Finding Our Autumn Stride

My last post, by the way, hit the mark for a lot of you and is one of my most-read posts thus far.  I thank you for your encouragement and comments - I came away feeling like it had been a meaningful experience for a lot of us and resonated some truth that we must have needed to hear.  I'm just the pencil.

That makes me happy - that I could share a story and some thoughts and have it impact others like it did me.

And, as a silly little nursey-wifey-mama blogger, it also terrifies me to pick up my fingers and write again.  My thoughts must often be mundane to you.

And yet I keep talking.

......Make her stop......

:)

However, you'll be relieved to know that I don't share nearly as many things with you as I think about sharing.  Like how I've been on some medication and I finished it yesterday and for the first time in two weeks my mouth doesn't taste like I've been sucking on a metal fence post, worst taste ever, that seems to have disappeared now that I've finished the medicine, praise God, and how I'm not totally convinced that I should have taken the medicine in the first place but it was a long shot at trying to make me feel better after I had been feeling sick for too long and, well, now, I feel better so will never know if it was the metal tasting medicine that made me feel better or time or I just 'got over it' or what but it's all good and I can sleep better at night and I'm so glad we had this little talk.


Anyway, this little garden of mine - she continues to be a bossy master.  I pulled all of the carrots yesterday - 40 pounds worth!  Oh my, if you read my post on Facebook, I have been offered a few options of what to do with those carrots, including the 'interesting' options of "carrot Frappuccino's", "chocolate dipped carrots" and "carrot lattes".  Oh dear.  Well, I bagged them all (11 large Ziploc bags) and I gave some away to some favorite people, and will give some more away to a few more favorite people and then I hope that my family can eat the rest over the winter.

Today I worked on the first batch of tomatoes - I only got a small amount from my own garden this year and they were either pleasantly ripe or disgustingly rotten today so I worked at a bit of salsa, etc.  Once I get into it, canning food is a good deal of fun for me. It's like riding a bike - you start washing the jars and packing them and getting the canner boiling and soon I feel like I'm carrying the torch for the work of my mother and my mother's mother and her mother's mother - providing food for my family, upholding my heritage. It's not that noble but I'm kinda pleased with myself even though there is this little voice that occasionally whispers "you know you can BUY salsa, right?"

Now I'm sitting here counting "pops", hoping everything has sealed.  No better sound!

Beauty.

Changing subjects now.

Sometimes you just need a little inspiration.  I read a LOT of cookbooks and recipes - both in book form and online.  But the other day, we were standing in line at St. Arbucks for the DRINK OF THE SEASON (Pumpkin Spice Lattes) and, being a tad snacky, helped myself to one of their food samples, a glazed scone (of some sort, see, I already forget.  Must have been the metallic tasting meds that I was on, fried my memory bank).  Anyway, that taste bite was an eye opener.  "Something isn't right with my scones".  I've always thought my biscuits and scones are pretty darn good.  I KNOW my biscuits are good because they are always a hit with me and the household.  But my scones - well, I think that most scones should be of the "drop" variety - a little rustic and loose.  However this Starbucks scone - smooth, rich, creamy texture, nicely rolled and cut.

So I spotted this recipe on Pinterest yesterday morning and whipped them up for breakfast.  Instead of babying the dough by under-kneading, I kneaded that dough (GENTLY of course) until it came together nicely and didn't have any raggedy edges then I rolled it until I was satisfied that it was just right and cut it into triangles and baked it up and it was the best batch of scones ever.  It wasn't tough or over-worked.  It.  Was. Perfect.

Glazed Cinnamon Scones

Scone Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 egg, separated
3 Tablespoons honey (different sweetener, hey?!!)
1/3 cup buttermilk (or 1/3 cup milk mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice)

Crumb Topping (can be adjusted to your liking):

1-2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze Ingredients (can be adjusted to your liking):

1 cup powdered sugar (you can make your own homemade unprocessed powered sugar)
1-3 teaspoons milk (enough to make a glaze)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.  Separate the egg white and yolk. Set the egg white aside. 

In a separate bowl, mix egg yolk, honey and buttermilk (or milk/lemon juice mixture). Add to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Form dough into a ball on a floured surface. Roll or pat out to half an inch in thickness and eight inches in diameter. Cut into eight equally-sized pieces.  Transfer to a greased baking sheet. Whisk the egg white until froth forms and brush over the tops of scones (I used about half of the egg white).  Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over egg-white-topped scones.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Mix together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until glaze forms. Drizzle over scones after they bake.




I think Starbucks will be hiring me soon as their baker.  Just sayin'.