A Scone story- When mistakes make happy new discoveries.

Last night I made mini cream scones.This was the first time I’ve made scones in my stand mixer was amazed by what quick work it made of scone making. Before scones took forever to mix by hand with knives or a pastry cutter that they were slightly labor intensive, but still worth it. I’m just thankful it’s easier now. I can simply whip up a batch! (If you are mixing by hand, I’ve found the best way to go is to actually use your hands by squeezing the meal through your fingers to make the course meal.)

I’ve also made a mistake by not really following the recipe last night. I’ve made scones so many times that I figured I didn’t really need to read directions, and instead ended up with something kind of new.  A traditional scone requires you to chop the butter into small bits, and blend the chilled butter in with the flour to make a course meal first, and then add the milk or cream to your scone. I made a happy mistake last night by being lazy and not really chopping the butter up as fine, and adding the half and half in too soon while the butter wasn’t exactly incorporated into a course meal. It created scones that had layers akin to “Grand’s Biscuits” only with the flavor and crumb of a scone.  Because we were playing cards I decided it was best to do well of jam in the middle of each scone instead of serving jam at the table. Less mess with all the same flavor. They were gone by the evening end and left me wanting more today. So more I made.

Here is the recipe below:

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter (3 tablespoons cut into pea size pieces and 3 tablespoons cut larger.)
1 cup half and half
Jam- either home canned for store bought works, but I find light sugar works best.

Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add in chilled butter and mix a few times until about half of it is a course meal. Add in half and half and mix until just combined. Large chunks of butter will remain.

Turn out onto a floured board and form into four equal round balls. Cut through the center of each ball to divide into 4ths to make mini scones. Either keep triangle shape, or form into rounds and place on ungreased baking sheet.

In each scone make a small well with your index finger and thumb. Spoon in a dollop of jam into each scone. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

 Makes 16 mini scones.

Guess what I did this weekend? It involved me, findout what it takes to make a good mother, and 4 bottles of white wine.

Guess what I did this weekend? It involved me, finding out what it takes to makes a good mother, and 4 bottles of white wine.

 If you guessed starting to make white wine vinegar then you are right! I started down this rabbit hole on Saturday when I decided that I wanted to make raspberry sage vinegar for salad dressing. After looking at several recipes for raspberry vinegar they all required that a person make their salad dressing with white wine vinegar. Funny thing, I’ve never noticed white wine vinegar! I know I’ve had rice vinegar, white distilled vinegar, and white balsamic vinegar but never white wine vinegar.  I checked Costco and Cash & Carry and no one had white vinegar in the amounts that I needed make my salad dressing dreams come true. Then it hit me! I can make my own vinegar! So off I went, first looking for the “mother” but it seems that once a person gets a mother they can keep storing and feeding it, and they don’t need to buy more mothers, so no one in the local area sells vinegar mothers any longer.

I think it must have been amusing to the brew guy to watch the light turn on in my head and say “hey what stops me from using apple cider vinegar with the yeast already in the bottle?” he said to me “See that is why we don’t sell the mothers any longer.” So there I was, willing to add a little bit of apple cider vinegar to my white wine. So off to buy some cheap wine, good old Charles Shaw! But Also I decided to add some cheap Riesling as well to make it lighter fruitier white wine vinegar. It doesn’t matter if the wine costs a lot, it’s more about using what I think will taste decent.  

I started my vinegar with one jar of apple cider vinegar with the mother in the bottom of the jar, two bottles of cheap Chardonnay, and two cheap bottles of Riesling. I poured everything in a glass jar and now we are playing the waiting game. In about 8-12 weeks I’ll have white wine vinegar ready to use in all kinds of recipes. The best part is that right about then we’ll be coming into apple season, and I’ll be able to use my mother to make apple cider vinegar.  It’s also important to cover the crock to protect them from light.

                                                         The couldy color is from the "mother"

The only problem is that I have raspberries that are ready now and sitting in my fridge! I got so excited about the vinegar that I totally forgot about the raspberries. What to do with those before the vinegar is ready? I decided to try a few different things with these berries. The first one is allowing the berries to sit in a combination of white vinegar and water with herbs, the second one is even less vinegar,  and the third jar are raspberries that are being fermented the same way my pickles are fermented. 1 Tsp Whey and a bit of salt.  I’ve added herbs (you are looking at sage, tarragon, and an greek oregino) and garlic to these jars to add flavor. When I tasted the berries today it was amazing the flavor contrast between the jars. The vinegar really zaps the flavor out of the berries and compeats with it. It's the food version of someone screaming really loud when you are trying to listen to music.

Below is a phot of my kitchen (yes it's world's ugliest) and my strange fermented jars that my little girl is growing up thinking is normal and that everyone keeps in their kitchen.  The only problem is that jar is my pickle crock and pickle season is going to be very soon. So it looks like transfering a giant crock of cheap wine is going to be on my to do list today.

A Murder in The Kitchen- Based on a True Story

In a hot kitchen in the middle of summer a woman stood at the counter. She had been in the kitchen for hours, diligently working while her husband was out. She was exhausted, and sweat beaded on her forehead as she thought about what she was going to do. She had been angry for a long time, a quiet anger that no one knew was there, but deep in the pit of her stomach she knew that she could no longer endure anymore abuse.  After years of hoping it was going to somehow get better on its own, she had started to plot her course to take matters into her own hand. This wasn’t a choice she took lightly, and it certainly wasn’t going to make her life any easier but she knew it was something that had to be done and today was the day she was going to do it!

She could hear her husband put his key into the door, that familiar click of the deadbolt retracting. The knob turned and the door was shut gently behind him. She heard the clank of the keys fall onto the entry way table and his shoes drop to the floor as he moved through.   She could tell by the way he stepped that he was in a good mood, as he came towards the kitchen. He obviously didn’t know what was waiting for him just around the corner. She smiled with satisfaction knowing he was in for a surprise. One more step and he would be there.  And then he was there! With a look of shock and disbelief he stood frozen in his steps.

She pulled the hammer back and the kitchen echoed BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!  Deep red splattered across the kitchen counter, spraying in little droplets across her face and apron.  She could hear small drips as they ran down the cutting board and onto the floor. She picked up a bit of deep red flesh and examined it, satisfied with her work, and again she pulled the hammer back BAM! BAM! BAM! She inspected her hands as red streamed down her fingers. She enjoyed the sticky feeling on her hands, the deep inner parts of something now exposed. She smiled knowing that it was done! She has finally stood up to an evil that had distressed her for far too long and breathed a sigh of relief.  It wasn’t as hard as she thought it was going to be.  

She began to clean up the mess as she heard a voice calling from behind her.

 “Wow!” He exclaimed. “That is a lot of cherries honey! Let me help you clean up!”

 She took her hand off the cherry pitter and moved away as he started to dismantle it. It was time to start canning the sweet juicy fruit that started her journey away from the modern food chain.

Oh…You thought there was going to be a murder didn’t you?  In your mind you imagined a woman, taken for granted as she suffered through an abusive and destructive relationship ready to put an end to her abuser. But what you imagined was right! She is a woman who was in a destructive relationship, a destructive relationship with her food supply. A relationship where day after day she consumed food from distant toxic farms and factories, filled with science more than food. And although consumers have made it clear they would prefer their food to just be food, it has not phased the food science industry from inventing, and concealing this frankenfood in our food supply. And in a way there is a murder. In every person who removes even part of their families food out of the modern food supply chain a little bit of this system of abuse is put to death.  

I am happy to be part of this death, contributing every time I am able to pick up real food from local farms, and placing money and jobs back into my local economy. Every time I put food up on my shelves in glistening glass jars of fresh fruit and pickled vegetables my heart is warm with the knowledge of exactly what my daughter is eating. A movement of people that is no more political than it was 100 years ago when our grandparents and great grandparents did it. So today I write with cherry stained hands as I move forward in hopes that someday the memories of store bought jam, and vegetables swimming around in BPA liners will be a distant memory for our family.  So tonight I’m not just making a dish for the night, or an interesting recipe I found, but something much more important. Tonight I’m making food for my family, pure real food that I will store away for the entire year and keep my family fed on fresh real food far after the season has come and gone.

This is 40lbs of cherries canned