 335,000 Google hits, you don’t get to question me when I do it! And you certainly can’t be surprised by my combination when cheddar cheese and apple pie shows up in chain restaurants.

Pear and Goat Cheese Triangles

Besides, my approach was more subtle than cheddar and apple pie. I wanted to make little appetizers of crisp phyllo dough around a pear, blue cheese and honey mixture. Fold these into triangles, then bake until the phyllo begins to brown and the cheese melts. You’ll be left with a very tasty appetizer. I have to say, I even impressed myself.

If you have never worked with phyllo dough before, it can seem to be a little intimidating. The dough is very thin and can dry easily. Don’t worry though, a gentle hand and some plastic wrap to cover any unused dough is the best solution. Work on a large counter with enough space so the dough can remain flat. Any dough not immediately in use should be covered to prevent to becoming brittle and hard to work with.

Pear and Goat Cheese Trianlges

Be sure to wrap it completely around the filling or the cheese will ooze out onto the parchment paper as it bakes–I had a few leaks the first time I made this. In the end I found the best method was to use a double-wide strip and fold the dough over itself before folding into triangles (like little paper footballs). See here (here for video) for some folding tips, it’s not difficult. You don’t have to tuck the dough into the last bit as you would with paper, simply use a tiny bit of water to stick it to itself.

Pear and Blue Cheese Triangles

Ingredients
A note about the quantity of cheese and pear: Once the pear is peeled, seeded, and diced, you should have about equal parts by weight of pear to cheese.
7 oz blue cheese
about 2 pears (about 7 oz) peeled, seeded, and diced
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice
phyllo dough

Directions
1. In a small pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the diced pear and cook until it begins to become tender, 2-3 minutes. Add the honey, cumin, and Chinese five-spice and cook for 3-4 more minutes, stirring often, until the pear is very soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Can be refrigerated overnight.
2. In a medium bowl, crumble/smush the cheese. Fold in the cooled pear mixture. Preheat the oven to 400F.
3. Cut a sheet of phyllo dough in half lengthwise. Cover the rest of the dough with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying. Depending on the width of the phyllo dough (and the size you wish to make your appetizers) you will have some leeway with how wide to cut the dough. Put about a heaping tablespoon of the pear-cheese mixture near the bottom corner of the strip. Fold the strip in half down the length of it. Then fold the dough diagonally into triangles (see the links above). Once you get to the end, wet your finger in some water, then trace your finger around the last bit of dough to moisten it. Fold this over the top of the rest and it should stick to itself.
4. Place each triangle onto a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Bake (without the plastic wrap) for 6-8 minutes, or until the dough browns and becomes crispy.

Pear and goat cheese trianlges.

Cookies: Chewy, Thin, and Puffy.

Changes in brief

The modifications were kicked off with a dangerously chewy chocolate chip cookie. The important changes to the recipe were to use bread flour, melted butter, one egg plus one yolk, more brown sugar than white, and to chill the dough before baking. These changes allowed the cookies to stay moist and chewy.

The super thin cookies (a favorite of mine) developed both a pleasing crunch and a slight chew. This was achieved by using all-purpose flour, softened butter, one egg plus milk, and more white sugar than brown. These cookies were not refrigerated, which meant that they spread and ‘melted’ as they baked.

The puffy cookies were last. The distinction here was to use cake flour, shortening (not butter), two eggs, baking powder (instead of baking soda), and chilled dough (like the chewy cookies). These tweaks allow the cookies to rise and puff as it baked.

But whyyyyy? Sure, you just read the differences in the recipes, but what actually happens? What is the difference between the three kinds of flour? Why change from butter to shortening?

Settle down, settle down, all will be revealed…

Let’s take it in order…

Chewy

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

• The most obvious change was to use bread flour. Bread flour is important because it has a higher protein content than other flours. The proteins, when mixed with water, form gluten. More gluten equals more chew. This is why bread is kneaded for before baking. It’s also why biscuits and muffins are generally just quickly combined instead of kneaded (ever seen a chewy biscuit? Neither have I).
• The butter is liquefied and milk is added. When the butter liquefies, the fat and water can easily separate. This means that the water in the butter (and the milk) bond with the proteins in the flour and form the gluten we just talked about.
• The recipe also called for a higher proportion of brown sugar to white sugar. The extra moisture and molasses in the brown sugar not only helps keep the cookies together as they bake, but also keeps the dough moist.
• Removing the egg white from one of the two eggs is important too. Have you ever seen a meringue? The main ingredient is, of course, egg whites. After it’s baked, the resulting dessert is dry and crispy. In the case of meringue, that’s a good thing; however, in chewy cookies-not so much. The removal of the egg white stops the cookie from drying out.
• The standard leavening of baking soda is unchanged in this recipe. The object is to provide the cookies with a little ‘give’, so when you bite into them they aren’t as hard as rocks. Baking soda is sufficient on it’s own to achieve this.
• Finally, the dough is chilled before baking. If you keep an eye on these cookies in the oven you notice minimal spreading. By the time the heat softens the chilled dough, the shape has already started to set.

