Italian salad greens with ham, apple, and roasted cranberries

Post Christmas I was suddenly ravenous for ham and raw greens, salad - anything but cookies, which seemed to have been my diet for two or three weeks.  I haunted the supermarket and came home with a fat slice of ham and Italian salad greens - baby kale, baby mizuna, baby arugula, and radicchio ( which I left out because I didn't feel it fit in)

I made a very nice little oregano salad dressing, and tested an idea for roasted cranberries.  You can use raw cranberries easily, simply sliced in half.  Nice, sour, crunchy, but I liked the idea of a sweet/sour, barely roasted berry.  I think it's a nice perky addition, but go with the raw if you prefer.

Such a nice lunch!  But..... then I discovered I had left my camera at my daughter's house on Christmas Day.  I scrambled and searched and found a 2008 Powershot and took these remarkably retro photos of that very delicious salad.  Oh, how cameras have changed!

For the greens:  

Arrange in a large salad bowl or platter

For the ham :

Slice strips of ham about 4-5 inches long, maybe 1/2 inch thick

Arrange on top of greens.

Sliced apple chunks:

Slice a Granny Smith apple into thick slices, removing the core.

Cut each slice in half and arrange on greens.

The oregano salad dressing:

3 T. red wine vinegar

3 T. California olive oil

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano

kosher salt

freshly ground pepper

Drizzle on top of the greens as desired.

For the roasted cranberries:

Marinate whole raw cranberries in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 2 tablespoons sugar for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F.  

Spoon the raw cranberries onto a baking sheet covered with foil or parchment.

As soon as the oven is at 350F, turn off the oven.

Slide the cranberries into the turned off oven and let sit in oven for 25 minutes.

Remove, cool, and sprinkle on salad.

A very Happy New Year to you all - hug people (and pets) you love, and believe in the goodness.

roasted delicata squash with quinoa and cranberries

Our last farm share was a bonanza, with three delicata squashes, one of our favorite squashes lately.  One night I simply washed two of them, sliced them into 1 1/2 inch rounds (seeds and all), brushed them with melted butter, and roasted for 45 minutes.  Leaving the seeds intact lends a slightly richer flavor, but it was tedious to scrape away all the seeds after serving, especially for the children present.  They had no problem eating the soft peel, with a certain delight, though.

For lunch today I settled on a whole squash, split and deseeded, roasted again for 45 minutes, and filled with a quinoa and dried cranberry filling, then drizzled with a light citrus sauce, topped with fresh sage leaves. Really, really lovely  and light, and a pleasure to still see green plants here in Minneapolis, which has not yet had a frost.

Delicata squash with quinoa and dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375F.

one medium Delicata squash, split lengthwise and deseeded

1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter 

Arrange the squash halves on a baking sheet, drizzle with butter, then roast for 45 minutes.

While the squash is roasting, make the quinoa:

Place in a heavy bottomed sauce pan:

1/2 cup white quinoa

1 1/2 cups water or chicken stock

2 pinches kosher salt

1 pinch dried thyme leaves

a few grindings of black pepper

1 cup dried cranberries (stirred in after cooking)

Bring the quinoa to a simmer and cook for about 45 minutes, stirring every now and then.  I kept the pot covered for a half an hour, then uncovered it.  If there is still a lot of liquid, simmer until it is absorbed.  Remove pot from heat and add the cranberries.

Orange juice and olive oil dressing:

4 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Slice off the ends of the squash (only if you want to, and I did), cut each squash in half, and place on 4 plates.  Drizzle with orange dressing , top with whole or slivered sage leaves, and serve. 

Wasn't that easy?

ground turkey and spring greens meatballs

When my son and his wife (and most important:  Baby Max!) visited last week they brought a wonderful salad mix I'd never had - it's organic, from Earthbound Farm, and is a delicious mix of baby spinach, greens, radicchio, and arugula. After they left, I realized we'd barely eaten half the box, so I made up these meatballs.  Not little ones, big, ice-cream scoop size, all this packing is making me hungry!  They were so good I stood at the counter eating them warm from the skillet - so much for good manners:)

While sorting through the freezer I discovered I had five bags of frozen cranberries - 5 bags!  Ever since the year there was a shortage of cranberries, I tend to panic in the Fall and stash extras in the freezer for my cranberry muffins, but five is a little excessive.  So I added a cup of berries to a saucepan and cooked them just until they started popping, then served them as a side. I loved the tang of the berries with the fairly mild turkey mixture, but that leaves me with 4 1/2 bags to go!

