Man, I really love scones. There just aren’t enough places to get good scones in Texas. And I mean real scones, not the crazy sugary things Starbucks sells.

Side note: If you’re in Austin one place to get great scones is The Steeping Room at the Domain. They have about five thousand kinds of tea, too. I like to just stand in the front store area and smell all the teas. I can never remember later on which one it was I wanted to drink, but oh, they smell wonderful.

Oh. Anyway. Scones!

There seems to be about one recipe for pumpkin scones floating around the internet, so mine is basically the same. I made a couple of minor changes. Also, I like smaller round scones instead of those huge triangle ones, but feel free to cut your dough into triangles if you prefer.

Pumpkin Scones
adapted from Joy of Baking

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour (regular whole wheat will probably work fine too)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup buttermilk
½ cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the egg wash:
1 large egg
1 tbsp milk or cream

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400° and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. (Trust me, you will want to use a pastry blender! After using my knives a bit I ended up using a whisk by mashing it down like a pastry blender and it worked much better.) The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the chopped white chocolate. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin, and vanilla, and then add the mixture to the flour. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle about 1/2 inch tall. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out scones. Reform dough and cut again as needed. Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes about 12 scones.

I never ate eggplant until I was around 23. OK, I did have baba ganoush at 19 when I was in Israel, but I never really consider that eggplant. Either way, now that I am growing eggplant and we’re getting eggplant in our CSA boxes, I knew I better figure out what to do with it.

Oh, and the squash. There is always squash coming from somewhere, isn’t there? The squash in our CSA boxes has slowed down, but we still get it every delivery. I love zucchini but after a while … you know. And I’m just not a huge fan of the yellow crookneck squash.

But you know, I do like fried things. I had fried zucchini for the first time a couple months ago and I thought I had died it was so good.

So yesterday we had a fresh box of CSA veggies and a need for dinner. Time for latkes!

Summer Vegetable Latkes
1 smallish eggplant, peeled and shredded
1 medium zucchini, shredded
2 small crookneck squash, shredded
(The total amount of shredded veggie should be approximately 3 cups)
1 small onion, diced
1 sweet pepper, diced
1 egg
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp paprika (or curry or chili powder or probably whatever spice you want)
salt & pepper
oil for frying

Mix together everything but the oil and let rest about 10 minutes. While it is resting, heat the oil over medium heat. Shape mixture into patties and fry, one at a time, for about 3 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels and serve with your favorite sauce.

By the way, eggplant is a pain in the bum to grate, so if anyone knows a better way please tell me!

No really, do you?

This weekend I headed out with some friends to see Food, Inc.. I knew what I was getting myself into, but at the same time I had no idea what aspects of the food industry they would be showing. And a lot was covered in a short amount of time. Too short, in my opinion. So much more could be said about each of the topics they discussed. If you’re already into Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan then a lot of it will be familiar to you, but there is still a difference between reading the words and seeing people’s actual lives playing out on the screen in front of you.

After seeing the movie I posted on my Facebook profile that I was depressed. One of my friends said that she wanted to see it, but was scared. She asked me if I regretted seeing it.

I think that is a silly question. Why would I regret learning more about where the food I eat comes from? And especially considering that on the same day I saw it, a Colorado beef company expanded a recall to include nearly 400,000 pounds of beef products due to possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7.

From the USDA site:

E. coli O157:H7 H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in the most severe cases, kidney failure.

That’s the same thing that killed the son of woman (now a food safety advocate) featured in Food, Inc. He died from eating a hamburger. Don’t we live in a world where we should be able to trust that the food we buy is safe for us to eat?

If you’re thinking of seeing it (and I think you should), yes, there are some scenes that show animals being mistreated and killed as well as plenty of bloody animal flesh. But there are also scenes of happy animals. One of my favorite moments in the film is when Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms opens up a gate and leads his cattle to a lush green field.

