“You can start a food revolution in your own home, all you need to do is cook something. From scratch. With fresh and raw ingredients—no packets, no cheating!
- If you know how to cook—pass on your skills and keep them alive for future generations. If your kids and their families don’t learn, their only option will be a diet of processed and fast food.
- If you don’t know how to cook—start now, it could change your life and improve your health prospects!
Pledge to do it once a week with your family or friends. God luck and have fun!”
Like I said in my last post on the topic, I know that in writing this I am most likely preaching to the choir. In the food blogging world most of us are already cooking at home from scratch. But I still think there is more that we can do, even in our own homes. Over the past year I have made more of an effort to get Squirrel involved in the kitchen. One of the things I have done is to try and have an ongoing dialogue with her about different aspects of our food—whether it be actual ingredients, tools, skills, etc. We talk about color, texture, taste, and smell. One of her favorite activities is tasting each ingredient that goes into a dish. A few days ago she helped me make the fruit scones that are in Jamie’s Food Revolution. I decided to make them using dried cranberries and dried apricots.
First she tasted the cranberries and apricots, then the orange juice that they were to be soaked in. Then she moved on to tasting the flour, the butter, etc. After she tasted each item, we’d talk about it. Her favorite part about making the scones was brushing the tops of the scones with milk before they went into the oven.
I decided to forgo rolling out the dough and cutting the scones out with a biscuit cutter, because Squirrel and I had recently made buttermilk biscuits. Instead, I made them more rustic looking by dividing the dough into 10 pieces and shaping them into rough balls of dough (Squirrel liked that part a lot too).
When the scones came out of the oven, we cut them in half and topped them with some homemade raspberry jam and a bit of whipped cream. They made for a wonderful treat–they were moist and buttery, with good tang from the dried fruit. (Giveaway details are after the recipe!)
Cranberry Apricot Scones
Adapted from Fruit Scones, p. 331, Jamie’s Food Revolution
Makes 10 scones
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dried apricots, cut into small pieces
orange juice, for soaking
4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs
1/3 cup milk, plus a little extra for brushing
pinch of salt
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the dried cranberries and apricots in a little bowl and pour orange juice over them until they are just covered.
2. While the fruit is soaking, cut the butter into the flour and the baking powder (this can be done by pulsing three ingredients in a food processor, or by hand in a bowl with a pastry blender), until the mixture starts to look like breadcrumbs (don’t over mix!). Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and milk together with a fork. Drain the soaking fruit and add it to the egg mixture along with a pinch of salt. Then pour this mixture into the well in the flour mixture, and stir until you have a soft, dry dough. Add a bit more milk of necessary if the dough is too dry and doesn’t come together.
3. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces, shape the pieces into slightly flattened balls, and the place them on a non-stick cookie sheet. Brush the top of each scone with a bit of milk. Bake the scones in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until they have risen and are a light golden brown. Take them out of the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool. To serve: slice them in half and top them with jam and whipped cream/clotted cream.
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Giveaway!
I want to help you get involved in the revolution! I am giving away a copy of Jamie’s Food Revolution (donated by the publishers), plus a little grab bag of goodies to help you out with some of the recipes. Mezzetta is throwing in a jar of pesto, a jar of artichoke hearts, and a jar of roasted red bell peppers.
Nudo (an awesome little adopt-an-olive tree company with groves in the Marche region of Italy) is throwing in a tin of extra virgin olive oil.
To enter the giveaway:
- Go and sign Jamie’s Food Petition, and then come back and tell me that you did (we’re on the honor system here)!
- If you have a blog and have posted about the petition (or do so before the end of the giveaway), come back and let me know in a separate comment (and include a link to your post) for a second entry!
I will keep the comments open until Thursday, April 15th, 10 PM PST, and announce the winner (using a random number generator) on Friday, April 16th. This giveaway is open to US addresses only. GOOD LUCK!!
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Signed it! Hoping people talking about food and kids will lead people to action!
SIGNED IT! Love the scones!
Okay I signed the petition and will let you know when I post about it. I was looking for a good scone recipe! Yummm! You are such a good mom in the kitchen!
I would LOVE to sign it, but I can’t in Canada… boo…
But I have been promoting it to everyone!! :)
Great giveaway!
Signed the petition. Thanks for the great blog!
I signed Jamie’s petition! Love his show! AND love that you made the scones. They look sooo good!
Signed the Food revolution petition!
My wife and I love Jamie’s Food Revolution! I signed the petition!
Signed the petition. :)
signed! i actually had signed it before you posted this :)
Signed it! Those scones look so delish…going to try them soon :)
signed it!!!
signed!
