I had planned to make these Dark Chocolate Cranberry Scones Sunday evening to enjoy along with the final episode of Downton Abbey but I didn’t have enough dark chocolate and didn’t feel like going to the store. So I made them Monday night, instead.

The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of half and half and 1/2 cup of French vanilla creamer, an ingredient I don’t use. Instead, I substituted heavy cream, simple syrup and vanilla extract. In a one cup measuring cup I put 1 tablespoon of simple syrup, 1 tablespoon of my homemade vanilla extract and filled the rest of the cup with heavy whipping cream. It worked just fine. I only had the one carton of cream, though, so I had to make the icing with milk and powdered sugar. This made more of a glaze than icing but I don’t think that made a lot of difference.

These were pretty simple to make and we’ve enjoyed them with our evening cups of tea the past couple of nights. I think they would be really good with cherries in place of the cranberries, too.

Dark Chocolate Cranberry Scones

I’ve now done 5 out of the 7 Pinterest recipes I chose. Stay tuned for #6 next week!

We LOVE enchiladas around here. Chicken, green chili, sour cream, beef, cheese, black bean…you name it, we like ’em! So when I saw a recipe for The BEST EVER Enchiladas on Pinterest, I had to try them.

The BEST EVER Enchiladas

It’s actually two recipes in one. In order to make these you first need to make “Mexican Style Meat”. That involves cooking a roast (or pork or chicken), along with chilies, hot sauce, onions and seasonings in a slow cooker for several hours and then shredding the meat. I want to tell you, within a couple of hours this started smelling SO good!

Flour tortillas are then filled with this meat and grated cheese, lined up in a baking dish and covered with homemade sauce. Then the whole thing is covered in a thick layer of cheese and baked until it becomes a gooey, cheesy delicious bit of heaven.

I mean it, these were absolutely fabulous and deserving of the name – “The BEST EVER Enchiladas“.  These will definitely be on our menu regularly. In fact, I plan to cook a couple of roasts and freeze in recipe-size portions. I will also double the sauce and freeze it. I can then whip these up in short order and I can’t think of a better quick dinner.

Stay tuned for more Pinterest Recipe Reviews. Next up: Dark Chocolate Cranberry Scones!

I have pinned quite a few drink recipes to my Pinterest board, Potent Potables. Have I tried any of them? Not until last night. And what better choice than a martini containing one of my very favorite things – Earl Grey tea?

I took a look at the recipe I had posted on “7 Pinterest Recipes I’ve Got to Try” but noticed it contained raw egg whites. Now, here’s the thing. When I was raising my own chickens I was not as concerned about consuming the occasional raw egg white in unbaked chocolate chip cookie dough. We are currently getting our eggs from one of David’s firefighter buddies who raises chickens and they are probably fine, too. But I just didn’t feel like risking salmonella food poisoning last night. Although I suppose it might make a good story – “Yeah, I just spent a few days in the hospital after drinking martinis.”.

At first I thought I would just leave it out but then decided to look for another recipe. This is the one which came up first in my Pinterest search:

Earl Grey Martini

No egg whites? Perfect. Now, keep in mind I found this at about 7:45 last night. And note this part of the directions:

“Sprinkle the tea leaves over the gin in a small glass, and set aside to steep for 2 hours.”

Oh, well. We never seem to make it to bed until nearly midnight anyway.

Then I discovered that I am out of loose leaf Earl Grey. How can that be?! I have boxes and boxes of Earl Grey tea bags. I have numerous other loose leaf teas. But somehow I find myself out of plain Earl Grey. I did, however, have a very nice Earl Grey with lavender. I consulted with my son who happened to be around when I was starting this project. He gave the leaves a whiff and agreed that this would work. As he pointed out, gin has a somewhat floral flavor, too.

I tripled the recipe so all three of us would be able to have one (ignore the part of the original recipe which says it makes two glasses – not true). I measured out the gin in a small glass and sprinkled the Earl Grey/lavender tea leaves on top. Then I let it steep while David and I listened to a few albums in our library. (Check the Life With Dee Facebook page or my Instagram account if you are interested in which albums we enjoyed last night.)

A couple of hours later I mixed up the martinis and the three of us each took a sip. I have to be honest. I didn’t have high hopes for this because I’m not a big fan of gin. I’m more of a whiskey drinker and I usually drink it neat or sometimes in a well-crafted Manhattan.

But this blew me away. It may very well be the best cocktail I have ever tasted. The tea and gin are a perfect match and the fresh lemon juice gives it a bright, fresh flavor. All three of us agreed that these are absolutely delicious.

The original recipe notes include the suggestion that you steep the tea/gin recipe in a larger quantity, strain and keep refrigerated so you can skip that 2 hour steeping time when you want to make these. Guess what I’m doing with the rest of our bottle of gin?

Stay tuned for more Pinterest Recipe Reviews. This is getting fun!

Time for another Pinterest Recipe Review! On Tuesday, I made Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken and Veggies from the blog, Damn Delicious.

Here is the link to the recipe:

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken and Veggies

Photo from Damn Delicious site

Since I was only serving three of us I just used 4 chicken thighs. I used the amount of veggies and sauce called for in the original, however. The only other changes I made were that I substituted frozen green beans for fresh and peeled regular carrots instead of using baby ones.

David got called out to fight a fire late afternoon so dinner was an hour or two later than I had anticipated when I started the slow cooker. By the time we ate, the veggies had all but dissolved into the sauce. David liked it quite well. I thought it was…okay. The sauce includes half a cup of soy sauce which David loves and I’m a bit more half-hearted about.

If you’re a fan of teriyaki-type dishes you’ll probably really like this. I think if I were to make this again I would substitute chicken broth or maybe wine for part of the soy sauce to lighten up the flavor a bit.

I did like the one-dish aspect of this recipe. The only thing I had to do at dinnertime was make a salad so this recipe is a great choice for busy days.

Important update: The link to the original recipe is no longer available. I found another which I *think* is the same or close. Here it is:

Dijon Pork Loin With Cognac Cream Sauce

Remember my post about about actually trying some of those recipes I’m forever pinning on Pinterest? Well, I did one last Friday! I made Pork Loin in Cognac Sauce  by Tartine and Apron Strings.

Pork Loin in Cognac Sauce

I have a tendency to not actually follow recipes very closely but I stuck pretty close on this one. I didn’t have any fresh sage or rosemary, however, so I substituted ground sage and dried rosemary. I have no doubt fresh would have been much better and I’ll definitely try this again when I can obtain fresh herbs.

The recipe calls for an optional cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce but I didn’t find that necessary. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as directed.

It was easy to prepare and we liked it quite well. As I said, I’m sure it would have been better with fresh herbs but even with dried it was very good. I will say, however, that if you don’t ever drink Cognac I’m not sure I think this would be worth purchasing a bottle for. Cognac isn’t cheap!

White wine makes a very nice cream sauce and while it wouldn’t be the same as the Cognac sauce, it would still be a tasty dish.

My verdict:

Pork Loin in Cognac Sauce is a keeper. It would be a nice, rather easy company meal. As shown in the photos above, I served it with homemade mashed potatoes (with a bit of the sauce on top), veggies and a salad.