this has been a very fun week of gingerbread chicken coop building, cookie making, and spending quality time at home*

*and realizing what a slob i am and that i need to devote all of my holiday break to cleaning up this place.

how do people stay clean? where do they put all of their cookbooks?? i feel like i'm in an igloo made of cookbooks and boxes that are about to be filled with cookies and it's all going to cave in on me soon unless i start adulting. at least i finally feel like eggboy and i have some time to get to work on it all. his work days are shorter since the farming season has slowed, and i have barely enough sunlight to photograph for more than a couple of hours each day, so we shall become clean people in these remaining few weeks of 2016! i have these fantasies that i'll one day be able to walk into my prop room and not have to tip toe around breakable dishes as if i'm playing twister, or that i'll be able to quickly find a specific cookbook without having to somersault through slobby stacks in our living room...

remember when fantasies were more centered around hello kitty and lisa frank chrismukkah presents? lololol.

here is an anytime snack that is perfect for when you need something cheesy and carby but you don't have any bread in the house and yes, you could use a little break from cleaning! it's a savory scone that's laced with onions, cheddar, and tiny flecks of thyme and served with sweet tomato jam. shoutout to eggmom for stocking our freezer with garden tomatoes from the summer! they were perfect for this. these scones are crumbly yet moist and i've used kerrygold's reserve cheddar here since it's flavorful enough to cut through the scone dough that surrounds it. (also because whenever i think about scones my inner voice puts on an irish accent since i ate about 12 million of the best scones of my life when i was in ireland on kerrygold's farms.)

cheddar and thyme scones

makes 9

ingredients

2 c flour

1 tb baking powder

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

1 tb sugar

5 oz shredded kerrygold reserve cheddar

1/2 c kerrygold unsalted butter, cold and cubed

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 large egg

1/2 c heavy cream

for the tomato jam:

2 lb Roma (plum) tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped

1/2 c sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

a pinch of crushed red pepper

black pepper

1 tsp lemon juice

clues

preheat the oven to 400ºf and line two baking sheets with parchment.

in a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder, thyme, salt, a few turns of pepper, and the sugar. add the cheese, reserving 1/2 cup for the topping, and butter to the food processor and pulse until the butter is pea-sized.

add the mixture to a large bowl and mix in the onion. in a small bowl, whisk together the egg and heavy cream. add this to the dry mixture and mix to combine.

turn the dough onto a surface (you may need to give it a few kneads to bring those last few crumbs in) and pat it out into a square that is 1 inch thick. cut the large square into 9 smaller squares and place the scones on the baking sheets spaced 2 inches apart. top each with salt, pepper, and a bit of the reserved cheese.

bake the scones until they're lightly browned, beginning checking for doneness at 15 minutes. remove from the oven and serve warm with tomato jam (recipe follows).

for the tomato jam:

in a saucepan, combine the tomatoes, sugar, salt, crushed red pepper, and a few turns of black pepper. set over medium heat and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has cooked off, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. press through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the tomato skins. stir in the lemon juice. let cool and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

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-yeh!

thank you for kerrygold for sponsoring this post!

here is a pumpkin recipe that will do you some good if, for example, you bought twelve too many cans of pumpkin for thanksgiving because despite your husband's questionable track record of pies he still insists on making one every year but with some great luck he nailed it this time thus alleviating your need for backup pumpkin. so now you have all of this pumpkin!

or!

maybe you are on #teamcake but are so humble that you don't want your handsome show-stopping pumpkin cake to overshadow your husband's pie so you are in the market for something smaller and humbler.

or!

you just like donuts.

or!

you want to get started baking now and need something that will freeze and defrost really nicely just in time for the post-turkey bird festivities.

ok i'll shut up now because it's true that you don't ever need a reason to want a soft pumpkiny donut that's topped with artful plops of pumpkin spiced buttercream. and i realize that baked donuts might just be differently shaped cupcakes, but i get so much satisfaction out of popping these little guys out of the pans and seeing the cloudy light get swallowed up through their holes. and how do you make a good cake donut better? top it with good buttercream, of course. if you and i have ever talked buttercream (or if you've read the butter section in molly on the range), you know that i'm an advocate for using the best butter available for it since it's basically just butter and sugar. you *want* the good buttery flavor, and for this i turn to the butter from my new cow friends, kerrygold. it's grass-fed and it's what i use for all of my buttercreams.

so go forth into this thanksgiving week like the pumpkin champion that you are and get donut-ing!

pumpkin donuts with spiced buttercream

makes 18-20 large donuts

ingredients

1 3/4 c flour

1 1/2 c sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

pinch cardamom

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c oil

1/3 cup water

1 c pumpkin puree

for the buttercream:

1 c kerrygold unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 c powdered sugar

2 tb milk

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch each of nutmeg, cloves, ginger

sprinkles, optional

clues

preheat oven to 375ºf. grease a donut pan and set aside.

in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and cardamom. in a separate bowl, beat together eggs, vanilla, oil, water, and pumpkin. whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until batter is combined.

using a pastry bag, pipe batter into donut pan, filling the cavities halfway. bake donuts until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, begin checking for doneness at 12 minutes. remove from oven and let cool slightly. turn out onto a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.

note: if you're making these in advance, transfer cooled donuts to a gallon ziploc bag (or wrap a pan of them in plastic wrap) and freeze for up to two weeks. defrost at room temperature for a couple of hours before frosting.

make the buttercream

beat together frosting ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth.

add frosting to piping bag. pipe onto cooled donuts and decorate with sprinkles as desired.

enjoy!

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-yeh!