My friend Thomas, who attends a weekly Wednesday class with me, often asks, “Any scones today, Alyce?” Once in a while, given an early morning with extra time, I’ll throw together some blueberry or peach or strawberry and chocolate chip scones (or some muffins) and bake them off, bringing them along in a basket with butter for the class to enjoy with our coffee. But that’s not every week and maybe not even every month. For Thomas, however, hope springs eternal. I thought of him today as I worked on a new savory scone for this week’s FRIDAY FISH — I know, a bread for FRIDAY FISH!! — and wondered what he’d think of a not-sweet, craggy whole wheat scone featuring smoked salmon, two cheeses, and some finely chopped brightly-colored veggies. I’m guessing he’d go right ahead and eat a couple anyway but might be a little surprised to not find berries or even currants in his scones. While you might be surprised, too, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy them, especially alongside a bowl of tomato or asparagus soup, a crisp salad, a brunchy egg dish, or even spread with a bit of goat or cream cheese with a glass of sparkling wine at appetizer time. Everyone loves homemade bread but not everyone has the hours it takes to make it. Scones, a for real “quick bread” can be tossed together, baked, and in your tummy in about 45 minutes.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, March 5and goes through April 17, 2025.(Easter is April 20, 2025)Some Christians fast from meat voluntarily on Fridays during Lent. I blog fish at that time as a spiritual discipline and learning opportunity, though I could also include vegetarian dishes, if I chose–and I might! This year I celebrate 10 years of FRIDAY FISH on More Time at the Table. Up your fish game with me for the next few weeks! Glad to have you on board.
At our house, Friday night is date night. I realize that for other folks, this means running out to a restaurant, movie, concert, or maybe even ordering in a sweet meal to share in front of the fireplace. For best sous and husband Dave and me, it’s a thoughtful meal cooked right here in our own kitchen and served in a quiet dining room complete with paired wine, candles, music, comfy clothes, no phones and also… our own private restroom just across the hall–wink, wink. We rarely eat dinner in a restaurant unless traveling, and, if we do, it’s not during crowded weekend nights. Do I choose arduous recipes? Not typically but our dinners often– though not always– feature 3 or 4 painless courses, red meat, and an entire evening devoted to one another.
Here’s our Table for Two at home.
If I’ve presence of mind enough, I might say on Thursday, “Any requests for Friday night?” Dave usually leaves it up to me (he chooses wines, btw) but last week he said, “What about shrimp? Or maybe steak?” With that disparate mix in mind, I thawed shrimp for an appetizer and two hefty filets leftover from a birthday meal last October. When Friday rolled around, instead of old school shrimp cocktail, which was my first thought, I threw together a simple grilled shrimp and arugula salad that still included our favorite shrimp cocktail sauce — a spiced up Louie — as a dressing. Because I had olives out from a Friday afternoon glass of wine with good friend, Patti, I chopped those up and skinny-sliced a red onion. (If your onion is too hot, soak it in water or vinegar for 8-10 minutes before draining, patting dry and adding to salad.) This could be sounding vaguely like a Shrimp Louie salad to you aficionados –and you’d be right–but I made it out of what was on hand skipping the usual suspects of romaine, tomatoes, hard-cooked eggs, and avocado. Without the weightier ingredients and just a few shrimp, our salad was more first course-style than a typical main course Louie, which can feel something like a Cobb in size and heft. “Louis,” by the way, is right, too, but however you’d like to spell it, it’s pronounced LOO-ee. Turned out light, elegant (Dave’s word), pleasing, along with sooo appetizing. In other words, we didn’t spoil our dinner. From whence came Shrimp Louie?
My guess is the world doesn’t need another blueberry pie recipe. I mean, you can google and find … well… too many. (And which one is good?) You might even go old school and open a cook book or a baking book to see what you find. Is mine the very best? Probably not to some. But it’s the one that baked in my kitchen and it’s the one I know well because it got eaten right here. Quickly. And with big scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream, naturally. Is mine messy Bessy? You bet, for sure, and it looks darned homey, right? (Hint: It’s really hard to over bake or burn a pie. Sometimes, in order to get a golden brown crust, the filling may bubble, bubble, toil, and trouble right out of the slits or edges. Like in the photo above.)
One of my favorite blog dinner recipes of the past several years has to be my Chicken-Mushroom Bolognese. With the full flavor of a big meaty bolognese but without the red meat beef factor or long cooking time, it hits all the right notes for a fab weeknight meal but also makes happy cooked-ahead dinner party fare. For a reason I can’t now remember (and perhaps I should rework this but haven’t yet), the recipe calls for an odd amount of meat — 1 1/4 pounds. Occasionally I’m able to buy just that amount but I often end up buying two pounds of ground chicken and using the extra for sausage or burgers or tacos. Last week, I split the difference and used 1 1/2 pounds in the sauce, leaving 1/2 pound for ____? Best sous and husband Dave voted burgers but not in buns — he wondered if we couldn’t toss up a salad? I like nothing better than a kitchen challenge and while I seasoned the meat and grilled the patties right away (ground chicken doesn’t keep well but cooked ground chicken lasts 3-4 days in the fridge), I didn’t make the salad until the next night. Chicken Cheeseburger Salad is now definitely on the Pete and repeat list. Roll your eyes now; that’s definitely an old dad joke!