Once the meatballs are made, cooking time is short - I cooked them for 18 minutes, covered, until there was no pink when I cut them with the fork.



Ground Turkey and Spring Greens meatballs

1 package of ground turkey , mine was 20 oz.
1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
a few grindings of pepper
1/2 cup finely minced greens (about two handfuls)
2 T. finely minced onion (one small onion)
1/2 teaspoon whole thyme
1 heaping tablespoon Panko crumbs (optional)
dash hot pepper sauce or Worcestershire sauce (or both)

1 cup frozen cranberries

Mince the greens in a food processor, scrape out into a dish, then mince a small onion - no need to wash the container after the greens, since they are dry.

Place turkey into a bowl and break up with a spoon, then add the greens and onion, the thyme, salt, pepper, Panko, and sauce, if wished.  Form into large meatballs with your very clean hands, or use an ice cream scoop.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil in a skillet, add the meatballs, and cook five minutes.  Turn the meatballs then turn the heat to medium-low and cover.   Cook another 13 minutes, then remove from heat and uncover pan. 

In a small saucepan, cover the cranberries with water and bring to a boil, uncovered.  When the cranberries begin to pop, remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Serve unsweetened cranberry sauce on the side with the meatballs - and dig in!


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A tiny sprinkle of rain a few minutes ago - we haven't had rain in weeks!  As you see, the front garden is doing well.  And I have 21 boxes packed for the Big Minneapolis Move, now about a month and a half away.

Fresh Cranberry muffins with orange zest and nutmeg

After several very chilly days, this morning was sunny and warm enough to skip the wool coat I've been wearing lately - and the weather and it being a Sunday morning, I was in a baking mood.

Let's see:  apples, oranges, bananas and an avocado in the fruit bowl.  Fresh cranberries in the fridge, ah-HAH.  A perfect morning for these fresh, colorful and perky cranberry muffins!

It's interesting to remember these were my son's favorite muffins for quite a while.  Most of my other muffins were full of butter and cream, milk and yogurt, but these cranberry muffins were the ones he loved.  Much later he discovered he was dairy intolerant , which of course explains it - but even though I don't have a problem with dairy products, I love these for the tang and color of the cranberries and the hint of orange.  Definitely a festive start to Thanksgiving Day breakfast!

To make:

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease two Texas size muffin tins with vegetable shortening.

3 cups King Arthur all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoons canola oil or vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
the zest from a large orange
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
2 extra large eggs

Measure flour, baking powder, sugar and nutmeg into mixer bowl.  Mix briefly.
Add the canola oil, orange zest, orange juice, and eggs and mix.
Stir in the cranberries by hand until well blended.
For large Texas size muffins, I use two scoops of batter using an ice cream scoop - for normal size muffins I would use 1 large scoop plus a tablespoon of batter per muffin.
Place muffin tins in the upper third of the oven and bake for 25 minutes (if you use frozen berries it will be longer) or until tops are golden and firm when gently pressed on top.
Remove to a cooling rack for ten minutes, then run a dull knife around each muffin and gently set to cool on the cooling rack.

This makes about 10 Texas size muffins.

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

the best fresh orange and cranberry scones

A second batch of those orange and cranberry scones this morning,  as I wanted to make some fresh ones up for my neighbors, and for a chef friend who wanted the recipe, as well as a taste.  As I pulled the new batch out of the oven, I realized I had overbaked yesterday's scones.  These were gorgeous!  They were both tender and full of that fresh orange and cranberry burst of tangy, but this mornings batch were much prettier.  

I also remembered a trick I had seen somewhere - grating the cold butter on a cheese grater to make it thinner and easier to incorporate with the flour mixture.  I liked that method a lot, so will use it in the future.

The recipe:

Preheat oven to 380F.
Line a baking sheet with clean foil or parchment.

2 cups King Arthur all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
good pinch of kosher salt
2 teaspoons orange zest, freshly grated
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, grated on a cheese grater
1 small egg, slightly beaten with a fork
1/4 cup sour cream (I used Hood's full-fat)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1/2 large orange)
Optional:  1/4 cup water if mixture is too dry
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
sparkling sugar for the tops of the scones

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixer bowl.
Toss in the shaved butter and orange zest and mix briefly with a spoon.

