B'More Chai: The 4th

The 4th

Last weekend was my birthday (on Friday) and we decided to kill two birds with one stone by celebrating my birthday and taking Nabeela sightseeing in NYC. Literally its one of our favorite cities in the world - and I know a lot of people say that, but there is so much to love about New York! We decided to make a day trip out of it since we knew that we'd be busy the rest of the weekend with the 4th of July - driving up was a breeze considering that it was a holiday weekend - we made up in time to head over to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty before for our brunch reservations at my favorite brunch spot ever...Cookshop (just thinking about it makes me happy). After a delicious breakfast we wandered around Chelsea - picked Napoleon up some treats at the best dog store The Barking Zoo and eventually headed over to SoHo. Nabeela lost her mind at Uniqlo - and we spent the rest of the afternoon browsing all the shops. We did make it to Rice to Riches which provided quite a gluttonous afternoon snack of rice pudding =) - afterward we headed to Times Square - which was a bit packed and a little difficult to navigate with all the tourists and the German soccer fans! Finally we settled in to dinner in Koreatown (as per Nabeela's request) and had some delicious bibimbap and kimchee. All in all it was a successful jaunt to NYC and we always love our little day trips there!

July 4th was a great afternoon and evening spent with the Young Family (Uncle David, Aunt Karen and Kyle) stuffing our faces with fresh, delicious Maryland blue crab! A perfect way to give Nabeela the true Marylander experience! It was an amazing and super busy weekend (which we are still recovering from).

So far these past few weeks I've been really into jamming and pickling. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the farmers market is overrun with the fresh fruit and veggies for the summer. All I do is buy giant baskets of everything! And I have so much leftover I figured I should preserve some of it.... I wanted to share the recipes I used for making fresh peach preserves (which I also used to make strawberry preserves as well). These preserves go well on anything - but particularly fresh baked scones (see the best recipe in the world below)...mmmm. P.S. The scones freeze and bake beautifully so you can always have fresh scones at hand - which the carb loving beast inside of me loves.

Peach (or any other fresh fruit you have on hand) Preserves Recipe
~3-4 lbs. sliced peaches (skin and seed removed - skins can be removed by boiling peaches for a few minutes then letting them cool and peeling)
Dash of nutmeg or cinnamon ( I used both)
2 cups of sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Method:
1. Pre-prepare canning jars by boiling everything in water for about 10 minutes. Remove and allow to air dry. Place a small plate in the freezer.
2. Start by slicing the peaches into a bowl and adding a couple tablespoons of the sugar. Mix and allow to sit for a couple of hours (or overnight) to release juices.
3. When peaches are ready, heat a large pan (med-high) and add the peaches, the remaining sugar, lemon juice and nutmeg/cinnamon. Bring this to a boil and allow to simmer for approximately 25-30 minutes or until mixture is reduced and syrupy. You can check the consistency of the preserve by putting a small amount on the plate in the freezer - once its cooled you can see if the preserve gels to a consistency you like.
4. When the preserve is reduced and you have tested its consistency, add it to the pre-prepared jars up until about 1/4inch from the top of the jar.
5. Put the lids on and place the jars back into the boiling pot of water for approximately 10-15 minutes. After you take these out, leave them at room temperature until mostly cooled and you can store these in your fridge or at room temperature in a cupboard.

Strawberry (or any other berry) Scones (recipe retrieved from: An Edible Symphony)

1 cup strawberries, chopped up

3 tbsp granulated sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, in cubes, slightly softened

2/3 cup cream or cold buttermilk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tbsp sugar and set aside. Combine remaining sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter to the mixture and cut it in using a pastry cutter or two knives.

3. Stir in the fruit, then add the cream/buttermilk. Use rubber spatula to gently stir dough and bring it all together.

4. Turn it onto a floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate everything. Sprinkle more dough on if it gets sticky. Do NOT overwork it though!

5. Pat the dough into a circle that's 3/4 inch thick. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges, then transfer to cookie sheet. At this point, you can freeze the scones on the sheet, then store them in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Or bake them right away for about 15-20 mins, sprinkled with extra sugar on top, till golden. Eat warm, schmeared with honey or butter or both!

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far!