Thin

Thin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

• All-purpose flour, which has a moderate amount of protein, was used in this recipe. AP flour is suitable for, well, all purposes. It can be kneaded into a bread dough, or it can be lightly stirred into a muffin mixture. When used in this recipe, the mixing incorporates the flour with the ingredients and forms some gluten, but not so much as to make it chewy. Even if gluten does form, there are a few more tricks to ensure it does not adversely affect the cookie.
• The butter is softened to room temperature, not turned it into a liquid. This means that the water in the butter doesn’t have as much time to bond with the proteins to form gluten.
• Only one egg was used, the second egg was replaced by a couple ounces of milk. Why remove an egg? Eggs set and puff when they are heated (soufflé, anyone?). Liquids… well… spread.
• Leavening is provided by the baking soda. This gives the cookies enough power to stay together and have a bit of chew, but not so much as to prevent them from spreading.
• In direct contrast to the chewy cookies, more white sugar is used than brown sugar. The lack of moisture and molasses normally found in brown sugar allows the cookies to spread as they bake, while the dry white sugar adds a crispier texture.
• Finally, this dough was scooped out and baked right after mixing. This room temperature, buttery dough beings to spread as soon as it is placed into the oven. By the time the dough sets, it has already spread into a thin (and might I add, delicious) cookie.

Puffy

Puffy chocolate chip cookies.

• Cake flour, not bread or AP, is used in this recipe. Cake flour has the lowest protein content of all the flours-meaning less gluten can develop-so these cookies have the least chew.
• Shortening is used instead of butter because it has a much higher melting point. This means that there is less spreading of the cookie as it bakes.
• Baking powder is used instead of baking soda. Baking powder has a more powerful leavening effect than baking soda due to the acids that react with liquids in the dough. The acidic baking powder releases carbon dioxide, which forces air into the dough. This is why these cookies develop that Chips Ahoy style crunch, and are so well suited for dunking.
• Lastly, the dough is chilled before baking. This same technique is used in the chewy cookies to help keep them mounded as they bake. If you watch the baking process, they spread out a bit first and, as the shortening starts to melt, the baking powder reacts, giving the cookies a lift half way through the baking process.

Now you know. Go forth and make chocolate chip cookies!

Unfortunately, this bowl is no longer with me. It’s not lost or broken, it’s at my parent’s house. So I can’t drink my hot chocolate from it with any regularity. These days I’m forced to use a mug, but I still hold onto the same technique…

It's a good mug, but it's not my bowl :( ... The hot chocolate is good though, so I'll live.

You see, this bowl had “ears” and a lip on the rim. I could easily lift the bowl to my mouth and take long sips while the steam rose and warmed my face… But that wasn’t my preferred method.

What I would love to do is to get a piece of freshly buttered baguette, preferably still crispy, and dunk that into the bowl. Most mugs would be too narrow to successfully dip a big tartine into. Using a bowl allowed me to enjoy a combination of several of my favorite things: fresh baguette, good butter, and chocolate. But that still wasn’t how I normally started drinking the cocoa.

I would start, quite simply, with a spoon. The still scalding cocoa was much too hot for me to drink by the mouthful. It was even too hot to dunk the bread into (besides, the butter would melt to fast!). But I was impatient, I wanted to drink it now! Waiting for it to cool would have shown too much restraint, and I had scalded myself one time to many already. I devised another way that would allow me to drink it immediately. I would take a large spoon, fill it with the hot cocoa, and sip from that. The logic was that the smaller quantity would cool faster than the large amount of liquid in the bowl. This allowed me to begin my chocolate before anybody else!

Another cup please.

I sometimes drank my entire bowl one spoonful at a time. I relished the idea that my hot cocoa could last so long. Every sip was a chocolaty pleasure that would bring a grin to my face.

In those days I didn’t make my own cocoa though. This version is truly better. It is very easy to make and can keep well stored in an airtight container. A food processor is required for this, but you basically dump everything in and let the blades pulverize everything.

I used to use Alton Brown’s food-processorless version, but since Cooks Illustrated had the idea to pulverize some white chocolate chips into the mixture, I have not looked back. In fact, I now add dark chocolate chips to the mixture as well. The addition of chocolate helps give a thicker, more luxuriant feel to the drink, even when made with water. (The powdered milk also helps.) But to be really enjoyed, it should be made with whole milk.

