Nancy on the Home Front

Cranberry Orange Scones

As we approach Valentine’s Day what better way to celebrate than with these feathery light scones. Enjoy the wonderful tart contrast of cranberries and orange zest. I cut the scones into heart shapes for a Valentine’s Day treat! Plus I got to use up some of the frozen cranberries in my freezer!

If you’re looking for a delicious treat for your valentine on Valentine’s Day try making these delicious Cranberry Orange Scones.

Cranberry Orange Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/3 plus 2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

4 Tbsp butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1 cup cranberries, coarsely chopped (can also used dried cranberries)

1 Tbsp grated orange zest

1 large egg

1 large egg, separated

¼ cup heavy cream

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Grease your baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Place the flour, ½ cup sugar, the baking powder, salt and butter in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Stir in the cranberries and orange zest.

Lightly beat the whole egg and the egg yolk together in a small bowl. Whisk in the cream until blended. Add to the flour mixture and stir until ther dough begins to hold together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Roll the dough 1 inch thick. Cut out with a 3-inch round or heart shaped cookie cutter.Space 1-inch apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

Beat the egg white just until foamy and brush over the top of each scone with a pastry brush. Sprinkle the scones with the remaining 2 Tbsp of sugar. Bake until puffed and light golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Makes about 9-10 scones.

Perfect to enjoy with your valentine and a cup of tea.

Treats for the Birds for Valentine’s Day

My husband loves to feed the birds. We both enjoy sitting at our kitchen table watching the numerous wild birds come to our feeders. There are two large forsythia bushes near the feeders where the birds can take refuge. Since Valentine’s Day is almost here I decided to make some treats for the birds.

I wanted to make some birdseed ornaments to hang in the trees to give the birds an extra treat. I didn’t need any special equipment; everything needed to make these I had on hand.

Treats for the Birds

This is what I used:

4 feet of ¼ inch wide ribbon, cut into 12-inch long sections
2 envelops of Knox gelatin
1 ½ cups birdseed (Mixed seed works best)
Baking sheet lined with wax paper
Four cookie cutters of any shape, about 4 inches by 4 inches
Cooking spray

Directions:

This makes about 4- 8 cookie cutter ornaments depending on the size of the cookie cutter.

Combine the gelatin with ½ cup of boiling water. Stir well to dissolve the gelatin.

Add the birdseed.

Stir well; if the mixture is too watery add a little more seed until it is stiff but sticky.

Place the cookie cutters on your prepared baking sheet. I chose heart shapes for Valentine’s Day. Lightly coat each cookie cutter with cooking spray.

Fill each cookie cutter halfway with birdseed.

Before the birdseed hardens push a straw through the mix to create a little hole for your ribbon. Firmly press the mix with your hands or the back of a spoon.

After a few hours, coax each ornament onto fresh waxed paper. Let dry, turning them over every so often, for about 72 hours or until hard. Hang the ornaments outside for the birds to enjoy!

We often treat each other for Valentine’s Day, but it’s nice to make some treats for the birds to enjoy as well!

Roasted Banana Muffins

Monday Muffins: Roasted Banana Muffins

I have made banana muffins many times but this was the first time I’ve made Roasted Banana Muffins. Roasting the banana seems to intensify the flavor. These muffins have more of a cake-like consistency and they are delicious and freeze well. These roasted banana muffins are perfect to go with your afternoon cup of tea.

Roasted Banana Muffins

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas

2 cups flour

1 ¼ cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ cup milk

1 large egg, beaten

4 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Make a three inch long slice down each banana and lay the banana on a baking sheet. Roast the banana until the skins turn black and the juices in the bananas start to run from the slits in the skins, about ten minutes. Remove the bananas from the oven and keep the oven on.

When the bananas are cool enough to handle, discard the peels and place the bananas in a bowl. Mash with a fork and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk to blend evenly. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter. Stir in the mashed bananas. Thoroughly combine the dry ingredients with the banana mixture and stir with a wooden spoon to blend well.

Place a paper liner in each cup of a 12-cup muffin tin. Spoon the batter into the cups, filling each about three quarters full. Bake until golden brown or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to let cool. Makes 12-14 muffins depending on the size of your muffin tin.

