Scones

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I make scones almost every day. Scones create a lot of discussion in the food world, from the way the word is pronounced or what shape they take or even what constitutes a scone.

Strawberry

To us Americans the easiest way to describe a scone is a baking powder biscuit with a little bit of sugar in it. Most people add some kind of fruit. When we lived in England I had scones for the first time at cute little cafe in Mildenhall. They were plain scones served with strawberry jam and whipped cream. I was in heaven!! Now traditionally they use clotted cream, but as a yank, I loved having the thick whip cream.

Lavender

I tried making scones a few times but they were never quite right until I found a recipe in a kids magazine that was the perfect recipe.  I've been making them ever since! I put all different kinds of things in this recipe. In the last month I've made chocolate chip scones, eggnog scones, cranberry orange scones, salted caramel scones, maple nut scones, candied ginger scones, cinnamon scones, chai scones, strawberry scones, apricot walnut scones, apple cinnamon scones, raspberry chocolate scones, lavender scones...well, you get the idea. Basically you can put just about anything in a scone. We've even done bacon and cheddar cheese scones. The key to remember is that if you use some very moist you need to adjust your liquid mixture.

Double Chocolate

Here is my basic recipe:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3 T sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Mix thoroughly and add 4-6 oz of cold, diced butter. Use a pastry blender or fork to work it in the dry ingredients. Add 4-6 tablespoons half and half. Shape into your desired shape and bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Depending on what flavors I use, if I think the scones may be a bit dry sometimes I add a quick powder sugar glaze on top. If I use fresh fruit that may be a bit wet I might sprinkle powder sugar or cinnamon sugar.

Birthday Cake

If you make scones and they don't turn out the first time, don't give up. Scones are kind of like pie crust, the more you make it the more familiar you are with how the dough should feel, how they should look while they bake, etc. If you make this recipe send me an email or post on here and let me know how they turned out. I would love to hear!

Happy Scone Making!

Makers not Consumers

It's funny odd, coincidental that in the last couple of weeks I keep seeing and hearing things about people being makers and not consumers, meaning that we need to be contributing to society more than we take out. But I also think that this means we should be making more of our own stuff and not just buying things out of convenience. Why? Well for one reason I think we need to know how to make things because someday we might not be able to buy it. Or maybe you could make things just for a sense of self-satisfaction that you're not dependent on others for everything that you have. And sometimes it's just nice to know that you can do something that your grandparents did!

I was trying to think what this might look like in my own life. Obviously for people who know me, baking might be the answer. I bake every single day. From muffins, scones and breads to pies and pizzas depending on the day. But..what about the not so obvious things?  For each of us it will vary because we have different needs.

At my house things that can be made instead of bought could be garden produce canned and frozen for future use. It could mean cars repaired instead of replaced. Opening windows in the summer instead of air conditioning. Oh, and I love drying clothes on the line, especially towels!

So, what could you do to become a maker and not a consumer? Or what do you do to contribute to society rather than take from it?

What's Up with Washi Tape?

I'm getting my stuff ready for a scrapbook weekend. I realized the last time I scrapped was the summer of 2017?!?!  Kind of sad when I used to get together once a month with friends and scrap the evening away. 

Things have changed a lot since I first started scrapbooking. It used to be you had a good pair of scissors, some cardstock and a few packages of stickers and you were good to go. Now the girls that go scrapbooking carry several loads of stuff in, as well as computers, dvd players and anything else they need to pass the time. I'm still a pretty basic scrapper. As I was looking online at scrapbook supplies I keep seeing washi tape. It's gorgeous! It comes in all sorts of designs and colors! Look at the examples below:

Glitter and Gold!

Geometrics!

CACTUS! 

Ooh, VanGogh!

 See? Lots of pretty designs and patterns! But I still have no idea what people use it for. Borders? Maybe. I see that people are using it in their planners too. I don't know why though. Guess I'm a plain jane planner kind of person too.

So, if you use washi tape, tell me what you do with it.

Taking the Slow Lane

It's been almost 2 years since I've posted anything. Let me tell you, I am loving my little business downtown but it's definitely taken some time to adjust to working full time.

Slow Lane Coffee

A peek at the the counter

This has become my home away from home. For awhile I was spending almost as much time here as I was at home, but I think I'm finally figuring out a healthy balance.

We are a small town coffee shop and I bake fresh muffins and scones and miscellaneous things every weekday. I bake bread as often as I can. We serve specialty coffees and blended drinks as well as serving light lunches. And yes, we even serve plain brewed coffee. It amazes me how many people come in and ask if we have plain ol' coffee! LOL

If you would like to check out our Facebook page, you can find it here.

I'm hoping to get back to blogging more regularly. Time will tell just how much spare time I can find. Until then, Happy January!

Rethinking a problem

In January I wrote a post about giving up a dream that I had. I was fully prepared to give it up but a dear friend of mine suggested that maybe I needed to take another look at the problem and see if it could be solved from a different direction. And that got me to thinking. What if I could approach it from a different direction? Could we make it work?

