at Rancho Valencia in Rancho Santa Fe, California in March:
Ok, so I totally screwed up on the Easter posts. I was away for most of the week before, without my computer, and when I tried to work on my husband’s, it was a disaster. So, next year, I will do better. I was not without copious amounts of fodder to write about – now they’re stuffed away in that place that keeps circling about. I don’t know about you, but I am basically unable to write on an iPad. Let’s just say there are so very many wonderful kitchen-centric things to do for the Easter holiday. If you are interested in a compendium of very nice ideas, particularly for baking, you can peruse my Facebook pages – Kitchen-Inspirational and In Food Today. I know it’s a little on the anti-climatic side, but there are good things for storage for next year and/or really for anytime there. I suppose I’d have to say that it was indeed better for me to be away last week. Had I been at home, I would have undoubtedly baked a lot and eaten a lot more than I wanted to! And so, this must be counted as a blessing! On the lighter side (no pun intended), here’s a great cartoon which just about sums it up for me (Frog and Toad – a favorite of mine – and of Ryan):
image courtesy Subversive Cooking
On a more serious note, I must tell a little story about a serendipitous event that took place while I was away. The four of us were eating in a restaurant on Sunday – our Easter dinner, and I noticed a friend from home at the next table. She was dining with two companions – a woman who is 102 years old and her nephew, a physician who is 91. I must tell you that these 3 individuals caused a shift in me, one of many which have occurred over the past few years. First, the lady who is 102 looks better than me. I have spent a great deal of time since Sunday thinking about how I can channel how this woman has made it to this place. I have deeply considered where she must have been and where she is, attitudinally, and wish to hitch my post at her spot. She was perfectly coifed and dressed, totally lucid and appeared as though determined and capable of going on indefinitely. Her nephew was nattily dressed, appeared to be having a jolly time and was more than happy to engage in conversation with us. The friend from home is one of those very special people who has survived a ridiculous tragedy in the form of losing her child on 9/11. I cannot tell you how impressed I am with these people. Two have broken through all the barriers of aging to thrive in old, old age. The third has survived hideous tragedy and chosen to live rather than crumble. I must say, I believe myself to be in the probably-tending-to-crumble category here. Anyway, this serendipitous meeting was a great event for me. It gave me, again, much determination to move ahead through this quickly-approaching, somewhat-daunting landmark date-of-mine, set to occur in a few short weeks and to validate the state of grace of those capable of rising up through the most egregious of painful life-events. I am more determined than ever to drive right through this stupid aging thing. I have, in fact, coined my own new little new moniker, applicable in this regard – moveon.moi (my idea of a little chuckle)! So, birthdays and old scars be damned – I’m blowing through! And, thank you to the power above for these little messages on Easter Sunday. God does indeed work in mysterious ways! Just another meaning of the term, “Moveable Feast”. Now onto the food, flowers thing…..
Well, you know me – I’m beginning my unquenchable obsession with flowers at this time of year – and my camera is right there with me! So, I’m going to go out on a limb here (no pun #2 intended). I’m prepared to state that I believe that flowers are amongst the very most inspiring genré of being in the world. Who among us has not been inspired by the beauty of flowers – down through the ages and now (hence the amongst, among)? Flowers bring us joy in the form of the earliest blossoms to show in early Spring and continue through to the very end of the growing season in late Autumn. Just take a step out of your door and do a panorama! In my yard this morning I see forsythia, crab apple, pansies, ranunculus and the emerging faint colors of tree blooms to come! There are also clusters of new growth on my roses, daffodils and Hellebores. There are hyacinths and candytuft! This morning I saw an amazing bluebird in the front yard. I said a bad word when he flew away before I grabbed the camera! I’ve been measuring closely – the rate of unfolding of this year vs last – we are far behind. When I returned from Italy last May, we had roses buds coming on my Lillian Austins. I seriously doubt that we will be there this year!