Indian Carrot Soup so Satisfying

My husband has been battling a nasty winter chest cold and this Indian Carrot soup made the perfect lunch recently. One addition would be to serve the soup with pita bread. If you can find seasoned pita bread such as sesame or onion it would be delicious with this meal! This soup can be served hot or cold. It was the perfect to enjoy on a cold winter’s day and I imagine it would be equally as good chilled during the summer. If the soup is too spicy for your taste adding a little yogurt tames some of the spiciness. Good to know if your curry powder has a little kick!

Indian Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

2 tsps olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp curry powder
¼ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp ground cardamom
4 carrots, peeled and cut into one inch chunks
3 cups chicken broth
¼ cup plain yogurt

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil. Sauté the onion until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the curry powder, coriander, and cardamom; cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add the carrots and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until the carrots are tender, about 20 minutes. Strain the broth into a large bowl.

In a food processor or blender, puree the carrots with some of the broth. Stir the puree into the remaining broth. Serve at once or refrigerate, covered until chilled. Serve topped with yogurt and garnished with a carrot curl and mint spring. Makes about 4 servings

My husband said this soup felt great on his scratchy throat. It’s not a sweet soup but very satisfying and perfect for a cold winter’s day. I’m looking forward to making it again this summer, I imagine it would be equally as delicious served chilled some summer day.

Packing Like The Pros

As we have been de-cluttering our house we have also started packing like the pros! After getting several quotes for moving across country we realized one way to save money is to do the majority of the packing ourselves. When the house went on the market we packed up the family pictures and various knick-knacks that we want to keep, but that don’t need to be on display. While I miss having family photos out having less clutter around makes keeping things cleaned much easier.

We have moved several times in our life. For our last move we rented a truck and drove from Florida to Vermont. Longer moves are more challenging than an across town move and you want to make sure you pack your items securely so they survive the trip. Here are a few tips to help you pack like the pros!

First tip is to use the right size boxes.

Put heavy items, like books, in small boxes; light items, like linens and pillows, in bigger boxes. This is not only helpful when loading the truck but there is a better chance that everything will arrive to your new destination without breaking.

When packing don’t leave any empty spaces in the boxes.

Fill any gaps with clothing, towels or packing paper. The goal is that your boxes are balance and tightly packed.

Avoid mixing items from different rooms in the same box.

If you are trying to fill small spaces you may end up having a few random items in a box, but for the most part you want all the kitchen items in one box, pantry items in another box and bedroom items in yet another box. This will make your packing quicker and your unpacking much easier.

Be sure to label your boxes.

This will help the movers to know where the boxes belong in your new home. Number each box and keep an inventory as you pack. This will help you keep track of what you’ve packed and to make sure you still have everything when you unpack. Whatever you do don’t mark a box “MISC”, you will have no idea where that box goes when you get to your new home.

Tape your boxes well.

Tape the bottom and top seams and then make a couple of wraps all the way around the box’s top and bottom edges, where the stress in concentrated.

Bundle breakables

As you pack your dishes, put paper between each plate and then wrap bundles of 5-6 plates together with more paper. Always pack your dishes on their side. Be sure to use plenty of bundled paper as padding above and below the breakables. Cups and bowls can be placed inside each other, just be sure to use plenty of paper in between. Use special dish boxes for your breakables as well.

Packing Artwork

For pictures behind glass, make an x with masking tape across the glass to strengthen it and hold it together if it shatters. Then wrap the pictures in paper or bubble wrap and put in a special fame box. Put cardboard between each famed piece for more protection.

Taking a few precautions as you pack your belongings will ensure that everything arrives safely. Have you ever made a long distance move yourself? We will hire movers to pack the truck and drive our belongings across country, but we expect to save some money by doing the majority of the packing ourselves. Following these simple tips will help us pack like the pros and guarantee that our belongings arrive safely in our new home!

