I found out recently that David Lebovitz has an iPhone app that has different/additional recipes that the ones on his blog. I told my mom about it, too, and she started making these chocolate chip scones from one of his recipes. I’ve recently been making these cranberry scones from Smitten Kitchen, and they are delicious (and for Thanksgiving breakfast I made her apple cheddar scones, which are great, too). But one morning recently I found myself both egg-less and scone-less. So I decided to try a batch of these chocolate chip scones, which don’t require any eggs. The original recipe calls for a bit of cinnamon and orange zest, but I had neither, so I added some ground ginger instead. Having eaten the original version when my mom made them, I can advocate for either flavoring combination. I also added some cocoa nibs since I had some on hand. They add a nice crunch, but are certainly optional.

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Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1/4 cup sugar (I used vanilla sugar since I had some on hand)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
8 Tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
2/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup cocoa nibs (optional)
1/2 cup buttermilk

For topping:
1/4 cup coarse sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 375 F. Whisk together dry ingredients (flour through ginger). Cut in butter until it’s the consistency of coarse meal. Stir in cherries, chocolate chips, and nibs, if using. Stir in buttermilk until sticky dough barely comes together; do not overwork.

Press into a circle about 1″ thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Combine coarse sugar and ground ginger. Press each wedge into the sugar topping before placing, sugar side up, on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375 F for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden.

I like them best warm, but Matt thought they were better later in the day. So either way you serve them should be good, as long as you make these scones!

I think this was probably Matt’s favorite of all the recipes we tested for Jess’s cookbook. And if you know how much Matt likes brownies, maybe that shouldn’t be surprising. On the other hand, what you may not know is that Matt loves brownies made from a box mix, but generally doesn’t really like brownies made from scratch. Invariably, they are too cakey, too chocolatey, too gooey, too something, and if he wants a treat, he’d rather you pull out the Betty Crocker box (or he’ll do it himself and hopefully learn from his mistakes and not forget to add one of the eggs and the water again … yes that’s right, Matt added only one egg and the oil to a box of brownie mix one time … not pretty). But these brownies from Julie Badger even Matt enjoyed, so I think they’re a keeper. I think the key may have been the secret ingredient spoonful of peanut butter. They really don’t come out tasting very peanut buttery, but I think it does just add that extra something.

Julie Badger’s Brownies

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoons salt
6 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
Large spoonful of creamy peanut butter (1/3 to 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9” square cake pan with Pam.

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Stir in sugar, eggs, flour, salt, and vanilla. Add peanut butter if desired.

Spread in pan and bake 30 – 40 min. until dry on top and almost firm to touch. Do not overbake.

Even if I’m not feeding the blog, I have still been cooking, though a little less than usual, and definitely less-complicated than usual. Here’s a recipe I meant to share a long time ago. It’s a combination of a recipe Mom has been using a lot lately to brine pork chops (I’m not sure where she got it), and a recipe from one of the last issues of Gourmet (tear!). It’s actually super easy and fast, requiring hardly any hands on work, but its presentation and taste is much more impressive than the amount of work that goes into it.

It does require a bit of advanced planning because of the brining step, but you don’t want to leave that out. I used to never cook pork chops because they always seemed to dry out on me, but the brining keeps them juicy and tender. (Interestingly – I recently learned that the way this works has to do at least partly with the motor protein myosin, which I’m studying; if you want to know how, ask me about it sometime.) It’s similar to marinating, but in a very high salt solution. Because it’s so much salt, you only leave it for a couple hours, instead of the several hours or overnight that you might normally marinate something. I haven’t tried, but I think it would probably get too salty if you left it longer than that. (If someone tries it and it works, let me know.

Another nice thing about this recipe is it’s easy to scale up or down — I first made it for just myself when Matt was in Taiwan, but making it for several folks is easy too. The pork chops are great with some sauteed greens, perfect for this time of year!