I can think of many an artist and poet who appeared to float away in the midst of rapture about flowers. First comes the rapture then the powerful urge to capture that alluring sensory implosion. Claude Monet of course comes to mind immediately. But, there are so many more – Georgia O’Keeffe is one of my very favs:
Petunia courtesy Georgia O’Keeffe
I have had in my mind the idea of fashioning a morning pastry in the shape of a flower for a few weeks now. I wondered if I could make this work. I have had the aura created by the fragrance of those heady orange blossoms which were so suggestively positioned directly outside our door in Rancho Santa Fe just a few weeks back. Who could forget these? Surely not me. They carry with them the hard-wired memories that are right up there with the intoxicating lure of jasmine and gardenia.
I needed a firm dough to initialize this idea and I immediately went to the Thomas Keller recipe for Cinnamon-Honey Scones. This recipe is especially dense with butter – 2 sticks for about 3 cups of flour, yet yields an incredibly light scone. It also uses specific steps in temperature control as a results-enhancer and two types of rich dairy. Using this dough as a base, I went to work. I wanted to get out my small brioche tins as I haven’t used them for awhile. (I have such great memories of using my Mom’s to melt crayons in – on top of the radiator, but I digress.) Try these – I think they are worth the extra steps – especially if you are having guests for breakfast. Of course you can use other fillings – lists for which I am thinking as we speak.
ORANGE “BLOSSOM” – PECAN SCONES – adapted from Bouchon Bakery’s Cinnamon-Honey scone recipe
1 cup plus 1/2 tblsp all purpose flour
2 1/4 cups plus 2 tblsp cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup plus 3 1/2 tblsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt 2 sticks cold unsalted butter cut into 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tblsp heavy cream
1/2 cup plus 2 tblsp creme fraiche
zest of one half orange
3/4 cup sugar
zest of one half large or one small navel orange
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
butter for the brioche tins
muscavado sugar
egg wash
In bowl of food processor mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and orange zest. Add the butter cubes and pulse until well combined. Add the heavy cream and blend. Add the creme fraiche and pulse until the dough begins to form a ball. Remove from the work bowl into a low wide bowl. Knead briefly just until the dough is cohesive. Move to a sheet of plastic wrap, form into a disk and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Meanwhile, make the filling: In a medium bowl, work the orange zest into the sugar with your fingers, rubbing the zest into the sugar to release the orange essence. Add the finely chopped pecans and mix in with a spoon. Set aside.
After chilling, preheat oven to 400F(convection). Generously butter 8 small scalloped brioche tins. Sprinkle with sugar.
Unwrap the dough and place on a lightly floured work surface – preferably cold stone, if possible. Lightly flour a rolling pin and roll the dough into a rectangle of about 17″x11″. Dough will begin to soften as you roll it. Press back into shape with a dough scraper. Sprinkle the orange/sugar/pecan mixure onto the dough all the way to the edges. You needn’t use the entire amount of filling. With the long edge in front of you and parallel to the edge of the counter, roll the dough up into a log. Try to roll tightly as they will try to separate later. As you roll, push dough back into shape with your dough scraper. Cut the log into 8 pieces, first cutting the log into half, then the halves into quarters in order to get uniform pieces. Turn each piece of dough onto its side so the swirl is up. Place each scone into a tin with the swirl up. Freeze for 15 minutes.
With a sharp knife, make 5-6, 3/4″ cuts into the top of the scone in equal lengths around the top. Gently fold each “petal” outward, just a bit, working quickly as dough will soften again. Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle with muscavado sugar. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are well browned and crusty. Turn baking sheet mid-way through. Cool for 5 minutes and GENTLY remove from the tins.
ENJOY!!! Well, the petal thing didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped, but I’m happy with these!
the Ranunculus are thriving in the cool weather!
and, finally, it’s never too late for:
courtesy: vegucated
my favorite picture from last week
other than the “girls”, probably the only reason I was happy to be back in NJ yesterday – on the local bee patrol:
