Timing is Everything

(Written Saturday, June 25, 2011)

Beginning this blog has been my first long-over-due step toward starting a website and blog to share my love of food and life with others, that I wanted to develop well over two years ago.  At that time I started working on ideas and decided upon a name of the website and I also started working with a developer. Unfortunately, we never moved beyond the planning phase and then the website got moved to the back burner of the goals I had at the time. Well, I do believe that timing is everything because I was recently introduced to a wonderful and talented woman who does graphic and website design who is going to help me finally make the website a reality - meeting with her enlightened me that the person I was working with before was not the right fit - which is probably why the website never materialized - I wasn't working with the right person and it was not the right time.  Because the idea has been swirling around in my head for so long, that I am finally going to see it's creation - it is difficult for me to truly capture in print how excited I am for this to finally happen! Having the website will allow me to do much more with how the blog and site will visually look and not be limited by what "Blogger" templates are available for me to use (which are great) - so this truly is a very exciting step!

What is interesting about me taking the website step this time is that the blog has been the catalyst to push me forward into action.  I basically jumped in with the blog because I knew I needed to stop waiting to share my love of food and life with others and because I didn't know how or when the website would all work out. So beginning the blog was the easiest way to get myself moving...and I am so glad I did!  The whole process of thinking about what I will share, planning, baking, cooking, photographing, writing, have truly been a fantastic and fun experience! And the feedback from friends and family has been so wonderful to receive as well! I love that friends are trying recipes (with success!) and connecting with some of the thoughts I've shared so far...I am so honored and so blessed.

The only tiny bit sad part is that "Dinner on the Porch," which I came up with just for the blog, is not available as a website.  It's only a tiny bit sad because the name of the website is really just as dear to me...  www.Lifeonaplate.com.  There is nothing located there at present, but eventually that is where my blog will be located as well as other fun food and life stuff I'll be sharing. For now, "Dinner on the Porch" will remain the location of my blog and I will probably find some way to work it into the website...it will be fun to see how everything turns out. I just wanted to share that changes are on the horizon and that I hope you'll stay with me through the process and enjoy it with me! I am very excited!

Well, I have to get back to some baking tonight. I've already ruined one attempt at dough for the crust of a Quiche Lorraine so there won't be any pictures of that debacle to share. Yikes! (update: 2nd attempt was a success!) The quiche is for a brunch we are having tomorrow with a few neighbors celebrating the 70th birthday of one of them...Angelos, we call him the Mayor of Allston Street because he and his wife have lived in their home across the street from ours for almost 30 years!  I look forward to sharing more about our sweet guests and tomorrow's brunch in an upcoming post.

Always kiss me goodnight...and buttery and tender Buttermilk Scones

We have a wooden sign hanging over the doorway as you exit our master bathroom that reads, “always kiss me goodnight” that makes me smile every time I notice it because it makes me think of the wonderful life I share with my sweet husband. It was several years ago that I purchased the sign at a holiday market and loved it - because three kisses goodnight right before bed is something Bobby and I do every night unless one of us is out of town. I also love that sign because I tend to over think life at times and "always kiss me goodnight" is a sweet and simple reminder of what is important…

Sweet and simple is what these Buttermilk Scones are as well.  I got on a scone baking kick late last year when I tried a delicious one from a small local bakery named Angela's Oven (love that the bakery name is that of my oldest sister). Up until the day I tried my first scone from this bakery, I was not a scone fan because every one I have ever tried has been hard as a rock or dry and crumbly. But not so with the Angela’s Oven scone.  It was a perfect combination of tender, flaky and buttery. The one I tried was a cranberry scone and I savored it with a cup of hot black coffee and a new determination to have scones as good as theirs come from my own oven.

The very next day I began combing through my cookbooks for a scone recipe. To my utter delight, my Williams-Sonoma Baking cookbook had a recipe for Cream Scones. The very first batch were near perfection. Many, many batches later I’ve used different mix-ins other than dried cranberries like dried mission figs and chocolate chips and I have changed the cream to buttermilk, which I think makes them even more tender. I have even branched out to a savory scone with cheddar cheese, scallions and bacon – don’t get me started on those…they were a fine accompaniment to homemade shrimp and grits that I also topped with chopped pieces of house made kielbasa from a local store called Revival Market...whoa, hold on a minute, back to the Buttermilk Scones…

So please trust me when I say these are wonderful scones. And they are very easy to make, just read the tips I’ve provided and look at the pictures as well so you have an idea about how the dough should look. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments section below. The main tip is to work quickly. But enjoy them slowly….

Recipe after the jump...

Summertime is pesto time!

Yes, I know it is not yet officially summer until June 21^st but if you were experiencing the above normal temperatures and lack of rain like we are here in Houston, Texas, you’d agree that it is completely acceptable to say that it is indeed summertime. Every year at this time poses a challenge for me when it comes to cooking. Because I am in sales and in and out of my car all day, by the time I get home from work, I am pretty well drained from the heat. And even I, who loves to cook, get to feeling too lazy to get in the kitchen. Just thinking about turning on stove burners or the oven makes me feel like I need to have a nap. So I am always looking for quick and simple dinners that are of course still very tasty. And this is where homemade pesto comes in handy. 

Years ago when I used to buy pesto in the grocery store, it was very expensive for a very small amount. I rarely purchased it and when I did, I'm not sure why but I only used it in pasta dishes. Looking back, I’ll chalk that up to my inexperience in the kitchen because now I’ll try pesto on just about anything. And more importantly, now, I make my own. One of the best things about making homemade pesto is that one decent sized basil plant when full grown will make a boat load of pesto. And if you are pretty good about watering the basil plant, once you’ve harvested the full grown plant, it will grow again and again for many batches of pesto. Seriously, I have two planters of basil and just one of them will make two full cups of pesto. A big garden pot, a $5.00 basil plant, regular watering and just a little shade, yield quite a bounty of pesto…

Pesto is incredibly easy to make and it always tastes better than the store bought variety. It is a bit time consuming because you have to thoroughly wash the basil and dry it well before processing everything together. But what is a little labor intensive on the front end in terms of time, is repaid ten-fold in how quickly and easily pesto can spruce up so many things!

Here are some ideas of foods I've enjoyed with homemade pesto...

   Grilled chicken

   Grilled fish

   Smeared on homemade pizza as the "sauce", top with thinly sliced tomatoes &

        crumbled goat cheese

   Grilled Portobello mushrooms, put pesto on after grilling

   Grilled new potatoes, put pesto on after grilling

   Mixed into brown rice

   With sliced tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella cheese

   And of course, it’s great on pasta!

A quick note on storage: I buy cute little jars at Sur la Table for $2.00 per jar and store the pesto. This pesto will also freeze well. Just add about 1/4 inch of olive oil to the top of the filled pesto jar before freezing.

And now the recipe…