Healthy Company Muffins

Monday Muffins: Healthy Company Muffins

It’s Monday and time to share another delicious muffin recipe. January is the perfect time of year to make these delicious Healthy Company Muffins. We have a lot of company that likes to visit and play in the snow during the winter months. Nothing better than having a healthy, delicious muffin to offer in the morning. This recipe comes from my favorite book, Simply in Season. I love this book for the simple recipes it contains and the fact that they are geared to helping you eat in season. These muffins are perfect for breakfast or for a good snack. They can be cooked in a regular muffin tin or a mini muffin tin, which works well if you are using them for a snack.

Company Muffins

Ingredients:

½ cup flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup oat bran or rolled oats
¾ cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

In a large bowl combine the above ingredients. Set aside.

In another bowl combine the following ingredients:

2 large tart apples, peeled, cored and shredded

1 ½ cups finely shredded carrots
1 cup chopped walnuts or flax seed meal
½ cup raisins

Add the apples, carrots, walnuts and raisins to the dry mixture. Stir to coat and make a well in the center of the mixture.

In a separate bowl combine:
2 eggs
½ cup milk
¼ cup oil

Pour into the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Fill your muffin tins about ¾ full and bake in a preheated 375F oven for 18-20 minutes.

These muffins are delicious and keep well and the muffins remain moist for several days. You can also pop a few in your freezer so that you can have these healthy company muffins to enjoy at a later time!

Eating Healthy: Asian Meatballs

We always start the New Year with the best of intentions including eating healthy. During the holidays there is so much good food around and it’s so hard to avoid it all together! As we head toward the middle of the month my focus is on healthy recipes. For the next few weeks I will be sharing recipes that are better for us. The recipe today is adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe I discovered years ago. It is actually an appetizer recipe but I have to admit I have never served it as an appetizer, rather I serve it with some brown rice and it makes an excellent dinner. Mix up a salad and you’ve got a well-rounded meal! If you are looking for recipes to help you with eating healthy this is one to add to your collection!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does. The great thing is that you can mix it up ahead of time and just keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat. It reheats wonderfully in the microwave. This recipe can be halved. It makes about 16 appetizer servings or feeds 6 for dinner.

Asian Meatballs

Ingredients:

Package of ground turkey (about 20 oz)

1 green pepper, seeded and minced

8 scallions, thinly sliced

2/3 cup dried bread crumbs (sometimes I used seasoned)

4 Tbsp minced water chestnuts (almost the whole small can)

2 egg whites

2 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce

½ cup sweet and sour sauce

1 cup unsweetened applesauce (preferably homemade)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Spray a nonstick jelly roll pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, lightly combine the turkey, pepper, scallions, bread crumbs, water chestnuts, egg whites and soy sauce.

Shape into meatballs, about 1” in diameter ( I make them slightly larger when serving this for dinner). Place on the pan and bake until cooked through and browned about 15-25 minutes.

Meanwhile in a 2-quart microwavable dish, combine the sweet and sour sauce and applesauce; microwave on high until hot and bubbly, 2 minutes.

Stir in the meatballs and serve with toothpicks. When I make this for dinner, I place the meatballs in my casserole and pour the sauce over. When ready to serve I heat it briefly in the microwave until hot and bubbly, then serve over rice.

Questions for a Realtor

Our contract has come to an end with our current realtor and before hiring another realtor we decided we needed to do a little more research. We wanted to come up with a list of questions for a realtor. The realtor we had used previously had been dealing with too many personal issues to do a good job for us. We live in a small town so we heard about it all over the course of the year! Before choosing our next realtor we wanted to come up with a list of questions to ask so that we could insure that whoever we hired would do a good job selling our home.

Here are the 10 questions we came up with.

