Hurricane Sandy = Baking

I don't know what it is about storms, but they make me bake. During Snowmageddon I baked cookies pretty much non-stop. To the point that my husband and I walked through 2 feet of snow in order to get more butter. This time, it's been trying out two recipes included in a new mystery series I've fallen in love with  by Bailey Cates (she has an awesome blog written by the main character of the series here). The first book is called Brownies and Broomsticks  and is definitely loads of fun! I suggest you check them out if you like the cozy mystery genre! Anyway! Since this series is the Magical Bakery mysteries, at the end of Brownies and Broomsticks Ms. Cates includes two recipes : Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies and Chedder-Sage Scones. During this, the first day of true Hurricane Sandy weather here in VA, I've made both recipes. LOVE THEM.

Brownies after cooking. 

 First up was the Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies. The picture to the left is of the batter prior to baking, and of course the novel the recipe comes from! This was my first time making brownies from 100% scratch and IT WAS SO EASY! Usually I'll just buy the packages because I thought it was way easier than making them from scratch. Nope, not true at all. These are SUPER easy and SUPER delicious. These are, by far, my favorite brownie recipe I've ever had. You can bet on seeing these in the future if anyone asks Superman and I to bring dessert to a get-together.

Now, next up, the Cheddar-Sage Scones. Again, my first time making scones! Lots of firsts today! These are also super easy! I never realized that making scones takes pretty much no time at all! Ok, I don't know if that applies to all scones, but definitely does to these. What took the longest (other than the actual baking of the scones) was actually chilling the butter. But they are delicious! Yay!

Now, just for fun, since the recipe comes from a novel that involves herbal magic I'm going to share folklore about sage!  Sage is generally known as a cleansing herb, both if digested and burned. Native American tribes, and later on New Age religions (and possibly other older Pagan religions) use sticks made of dried sage as a type of incense to purify a room of negativity. The smell is wonderful, especially if you combine it with another type of herb or plant, like cedar or juniper.  In addition to burning dried sage for purification, sage is believed to promote longevity and is an important part of diets that promote healing. There is an older saying : Eat sage in May and live for aye [ever].
Folklore surrounding the gardening of sage includes the idea that planting sage yourself in your own garden is bad luck, a stranger  should be found to do the work for you. I personally think a friend should be used, because there is at least a known, positive, connection there. The other tidbit of folklore surrounding the gardening of sage is that a full bed of sage brings ill luck, so one should always make sure that the plot, bed, or pot is shared with another plant.

So there you have it! Where I got two recipes that I tried today and love and some fun folklore about sage!

Enjoy!

~Elphie ~)O(~