In a small bowl, beat the egg and whisk in the sour cream and orange juice.  Add to the flour mixture and briefly turn on the mixer paddle.  Stop the mixture and add the dried and fresh cranberries and mix briefly until dough forms a ball.  Do not over mix.  If the dough seems dry, or there is still flour at the bottom of the bowl, add the 1/4 cup water and mix until cranberries are blended into the dough.

Turn out dough onto a floured board or counter.  Roll into a 7 inch circle, then slice into 8 triangles, and place on baking sheet.  

Sprinkle scones with sugar and bake for 19 minutes.

These are wonderful for your pre-Thanksgiving dinner company, and would be very pretty wrapped in cello and nestled in a basket or bowl for Christmas giving.  Very Martha:)

We've had brief flurries of snow, oddly mostly at night or very early in the morning, when it's barely light.  My hummingbird bird bath is frozen, and I imagine my little winter birds with tiny skates, taking a twirl....  have a Happy Thanksgiving!

tender cranberry-orange scones

I've been a little disappointed in my favorite scone recipes lately, so when I saw this recipe in  The Boston Globe on Wednesday, I leaped at the chance to try it.  One unusual ingredient was a little sour cream, but the rest was fairly close to my usual scone recipes.  I did mull over what might be the cause of less-fluffy scones the last few batches, and wondered if it was my very old KitchenAid mixer.

So I rummaged through my kitchen oddment basket and came up with the lovely pastry blender I bought as a flea market a long time ago.  This is a hand tool that insures the butter and flour or sugar don't get too warm if you're mixing with your hands;  or too over-beaten when using a stand mixer.  Whether it was the new recipe or the pastry blender, the scones came out light and fluffy and full of the tang of fresh orange juice, orange zest, and fresh and dried cranberries.  This is a keeper, and perfect for the holidays coming up, when hungry company arrives before the table is set  - or wrapped in cello and nestled in a basket for giving.  Just make sure the scones completely cool before packaging.


Tender Cranberry-Orange Scones:

Preheat oven to 380F.
Line a baking sheet with clean foil or parchment.

• 2 cups King Arthur all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• good pinch of kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces
• 1 small egg, beaten slightly with a fork
• 1/4 cup sour cream (I used Hood's full fat)
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• Optional:  1/4 cup water if mixture is too dry
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
• sparkling sugar for sprinkling on top

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixer bowl.

Add the butter pieces and mix with the pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly.  Add the orange zest and mix in with a spoon.

In another bowl, beat the egg and whisk in the sour cream and orange juice.

Add to the flour mixture and use the mixer paddle to briefly mix.  Stop the mixer and add the fresh and dried cranberries, and stir with a spoon.  If the mixer is too dry, add 1/4 cup water.  Mix with the paddle very briefly, then turn dough onto a floured board.

Gently pat the dough into a 7 inch circle, then slice into 8 triangles.

Place the triangles on the baking sheet and sprinkle with sparkling sugar before baking.

Bake for approximately 19 minutes, or until scones are gently toasted on top.

Using a spatula, remove scones to a cooling rack for five or ten minutes before eating.

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Savory cherry and cranberry jelly with basil

I made up a jelly last night thinking to use up the frozen cranberries I'd stashed in the freezer last fall.  I added a handful of frozen, unsweetened dark cherries, and a few sprigs of basil.  Instead of reviewing my 20 minute jam recipe, I plunged ahead and added equal parts water and sugar, plus lemon juice.  I simmered for maybe 20 minutes, took a quick reading with the candy thermometer, and took it off heat before it reached 240 degrees.