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These come from my Aunt Kathryn, who is always sending me great, not-too-complicated recipes to try.  She always especially has delicious finger food.  Our extended family gatherings are often at her house, and she served these cheese biscuits at our Christmas gift exchange a few years ago.  I try to keep the ingredients for these on hand, as they come together pretty quickly.  They also freeze well, so I usually freeze half the batch for a night when I need a before-dinner snack.

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My younger brother, John, asked me a couple days ago for the address for our blog. I’m pretty excited when anyone shows interest in what we’re writing, and I’m also always trying to make the blog better and more usable, so I asked him for his input. The first response I got (via Google chat) was this:

1:15 PM John: ok

im real gald you put the carrot recipe up

im going to make a vat of them

Score! Something I wrote was actually helpful to someone else! I’m not just typing off into the ether! What else you got?

1:24 PM John: you need more entrees

that i can afford

1:25 PM i dont care what kind of experimentation you want to do i just need ideas for meals i can afford that taste real good and are real easy to make and are really cheap

if it doesnt fit that criteria then dont put it up

that is all

Ok, well that one’s a little more of a bummer. But, he makes a good point. (I should probably mention that my brother and I were taught from a young age to tease each other incessantly, so while that might come across as an insult to the untrained ear, to me it sounds like bother … err … brotherly love. And yes, I said taught — you know who you are.)

Anyway, I’m not going to stop my “experimentation,” but the idea of posting (and cooking/eating) more affordable, quick and easy meals sounds like a worthy goal to me. As a junior in college, I can certainly understand why John wants to do that, and it’s probably a good target for me, too, before I bankrupt us with my foodie habit.

Sooooo, I’m starting a new category called “Just for John” (though honestly, I’ll let anyone read it, even if you’re name isn’t John) that includes “meals i can afford that taste real good and are real easy to make and are really cheap.” And I’m going to try to add “and are reasonably healthy” to that list too, before someone starts thinking we should add French Bread pizzas or Cook Out to the category. I’ll also try to include an estimate of how much I spent on the groceries (per serving) and how much time it took to prepare.

The first installment will be this recipe for trout, inspired by recent recipes from Cooking Light and from The Wednesday Chef. We served it with creamed spinach, but in a hurry, just sauteed spinach or a salad would be good, too. The sauce is somewhat like that used in Chicken or Veal Piccatta. You could easily leave out the prosciutto for a crowd that doesn’t eat pork, or just to make things a bit healthier. If you’re really in a hurry, the fish is flavorful enough by itself you could even leave off the sauce entirely, in which case this meal takes no time at all to prepare.

Lemony Trout with Prosciutto, Caper, and Lemon

Sauce:
olive oil
1/4 c of finely chopped onion or shallots
a couple slices of prosciutto, pancetta, or bacon, chopped
juice from 1/2 a lemon
a couple forkfuls of capers

Fish:
whole boned trout, head and tail removed (depending on the size, 1 trout per 1-2 people; we were able to split a large one and had plenty of food)
1/2 lemon, sliced thinly
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the broiler. Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until soft. Add the prosciutto and saute until it’s a little bit crispy. Add lemon juice and capers. Turn the heat down and simmer until most of the liquid is reduced away, and there’s just enough left to hold the sauce together a bit. Remove from heat and put the lid on to keep warm.

Brush the skin side of the fish with olive oil. Place on a greased broiler pan, or just a greased pan. Brush the inside of the fish with oil and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the inside of the fish with 3 or 4 slices of lemon and fold the fish closed. Broil about 4 minutes on a side, until the fish is opaque and flakes when tested with a fork. Open up the fish and top with the sauce.

Total time: about half an hour
Total cost:
(I forgot to save my receipt from Safeway, so I’m guessing on most of the produce, and probably overestimating)
Trout: $3.85
Lemon: $0.85
1/3 onion: $0.50
2 slices of prosciutto: $1
1 T capers: $0.50
1 bunch of spinach (for side dish): $2

Total: $8.70 for 2 servings, or $4.35 per meal