Scones

I have found it!!! I have been looking for a really good pumpkin scone recipe for a long time. I finally found one that was great. With the tweaks I made, it's PERFECT. I like my scones moist, not to sweet, and just spicy enough. These are they!!!

Scones are a small Scottish quick bread, popular world wide. Basically it is just a biscuit, in fact in Canada and the US. it is called biscuit and scone interchangeably.  The first mention of the word scone, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is 1513. The word itself may derive for the Middle Dutch- Schoonbrood or fine white bread. It may also be from schoon- pure and clean. Check out wikipedia for more interesting information if you're interested.

 

 Moist Pumpkin Scones

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs white sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves and ginger
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins  (optional)

6 Tbs cold butter, cut into cubes
3 Tbs milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg

I made mine in the food processor. Sift all dry ingredients into food processor. Add cubed butter and mix until it looks like bread crumbs. Add wet ingredients and cranberries and mix into a dough. Pour out onto a lightly floured cutting board  and knead a bit to make sure the cranberries are mixed in fairly evenly. Shape into a rectangle approx 12" by 4". Cut into triangles by cutting first into thirds and then cutting each square into triangles. corner to corner make a criss cross. I ended up just cutting mine into smaller rectangles. Bake at 425 degrees for 14 to 16 minutes. Mine took 14 on a parchment line cookie sheet. Make the icing.

Spiced Glaze

1 cup plus 3 Tbs powder sugar
2 Tbs milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
a pinch of ginger, ground cloves, salt

Sift all dry ingredients together and throw away the too big bits that won't sift. Add the milk and whisk.
Put as little or as much as you want on your cooling scones.

Brew yourself a mug of steaming coffee, or tea. Put a log on the fire, grab your book or stitching, put up your feet and enjoy!!!! Next time I'm going to add walnuts. SOooooooooo good. Let me know if you make them and what you think.

Blessings Sue

One Busy, Busy Week

Time flies when your busy as heck huh??? But what fun stuff I have to tell you about. First some not so pleasant stuff.
I haven't told to many people about this so the news is.. I was in a car accident on June 13th, the last day of school. A lady backed into me while I was driving Allison home from school. My car was pretty smashed up but Allison and I were fine ......... My car is now fixed by a very reputable company and back home. I was given a very nice rental car to drive the entire time. A 2007 Silver Mustang convertible, which I was VERY happy with. I did have some fun driving that thing around. You may have noticed, however that I haven't been showing you very much spinning and knitting lately and that is because..... My left shoulder was hurt during the accident. I thought it was going to get better but it's not, I have contacted the insurance company and they are going to cover all doctor stuff so I have to go get it checked. The problem is my hands are going numb. I can only knit a few rows and then my hands are asleep. BUMMER!! I'm afraid spinning is really hurtful sooooo on to better subjects...............
I still am making progress on my Mystery Stole 3. Slow as steady like a turtle. I'm finished with clue 3 and clue 5 comes out this next Friday. I have another 7 or 8 inches since the last photo. The thing about lace is that it just looks rather blobby until your finished and you block it. thats when it really shows its beauty. This is a pretty stole. I'm enjoying it. If you look really close you can see a brownish /green yarn going horizontally through the piece. This is called a "lifeline" It is just that. I used to think that they were just for wimps until I have had to rip out many rows, with many tears. Now I know that they are for good reason. Ripping out lace is especially difficult with the many stitch combinations etc.

I also found my sock hiding in the mint. See it back there... This is the sock yarn I dyed, and spun using the fractal stripe experiment. I'm excited to see what happens as the colors unfold, so to speak. I finally found some 5' dpn's locally, but I'll post about that later.

Let's see... Oh yes Lily graduated from puppy obedience school. Here she is with one of her fellow class mates, Zorie. Shes the Black Lab/Rott. on the bottom. This is during the break. Which with the puppies is pretty much all the time. We had a really great time at this class. We met some other really nice people who love their dogs as much as we do. And did I mention that Lily made some life long friends. We are going back for the second session. It makes for a great family night.

Ok now for the Saturday BBQ... This is a shot of our "before dinner, get the taste buds ready, cause the nose has been smellin the 'Q' for quite awhile now" appetizers. We had a wonder, relaxed, Saturday afternoon. It's been HOT here this week and decided to start cooling down just in time for Daddy's RDO. And true to form Daddy out-did himself again and made some of the best ribs.

No word needed... Just a YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM... will do!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the Broccoli Coleslaw that I make to go along with Ribs. Tookys favorite. The picture seems a little queasy but if you like coleslaw this is definitely worth a try. Unfortunately I'm a "thrower" when I cook so I'll try to give you the amounts as best I can.

Sue's Broccoli Coleslaw

3 or 4 soft ball size heads broccoli (chopped)

3 green onions (chopped)

4 or 5 pieces of bacon (fried crisp, and crumbled)

1/2 cup dried cranberries ( raisins are ok but cranberries are best)

1/2 to 3/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese (grated)

Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise (NOT salad dressing)

1/8 cup sugar

1 TBS white vinegar

Whisk together all sauce ingredients and set aside. In a larger bowl, Chop and mix all ingredients. Combine and refrigerate at least an hour. Enjoy and God Bless. Any problems let me know.

Left overs of this salad are amazing but good luck with that. You may want to take a little bit out and hide it behind something in the fridge for the next day just to see what I mean.

I want to leave you with some the thoughts on perseverance. Or maybe sticking to your guns. or maybe just sticking up for your self or what you believe in or???????? You see this chicken, peacefully pecking the grass. Well she is the last of our little family of hens. We have had chickens for many, many years, since the girls were little. They have come in as chicks and well, honestly gone out as.. KFC for the coyotes that live around our neighborhood. (When children are little and moms are busy, putting the chickens "away"doesn't always mean the same thing to everyone)

This chicken is by far the most tenacious little thing I have ever seen. She has lived through all her coop mates demise and still comes off with grace and dignity. She came out unscathed in a viscous attack that left our oldest wiener dog (15) almost dead and bite marks on the other three ( we were on vacation). We didn't have Lily then.

She will have none of the 4 pestering wiener dogs that share her yard and does drink from their water bowl FIRST and even eats from their bowl while they stand BACK and watch. She rules the roost. I like her. I like to watch her peck around the yard. She seems not to give a darn what comes up, she just takes care of it at the time and keeps on pecking. She doesn't seem to hold a grudge, just slow and steady, peck... peck... peck. Then when she done she goes and finds a nice sunny spot and lays down. Hmmmmm either I need to socialize more or theres something to be learned here. Whatdaya think.

I have alot more to tell you. I found some cool places in San Diego to share with you but I gotta go now before my rear end adheres to this chair.

More sooner then later I hope, as I did figure out how to add links.... And as usual my prayers for you are Many blessings, Sue