This is an EASY, FAST and DELICIOUS recipe. I hope you try it!

Penne Pasta with Grape Tomatoes

• 1 Pound Whole Grain Penne Pasta
• 1 Pint Grape or Cherry Tomatoes, rinsed and drained.
• 4 Garlic Cloves, chopped roughly
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 Yellow Onion, sliced thinly
• Approximately 20 fresh basil leaves, chopped.
• Freshly ground sea salt and pepper to taste

Boil pasta according to directions on box. IMPORTANT: When draining, reserve 1 cup of the water. Cover the pasta with a clean towel and put it in your cold oven (don’t turn the oven on! You’re just keeping the pasta there to keep it warm). Place olive oil in a large skillet (not a frying pan, but a skillet with high walls). If you’re going to use the same pot that you cooked your pasta in, wash it first and allow it to cool before adding the olive oil.

Spread the olive oil around so it coats the bottom of the pan, add the garlic and onions and turn the flame on to its lowest setting.  This is another important step: You are infusing the oil with the essence of the garlic and onions and you need to do so with low, steady heat. Gently stir the garlic and onions until they begin to become translucent and fragrant (about 5 minutes). Add the tomatoes and raise the heat slightly. Stir the garlic, onions and tomatoes, pressing down gently on a few tomatoes (so they will cook a little and release their juices).

Once the tomato skins begin curl and peel, add the pasta to the pan. Stir all the contents in the pan until the pasta is coated and glistening. Add half a cup of the reserved pasta water. The pasta water has starch from the pasta and it serves as a natural thickener. Pretty cool, huh? Stir the contents again and add a little more water, if needed. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired. Sprinkle the basil leaves over the pasta and tomatoes, give everything a quick stir and serve immediately. I don’t think this dish needs any parmesan, but feel free to add a little if you absolutely MUST have parm with your pasta.

I know it seems I’m a little obsessed with the chai tea stuff… this is an AWESOME recipe from Real Simple Magazine.

This is a recipe I adapted from “Real Simple” Magazine &  Food TV:

Chai Tea (8 cups):  Recipe can be halved or quartered

*  1 tablespoon fennel seed
* 6 green cardamom pods
* 12 whole cloves
* 1 cinnamon stick
* 1 (1/4-inch) piece ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced
* 6-8 black peppercorns
* 7 cups water
* 2 tablespoons Darjeeling tea
* 4 tablespoons brown sugar or 3 tablespoons white sugar
* 1 cup cows milk (or soy, rice, light cream)

In a mortar & pestle, lightly crush fennel seed, cardamom, cloves and peppercorns. Place in a medium sized sauce pan along with cinnamon stick,  ginger root and water. Bring to a boil and then simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Open tea bag, add loose tea, milk and sugar to the water. Reduce the heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Strain mixture and serve immediately.

I’m still experimenting with Chai recipes, so I will post a few more, I’m sure!

I’d forgotten how much I enjoy baking!  These are the cranberry orange scones:

This is a closeup:

The REAL trick, I learned from Cooks Illustrated, is to stick those bad boys in the freezer for half an hour before putting them in the oven.  You also don’t want to over work the dough. I like the triangle shaped ones the best because I can dunk them into my tea.

Good Morning, Everyone! I want to share a WONDERFUL recipe with you! I found it on Epicurious & I made some slight modifications. If you’re not a fan of cranberries, you can easily substitute blueberries, walnuts or raisins.

If you’re going to swap out the cranberries, I would suggest replacing the orange peel with lemon (if you’re using  blueberries) or 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated cinnamon (if you’re using walnuts or raisins).

If you try it, PLEASE, let me know the results!

Cranberry Orange Scones

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar (white refined works best)
  
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (make sure it’s fresh! Check the date)
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (make sure it’s fresh! Check the date)
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel ( used the zest of 1 whole orange)
  
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (must be COLD, so don’t leave it sitting on the counter)
  
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries (I used a whole cup)
  
• 1 cup chilled buttermilk (I used low fat & it worked out GREAT!)
  

These are the original instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda into large bowl. Mix in orange peel. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix in dried cranberries. Gradually add buttermilk, tossing with fork until moist clumps form. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Knead briefly to bind dough, about 4 turns. Form dough into 1-inch-thick round. Cut into 8 wedges. Transfer wedges to prepared baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until tops of scones are golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let stand on baking sheet 10 minutes. Serve scones warm or at room temperature.

This is what I did:

Line baking sheet with Silpat.  Place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, orange peel and baking soda into large food processor and process for 2 minutes.  Remove butter from fridge, cut into 1/4 inch chunks and place in food processor: Don’t place them all on one spot, spread them around.  On “low speed”, pulse 10 or 12 times for about five seconds each time. There should be no large chunks of butter and the mixture should look fairly uniform.

Pour this mixture into a VERY large bowl and then stir in dried cranberries. Gradually add buttermilk, tossing with fork until moist clumps form.  Try not to handle the dough too much, because you want the butter to stay cold. If you handle it too much, the scones won’t bake and/or rise the way they’re supposed to.

Gather the dough together and place it on a VERY lightly floured work surface.  Don’t worry if it doesn’t look uniform: It will all come together in the oven. HONESTLY!  Knead briefly to bind dough, about 4 turns.  Pat the dough into a rectangle that’s about 1 inch thick.  Using the sharpest knife you have, cut the rectangle into triangles. You can also use a biscuit cutter and make circles. Cut swiftly, with one stroke, so that you get a nice seal on the edges. This will ensure that you get a nice rise.

Before you do anything else, turn your oven and set to 400 degrees.

Transfer the unbaked scones onto your Silpat (or parchment covered) baking sheet.  There should be about 1/2 an inch of space in between each scone. Brush the tops with a little buttermilk and then sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on each scone. This is going to make the scones EXTRA awesome: Crispy, golden and yummy. Place the pan in the freezer and keep the scones in there as your oven heats up. This step will make the scones even extra EXTRA awesome.

Once your oven is heated to 400, bake the scones until tops are golden brown: I bake mine for 29 minutes. Check yours after 20 minutes (don’t open the door of the oven, just look through the glass).

Once their done, remove them from the baking pan and place on a baking rack.  I left mine on the pan to cool, as instructed, and I felt that the bottoms got too crispy.

Scones taste best right out of the oven. They have a notoriously short self life, so enjoy them as soon as possible: Allow the ones you’re not going to eat to cool completely and then, store in the fridge in a ziploc bag for up to 4 days. I put mine in the freezer inside two ziploc bags (to prevent freezer burn).

I like to eat a scone in the morning (with Earl Grey tea! YUMMY!), so I thaw one in the fridge the night before and then warm it up the next day. You can place it in the toaster oven for about 4 minutes or heat it in the microwave for 20 seconds: It tastes (almost) as fresh and lovely as it did when it first came out of the oven.

ENJOY!!! I’m gonna go make some tea and eat a scone!