Wednesday with a side of baking

Coon cats first

Firefly:

Rook:

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Wednesday. Cloudy and cool.

Hard to get out of bed this morning. Rook finally had to resort to sitting on my head and chewing my hair.

Read about a quarter of the WIP, breaking to make macaroni, some of which will become part of lunch; the rest of which will become part of lunches going forward. Also have to do some banking.

Came across a recipe for scallion-and-cheddar scones, which I do believe I’ll be making this afternoon; they actually look like Real Food, in addition to being tasty.

The Lawn Guy has been by and done his thing, being as it’s not Actually Raining at the moment.

The question How Are We/I Doing? has been asked. The answer “I’ve been better,” may be seen as flippant, and “Working,” may be seen as not being kind to myself.

A story. Steve and I many years ago attended the Universalist/Unitarian Church, where I was also a volunteer with the Evening Sandwich Program.

Now, Unitarians are kind of the Virgos of organized religions. There are many variations on the joke that starts out with a question like What Do The Religions Do When Their Church Catches on Fire, and it’s inevitably the punchline that the Unitarians call the fire department.

At our particular church, there was a tradition when those in the congregation who had experienced a Good Thing in their lives during the previous week, were asked to stand up and share this with those gathered. One Sunday, Steve stood up and talked about some writing triumph that I no longer recall, and got A Look from the pulpit.

At coffee, after, the minister came up to him and said, “The Good Thing is supposed to be personal, you know. About your life. Not business.”

To which Steve famously said, “But writing is my life.”

All this to say that when I say I’m going to work, it doesn’t mean that I’m being mean to myself or exceptional in my dedication to my job. I’m writing. It’s what I do. Worry when I don’t do what I do.

. . . and that’s the bell for the pasta.

How’s everybody getting by today?
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There was a call for the scone recipe, which is rendered below:

Scallion Cheddar Scones
This is supposed to make 12 scones. I made 16, because I have a scone pan and it has 16 spaces.

From the King Arthur All-Purpose Baking Companion

2 cups (240g) unbleached all-purpose flour OR (224g) unbleached pastry flour (I used white whole wheat, because that’s what I had)

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs baking powder

6 TBS unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

2 large eggs, beaten

1/3 cup (77g) cream or sour cream (I used sour cream)

1 TBS Dijon mustard

1 cup (112g) grated sharp cheddar cheese

3-5 (56g) scallions, chopped (I used shallots because no scallions)

Preheat oven to 375F. Sift together flour, salt, sugar, baking powder. Rub in butter with fingers.

Mix together eggs, mustard, cream. Add to dry ingredients. Stir in grated cheese and scallions. Mix until just combined.

Liberally flour the counter and your hands. Pat the dough into a 6×9 in rectangle about 1 inch thick. Cut the rectangle into 6 smaller rectangles, and cut each smaller rectangle into two triangles to form 12 triangular scones. Place on well-greased baking sheet.

OR 1: Squish even amounts of dough into each space in a dedicated scone pan

OR 2: Make 12 even amounts of dough into balls, put on well-greased baking sheet.

BAKE for 20 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Mine just came out of the oven:

. . .I have conducted a Quality Control Taste Analysis.  These?  are good.