Experience: Length of time the agent has been working in residential real estate. We will ask about the number of homes they’ve sold in the last year and whether they specialize in buyers or sellers. Our agent should have enough sales under their belts to handle everything from the listing to the closing. You can even ask for references.
Process: How will they help us? What marketing systems and approaches will they use to sell our home?
Marketing: How will the agent plan to market our home? We are in a unique situation and more than likely the person that buys our home will be buying it as a second home. We need to know how the agent will market our home to the greatest number of potential buyers.
Communication: We want to hear from our agent on a regular basis. How will they communicate, by email or phone? We want to know what’s going on in the market, what other homes are selling and how our home compares.
Representation: Will the agent work with both buyers and sellers? Sometimes the agent will have someone else in the office represent the buyer sometimes they handle both. What’s most important is that our agent is able to walk us through their protocol for such a scenario before an actual offer.
Price Range: What is a reasonable price to list our house? Does the agent have experience working with people that are looking for homes in our price range? Can he see our property through a buyer’s eyes?
Home Loans: Does the agent have a solid grasp of home financing because often loan issues can make or break a deal?
Costs: What is the agent’s commission? Is he or she willing to negotiate? They may not budge, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Also ask about their cancellation policy. What happens if we find someone to buy our home? Do we still have to pay the realtor the full commission?
Stats: Comparative Market Analysis -What other houses are on the market in your price range? How long have they been on the market? What properties have sold in the last year?
Personality/Philosophy: Do our personalities mesh? Do we want to work with someone who is known as a real shark or do we want to work with someone who is more nurturing?

Rather than hiring a realtor based on our gut feeling we want to be more prepared this time around so that our house will sell and we can make our move! Selling a home is a big transaction and we want to choose the realtor that will do the best job for us. By having a list of questions for a realtor we should be better prepared this time around.

Best Ever Blueberry Muffins

Monday Muffins: Blueberry Muffins

During the summer months we have an abundance of blueberries, they fill my freezer and I often use the berries to make these best ever blueberry muffins. I have to say that these blueberry muffins are as good made with frozen blueberries as they are made with fresh berries. We are so blessed to have blueberry bushes that do so well. Not only do we get to have a freezer full of frozen berries, but we get to use those berries to make blueberry muffins. I love having muffins to enjoy with my coffee in the winter!

Best Ever Blueberry Muffins

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (I used refined coconut oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups flour (I used 3 cups regular and 1 cup sprouted whole wheat flour)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups sour cream
2 cups fresh blueberries

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add the sugar and while your mixer is going add the oil and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients and add them, along with the sour cream, to the sugar mixture. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 2 dozen. If you don’t eat them all at once they will freeze well to enjoy at a later date.

Do you enjoy muffins during the colder winter months? What are your favorite muffins? Each week I will be sharing one of our favorite muffin recipes. As you will see we love our muffins!

Until we are enjoying fresh blueberries once again from our bushes I am glad we have an abundance of berries in our freezer!

Beef Stew with Sweet Potatoes

Many of you have heard me mention Beachbody before and their wonderful cookbook called Fixate. This is my favorite recipe from that book. This Beef Stew with Sweet Potatoes recipe can be made ahead, it freezes well and people always love it. The recipe says it feeds six. Try making this on your next cold winter’s day; you’ll be glad you did! Better yet order a copy of your own cookbook as it is filled with many delicious recipes.

I have also added sliced mushrooms to the stew when I added the other vegetables. They make a wonderful addition.

Beef Stew with Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil
1 lb, 10 oz beef stew meat
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, sliced
2 medium celery stalks, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 cups of beef broth
½ cup red wine
¼ tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
3 bay leaves
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tsp cornstarch.

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the stew meat; cook, stirring frequently, for 5-6 minutes or until the beef is browned. Add the onion, carrot and celery ; cook, stirring occasionally for 5-6 minutes or until the onion is translucent. This is when you would add the mushrooms as well.

Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add 1 cup of the beef broth and wine; cook, stirring constantly scraping the bottom of the pan so the beef doesn’t stick, for 5-8 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by half.

Add salt, pepper, paprika, bay leaves and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; gently boil, stirring occasionally, for 5-8 minutes or until liquid has almost completely evaporated and tomatoes have begun to break down.

Add the remaining seven cups of beef broth. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat; gently boil, stirring occasionally for two hours.

Add sweet potatoes, cook, stirring occasionally for 20-25 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender.

Combine cornstarch with a little water in a small bowl, whisk to blend. Add cornstarch mixture to the stew; cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes, or until the stew has thickened slightly.

Serve hot.

Note: this post does contain affiliate links as I am a Beachbody coach. Thanks for checking the links out!