late night kitchen adventure

PC and I have this habit of playing video games in the evening for hours. Inevitably we will turn to each other and our respective stomachs will gurgle and grumble. 

"I'm hungry," he says. "What is there to eat?"

And then it is my job to figure out something to make. Usually I resort to chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven, covered in vanilla ice cream and slathered with chocolate syrup. But last night I didn't have any cookie mix, we were all out of ice cream and there was no chocolate syrup to be found.

That is when the miracle of the internet came into play. To the Googles! Because the internet knows everything. I typed in various ingredients that were stored in the pantry and tagged on the word dessert. I was greeted with hundreds of recipes, so I sorted through various ones that sounded appetizing and that we also had all the necessities. Mostly I wanted to only use things that we already had because a) it was late and i didn't want to go anywhere I didn't have to and b) going to the store means spending money, and I really just can't do too much of that at the moment.

So I found a recipe that was just exactly what I was looking for and I set to work. I got out all the ingredients I would need and started measuring them out and mixing them together.

After a couple minutes of measuring and mixing, my arm was tired from stirring everything together and I just wanted to sit for a bit. But the dough was looking fabulous and the oven was hot, so I spooned the dough onto the cookie sheet and set it to bake for 10 minutes.

The dough, undergoing transformation.

Ten minutes later I was greeted with piping hot chocolate chip scones that were absolutely delicious. Seriously you guys, I am turning into quite the little domestic housewife, except for the whole not actually being a wife part, you know how it goes.

We had a couple for dessert last night, and a few for breakfast this morning. The dough yields about 18 scones depending on how big you make them. I just used a table spoon, so some of my scones were a lot larger than others, but it's really up to you to decide how big you want them to be.


Chocolate Chip Scones
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 egg, well beaten plus milk, to make 1 cup
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. Grease or spray a large cookie sheet.
Stir together dry ingredients including the sugar. Cut butter into flour mixture. Add chocolate chips (or raisins if you want, or nothing if you're a plain jane kind of girl (or guy)), stir to mix well. Beat egg in measuring cup. Add milk to make 1 cup. Stir into flour. Drop roughly tablespoon size scoops on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

*You can knead 15-20 times and roll out and cut if you wish, but I prefer the ease of the drop method*

Drink Of The Week: Raspberry Vanilla Tea

I am hooked on this drink. It's bad. I make it all the time, and I usually make it iced (but its delicious hot as well). I know you all think I'm crazy for drinking iced tea in the winter time, but for whatever reason I just like it better that way.

I also like my teas a little sweeter, so this drink can be pretty sweet, or not so sweet depending on your personal taste. Also, instead of the usual 16 oz size (or medium/grande depending on where you go) I usually drink this as a 20 oz drink. Teas are generally a lot cheaper than lattes, and also not as heavy to drink so I can drink more of it.

For a 20 oz Raspberry Vanilla Iced Tea here's how it goes:
1 oz vanilla syrup
.5 oz raspberry syrup
steeped Stash brand wild raspberry tea
ice (to liking)

If I make this drink hot, I add about a quarter inch steamed 2% on top. I tried it with soy, but ultimately didn't like how that turned out. I'm going to assume that skim milk would function about the same as 2%, so if you're into the white water then have at it. :)