Ham cheese and bacon scones

400° oven, preheated

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/4 cup light brown sugar no lumps

1/2 cup very cold butter

1 large egg

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 tbsp a butter milk

1/3 cup chopped ham

1/2 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Swiss whatever)

1/4 cup bacon bits

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Cut in cold butter and use your hands (or pastry knife) to turn into sand like crumble. I always started out with a pastry knife and give up and use my hands because it works better and I can get a good idea on the consistency. You have to work quickly if you use you hand as the heat from your hands can melt the butter.

Mix together wet ingredients and then dump into sand mixture and mix until just combined.

Add in the cheese and meats and fold in using your hands. Again it's just easier and quicker and you'll need your hands in the next step anyhow.

Dump on parchment paper

Form into disks and cut into 8's or more depending on desired scone size.

You can form into 2 smaller disks if you don't want monster scones.

Bake for 20-25 minutes

Butternut Squash Apple Soup

Soup. It always gets to this point in the year and we crave soup.
T loves it, b loves it, I love it and t hates all soup that isn't Lipton's shocking yellow stain inducing "chicken" noodle.

1 butternut squash chopped

1 sweet potato chopped

1 onion chopped

1 Apple chopped

1 tbsp Cinnamon

1 tbsp Ginger

1/2 tbsp Curry

1/2 tbsp Allspice

1/2 tbsp Cumin

1 tbsp (or more to taste) Flaked chilli peppers

4 cloves of Garlic winced

5 or 6 cups of Chicken stock

Throw all ingredients except the chilli flakes into a slow cooker, heavy pan or dutch oven.

Cook until vegetables are softened.

If you use the slow cooker:

This can be dumped into the slow cooker first thing in the morning and left to simmer on low until the evening.

If you want faster soup for supper immediately, use a dutch over or sauce pan and bring everything to a boil and drop the heat down to a simmer until veggies are knife tender.

I add the chilli flakes in last. Both T and I love the heat, but the kids don't. We will separate the batches for them and add in the spice to our own soup to taste.

This is a go to with Ham, cheese and bacon scones….

Creeper

The creeper cake.
t's 8th birthday cake was a much needed easy, peasy cake.
Just 2 cake layers, sliced in half and assembled with buttercream icing.

Left outside in the -40 degree weather to freeze set.
I trimmed the edges of the cake to square it off a little more and used more buttercream to flatten the top.

It's ugly under the fondant, but it works.
Using LOTS of spray coconut oil and a very clean, flat work surface (solid countertop) roll out the fondant as thinly as possible. Make sure the piece is larger than your cake surface, including sides.
Lay it over the cake and begin to smooth it out.
Trim away excess fondant.
Using an 8x8 grid system on paper lay out your creeper face.
I took a piece of paper the same size as the top of the cake and folded it in half enough times to create a grid with the face. It was easy and quick.
I bought already green fondant this time (as my poor Kitchenaid will not be able to handle another fondant making session without smoking and emitting an awful sound/smell)
I added gel colour to get a few different shades of green. Yellow and darker green.
I also took a small amount of green and added black gel colour for the face.
After rolling out the Using a small paring knife a cut out the squares and place in order on the cake, alternating greens and affixing the black face pieces as the green shows.

I piped green buttercream icing around the bottom of the cake and corners to clean up the cake for a finished look.

This is a large cake and feeds a lot of people! We had 9 little boys and a smattering of parents and still took more than half the cake home to feast on for the week!

***Update***

I did a second Creeper cake for the schools Cake Walk fundraiser.

It was just as easy, but it is a long process. Easy, not quick.

Witches costume

Lions and tigers and bears oh my!

She wanted to be the wicked witch of the West for Hallowe'en, so I found an old pattern. Well I didn't find it, I looked everywhere for it starting in September, but no one had it. A friend had the old adult size of the Simplicity Pattern (7808) and away I went. I had to tinker and edit the pattern to fit a 5 year old, which worked out well except the bodice that I went a little too tight with. Well I also may or may not have sewed the skirt on wrong 4 times. FOUR. I am out of practice.

I started in September and finally finished today. She loves it and I just need to find the green paint.

Swiss char harvest

Perpetual rain and being left to its own devices all summer leant to a bumper crop of tomatoes, char and 4 pathetic mini pumpkins!

Cabernet Cherry Jam

I have a freezer full of fruit from last summer that needs to be eaten before this years fruit starts coming out and I end up with more fruit than I know what to do with. I am going away next weekend with some friends and needed to make a jam or preserve to go on top of Brie. I found cherries and blueberries in there. I went with the cherries because I knew I could add in pepper and the left over Cabernet we'd had for supper the night before. I didn't want too sweet, and not too much heat from the pepper, just enough to give baked Brie a kick. My starting off point included a recipe from a friend. She also had a few other ingredients I left out to make it that much more simple.

I turned out quite well. I can't wait for Brie. 

8 to 10 cups cherries

(I used bing, Queen Anne and sour)

1 1/2 - 2 cups sugar (white or cane)

1 cup Cab Sauvignon or Cab Merlot

1 to 2 tsps fresh ground pepper

Juice of one lemon (about 1/2 a cup)

2 pouches of certo

In a heavy bottomed pan or Dutch oven mash the cherries.

Add the sugar into the pan and mix well. Cook for 5-10 minute to release juice from the cherries.

Add in wine, lemon juice and pepper and bring to a hard boil.

Let boil 15-20 minutes.

I took an immersion blender to my jam to make it less of a preserve and more jam.

Let cook a few more minutes.

Add in the certo and cook 5-10 more minutes until you get the desired jam consistency.

Put the jam into hot, prepared jars.

Boil in canner for 15 minute and then let sit another 5 minutes.

Allow to cool on a towel overnight.

Should be shelf stable.

It made 2 full pint jars and one half pint jar with a ramekin full for kids to eat on toast. 

Vanilla cake with carmel sauce

This is a recipe T's mum used to make. It's sweet, it's quick and it's like I'm 18 again. 

Cake:

1 cup softened salted butter

2 cups white sugar

4 large eggs at room temp

2 tbsp vanilla

1/4 vanilla bean pod, scraped

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, sifted

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

Directions:

Oven at 350 degrees.

Grease and flour one 9 inch cake pan and line 6 muffin cups.

In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder, and salt together.

In a kitchen aid bowl beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and mix until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and mix thoroughly.

Add in the vanilla.

Add in the flour and milk, alternating until finishing with the flour.

Bake the cupcakes for 25-30 minutes or when a toothpick inserted in the center  comes out clean.

Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes until toothpick cooked.

Sauce:

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tbsp flour

1/4 to 1/3 cup water

3 tbsp butter

2 pinches of sea salt

Add all ingredients except salt into a heavy saucepan.

Cook down and allow to bubble and the sugar is melted. Stiring constantly.

Add in the salt.

Serve over the cake. Yum. 

Mind the heat. Hot caramel and tongues can make for insane mouth burns. Don't ask how I know.