While the jelly was tasty and tangy it was a little softer than usual - fine for poached chicken sandwiches, but not quite as firm as I expected.  It made a little over one jar of jelly, which I think I might try on roasted chicken, brushed on halfway between raw and sizzling.  And now I see what went wrong - adding water, though cranberries tend to the dry side.  Next time I'll try half cranberries, half cherries, with half the water and a little more sugar, and making sure the temperature reaches 240 degrees.  Here is the recipe I used, made up spur of the moment:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries
1/2 cup frozen dark unsweetened cherries
3 T. fresh lemon juice
8 or so fresh basil leaves

Bring water, lemon juice, and sugar to a boil.  Stir in the cranberries and cherries and basil leaves.  Make sure you have a candy thermometer on hand and simmer/slow boil until it reaches 240 degrees.   Remove basil leaves if desired, strain into a pitcher (discard the solids) then pour immediately into a clean jar, let cool, then cap and keep in the fridge for instant appetizers (on Breton crackers), or as a glaze.  Equally good on chicken sandwiches or sweet butter and jelly sandwiches, or served up with goat cheese toasts  - such a pretty color!

Yesterday as I drove into the driveway, I caught a glimpse of a young deer just across the road, not 25 feet from me.  It didn't seem alarmed by the car, but I think I would have scared it off had I opened the door - so I sat in the car and watched it grazing on greenery.  The little yellow kindergarten bus went by, not ten feet away, and it didn't even blink.  Even though I now know who's been munching my little garden the last few years, I couldn't be cross with this reminder of wildness.  I only wish I could've gotten a picture of the deer, but it would've been long gone as I opened my door, but here is where it was grazing!

spring soup and a fresh chicken salad

It's coming.  Outside may be frozen into icy snowdrifts, and trying to take a walk?  You take your chances on the slip- n- slide paths.  But the temperature is slowly climbing, starting out at 20 degrees, and up to 40 a few hours later. I know you're out there, Mother Nature - and you're bringing Spring!

It's astonishing what a change it makes, knowing we are only a few weeks away from the official start of gardening.  The sun peeks out first thing in the morning, then disappears behind gloomy gray clouds, but still.  We know you're there.  

A morning walk is out of the question right now, but my menu has made a radical turn.  A perfect salad with chicken, goat cheese, and cranberries, and lots of greens, and a daily soup made of handfuls of lettuces, turnip greens, and kale or spinach, with a few baby bella mushrooms sliced up, simmered quickly in stock and pureed.  Only a few weeks ago I was making mashed potatoes with lots of butter, a few too many times a week.  Desperate times, then.

For the soup:

4 or 5 mushrooms, sliced
2 T. olive oil
1/4 cup scallions, sliced
a small bag of spinach, or two handfuls
2 cups other mixed greens from your vegetable drawer: kale, turnip greens, rapini, celery leaves -whatever is fresh.
2 or 3 cups stock, chicken, beef, or vegetable
1/2 t. thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the mushrooms in the olive oil briefly, then add the greens and stock, thyme and salt and pepper.  Turn heat to low and cover.  Cook for 8-10 minutes, then take off heat and let sit before pureeing with an immersion blender.  Serves 2.

For the salad:

3-4 cups assorted greens, cut to bite size or not
1 large chicken breast, cooked, skinless and boneless, or use leftover chicken.  Dice the chicken in fairly large pieces.
1  1/2 cups dried cranberries
about 5 inches of goat cheese from a log, flaked into large chunks with a fork

Dressing:

Makes 1/4 of a cup dressing.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

1 teaspoon poppyseeds

salt and pepper to taste

Drizzle on the dressing and enjoy!

Serves 3, depending on your appetite.

Happy almost-Spring!

cranberry chocolate chip cookies

Spring has spronged!  One brief sunny day, the trees unfurled and there it was:  a beautiful green world.  Later that day, I found, to my delight, my favorite chocolate- not in a bar, but in fat little chocolate chips.  Which, of course, meant making one of my favorite cookies:  Plump ( though frozen) fresh cranberries, tangy dried cranberries, and 60% cacao chocolate chips in a buttery dough.  Mmmm.  Now, let's just hope I can figure out how to post on the new Blogger format:)

To make:

Preheat oven to 350F.
Line two cookie sheets lined with foil or parchment.

2 sticks unsalted, room temperature butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla
2 1/2 cups King Arthur all purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
pinch of kosher salt 
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 cup frozen or fresh cranberries
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips ( I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips)

In mixer bowl, cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and mix.  Add vanilla and mix again.  Add flour and baking soda and salt and mix , then add in the dried cranberries, fresh cranberries, and chocolate chips.  The dough will be quite stiff.