There is real food out there. You don’t have to be eating partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or high fructose corn syrup. Even if you don’t go see the film, seek out your local farmer’s market, or at least one farm, where you can get fresh grown food and some conversation with the farmers who grew it. Visit pick-your-own places and fill your belly with sun-warmed fruit. Check out The Omnivore’s Dilemma from the library. At the very least, replace one of your fast-food meals with something you made yourself. Do your body, and maybe the rest of the world, a favor.

Finally, here’s the trailer:

I just saw Food, Inc. this afternoon. GO SEE IT. I will be making another post on it later, hopefully tomorrow, when I can more properly formulate a response.

Anyway, on to the menu planning. This month we have gone over budget on food by about $70. Part of it was due to poor grocery store planning, and part was from a small restocking trip to Costco on Friday. We had used up all our cheese reserves during our pizza party, so we needed more if we were going to have pizza on Friday and macaroni and cheese this coming Monday. And did you know Costco has organic raspberries at $1.99 for 12 ounces? I got two packages but kind of wish I had gotten more. One pack was used in a cobbler and we have eaten almost all of the other package. We like raspberries around here!

Monday: Homemade macaroni & cheese (from Nigella Express), roasted veggies

Tuesday: Burgers with homemade buns, sweet potato fries

Wednesday: Zucchini latkes (if we don’t get zucchini in our CSA box this week, I’ll just use potato)

Thursday: Ginger Steak Salad (from The Pioneer Woman)

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Chicken and rice

Sunday: Butternut squash tacos (from digginfood)

What are you having to eat this week? Don’t forget to check out OrgJunkie for hundreds of other menu plans.

OK, I’m not ready to share a recipe for the beef Stroganoff yet. It will probably be a while before we have it again, so by then I hope to have a great recipe. We stuck to our menu fairly well this week. Thursday I switched dinner with what I had planned for this coming week (BLT) because the husband was out with friends. Friday we hosted a make-your-own pizza dinner with friends, and it was a blast. Since we always have pizza on Fridays, I had a huge variety of toppings for people to use. I just made and rolled out the dough and let everyone go to town. It was really fun and relaxed. Plus, I made Barbara Kingsolver’s blackberry basil crumble for dessert, which was amazing.

For Father’s Day I made these delicious Dr Pepper Ribs. They do take time to prepare (as ribs should), but they are worth it, especially if you can get your hands on Dublin Dr Pepper.

This week it’s our wedding anniversary, and I’m taking a few days off! I’m very excited, even if I will probably just be getting things done around the house.

Monday: Pasta salad with plenty of fresh veggies

Tuesday: Tacos with homemade salsa

Wednesday: Anniversary! We are having a special lunch together out, and for dinner we’ll probably keep it simple with leftovers, or use a gift card we have.

Thursday: BBQ lentils

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Chicken kabobs

Sunday: Popcorn shrimp

And of course, there are plenty more menu plans at OrgJunkie!

I’m obsessed with our garden. Not quite as much as I was before it started getting beastly hot and things were growing like crazy, but I have to admit I’m pretty damn excited to go out there and see the tomatoes ripening or a new jalapeno peeping out. I actually was giddy when I realized my squash plants had attracted assassin bugs, because I had just been lamenting about the lack of ladybugs and wondering if I needed to find a place that sold praying mantids.

So far we have harvested two Ichiban eggplant, three jalapenos, one Magda hybrid squash, a baggie full of Kentucky Blue beans, three Better Boy tomatoes, and six or seven Celebrity tomatoes (losing three to birds). Sadly the beans are done for the season, but that just means that I am now planning to put peanuts in their place.

The zucchini plants are growing like mad, but we haven’t gotten any production. From what I can tell almost all our squash blossoms appear to be male - which makes it a bit hard to get any veggies. I’m ready to hand pollinate them, but I need to poke around a bit more and see if any of the flowers are actually female. Not that I need more squash, as we’ve been getting a ton from the CSA, but it’s still exciting to watch them grow at home.

