Eggnog Cinnamon Swirl Scones! Mmmm...

Eggnog is, without a doubt, one of my favorite things about this time of year.  Sweet, spicy, creamy… I just love the stuff.  The fact that you can’t get it the rest of the year just makes me look forward to it even more.  So, now that eggnog season is in full swing, I plan to take full advantage.  First up, eggnog cinnamon swirl scones.  Growing up in Utah, scones were big pieces of fried dough served with honey butter.  So for my friends and family from there, let me explain that these are not those.  To the rest of the world, scones are much more like biscuits.  (Don’t even get me started on the whole British biscuits are cookies thing.)  Anyway, no more time wasted discussing the name, let’s get started. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 ¾ cups flour
⅓ cup sugar
1 Tablespoon  baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup butter (1 stick)
1 egg
¾ cups eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

For the icing:

¼ cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon eggnog

The first thing you need to do is cut your cold butter into little cubes.

Next comes the flour.  Now, I tend to have the Food Network on for background noise quite a bit, and so often I see whoever is on measuring flour all wrong.  It drives me nuts.  I mean, how did they get through culinary school not know how to do such a simple thing?  So, that being said, I’m going to show you the proper way to do it, just in case you’ve been corrupted by the tv chefs.  Fluff your flour a bit, and then spoon it into your measuring cup. 

Scooping with the measuring cup packs it in and makes the measurement inaccurate.  So, once you have it mounded nicely, take the back of a butter knife, or whatever you have that’s straight, and scrape off the excess.  (obviously you want to do this over your flour container rather than the bar, but with only two hands, some pictures are impossible) 

See?  One nicely measured cup of flour. 

So, once you’ve got your flour measured, whisk it together with the sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg, and throw the butter cubes in.

Mix until moist, crumbly looking. 

Measure your eggnog, then add the egg and vanilla.  Use a really good eggnog, it makes a huge difference in the end result.  You want one that is very thick and creamy and with a high fat content.

Mix well, and pour over the dry ingredients.

Mix the ingredients just until they come together. 

It’ll look like a bit of a mess, but don’t worry.  Just scrape it all out onto a floured surface. 

Flatten it out just a bit and sprinkle over a tablespoon of cinnamon.  Yes, I know that sounds like a lot, but trust me on this one.  Oh, and get some fresh cinnamon.  If you have a place that sells it in bulk, that's a good way to go.  You can smell how fresh it is, and also only buy how much you need. 

Knead the dough a few times just to create a swirled effect. 

Isn’t that cool?  Ok, now divide the dough in half and roll it into 2 circles.  They  should be 6 or 7 inches across and about ¾ of an inch thick. 

See, swirly!  Sorry, it doesn’t take much to make me happy when dealing with eggnog and cinnamon.  Using a pizza wheel, or a large knife if you prefer, cut the dough into 6 wedges. 

Transfer all 12 pieces to a parchment lined sheet pan or cookie sheet, spreading them apart just slightly. 

Now, place the pan into the freezer for 30 minutes.  After 15 minutes, turn your oven on to 400°.  I know some ovens say they only take like 5 minutes to preheat, but trust me, it’ll cook a lot more evenly if you give it more time.  So, after the 30 minutes is up, pull the scones out.  I chose to freeze half of mine for later.  If you want to do that, throw them into a ziplock bag and back into the freezer.

When you’re ready to eat them, just pull them out and follow the instructions from this point, adding a few extra minutes to the cooking time if necessary.  Brush the scones with a little bit of eggnog. 

It won’t take much to get a nice coating. 

I know they don’t look terribly fabulous yet, but put them into the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, and look what happens. 

The oven is seriously a miracle machine.  They should be nice and brown, and when you pull them apart they should be moist cake like. 

If they are doughy, they need a few more minutes.  Otherwise, move them to a cooling rack to cool for a few minutes while you make the glaze… icing?  Whatever you want to call it.  If you’re having them for breakfast, we’ll call it glaze.  If they’re for dessert, we’ll make it sound more indulgent and call it icing.  Either way, measure out ¼ cup of powdered sugar and add 1 tablespoon of eggnog. 

Stir until it’s smooth and looks drizzle-able. 

I like to put the scones back onto the parchment to drizzle it on. 

Serve with your favorite coffee or a glass of milk.

Crispy on the outside.  Warm and soft on the inside, with cinnamon that changes in intensity with every bite.   The eggnog flavor is somewhat subtle, but it’s there.  And then there’s the icing that follows when you lick it off your lips.  Ok, I seem to have a bit of an infatuation with these.  You can of course just pick it up and bite it, but I prefer to use a fork.  Icing makes for sticky fingers. 