I use different sized ice cream scoops ( the spring-loaded kind) for the cookies - one small for regular size, and a bigger one for those large cookies everyone loves.  Leave about 2 inches between cookies as they do spread a bit.

For regular cookies, bake for 16 minutes;  for the monster cookies, it's 20 minutes.
Bake sheets one at a time in upper third of the oven. Your second batch of cookies should bake 2 minutes less (18 minutes) since the oven is hotter.

Set baking sheet on cooling rack until cookies cool, then remove to cool further on another rack.  This is especially important if you're wrapping them in plastic wrap.

fresh cranberry rounds for breakfast

Last night I made those tangy, delicious fresh (or fresh but frozen) cranberry muffins everyone loves so much, but especially ME. I mix the whole frozen cranberries into a fresh orange juice batter and bake them up in my cherished Texas-size muffin tins -8 muffins means some for me, some to share. Lately, though, I've been trying to tame the hungry monster by slicing the muffins horizontally, into three or four rounds, and only eating half. They toast up beautifully, and slicing them this way means I eat just a little less.

Beautiful day here, warm enough for just a light fleece jacket, and if you look up, there's a sunny blue sky!

Makes 8 Texas size muffins or 24 rounds ( tea party!).

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease two Texas size muffin tins with vegetable shortening. Set aside.

3 cups King Arthur all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 t. baking powder

5 T. canola oil

the zest from a large orange - about 2 1/2 t.

1/4 t. nutmeg

1 cup fresh orange juice

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

2 extra large eggs

In mixer bowl, place the flour, sugar, baking powder. Mix briefly.

Add the canola oil, the orange zest, the nutmeg, eggs, and fresh orange juice and mix well, then add the fresh or frozen cranberries and mix until well blended.

Using a regular size ice cream scoop, place two scoops of batter into each muffin opening . It should be about 3/4ths full of batter.

Bake for about 40 minutes, if using frozen berries - less if the berries are fresh.

Let cool in tins for ten minutes, then using a dull knife, loosen the sides of the muffin and remove to a cooling rack.

When completely cooled, slice horizontally into three or four rounds. These don't really need any butter, but you can gently toast and slather it on if you'd like. These freeze very well.

Happy February!

pumpkin seed biscotti with orange peel and cranberries

I've been on a biscotti kick recently, making first my Christmas biscotti for a friend, then testing the fat-free dunking biscotti ( that was so hard and crunchy, it really IS only good for dunking), then, coming across a bag of pumpkin seeds in the freezer, I thought hmmmmmm.

I'm a little tired of almonds - I wonder how these would taste instead?

Well, they were incredible. Better than almonds. So tasty that I skipped adding any chocolate at all, though I toyed with the idea of white chocolate.

I vaguely remembered dry-toasting pumpkin seeds in a hot skillet, and that was loads of fun. Hiss, pop, hiss, pop - the seeds were bouncing around in the hot skillet and getting a nice little sear to them. Straight from the skillet, they were oh-so delicious.

So I do hope you'll give them a try. Stick a few in your bag to stave off sudden hunger pangs, or simply serve with a nice cup of herb tea or a Grande coffee. Oh - you're wondering about the lily? We in New Hampshire are about to get another three days of snowstorms. As soon as I heard that this morning, I drove straight to Woodman's flower shop to buy some pale pink tulips and inhale the scents of lilies. Best antidote to cabin fever I know.

To make at least 2 dozen biscotti, depending how thickly you cut them:

Preheat oven to 325F.

Fit a baking sheet with foil and set aside.

1 cup raw green pumpkin seeds ( from the health food store)

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar , divided into 2 half-cup portions

3 large eggs, separated

about 2 T. diced fresh orange peel

1 1/2 t. vanilla

3 cups King Arthur all purpose flour

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. kosher salt

1 cup dried cranberries

Heat a skillet on medium heat, then toss in the pumpkin seeds. After about 2 minutes, they'll start to hop around - just keep stirring until you see some toasting on the seeds. Remove from heat and turn onto a plate to cool.

In mixer bowl, whip the egg whites until soft peaks form, then slowly add the sugar and continue whipping until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Scrape out into a bowl and set aside.

In the same mixer bowl ( no need to wash), cream the butter and the rest of the sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, vanilla, and orange peel, then add the flour, baking powder, salt, and dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds.