The sweet corn keeps getting taller, and I’ve noted the appearance of a few “cobs” of threads. I’m not sure if those are what result in the corn cobs but as I had read I took care to hand pollinate those. The eggplant is coming on strong now, with three growing and two or three more flowers getting ready. I really enjoy the long skinny eggplant over the fat round ones, so I’m happy that it is doing so well.

The herbs are growing, but not as well as I had hoped. Soon after planting Reese got his garden tools in the basil/chive pot and they are all mixed together now, and no strong seedling has emerged. Cilantro was doing well at first, but then most of it died. The oregano that shares the container has been growing lately, but I’m not sure how much longer it will last. A big toad has decided to make its home in the container.

Overall I’m pleased with the results of the garden so far this summer. This year is a test year of sorts. Last year all we tried to grow was two heirloom tomato plants, and they both died after we went away for a weekend. It’s the curse of the year-long growing season in Texas - you can’t take a break from tending the garden. But so far, I’m OK with that. I’m already formulating plans for next year and trying to decide where to place the next raised bed.

And fruit bushes, anyone? Growing up we had raspberries and blackberries growing in our backyard, until my brother mowed them down. I do enjoy the blackberries we get from Sweet Berry Farm down here, but a true blackberry to me is what grows in Wisconsin. I can’t seem to find much information on the different kinds of blackberries, though. If anyone has a good resource, please point me in the right direction!

I’m sad to say that until yesterday I didn’t know how to make coleslaw. Not that it is hard or anything - I mean, it’s just one of those things that everyone should be born knowing how to make, right?

As it turns out, most people either buy the premade stuff at the grocery deli or buy “coleslaw mix” and “coleslaw dressing”, which are conveniently located next to each other on the shelf. Even searching AllRecipes turns up most coleslaw recipes that call for “coleslaw mix” instead of the actual vegetables that are in coleslaw. I shouldn’t be surprised that chopping cabbage and carrots is too hard for Americans.

But I already had all the ingredients, thanks to my CSA share, so I just had to find a dressing recipe. I’m by no means saying my slaw is the best, but I am enjoying it, and it’s not all sloppy. This stuff would probably be good on a fish taco. Or just as a side, of course, along with some burgers and corn. Does anyone eat slaw in the winter? The idea just seems wrong …

Simple Summer Slaw

1 small red/purple cabbage
1 small green cabbage
1/3 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp Punjabi curry powder

Cut cabbage into shreds and mix with carrot in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix rest of ingredients together. Add by the spoonful to vegetable mixture until you get the consistency you want. Cover and chill slaw for at least a couple hours before eating; stir before serving.

Note: My cabbages were really small, so one store-bought cabbage might be enough, or just double the amounts for the dressing.

A few years ago I got a fortune in my cookie that I thought I should hold on to. It’s been tucked into a framed photo of my husband and I that I keep on my desk at work.

Your happiness is intertwined with your outlook on life.

I try to keep reminding myself of this, especially if I’ve been having a bad day. It reminds me to take a few deep breaths and realize work is just work. Sure, it’s important and I try to do my best (after all, I do get paid), but it doesn’t define who I am as a person. Remembering that makes my time so much more enjoyable. By the time I get home to my family, I can tidy up the garden, prepare and eat a nice dinner, and have playtime without worrying about the previous eight hours or the ones that will come tomorrow.

That’s not to say I’m not mentally exhausted by the time I get home — I am. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been having such problems getting real writing done. I have days when I just want to lounge on the sofa all night long. And I do that, but I hold off until after dinner is done and other obligations are taken care of.

It’s true that I want to be more than a mom, but I also want to be more than my job. Having both of those things in mind helps me keep my frustrations in check. My standing Tuesday evening helps too. On Tuesdays I try to keep a date with myself. Sometimes this means I head to a coffee shop to read or write, sometimes it means I run errands on my own, and sometimes I just hang out in the house doing something completely for me. I’ve had Tuesdays since before Reese was born, and I’m so glad I keep doing it. Even if I don’t get any work done, I feel so much better when I get home after immersing myself in the world around me for a few hours.

How do you stop and smell the roses?