Dinner in Paris on the Seine.....five courses, breathtaking views of the city and its architecture, great food and wine, and the best company.

When can I go back?

Fresh-baked scones

My kids love scones for breakfast, and I've figured out a good way to do them, even on school days. My favorite scone recipe is in the excellent book "Baking with Julia" from the PBS series. They are mixed in a food processor. So here's what you do--mix all the dry ingredients and pulse in the butter until it resembles coarse meal. You'll have bigger and small pieces of butter. DO NOT ADD THE LIQUID!

Now divide this into 2 portions (or more if you want even smaller batches). The easiest way to do this is with a scale. I found that the recipe makes 28 ounces before liquid is added, so I simply put 14 ounces of ingredients into two small, lidded batter bowls and refrigerated. I made the first batch the first day and the second batch this morning, but it would easily keep for essentially as long as butter will keep, as that is the only perishable ingredient in the mix at this point.

In the morning, add the appropriate amount of liquid and mix with a fork until just combined and coming together in a scraggly dough. Dump out onto a lightly floured surface (or if you have a pastry mat, flour is probably unnecessary). Shape into a disk and with a bench knife, cut into 6-8 wedges. Brush lightly with cream or half and half, sprinkle with coarse sugar, and bake in a 425 oven for about 10 minutes, preferably on a baking stone. The full recipe normally makes 16 scones (2 disks of dough, cut into 8 wedges each). I found that I could make really nice, smaller scones by still making two disks of dough and cutting each into 6 wedges. So for the entire recipe you'll get 24 scones instead of 16.

It takes longer for the oven to preheat than it does to put these scones together!

Having a Pampered Chef party tomorrow....

Well, I'm having a Pampered Chef party tomorrow at my home--a "mystery host" party where I'll do all the work but give the host benefits away.

I'm making pork medallions with Madeira sauce and chicken medallions with Marsala sauce. I'll have these made up ahead of time, but want to demonstrate how to sauté a medallion and create a quick pan sauce, so I'll be doing two of each as a demo. I'll also have "smashed" potatoes with cheese and green onions, a FABULOUS salad I've recreated from a wonderful French restaurant here in San Antonio, a couple of appetizers and a trio of mini desserts.

My appetizers will be mini quiches and cucumber boats filled with crab salad, as well as cheese and crackers, olives, etc.

My dessert trio: chocolate ganache torte squares, spumoni cookies (the classic pistachio, cherry, and chocolate cookies) and macadamia-coconut blondies.

For drinks I'll have red and white wine, punch, and coffee.

I thought I'd also demonstrate a couple of fun napkin folds. Everyone will leave with hopefully a full stomach and a booklet of all the recipes I prepared.