just for now.

Oh sweet, hot warmth for my skinny little hands.

{‘morning polka’ from beautifuldarklight}

Right now I’m drinking some Pukka ‘Relax’ tea from a box given to me….probably about a year ago. By a friend. When I needed to relax.

“A sweet mellow blend of chamomile, fennel & marshmallow root to help you feel perfectly relaxed.”

It really is the sweetest tea I’ve ever had plain. I never add honey and rarely milk. It’s just good straight up. And when you’re going for relaxation, simple is kind of key.

{‘tea party’ from claudiakayphoto}

I’m rambling.

Because, honestly, I blog best when I’m really jazzed up about something and frankly I’m pretty tired right now. Is it the winter? Is it the post-holiday ‘blahs’?

I would love to get some feedback on topics of interest that you’d be interested in hearing from me on. Or anything in the past I’ve touched on that I should re-blog? I crave your comment.

PS:

Came across this while researching good tea cup pictures.

droolicious: modern design for modern parents

Genius!

I’m talking about baking today. Warmth for my heart, stomach and feet. It’s so comforting to me to have a house that smells like warm bread or brownies.

So here are a couple of my favorite cookbooks right now.

1.

She claims to have the perfect-O homemade brownie. I plan to try it because I have definitely not experienced a made-from-scratch brownie that can compete with the box. Unfortunately.

2.

Love Rachel Ray. Just wish she had more glossy-paged cookbooks with lots of pictures. Like in this one, the pictures are sparse and the recipe pages are thin paper. But her recipes for families are so practical and down to earth, which I totally appreciate. I have taken one idea to heart– the make-a-big-batch-of-oatmeal-to-warm-up-later one. Zoyenka is a huge fan of oatmeal but instead of making it every morning now I just pull it out of the fridge. So handy.

3.

This book actually doesn’t emphasize organic as much as it outlines a wonderful set of menu’s for each season. Not that I don’t like organic, but it seems even more ‘green’ to actually cook in season than just buy ‘organic’ tomatoes in December. And it’s not just Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall recipes. I feel like the approach is much more practical with seasonal recipes for “Early Spring,” “Indian Summer,” and “Deep Winter” to name a few.

4.

And from this book I made some of my favorite breakfast scones this morning. I don’t know if this is copyright infringement to share it but I did change a few things…so it’s kind of my own now. Let me know if you try it!

1) Soak 3/4 cup cranberries or raisens in warm water, then drain well.

2) Mix 1 cup whole wheat flour with 1 cup white flour

3 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3) Cut in 5 Tablespoons of cold butter to get that crumbly mixture.

4) Combine in a separate bowl 1 cup sour milk (or put a tiny bit of vinegar in sweet milk)

and 2 egg yolks (save the whites)

5) Combine the wet and dry, then fold in craisens/raisens.

6) Place on a well-floured counter top and fold/knead 8-10 times with as much flour as you need to handle it (I use a lot).

7) Divide the dough into four even sections and pat each section onto an ungreased cookie sheet in about 4 inch circles. You mainly want the height of each dough circle to be the same so one doesn’t cook faster than the others.

8. Using a damp butter knife, score through each circle to create 4 wedges, but do not seperate them.

9) Now whip up that egg white and brush the tops with it. Sprinkle a mixture of half sugar/cinnamon onto the tops.

Bake at 425 F for 15-18 minutes.

Serve warm. Makes 16 amazing scones.