HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE

Yes, I am yelling. Yes, I finally made my absolute favorite summer dessert that my Mom always made. Chocolate Cream Pie. My Mom would pre-bake a pie crust and I would hope that she would fill it with her homemade pudding and then top it with whipped cream.

As much as I loved this pie I had never made it. Until now. I found this recipe on the blog written by someone that I wished was my next-door neighbor. What's Cookin Italian Style Classic Chocolate Cream Pie. I followed the recipe for the pudding and the pie. Honestly, this was quite good.

I used my usual pie crust recipe and the What's Cookin Italian Style chocolate pudding recipe.
Wow, homemade pudding!!

And dinner was good too!  Delmonico Steaks with Greek Pasta Salad, recipe from MyRecipes.com. The steaks were grilled perfectly.

Blueberries were on sale a Bishops so -
Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze for breakfast. Texture - perfect. Flavors- Perfecto!!!!

The scone recipe was a variation of a Tyler Florence recipe. I liked the idea of square scones.

Ingredients-

Blueberry Scones:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup Greek Yogurt

1/2 cup Milk

Lemon Glaze:

2 tbsp  cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 lemon, zest finely grated

Method-
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Sift together the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using 2 forks or a
pastry blender, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour. The mixture should look like
coarse crumbs. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Take care not to mash or bruise the
blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough. Make a well in the center and
pour in the yogurt and milk. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the
dough.

Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches.
Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape. Place the scones on an
ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and brush the tops with a little milk.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown. Let the scones cool a bit before you apply
the glaze.

Mix the lemon juice with the confectioners' until dissolved. Whisk in the lemon zest. Then
drizzle the glaze over the top of the scones. Let it set a minute before serving.

Scones on Friday

Why Scones on Friday? I worked from home. I had all the ingredients in the house. And I was only working a half day.

These were moist and really quite good. I added some lemon peel to the scone mix. I thought the glaze would be too sweet but I was surprised how good it was.

Click here for the recipe for Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze.

Dinner was up in Hartford tonight. We had dinner at the Infinity Hall Bistro, before the Delbert McClinton show. For apps we had Calamari and Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers. No complaints with either one.

We had burgers tonight. Good but I had to eat it with a fork and knife. A wee bit messy.

Before dinner, we stopped at Ted's Montana Grill for cocktails.

 

Chris tried a cup of their Bison Chili. Nice!!!! We may eat there the next time we see a show at the Infinity Hall.

Salad Days

Yes it is summer. I do not seem to be posting as much. Guess I am just taking it easy. 

I would like to send a shout out to all the deer in our neighborhood. 

"Thank you for not eating the flowers in front of our house this summer!!!"

 

 It is so nice to wake up and see flowers and not the chomped off stems.

 Ah summer! Just hot enough to reduce the time spent in  the kitchen.

Tonight's post features not one, but two salads. One is a summer favorite, Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts. I added snow peas, Burrata cheese and bread crumbs. The Burrata and bread crumbs were left over from the salad I made last night.

And that brings us to the other salad ...

Eggplant, Tomato and Burrata with Anchovy Breadcrumbs. I found this on The Italian Dish blog.
I went to a party last night and brought this salad. It was a hit. I saved a little so we could have it with dinner tonight. The oven had to be turned on for the roasting of the Eggplant but I did that early in the day, before it got too hot! I loved the breadcrumbs. I used leftover olive bread that I had in the freezer. Just a perfect summer salad. Click here for the salad recipe.

This morning I made some Very Blueberry Scones. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen. I liked combining the whole wheat and white flour. Makes it seemed "healthier"!

Pork Chops With Escarole and Balsamic Onions and Scones!

Today started with scones. From Joyofbaking.com I made Blueberry Streusel Scones. They were so light and airy. It was hard not going back for seconds.

 

Moving on to dinner I made Pork Chops with Escarole and Balsamic Onions. The recipe is from RealSimple.com. I am usually not a huge balsamic fan but this was nice. The pork chops came out perfectly tender. I served Jasmati Rice on the side.