Spacious... wha?

I remembered when the Mr.C and I were looking for our first home back in 2006, we came across an MLS listing that caught our attention. It definitely wasn’t the cheap price tag (is there such a thing in Vancouver these days?). It was the two words in the description - “spacious panty”. Spacious panty, oh my! It was actually listed in the description of a property we found on MLS! It didn’t take long for us to figure out what the seller/realtor was trying to say – spacious pantry. Can you imagine buying a property that came with a spacious panty? How big would it be? How many people can it hold? Is it self-cleaning? What color would it be? Anyways, fast forward to 2008… we now live in a place that’s not very spacious. Its pantry is far from it, too. You can just imagine our disappointment!

This got me to think that a well-stocked pantry is very important, especially in a busy household where there are no maids, chefs or servants. If you keep your pantry well stocked throughout the seasons, it will prevent you from running frantically to the grocery stores during the work weeks. Do you really want to brave the grocery stores after a long day of work and commuting? Seriously, you just want to go home, cook and eat! A well-stocked pantry also allows you to cook or bake most things you crave in the spur of the moment, or if you run into dinner planning emergencies (ex. you think you’re working late/going out but ended up having to eat dinner at home), or you have a last minute request to bring an item to a potluck. I find that the more recipes I try, the more I realize there are in fact a lot of common items that are essential to a well-stocked pantry.

• chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, raisins
• flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract, you know, the basic essentials to baking anything edible.
• gelatin
• chips (gotta keep Mr.C happy, and you never know when friends decide to show up!)
• pasta (I almost always have 2-3 types laying around; penne, linguini, lasagna)
• jar(s) of pasta sauce
• canned coconut milk (for desserts, curries, etc.)
• Swanson's chicken stock
• Beef broth
• Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
• Nissin instant noodles, good japanese udon
• Instant coffee powder (I actually use this mostly for baking/cooking)
• tomato paste, canned diced tomato
• peanut butter (very necessary when making peanut chicken/thai noodle salad... but of course, you can use it to make PB & jam/honey sammiches!)
• honey (for sauces, marinades, sometimes for honey-lemon drinks)
• chili/soy/oyster/black bean sauces. These are essential when you don't have time to marinate anything and you just want to throw together a quick dinner
• cream of corn
• vermecelli
• spices (ground pepper, italian, cayenne, chili powder, all the good stuff...)

I'm sure I've missed a few items in this list. But, how I wish I have a spacious pantry.

This week, I made some cheese scones. Thanks to Jr., I finally found a recipe that delivers decent quality scones. I've tried two recipes before in the past (with similar ingredients) but they always ended up too dry and crumbly. Interestingly enough, this recipe calls for margarine and I decided to give it a try (I always bake with butter). Surprisingly it turned out awesome! Weird. Maybe it's the margarine. Anyways, I tweaked the recipe a little by adding dry mustard to give it a kick or two.

Cheese Scones (makes 2 dozen)

• 3 cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• few teaspoons of dry mustard
  
• 1 teaspoon salt (I never measure salt in baking recipes. Just a couple dashes and you're good to go!)
• 1 to 2 cups grated cheese
• ½ c margarine
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk (I use 1%)

1. Lined a baking sheet with greased parchement paper. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Combine dry ingredients into large mixing bowl.
3. Cut in margarine using pastry blender or two forks till mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add grated cheese.
4. Mix egg and milk together and stir into dry mixture.
5. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet (will spread a little) and bake in a 350 degrees oven for 10-15 minutes (I had a gas oven, and I had to bake mine for about 18 mins)

Tips:

• I use butter spray when greasing parchment paper. Forget melting butter and brushing it all over... waste of time, too much work! I like to bake, but I don't have 5 hours to waste!
  
• Forget the forks. Use your hands to work the fat into the dry ingredients. I find it works better than using a pastry cutter anyways... not that I'd know because I'm too cheap to invest in one. But, why buy one when your hands are your best tools?
• I press each dough gently (so the surface is abit flat) before baking so I can sprinkle more cheeses on top. Mmmmmm cheese.
• Do yourself a favor and buy a bag of pre-shredded cheese. It's not that much more expensive than a block of cheese (unless you're looking for good quality cheeses in this recipe) and it saves you so much time from shredding all day long. Mr.C doesn't like strong cheeses so I just buy a bag of shredded mild cheeses!
  

They're not too big, so they makes great snacks and on-the-go breakfasts. They're not crumbly and dry either, so yay. Perhaps next time, I will use this recipe and make jam-filled scones (basically split the dough in half, roll them out to 1/6" to 1/8" thick rounds, spread jam between layers, cut into wedges and bake!).

Before:


Final Product. Cheesy goodness!