Cookbook Review and Recipe: The Crabby Cook Cookbook

mommeal time

Chocolate Chip Scones I enjoy cooking... I mean, I have my own food blog and spend my days making and creating tasty dishes in my kitchen as part of my career. However, I do find myself getting crabby about cooking sometimes. For example, when I make something I think is out of this world and the kids turn their nose up at it? Crabby. How about when I add a new vegetable to a dish and I look over at my husbands plate to see bits and pieces "picked out" and sitting to the side? Crabby. There are things about cooking for my family that do make me crabby.

I was glad to see I'm not the only crabby cook around. In fact, Jessica Harper has created an entire "survival" tips cookbook for those of us who find our crabby side coming out when dealing with picky eaters and those we cook for. Jessica's cookbook, "The Crabby Cook Cookbook", is full of tales most of us can relate to... you know, like ruining a chicken pot pie when Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford are over for dinner. Everyday stuff like that.

In all seriousness, Jessica is a mom, actress, wife, and more. Her cookbook is full of fool proof recipes, family tested and approved. What I love as much, if not more, than the recipes are the stories Jessica shares throughout the book. This is the kind of cookbook that you bring to your bed at night to read through and you have to stifle your giggles as to not wake up your snoozing hubby. It's funny, relatable, and entertaining.

The cookbook is packed full of great recipes, but one that caught my eye from the very beginning is for Liza's Luscious Scones. My lack of preparedness at breakfast time makes me crabby, so I thought... why not find a recipe that makes me look like a superstar mom in the morning? Scones with chocolate chips? Heck yeah! My kids were overjoyed and I looked like I had my act together (although as you'll see, my 2-year-old is eating off a paper plate... forgot to run the dish washer the night before). You win some, you lose some, right?

Recipe: Liza's Luscious Scones

{From The Crabby Cook Cookbook}

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
  • ¼ cup sugar, plus an extra spoonful for sprinkling on top
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted cold butter, cut into small chunks, plus extra for the baking sheet
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup heavy (whipping) cream
  • ½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter a baking sheet and set it aside.
  2. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to blend. Add the butter and pulse just until it is incorporated and the mixture resembles small crumbs.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk one of the eggs and the cream together. Add this to the flour mixture and pulse just until the ingredients are blended.
  4. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, add the chocolate chips, and knead the dough just long enough to incorporate the chips. Shape the dough into a round that is about ¾-inch thick. Using a biscuit or cookie cutter (or an inverted juice glass), cut the dough into 2-inch rounds. (You could also cut it into 6 wedges, like a pie.)
  5. Place the scones on the buttered baking sheet. Mix the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water, and brush this egg wash on top of the scones. Then sprinkle them with sugar.
  6. Bake the scones until they are slightly golden and flaky, 25 to 30 minutes. Place the scones on a wire rack to cool. Serve them warm or at room temperature.

What has brought out your crabby side when cooking? Do you have any epic failures in the kitchen?

Kristen Doyle is a mom of 4 young children and the face behind the food blog, Dine & Dish.  Kristen’s mission is to help others make family mealtime a priority, where families gather around the table each night to engage in great food and conversation. Sharing recipes that are quick and simple to get on the table, Kristen’s goal is to provide a resource for others looking to simplify their lives in order to reconnect with their family, one meal at a time. Besides her food blog, you can connect with Kristen on Twitter, Facebook or follow along with her Project 365 on her Photo Journey Blog.

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