A Garden Spot at The Simple Farm

Seize every moment and bask in what is good and pleasant and lovely and that which has a good report.  The rest. . . dump.  Life is way too short to get caught up in the ugly stuff.

Incredibly Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Seriously, how good and yummy can fall get?

The Most Amazing Pumpkin Scones - Ever

Photo from food.com recipes.

A few years back, Monica, my acupuncturist gave me one of the scones she'd made the day before - an incredibly tasting pumpkin scone with a little jar of buttery sweetness to spread on the top.

You'll want to make these....so, here you go....it's the Starbucks Scones found here...which I've copied directly.  But, in Monica's recipe she added 1.5 tsp of pumpkin pie spice rather than all the individual spices (it was so good, I'd tend to do that too) AND for the yummy spice glaze she added butter and whipping cream and quite a bit of pumpkin pie spice.  You'd want to do that too....

• 2 cups all purpose flour 
• 7 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 tablespoons cold butter
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons half-and-half
• 1 large egg

Powderered Sugar Glazze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch ginger
• 1 pinch ground cloves

Directions:

Prep Time: 15 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

1. 1TO MAKE THE SCONES:.
2. 2Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
3. 3Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.
4. 4In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.
5. 5Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet.
6. 6Bake for 14?16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
7. 7TO MAKE THE PLAIN GLAZE:.
8. 8Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth.
9. 9When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.
10. 10AS THAT WHITE GLAZE FIRMS UP, MAKE THE SPICED ICING:.
11. 11Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

the BEST Squash and Sun Dried Tomato Soup

On page 222 of Nourishing Traditions, is the BEST Squash and Sun Dried Tomato soup recipe ever!

photo compliments of www.channel4.com

Ingredients and Directions
1 butternut squash
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
3 TB butter
1 cup sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil. I only had sun dried tomatoes in a bag, so, I added a bit of olive oil to the cup and let it sit for a tad.
1 quart chicken stock (I used Trader Joes Chicken Broth and actually I used more than what it called for - it seemed to need to be more brothy.)
1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
2 Tb finely chopped basil (I used fresh from my garden.)

Cut squash in half lengthwise and place, cut sides down, in a glass baking pan with about 1/2 inch of water. I chose to liberally douse my squash with olive oil instead. Bake at 350 degrees until tender, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, sauté onions gently in butter until tender. Add tomatoes, broth and chili flakes. Bring to a boil and skim. Scoop squash out of skin and add to the soup. Simmer for about 1/2 hour. Puree soup with a handheld blender. I didn't do this - I chose to leave it as it was.

Thin with water (I added more chicken broth.) Add basil and season to taste. Simmer gently about 5 minutes, ladle into heated bowls.

La Table de Nana's Soupe-de-jur

One of my very, VERY, VERY favorite beauty pauses that inspire is Nana at La Table de Nana.

I've never met Nana, but feel this kindred spirit with her - her love of beauty, good food, grandchildren and being surrounded by lovely things in life.  Maybe too, it's because of the name Nana that we both share with the littles in our life.

Today's blog roll popped up Nana's Soupe - de - jur and of course, I needed to take a quick peek and it was YES at first glance.  I'd just been saying to myself how I was in the mood to be inspired by some new soup recipes and oooh....la la....Nana came through with her potato celery soup.

You can only imagine since it is soup season here at the farm (just made my special chicken noodle soup last night) that this one will grace our table quite soon.

Thanks Nana~love Nana.

Like Nana said ~ Recipe copied directly from The Little Teochew's blog

Recipe
(Serves 1 hungry, growing child)
- 2 sticks celery, cut into small chunks
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 1 floury potato, cut into small chunks
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 to 1 cup stock
- Knob of butter
- Croutons (optional)
- About 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (optional)
- Parsley (optional)

1. In a saucepan, heat up a knob of butter. Fry onions until they begin to sweat. Add in celery and potato and cook for 2-3 minutes.

2a. Pour in water and allow to simmer over a low-medium flame until the vegetables have cooked through and softened. The water would have been reduced considerably. Use a hand held-blender to mash everything into a smooth puree.

2b. If you do not have a hand-held blender, use a food processor (turn off the fire when you do this, obviously). Be careful, as the lids of some food processors can get blown off by the hot steam! After you get a smooth puree, return it to the saucepan, on a low flame.

3. Add stock according to how thick or thinned out you want your soup to be. I added slightly less than 1 cup.

4. Add 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese. This imparts a nice salty flavour. :) I did not need to add salt at all.

5. Top with croutons, or plain toasted bread. Sprinkle parsley before serving.

The Cheese Maker In Our Home

For Fun . . . Fairview Farm Dairy . . .

. . . in Oregon . . .with hand~made farmstead goat cheese . . . lovely, simply lovely.

Foods to Avoid

Monica Behling is my new friend who happens to be an acupuncturist here in Scottsdale. We met through some interesting circumstances that I think were ordained.  Since we're farmers, food is important to us.

I love Monica's list here of what foods to avoid.  If in doubt, check it out....and then also check out what foods you should be eating (in season of course).