26 grams of protein and about 8 grams of fiber to start your day off rightJump to Recipe
If you’re in the same spot I am, you’ve survived the holidays but are struggling to get everything put away (my tree isn’t gone yet, though it’s on its way), get yourself back to a routine (including a workout routine, ugh), and get on track mentally and physically. Let me help; I might have you sorted for a healthy breakfast, at least. While I regularly consume eggs and vegetables each morning — and I’m not on cholesterol meds yet at 71 — I’ve just recently upped the ante to more than double my morning protein grams. And, “How?” you ask. By whisking into my eggs a 1/2 cup of non-fat cottage cheese along with a good scoop of last night’s cooked veggies to make a filling, luscious and light Cottage Cheese Frittata. (frih-TAH-tah) Now I’ve added cottage cheese to the middle of an omelet or on top of toast a time or two with tomatoes, but have never mixed and cooked eggs and cottage cheesetogether. This is a game changer! First: You have cheesy eggs, which you don’t often have while watching your calories. Next: You have a meal full of vegetables and can check morning fiber right off your to-do list. And last and maybe best: This doesn’t take long; isn’t expensive; and keeps you full right up until lunchtime or beyond.
I got up one day last week to go to a class I attend weekly and thought, “I’ll just make some festive scones of some sort for our last December meeting.” What did I have? I had cranberries and white chocolate chips. So that’s what I made: Cranberry- White Chocolate Chip Scones. When I arrived at class and set them out, my classmate and good friend, Teresa Latimer, asked if these were from a King Arthur Scone mix. Ah, nope. Just straight out of my kitchen. I was, however, interested enough to later get on the computer and look at the mixes (turns out there are several good looking ones) — but there was only Cranberry-Orange from them so I’m good. Didn’t want to be copying KA or anything. I really admire them but…phew!
Everyone loves these sweet spot cookies; they’ve been on Christmas goodie trays forever. You know them. Round, nutty, buttery, tender, and oh-so-powdered-sugary white. They’re often called Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Kourabiedes, Snow Balls, Pastelitas de Boda, Nut Balls, Swedish Tea Balls, Pecan Butter Balls, Polvorónes, and they’re even a lot like the Viennese Almond Crescents my late brother-in-law and excellent cook, Art Moorhouse, baked only in December back in the day. When I knew I wanted to use pistachios and dried cherries for my annual Christmas cookie, my mind first went to a perennial favorite– shortbread. Maybe a rolled variety. A refrigerator cookie, which is a style I rarely bake. But the more I considered, I kind of liked the idea of a chunk of a cookie instead of a flat one– so the flavors jumped out in tandem instead of just nudged your taste buds in their direction a bit at a time. And the longer I thought, I also knew an orange twist needed to be right in there vying with the nuts and fruit. Why not a classic nut ball? Of course! It would work perfectly. The problem then was the name –all those variations! With several followers giving me ideas (thanks, guys!), I’m hoping “Pistachio-Cherry Tea Cakes” really says what they are. I dearly loved “Pistacheroos,” but it was taken by what else, a bar cookie. Whatever you call them, my newest version might be your new favorite, as it now is mine. I don’t eat a lot of sweets, but I’ve certainly had my hand in the cookie jar a few times these last few days.
Since 2020, I’ve been making one variation or another of these tasty sour cream scones but until recently hadn’t tried a savory-leaning version. A stash of chopped butternut squash that I thought I’d use to bake a batch went, instead, into re-testing an old tortellini with Italian sausage soup recipe I planned on teaching for a cooking class. I bought more and used that for the class itself, along with a whole squash I peeled and chopped. Still no scones baked. It happens. Sadly, the next squash went squishy and white-specked before I could get it cooked. Ugh and sorry! Back to the store, squash purchased again. Then: A free afternoon finally at hand, I worked out the recipe and baked more than a few of these fun little gems. And, it turns out, they’re not totally a savory bake as in Cheddar-Dill Biscuits, let’s say. To begin with, butternut squash itself skews sweet like pumpkin, doesn’t it? My other star and desired ingredients were toasted pecans and sweetened coconut. Toasted pecans feel as if they belong with sweeter ingredients, as of course does sweetened coconut. Add that up with sugar in the dough (less than in a fruit scone but still…) and there’s defo a sweet-ish side to this squash quick bread. But just wait. We tried them with coffee and breakfast, then again with roast chicken dinner, hunkered up with afternoon tea, and found these scones sidled up perfectly next to whichever. Think Sunday fried chicken biscuits that are just great Monday morning with jam. So you choose how you serve them or just keep eating — no additional butter needed, either. That’s what best sous and husband Dave and I are doing.
If by chance you follow me on Facebook or Instagram or have read the blog for a while (Thanks much!), you might know I make granola about once a month. A granola post proclaims, “IT’S GRANOLA DAY AT ALYCE’S HOUSE!” Other than purchasing commercially made cereal for some odd-indeed recipe or a donation, I probably haven’t bought cereal in close to 15 years. I eat an egg and veggie wrap or omelet or a bowl of oatmeal with an egg cooked in it every day for breakfast. My best sous and husband Dave is the one who must have his granola for the daily yogurt and fruit. Hence the many pans of granola and the many granola recipes on the blog.
#justaddmilk or yogurt
This apple version is very much like THANKSGIVING GRANOLA (take it to your sister’s when you go for the holiday) but, after a bit of reflection, I’ve cut the “sugar”–which is local, if possible, honey and real maple syrup — in half and increased the spices just enough to make them pop. The recipe, originally adapted from the fabulous David Lebovitz, who I think borrowed it from the uber-cool Nigella Lawson (!), contains only 2 tablespoons of healthy olive oil. It’s the perfect baked gift for those who don’t bake and the perfect breakfast for those who don’t cook. Just think of only putting out yogurt, fresh fruit, and your very own granola for breakfast the next time company stays over. Ok, maybe add some great bread, peanut butter, and Bonne Maman jam next to the toaster, coffee pot, and mugs. Voilà !
