Scoop Deville

I had to work the night of my birthday so Mike took off on Friday to celebrate with me. He took me to our favorite retro ice cream shop, Scoop Deville,  in Hartford. They always have so many delicious flavors to choose from. He had a chocolate shake and helped Layla with her Nerds ice cream. While I tried the mango lime sorbet on top of a scoop of lemon cheesecake in a vanilla waffle cone. They tasted so bright and summery.

The Open Door Coffeehouse

My birthday was last Wednesday. As a birthday treat, my mother and sister took me to a local coffee shop in Mayville called The Open Door Coffeehouse. They served great coffee and I loved the family friendly atmosphere. I was disappointed that they didn't have many food options. They serve a few baked goods but no sandwiches or anything like that. For me, a great coffee house needs both amazing coffee and delicious brunch food. Hopefully that improves in the future. Until then I will be stopping back for more delicious coffee and eating lunch elsewhere.

The Best Chicken Wings Ever.

The best chicken wings I've ever had are from Jonny Hammers in West Allis.  They have so many sauces to choose from and the wings themselves are GIANT! My favorites are the breaded orange ginger followed by garlic parmesan or spicy barbecue. **WARNING** the "Too hot for a normal person" sauce really Is too hot for a normal person. That said, try one if you're looking for a challange. I've had them and they have flavor besides the heat. The bar itself doesn't look like much upon first impression but they have a beautiful patio in back. Go there on a warm Saturday, sit outside near the trumpet vines and enjoy the $0.50 saturday wing special. I promise you won't be disappointed.

P.S. The wings do take awhile to make, but the long wait is worth it!

Giant Mozzarella Wraps From the Boat House

Close your eyes and imagine the perfect mozzarella wrap.
Now open your eyes.
I hope the wraps you pictured looked like these because the Boat house on Fox Lake makes the best mozzarella wraps. There has to be at least three gooey mozzarella sticks wrapped inside each wonton wrapper.  Mmmm...just thinking about them is making me hungry for more!

Chocolate Orange Scones

My Husband is fishing and the little one went to grandma's house for the day. So I'm snuggled up on the couch sipping English breakfast tea, eating yummy scones, and enjoying the peace and quiet.

Around Christmastime we received a large box of citrus fruits. Now, nearly a month later, I am so sick of eating oranges. Yet they are still overflowing out of my refrigerator. Since baking the perfect scones was one of my New Year's Resolutions, I decided to kill two birds with one 'scone' by making chocolate orange scones.
I scoured Pinterest for the perfect recipe, but none of them were quite what I was looking for. Most  of them used too many warm spices, or contained ingredients (like buttermilk) that I just didn't have on hand. I wanted to keep these scones simple. So I combined several recipes. They are some of the best things that I have ever baked. There's hints of orange and chocolate chips in every bite. Don't let the orange flavor scare you away from trying them. It's really really light. I promise that even if you don't like orange, you will like these scones.
Before you bake, you will want to plan ahead. One stick of butter needs to be frozen. Also, make sure you have all the ingredients. Just in case you used something up for holiday baking, and forgot to buy a replacement. Which happened to me. I ran out of baking powder and had to postpone scone baking  until after I could dash to the store (Major Bummer!).

Here's the Recipe,

Scone ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose flour
1/3 cup of sugar
1 frozen stick of unsalted butter
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 medium oranges zested
4 oz sour cream
1/2 tsp salt

Glaze ingredients

1 Cup of powdered sugar
3 tbs melted butter
2 Tbs fresh orange juice (juice the zested oranges)
1/2 tsp Vanilla

Move oven rack to center
Preheat 400F


First combine the four, Sugar, chocolate chips, baking powder, soda, and salt in a large bowl. Zest the oranges over the top and mix it all evenly. After that comes the fun part, grate the frozen butter onto your dry ingredients. It might be a little hard so be careful!

Work in the butter with your hands. Then whisk the sour cream and egg together in a small bowl before adding it to the scone batter. Dig in and form the dough into one large ball. At first I was concerned that it didn't seem to be coming together like I predicted. After expressing my worry to Mike, he rolled up his sleeves to help. It turns out that the frozen butter just doesn't bind as quickly as thawed would. So squeezing it a little rougher doesn't hurt. Stop as soon as it's all combined and not sticky. Set the ball onto a large sheet of parchment paper, and flatten until 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Then slice it, like a pie, into eight equal triangles.

