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Well, a belated hello to 2010! I swear I've been baking--you just haven't heard about it. Early in December, as I began my Christmas baking, the unthinkable happened: my KitchenAid got sick. I say "got sick" because it's not dead, thanks to my mechanical engineer sister and brother-in-law. Or, they tell me my trusty steel blue buddy's going to make it out of this disaster just fine, perhaps better than new. However, there's been a lot of ordering parts, and losing parts, and breaking parts, and ordering more parts. So, umm, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled baking eventually.

Here are My Heroes, and my baby in pieces:


In the mean time, I've done a few things not normally seen here on A Scone's Throw. I bring you, breakfast for dinner!

For Christmas, I received mini tart pans and was eager to put them to use. These tiny quiches used left over mushrooms, onions and sausage, in a simple pastry. All I really did was make my standby pastry, and bake it for about 10 minutes. I then placed the cooked veggies and sausage into the shells, topped them with an egg scrambled with some (leftover) herbs, and topped with some cheese. I used white cheddar on mine, and Jarlsberg on Carolyn's...I differentiated them by sprinkling mine with a touch of red pepper flakes. They are sitting on top of a simple arugula salad dressed with white balsamic vinegar.


The drink on the side? A stroke of brilliance inspired by a local diner that I thought paired perfectly with breakfast for dinner: Crown Royal, orange juice, and a touch of maple syrup, topped with candied pecans.

Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

This morning, as I made a a baked french toast (using up stale cinnamon rolls!), I realized I was craving a more savory baked good. So, I turned to my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book for a basic biscuit recipe. I altered it quite a bit, because I wanted a cheddar garlic biscuit, I didn't have buttermilk, and I didn't want to feed a crowd.

The original recipe is the Biscuits Supreme, but this recipe includes my alterations, and my process. I'm a pretty simplistic baker, and take quite a few short cuts, so the instructions are probably briefer than those offered in the book.

1 1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
3/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp garlic powder
6 tbl cold butter, cut in chunks.
1 c cheddar cheese, finely grated
1/4 c milk
1/4 c heavy cream, plus more as needed




1. Preheat oven to 350. In bowl of food processor, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cream of tartar, and garlic powder. Pulse to combine.
2. Add chunks of butter, pulsing 5-8 times until butter is worked in, and the size of small peas. Don't over-pulse.
3. Transfer to a mixing bowl, and stir in cheese. Add milk and cream, stirring just to combine. Dough should be slightly damp, and look like it would drop off of a spoon, but hold its shape. If you need more liquid, use a little extra cream.
4. Using an ice cream scoop, drop the cookies 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. I used a BIG size 12 ice cream scoop for super biscuits, and got nine.
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of your biscuits. Mine ended up about 4" in diameter.