Scones & A New Pinny!

Happy August!

I am making/baking/cooking something new each week. This has been going on for a while now with mixed results. Crock pot cooking? Not so much. New shelves in the kitchen? Oh yeah! Lemon drizzle cake, henceforth known as lemon explosion cake, necessitated oven cleaning. Silver flower ring with bezel set carnelian. Supa Kewl! So much to learn! Life is beautiful.

Today, whilst simultaneously drinking molasses-thick french pressed coffee and cream, lolling around in freshly washed white sheets, reading Barbara Pym, and watching Martha I decided to take on the English scones Martha's friend in Ireland makes. Kind of strange that an Irish baker makes English scones no? I am sorry I do not know the friend's name. She runs a cooking school. I'm sure Martha has covered that someplace in her Omnimedia empire. You should look it up and then go there. They have real Irish butter. You know how you get about real Irish butter.


I've never made scones, but I do love them. My beautiful Mother always has a strawberry scone (and Tillamook ice cream from the Dairywomen's stall) at the State Fair. So, to some people scones may mean drizzly days and cozy fireside teas, but to me scones scream, "STATE FAIR! COWS! BABY PIGLETS! HORSE SHOWS! QUILTS! THE STATES BEST GREEN BEANS! TRACTORS! COWBOYS AND COWGIRLS! RIDES! THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY of OREGON BOOTH!" (Oh! I am pissed at Senator Wyden. I am one pissed off liberal) Whoa. I am screaming....apologies. I love the state fair.

Having just survived the 2009 summer of scorching heatwave - endless days of 90+ temperatures with 3 or 4 100+ degree days thrown in to test our mettle- I am relishing the mid-80s. Seems almost frosty. Time to put on my new pinny and commence with the baking.

For those of you playing along at home (Red Tara, a.k.a. Red Taffy, my loyal reader!) you can find the recipe here.

As I baked , I was listening to my Vienna Teng Pandora radio station. Perfect. I have to thank the delightful Anna Maria Horner for writing about Pandora on her blog. I am the last person on the innertubes to know about it. It is a miracle! I have stations for every mood, every activity. Who knew technology could be so fabulous?

The recipe was perfectly straight forward. I should have channeled my inner Pioneer Woman and photographed the process. Alas, my eight year old digital camera makes photography a challenge best left out of the baking process. The cutting in of the butter with my pastry cutter was so satisfying. I think I may have used just a bit too much liquid as I had to add flour at the end to make the dough less sticky. I used an egg wash and turbinado sugar sprinkled on top and voila!

There were scones...perfectly sconey scones just begging for strawberries and devon cream! Oh you can almost see my new pinny in the mirror there. Hmmm...It was a present from my Mama and it gives me super-baker spidey skills! For Realz!


As for making/doing/cooking/baking new things...dig those new white shelves! It's all good. The failures make the successes so sweet. Next time I am going to make Alicia's Cherry Clafoutis. I have some gorgeous Bings.

Tea Time!