Downtown DC lunch...

You may have noticed we missed a posting yesterday... Jeff and I spent the day walking around and shopping in the downtown DC area in an effort to do something different for my birthday. While we didn't have time to go in, we did by accident come across the Cake Love shop and Love Cafe right across the street that is run by Warren Brown who hosts Sugar Rush on FoodTV. Now that we know where it is, we'll have to stop by next time and check it out!

We thought it would be fun to try one of the local non-chain restaurants downtown for lunch and found a little spot called 2 Amys. We got there around 1:30 and had to wait about 30 minutes to get a seat... but boy was it worth it for this gourmet pizza!

Jeff and I both ordered the same thing from the D.O.C menu - the margherita which was simply dressed with tomato puree, Mozzarella di buffala and fresh basil leaves on an excellent wood-fired crispy thin crust. I think there was suppose to be a drizzle of olive oil, but I didn't notice until our pizza was pretty much gone. Despite how busy this place was, the pizza was delivered within maybe 10 minutes of us ordering. We didn't want to take a bunch of pictures, but here's the single snap we took before the pizza quickly vanished from our plates. They are located at 3715 Macomb St. NW - if you're in the area, I would definitely give this place a try if you have not already!

Since nothing was tempting me from the freezer this morning, I thought I would throw together something for a mid-morning snack today. We haven't made scones in awhile and Jeff said anything along that line sounded good - so I made these Whole Wheat Orange Scones.

I started out by draining mandarin oranges and then patting them dry with paper towels to remove some of the excess moisture. The halved sections are tossed into a dry mixture consisting of white whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, just a few tablespoons of sugar and baking powder along with cold chunky pieces of butter that was cut in with a pastry blender. To reinforce the orange flavor, fresh grated orange zest is added to half and half that will moisten the dry ingredients and give the scones a rich background. You could use cream to heighten the flavor or use milk to make them a little lighter if you want. A light scattering of vanilla sugar before baking adds a crunch and a mild sweet vanilla flavor to them. These had a pleasant orange flavor with the segments adding little juicy bursts. I feared they might be overly wet from the oranges, but they were just right for us - not so dry that you have to add a spread or butter to fully enjoy them, yet not too moist that they fall apart.

Recipes
Whole Wheat Orange Scones