Fold the egg whites into the dough mixture and mix until the dough comes together. Press the dough into a ball , then cut into two equal pieces.

On the baking sheet, form the dough into long , equally sized logs, patting with your hands. Square off the ends and bake for 45 minutes. Turn off oven.

Remove to a cooling rack to cool for 5 minutes, cut down the center of the foil between the two logs, and slowly remove one log (holding the ends of the foil) to a cutting board. Rotate log carefully, and peel off the foil, then gently turn it rightside up again.

Using a serrated bread knife, hold the biscotti log gently with one hand while you slice off biscotti pieces - the thickness is really up to you. Stand the pieces up on another baking sheet, and continue cutting the second log. This should fill the whole baking sheet. Pop into the still warm oven and let dry for about 20 minutes, then remove to cool.

Enjoy!

cranberry scones for breakfast!

As a native of Massachusetts, and especially Cape Cod, cranberry season is the signal the holiday season is beginning. While we didn't have wet bogs on the Outer Cape, we passed them coming and going on our trips back and forth from Cambridge or New York. Just before the Sagamore bridge, in the Carver area, there they'd be - glorious crimson ponds of floating cranberries just off the highway, as we travelled home at Thanksgiving. And so, cranberries have always been not only a very favorite fruit, adding a tang and rosy blush to everything from applesauce to cookies to scones and fresh cranberry sauce, but they bring many happy memories of the Cape.

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And speaking of travelling, nothing is easier to make and bake than these delicious scones, tucked in a backpack or picnic basket for the long trip home. Wrapped in cello and tied with a ribbon, they're a welcome treat for the pre-Thanksgiving dinner breakfast.

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To make 8 large scones:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil.

4 cups King Arthur all-purpose flour

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. kosher salt

1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top

1 stick (8 T.) cold, unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces

1 T. baking powder

1 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

1 1/2 cups ( or more) buttermilk. Dough should not be dry.

egg wash for tops ( a beaten egg and a pastry brush)

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In mixer bowl, stir flour, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and butter until mixture resembles cornmeal.

Add the dried cranberries and mix.

Add the buttermilk and fresh or frozen cranberries and mix until it forms a ball. Dough should not be dry - if it is, add more buttermilk, a tablespoon at a time, until it forms a soft dough.

Roll dough out into a 9 inch circle. Cut circle in half, then cut each half twice again - making 8 triangles .

Brush each scone with the egg wash, and sprinkle with sugar.

Place scones on baking sheet and bake for 30+ minutes or until tops are golden. If you're using frozen cranberries, it may take a little longer. Scones should feel light when picked up carefully.

Let cool on cooling rack completely if you're packaging them for giving.

Enjoy!

california chicken salad with cranberries and lemon-poppyseed dressing

I found this beautiful nest on a walk after a very windy day, amazed as ever by "bird architecture". Spring has us all walking around with a goofy smile, discovering buds and leaves and greenery anew every day.

And we know what Spring means - salad! This recipe started with a salad bought from an instore cafe counter at, of all places, Target. I came right home and fiddled with this and that until I had a fair imitation, which I then made over and over - it's addictive and tasty, and it hits all the taste buds in a scrumptious way: smooth, rough, crunchy, tangy. The store bought salad had the most unctuous dressing, and I'm happy to say my version is much more acceptable. I also used cherry-infused dried cranberries, after finding a lone packet of dried cherries - for $8!
You can arrange slices of chicken on a platter rather than tossing everything together if you prefer.

To make :

romaine lettuce, torn into small pieces

arugula or mesclun

dried cherries or dried cherry-infused cranberries

chopped walnuts, toasted

sliced or large dice poached or roasted chicken

fresh goat cheese

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For the lemon-poppyseed dressing:

2 T. olive oil

2 T. fresh lemon juice

1 t. sugar

1 T. buttermilk

salt and pepper

1/2-1 t. poppyseeds

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Place the lettuces and chicken in a bowl and toss. Add a handful of cherries or cranberries, and a handful of the chopped walnuts, then add the dressing. Toss gently and top with pieces of goat cheese.

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Delish!

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You might also enjoy the wildly popular Tuscan Bean salad -

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What I'm reading: The problem with reading Elizabeth George's mysteries? Staying up til 1 in the morning to finish the 718 pages:)

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