I twittered about it, and right now that’s my more active blog!
I actually signed the petition when you first posted the link/info.
I have to try these scones! My coworkers are going to thank you.
I’ve signed the petition and this scone recipe look easy to make for a beginner like me.
I signed it! i’ve actually been fighting with my mother about this for years, especially since I ( being thirty) have a 7 year old sister (my mom is AMAZING!) who always eats crap (Mostly my stepdad’s fault ^_~). So when I go home for visits, I make my sister help me make her lunch for the next day, and sometimes help out with breakfast. This way she knows what real food tastes like, since my mom is way way too tired sometimes.
Rachael, this is a fabulous giveaway. You have definitely lit a fire for me and I’m sure for many others through this giveaway. I’ve heard a lot about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, but only recently started really paying attention to the things he is doing. Your blog post has brought me even deeper into the issue and I thank you for that. Of course, I have signed the petition and a blog post will be on it’s way soon! THANK YOU!
Signed it! Believe it! (Try to)Live it!
I signed the petition and am excited to see how many signatures there are! It is time people started thinking about what they are feeding their families, and I love that he is making it easy and delicious. I’d love to win the prize but if I don’t, I’ll buy the book!
Okie Dokie, you pulled me in! Ha! I finally made time to sign Jamie’s petition. Thanks for the nudge. Great post. Glad Squirrel is cookin’ with her Mama!
Now it’s time for me to go work on a Jamie Revolution Post. ;-)
I have signed the petition!
I had the good fortune to have been passed on one of his recipes (via my mom). It was delicious, and easy, the two things that my busy student life (and small kitchen) requires. It would be great to have a copy of the book!
Just signed the petition!
So glad you posted about this. I’m loving the show and of course signed the petition the first night it was on. I also blogged about it here: http://www.formerchef.com/2010/04/02/five-friday-favorites/
I think anything we can do to get people talking about eating healthy is a good thing. And you’re right, it’s about more than school lunches, though as the wife of a teacher and a graduate of the second largest school district in the country AND the school lunch program, I can tell you we have a LONG way to go.
Those scones look fabulous!
I signed the petition. I’m so glad to see the Food Revolution coming to US shores.
I signed the petition. Great giveaway!
I signed it, and can’t wait to try the scone recipe!
Oops! Forgot I was supposed to leave a second comment if I blogged about it. See link in first comment. ;-)
Signed the petition! Those scones look delicious, btw.
I’m “now part of the American Food Revolution”! The scones look very chunky – must be so enjoyable nibbling hem :)
They look amazing! My husband loves blueberry scones so I’ll have to try these.
I really like Jamie’s show and just signed the petition. One of my biggest goals for raising my son is to teach him to cook. It’s such an important skill for all people to learn.
I signed the food petition. I believe in Jamie’s mission to change the way children across America eat.
I’ve signed the petition and the scone looks delicious =)
I signed it! My fiance and I have been cooking dinner together for about a year and a half. We started small – veggies with pasta, simple stir fries, but now we make more elaborate foods too – from raw, fresh ingredients. I totally agree with Jamie’s food revolution- growing up, my mom never cooked so every week we had about 1 pizza, a boxed mac and cheese, bagel bites, etc. I’m so glad I learned to cook and I love doing it. (though.. perhaps it feel a bit less like a revolution when we make mac and cheese from scratch… I think the boxed version has about one about a million fewer pounds of cheese and butter….)
I signed up for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. I love your recipes.
petition signed…
my son and i are watching his friday night show. good education for a third grader. (and his mother…)
I actually already signed a few days ago so I was very excited to see this giveaway come up on Prizey. Wish my state could get over 5000 signatures!
I signed it!
I signed, lovely scones, love the fact you involved Squirrel in the cooking too!
love these scones greats giveaway
I’m feeling lucky because I have already signed the petition so all I need do now is leave a comment here about those lucious looking scones and how much I enjoy your website! Then, the last step will be to thank you for the great prize(s) I’ll be winning!!!
Keepin’ my fingers crossed!
ok, all signed up to petition!
Signed the petition!
i signed the petition!
what a great giveaway! i love the show & signed the petition
i am so sad his show is only 6 episodes, it seems line from a couple months of filming they could have a dozen at least! i signed :)
i signed!!
It’s so sad that all the giveaways from good foodblogs I ever follow are always confined to the US and sometimes Canada only. Oh well, I signed up for Jamie’s Global Petition instead :-).
Love,
Jayne
If this would work for rural schools it would be a blessing and thanks for bringing this issue to another good way to make us all aware..Oh BTW I signed..
signed the petition
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