See the cinnamon swirling through there?  Nice. 

What’s your favorite holiday treat?   

hooker noodles!

Because if you've only got 20 minutes to make dinner, you are obviously some kind of prostitute.

If you've seen as many gangster movies as I have you know that "putta" is some kind of insult. Well, that's because it had the same root as puttana, which means bitch, or whore, in Italian. And Pasta Puttanesca, so named as "in the style of the whore" was rumoured to be called such because it could easily be made in the few minutes a woman had between clients. Yeah, well, I've only got a few minutes between work, school, and homework. (I promise I will not go into feminist rants about dichotomous representations of women as either the madonna, who apparently had hours to cook 4 course meals every night, and the whore, who obviously needed something a little faster for dinner).

Pasta Puttanesca

What You Need:

• pasta, of whatever shape you prefer
• 1/4 c of muffaletta olive salad (stored in a pickled mixed veggies jar)

(OR

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• handfull of green olives
• garlic
• onion
• marinated artichoke hearts)

And

• 1-2 c cocktail tomatoes (or 1-2 normal size roma tomatoes)
• 1/2 c crushed tomatoes (or just more fresh chopped tomatoes)
• 1 c broth or wine
• 1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce (or fish sauce, or a couple anchovies)
• 1 tsp capers
• handful of kalamata olives
• sundried tomatoes
• 1/4 c fresh basil leaves, chiffonaded

What You Gotta Do:

Okay, I totally did this in 20 minutes. Even set the timer to prove it. (bloody impossible to see, but it says 19 minutes, honest)

Get your water on for the pasta. If you cover the pot, it will boil faster.

In the large shallow pan, (makes for faster sauces because more surface area to cook on and to lose moisture from) over medium high heat, put your olive salad,

or if you don't have olive salad in the fridge (um, why don't you have olive salad in the fridge??) you're going to have to spend a few minutes chopping the olives and garlic, onion, and artichokes. Dump them all into the pan.

Dice the tomatoes, and use your thumb to squoosh out the seeds into the sink.

You can skip the squooshing step if you're okay with tomato seeds in your sauce, but I prefer it without. (If you had to chop artichokes and olives a minute ago, skipping the squooshing will probably make up some time)

Toss the tomatoes into the pan. Olive oil and other stuff should be just starting to sizzle.

Add the wine or broth. Somehow, I managed to run out of wine, so I had to use broth. One or the other or any combination of the two would work.

Now, I'm not a fan of anchovies, but I do have fish sauce handy for making Thai and Vietnamese food... (totally missed them in the ingredient pic)

I've also got Lea&Perrins. Worchestershire sauce is actually a reasonable flavour substitute for the anchovies.

If you used all fresh tomatoes, you can skip this step. If all you had handy was half a basket of cocktail tomatoes, add the crushed tomatoes now.

Okay, so the base of out sauce is in the pan simmering, and the water is boiling. We've got 10 minutes left on the timer (that one's a bit easier to see).

Get your noodles going. You can use any kind you like, but keep in mind that angel hair and spagettini are going to cook much faster than something like a penne. If you need the extra time, a bigger shape may be in order. I hedged my bets with farfalle, a smaller shape, but with that crimp in the middle that always needs an extra couple minutes to finish.

Dice the sundried tomatoes (you could leave these out if you need to save dicing time) and black olives, and shred the basil. Dump these into the pan along with the capers.

Once everything is in and simmering, use a couple minutes to put all the jars away and tidy a bit. Check the consistency of your sauce. If it's too thin, turn the heat up a bit to bubble off some of the liquid. If it's looking too thick, you can add more wine now (just pour a bit in from that glass you've got in your hand), or broth. Or, if you used the last of your broth in the first round, a bit of the liquid from the kalamata olive jar will work.

How much time is left?

1 minute! Holy hell I did it. I totally cooked hooker noodles in less than 20 minutes.... Farfalle. Needed the extra minute to get the crimp to doneness so I stirred the sauce a little. (really, this is just a bit of food porn)

Once the pasta is finished, drain almost all the water off. Dump the pasta and that last bit of water into the sauce. The starch in the pasta water, and on the pasta, will thicken the sauce a bit and take care of that extra water.

Toss it all together and then pour it onto a plate.

Top it with some freshly grated parmesan, and if you're feeling the need for something a little more substantial, serve with a bit of sausage. Sausage is the perfect accompaniment for hooker noodles.

This made enough for dinner for one (poor lonely hooker that I am) and lunch for tomorrow (because I may not have all this time between clients to cook).

Have you ever timed yourself making dinner? What's your fastest dinner recipe?