Oh So Delicious!

*B* and I were bit by the Food-Network-convinces-you-to-go-gourmet bug today. We had planned on making a chicken dinner for friends today anyway. But after watching a few shows, we stepped it up. I made a roast chicken, standard recipe with a little lemon and thyme added in. We're having parsley-ed potatoes (a standard from my childhood, which explains the weird name) and asparagus. We started Italian bread, but it turns out that we miscounted by an hour and it will be done late. The exciting part, however, is the lemon-poppy scones with lemon butter. Adapted from a few different recipes, I think it's safe to say we made it our own.

First, we made lemon butter. It was so easy! We just put the zest of 2 lemons, 4 tbsp of honey, and 1 pint of whipping cream into my kitchen aid. We whipped it way past whipped cream and ended up with the butter and oh-so-delicious flavored buttermilk. The buttermilk, we used in the scone recipe.

For the scones, I mixed 2 cups of flower with 2 tbsp baking powder, 2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp of salt. I cut in 1/4 cup of butter until crumbly. Then I mixed together 2/3 cup of our buttermilk and 1 egg. I poured that in with 1 tsp lemon zest and 1 tbsp of poppy seeds. After mixing with a fork, I turned it onto a floured board and made it into a round. This is what it looks like just before baking:


It's got a little bit of turbinado sugar on top, and the wedges are scored. I baked it at 425 degrees for a little more than 15 minutes. Mmmm, so good.

The original recipe came from cooks.com. Doesn't it look good?

The chicken (and especially the gravy) turned out amazing! It was a recipe from Ina Garten on the Food Network. The carrots were roasted under the chicken. I took everything from the bottom of the pan, minus the carrots, and made the most delicious gravy I've ever had.

Oh so good! Yum!

It was so nice to be with friends. I was amazed that they stayed for four hours with no real lull in the conversation. I could see this being a bi-weekly kind of thing. Food really does bring people together.