Transfer your triangle scones onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Remember to space them out.

Finally pop them in the preheated oven for about fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, combine your melted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and orange juice. 

When your scones are done in the oven, let them cool (and probably taste test one) before glazing.

Enjoy! 

Goals for 2016

Hello!
How are your New Year's resolutions going? Did you make any? I made two.

1) Go outside more.
This one is pretty self explanatory. I'm going to try to get outside every day. Weather permitting, of course.

2) Significantly improve my cooking and baking skills. I hope to master a lot of basic techniques this year. As well as several of my favorite restaurant and bakery foods like;

__ Dumplings

I fell in love with Jao Zi during my trip to China but have never made a succesful batch at home. I'm determined to change that in 2016.

__ Glazed Scones

I could have just said scones, but let's face it, all the best scones are glazed so they don't get too dry. Besides, does anyone actually mind an extra layer of sugar?

__ Croissants

Way more elegant than plain ole bread. When I bake croissants in 2016, you are going to envy all my future breakfasts and sandwiches. I guarantee it.

__ Pita Bread

Deceptively simple, Pitas are something I've already failed at once, years ago. This year, with the help of my flat griddle, I will succeed.

__Crepes

Savory crepes are my fave! What fillings do you like?

__Macarons
Yummy! Unless someone flies me to France so I can experience the world's best macarons, I will have to settle for making the best in Dodge County.

Those all are my most important goals in 2016. Progress is going well, so far. I've made time to go outside with the family every day. As well as baking a classic apple pie using a cookbook I got for Christmas.  The picture is below. Doesn't it look delicious? Hope all of your goals are going just as well!

 

Oconomowoc German Christmas Market

Hello everyone! Did you have a good Thanksgiving? I sure did. Mike and I spent most of our thanksgiving week participating in Wisconsin's gun deer season. We did alright, and now have a little more meat in our freezer.  Waking up early just to sit in the cold wind was a little rough for me but getting some exersize ( a.k.a burning off all the extra slices of Thanksgiving pie) and spending time with my husband made was worth it.
Saturday night, I took a break from hunting to visit the German Christmas Market In Oconomowoc with my sister, Rachelle. The annual, open air market has joyous atmosphere and an European feel. Upon arrival we were immediately greeted by the sweet scent of roasting nuts and the sound of cheerful Hoffbrauhaus polkas. Strands of twinkling white lights intertwined the rows of local food and craft vendors.
The first things to catch our eye were the adorable baby lederhosen and dirndls made by Ada's Accessories. My mini me is, sadly, already too big to wear most of the cute outfits she was selling but they would be awesome Christmas gifts for your own little ones. The festive clothes can be found at https://www.etsy.com/shop/adasaccessories4me .
The second item to grab our attention was a sparkly knit winter headband. I can't my recall the shop name but similar ones can be found on etsy. Rachelle bought a dark blue one for herself and a pink one for me (Sorry the photo is blurry, the market was very busy and we didn't want to pause long to take a picture).
Our third stop was to buy some Gluhwein (German mulled red wine). It was a cold night so we both took a moment to warm up and sip our wine out of styrofoam cups next to the bon fire. Confession: I actually preferred my wine more after it had cooled. Maybe hot wine is an acquired taste, or maybe I'm just not a wine lover to begin with. What I do love, however, is good German food. So our next destination was the food vendors. I was excited to see they were selling a couple varieties of schnitzel but was disappointed that they were actually sold out of them all. We split a giant pretzel and obatzer cheese dip instead. The obatzer was wonderful. It was slightly garlicky and thick. The regular processed pretzel "cheese" doesn't compare at all.
The German Christmas Market is officially going to be an annual destination for us. We could easily find gifts for everyone there. There was no shortage of beer, food, sweets, and even dog treats. My favorites, besides what I already mentioned, were some soft alpaca gloves, and dilly lemongrass goat's milk soap from Swiss Frau Farms. Rachelle is obsessed with their lavender hand balm as well. The alpaca gloves were a little too pricey for me to buy at the time but all the Swiss Frau products were more reasonable. They can be found at Swissfraufarmproductsllc.com.
If you went to the market, I'd love to hear about it. Otherwise, be sure to make time on your calander to visit the Christmas market next holiday season!