Blueberry Scone

When it is raining outside, I often feel like baking. This was one of those days which rained all day and we couldn't do any outside activity because it was pouring all day long.

So, in order to keep myself and my son busy, I decided to bake something. I had two package of blueberries in my fridge so I made Blueberry Scones which are not too sweet so my son can have some also.

I used the recipe which I found on a website called "All Recipe". If you are interested in this Blueberry Scone recipe, click here to go to All Recipe website.

It is fairly easy to make blueberry scones.

Mix dry ingredients.

And also liquid ingredients.

Mix them both and make some dough. Actually, I made a mistake with the amont of half and half so my dough came out to be too soft and sticky. So I added some more flour to make it manageable.

Then shape it and put in the oven.

Right after it was baked, I tried it. It was good but was not sweet enough for my taste. This is perfect for my son because we try not to give him something too sweet.

As I have guessed, my son looooooved this scone. He took a bite and made a big big smile on his face and said "Mama, this is yummy!!!!". Then he asked "Who is this?" Well, he is supposed to say "What is this?" but he still makes mistakes and ask me "Who is this" when he is talking about some object.

I told him about 10 times that this is called "Scone". After asking me "Who is this?" for 10 times, he finally said "Mama, I LOOOOOOVE SCONE!!!!"

I think those moment makes it worth putting an effort for cooking. I love hearing someone say "This is Yummy." when I cook something.

My mom also loved when my son tells her "This is yummy." She said that she cooks every single day but nobody tells her that they are yummy. So she loved cooking and feeding our son. He makes my mom so happy :-)

He is starting to talk quite a lot. He also started to throw a fit and sometimes it is very difficult to talk to him or calm him down. I get frustrated and get upset sometimes but then he does something funny to makes me laugh and I can not be mad at him.

OK. Back to Scone. My husband also liked this scone. I think this is a great snack for everybody. Though it is getting hotter and I don't think I will be using oven quite often till fall, I think I will keep this recipe in mind so I can make this again when the weather get little cooler like in Oct or so.

By the way, don't you love this plate? I fell in love and bought 4 of them at Ikea. It was $2.99 each!
It looks very elegant and classy. I think this is a perfect plate for dessert!

Two days trip to Upstate NY (Hudson Valley Area)

In mid November, we went for one night trip to Hudson Valley area. We went to Hudson Valley last year also. (Click here for the post of last year Hudson Valley visit. Hudson Valley 1. Hudson Valley 2)

We ate lots of great food and enjoyed out trip last year and we also had a great trip this year. I planned this trip and decide where to stay, where to eat and stuff. My husband loved everything I planned so I was very happy :-)

First of all, before we go to the hotel, we stopped at a town called New Paltz and had lunch at this restaurant called "The Village Tearoom".

I ordered smoked salmon salad which was really good.

My husband ordered "Mushroom bread pudding". Ever since he had mushroom bread pudding at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan last year (Click here for that post) he order this dish every chance he gets.

I forgot to take some pictures but they also have many different kind of baked goods and I ordered scone. They also had clotted cream which I have been looking around for a long time. Since I can not find them anywhere, I asked them if they can sell clotted cream. They told me that they can sell it for $8.00 per jar. It is quite expensive but I know I can not find it anywhere so I bought it! Now, I can make scone at home and eat it with clotted cream and have a proper afternoon tea! I am so happy :-)

After the lunch we ordered tea and chocolate cake.

By the way, there was a nice park close to this restaurant. Everything was made of woods and lots of kids and parents were playing. We played there also with our son and had a great time. I wish we had something like this close to our place.

Then, we head to the hotel. The hotel we stayed was a lodge and it had two stories. The bed was in upstairs and there was fireplace downstair. Also there was a river running right in front of our room and it was really nice and relaxing though it was right by a main street. It was quiet and nice.

Next day, we stopped by Culinary Institute of America for lunch. We came here last year also. This is a school where people learn how to cook and be trained. They have many restaurants inside of this school. Since we have a small child, we went to the casual restaurant called "Apple Bakery Cafe".

I ordered hanger stake with leek and potato. It was great. The plate was beautiful.

My husband ordered truffle grilled cheese and kale chips.

I never had kale chips before but this kale chips were super good. We couldn't stop eating this chips.

And, this is our main reason we came here. The truffle french fries.

We had this last time we were here and loved it so we ordered again. Well, it was good but I guess we were more impressed first time around.

I wanted to have dessert here but I was full so I bought a cake to take out.

When we got home at night, I had this cake which I bought. This was HudsonValley Apple Butter Cake. Isn't it pretty?

And it tasted wonderful! I loved it. I wished I bought more than one. I can easily eat 5 of them at once. Well, I guess it was good that I bought only one ;-)

Well, this trip was great. It was just a few hours away from home but we got to experience different things and eat lots of different stuff. My son loved playing in the fallen leaves. We all had a great time. Especially my husband and I was very happy that I was able to make him happy :-) We will definitely do this again!

Afternoon Tea at The Plaza Hotel

It seems like we are expecting another snow days here in NY. Well, it is more like sleet where I live. On a cold days like these, how about having elegant afternoon tea?

My husband and I went to have a nice afternoon tea at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. I always wanted to go have afternoon tea but never really had a chance. Afternoon tea seems quite expensive everywhere so we decided that if we are having afternoon tea, we might as well have it in a nice fancy hotel in Manhattan.

Here is the website for the Plaza Hotel in NYC. Click here to go to their website. (There will be sound, so be careful)

Afternoon tea is at a place called "The Palm Court". It is right at where you go in. It had a beautiful stained glass ceiling like this.

Don't you think this ceiling is gorgeous? It will be nice to have a court like this at home. (Well, you have to live in a mansion to have this kind of court in the house :-) )

The atmosphere was very much like elegant and everybody was enjoying their afternoon tea. Everyone dressed up quite nicely and looked very rich. I felt a bit out of place but I enjoyed this elegant atmosphere.

The afternoon tea set was something like this.

It has some finger sandwiches at the bottom and scones in the middle and some sweets on top.

In my opinion, sandwiches were too small. They were really good. I wanted eat in a bigger portion but I guess these mini sandwiches are what makes afternoon tea, an afternoon tea.

I would have preferred to have more sandwiches and less sweets.

But the best part was the scones. These scones were warm and flaky and the best scones I have ever eaten. (Well, I haven't eaten that many scones in my life but it was the best one so far!)
The scone comes with this clotted cream which I loved. I need to find out where I can get this clotted cream. Also, it came with some raspberry jam and lemon curd. Oh, it was so good! I would love to make this kind of scone at home.

Well, we really had a great time. This is something which we don't do in normal basis but I think it is great to have this kind of experience once in a while. It seems like the time moves slowly while you are enjoying afternoon tea. Since I always wanted to experience these kind of afternoon tea, I was very satisfied and happy!

On the way back to the car, we found this Belgium Waffle Truck which I have been trying to find since this summer. I love Belgium Waffle and I wanted to try this one for a while but we always missed the truck somehow. So even though I was pretty full from the afternoon tea, I had to get one and bring it home for later.

Here is the link for this Belgium Waffle Truck. Click here for their site.

I like those thick and heavy Belgium waffle called "liege waffle'. I bough one plain and took it home.

Next day, I heat up the waffle with the toaster and it was really delicious! I love them.

I was so happy to experience two of my food wishes on the list. It was a great weekend.