I have included two variants below. The first is my preferred darker, richer style and the second is closer to the store bought style. The amounts can be changed to make smaller batches. The powdered milk tends to either come in a large box, or individual packets measuring about one cup each. The ingredients below can be easily divided by three to use just one packet of milk for a smaller batch.

Hot Cocoa
Use about a third of a cup of powder per cup of hot milk or water. It makes about 20 servings.

Dark Chocolate Cocoa
3 cups powdered milk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate or bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Store-bought Style Cocoa
3 cups powdered milk
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 cups dark chocolate or bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
In a food processor, pulse the ingredients until everything is a fine powder. Work in batches if necessary.
Store in an air-tight container.

Dried Cranberry Scones

Scones, in the US at least, tend to fall into one of two categories. The first can be identified as the overly sweet, cakey desserts sold in overpriced coffee shops. The second type are the wedge shaped triangles that are so hard that they can be used to drive nails into a wall. Either variety may be so chock full of nuts, berries, or other things that they resemble trail mix wrapped in bread. Somewhere along the way the real scone was lost.

Scones should be slightly flaky, have a moist interior, and be made with plenty of butter or even cream. The fattiness and moisture is what helps keep a proper scone tender. The dough itself is folded a few times, but not overworked to get flaky layers of biscuit-like texture.

Though these scones were largely a success, I’ll have to make them again. I presented these to my family and though they were very much enjoyed, my father took issue with the chosen shape. The scones he was familiar with back in England were traditionally round, not triangular. He also claimed that he did not remember his mother using cream in the dough. The only way to settle this is to find a recipe my father has tucked away in the house somewhere and make those. We may have to wait a while for the results as I may not be back home in a while, but you can be sure the result will be documented here.

Dried Cranberry Scones.

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, refrigerated
4 1/4 cups unbleached AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1 cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the butter. Press the butter into the flour with your fingertips to make large flakes. Add the cream and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together. Then add the dried fruit and stir to combine. Continue stirring/kneading in the bowl until the dough clumps together as one. You can do this on a counter-top if you find it easier.
3. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured counter to make a long rectangle (approx. 8×12x1 inches). Fold the dough into thirds and repeat two or three more times. Work quickly, the dough will stick as it warms up. I usually put it on a baking sheet in the fridge to buy some time between each time I roll it out. This keeps the dough cold and workable.
4. To make rectangles, roll the dough out to approximately 8×12x1 in. Trim edges if needed to strighten the dough and cut lengthwise down the center to make two 4×12x1 lengths of dough. Cut each portion into triangles about 3×4x5 inches, each length should make about 8 pieces.
5. Bake the scones for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges and top turn golden brown. Rotate the scones after about 10 minutes. Err on the side of under baking if necessary. They can always be reheated in the oven.

The scones keep very well frozen if well wrapped. Simply reheat for 6-10 minutes in a 350F oven.

Dried Cranberry Scones.

Toasted Ravioli.

I served small plates of these to guests with little ramekins of marinara sauce as appetizers. It went over really well and many of the guests had never heard of toasted ravioli before, so everyone was interested to try it. I’ve managed to get the hang of frying, so I can quickly and easily keep a continuous stream of fried treats coming out of the pot. The trick is to be organized and to get a good staging area. It does take a little space to set everything up, but it makes everything move like clockwork.

You can either buy fresh ravioli or make your own. Fresh ravioli can be found in the refrigerated sections of many grocery stores. Don’t use the canned stuff though, it’s covered in sauce and not as good quality as the fresh versions. The homemade or fresh raviolis don’t need to be precooked. They are already soft and ready to use, frying will take care of any remaining cooking that needs to be done.

Ingredients
The ingredients can be scaled to make more.
Fresh ravioli
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
oil for deep frying

Directions
The first thing is to get all your hardware ready and in it’s place. Take out three shallow bowls, two large plates, and some paper towel. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper together in the first bowl, the beaten egg goes in the next, and the bread go in the last. Arrange the bowls so you can go from one to the next, with a final rest on one of the large plates before going into the fryer.
Your order should be 1)Flour -> 2)Egg ->3)Breadcrumbs -> 4)Plate.
So coat each ravioli with flour, then transfer them to the egg mixture. Make sure the egg gets everywhere over the ravioli or the bread crumbs will not stick. Press the breadcrumbs into the ravioli and then transfer to the plate to rest.
Once the ravioli has rested for a few minutes (to allow the batter to set). Place them into the 350-375F oil until they become golden brown (about 1-3 minutes).
Remove the hot ravioli to your remaining plate lined with paper towels to cool slightly before serving.