All of a sudden the dream was back in full force, I just couldn't let it go. I talked to my husband and told him that I wanted to go for it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But if I don't try I will never know. My husband was all for it, so we are working full steam ahead.

I currently have a purchase agreement on a business here in our hometown and we hope to close next month. Life has taken a big change of direction and my days are full of forms that need filled out, cost projections, product testing and consulting with other business people. Aside from filling out all of the government forms I am enjoying every minute of it. I hope to tell you more about it later! Until then, I am back to work. Have a great day!

A Little Piece of our Lives

 I saw this the other day and it made me chuckle. Here in our little town we have an excellent band teacher. He teaches band at two schools, the middle and high school so they keep him busy going back and forth. He still manages to help kids to love band and they do very well when they compete with other schools.

I was very happy this fall when it was decided that my youngest son would be able to join band because if you don't know this kid has a fascination with marching bands. He loves a good marching band the way I love a good steak dinner. We have watched hundreds of hours of marching bands on YouTube since he was just a little tyke. So the fact that he got to be in band made him a very happy boy. We chose the euphonium for one basic reason, we didn't know if he would have the capability to play and the school had one he could use for free. Yeah, I didn't know what a euphonium was either, I had to look it up.

Last night the middle school had their band concert and my boy got to play. Here is a poor picture of him (lighting was not great) playing his horn. He did so well my heart just about exploded! And then I bawled. Because here was my son, the boy that the dr's said would never develop and should be put in an institution to make life easier for us, sitting in the back row with his classmates playing his horn like every other "normal" kid! Yes, okay, he will never be like the other kids, and really we're okay with that because he is a very special boy who loves babies and kittens and is one of the most honest people you will ever meet.

After the concert we got to watch videos of the concert that other parents had posted on Facebook. I told Alex that I was very proud of him because he played every song and paid attention. He looked at me and said, " I made a few mistakes Mom." I quickly reassured him that everyone made mistakes and that's okay.

At the beginning of the year I told Alex that if he stuck with band for the whole year and learned to play that I would buy him his own instrument. Honestly, I thought he would have gotten tired of it by now and be wanting to quit. But no, not him. He has been looking online at trombones. When I look at his history on his Kindle I see that he's been watching lots of videos on how to play the trombone. Who knows what the future will bring for this young man? I really can't even guess but for now we're just going to enjoy the journey. :)

Book Review

I picked up this book at the library a couple of weeks ago. I already know a little bit about Ben Sasse as he is our senator and has been in the news quite a bit as a conservative Republican who does not flinch when it's time to tell the President that he's wrong. Sasse is a strong conservative who is more about protecting our Republic rather than sticking to party lines so I thought I'd pick up his book and see what he had to say.

Before I start I should say that I don't care to read non-fiction. I actually have to force myself to read non- fiction for work so the fact that I read this at all is probably a compliment to the author. I do like most of what I know about Ben Sasse. He and his wife homeschool their children and as a former college president he obviously takes their education very seriously. Anyway, about the book...

The gist of the book is that our children are spoiled, pampered, self centered and are not prepared for adulthood. The author addresses how they got that way and he is not letting parents off the hook here. If our kids are that way it's because we have made them that way by giving them the best of everything without requiring effort on their part or simply going with the flow of society because it's easier. As a historian he is very thorough in explaining the roots of how our country was in the beginning and how we got to here, but the best part is he is that he also offers some real life solutions to try to get our children to become better adults and thus better citizens. You know what I mean, like working for what they have or learning to serve others and (gasp) even reading a book that isn't in the YA section of the library. He suggests that we teach our children to learn how to solve problems and to be more self reliant. 

Need vs Wants- this is a conversation every person should have with themselves and then with their children.

One thing that stuck with me is how quickly things have changed. He compared college kids today to his experiences 20 years earlier. As a parent raising two different generations I can really relate to this. The things that kids are dealing with now are totally different than what my older children had to deal with. Yes, some things are the same, but many are different.

He also touched on the fact that kids today for the most part are totally removed from the work part of their parent's lives. They don't see their parents working hard all day just to provide for what the family needs. My husband and I were both raised on ranches and we not only knew how hard our parents had to work we were right in there working with them. We understood how much work it took to earn that money so we understood why we didn't waste it on frivolous things. I see that many kids today have no idea about work.

I thought the book was a good read. I did get a little lost in the chapter where he talked about his European travels. I was looking forward to his suggested reading list. This is a list of books he would like his children to read by the time they are 18. Um, well, this is one tough list and I hope his kids are a lot more focused and smarter than me. I did agree with his suggestion that teens should read Shakespeare. When I was in high school we read three Shakespeare plays and I learned not only about how to read and dissect harder materials, I also learned a lot about life and History. I don't think they read Shakespeare in high school now, at least not around here.

One of my favorite parts of the book was at the very end where he wrote a speech that Teddy Roosevelt might have given to a high school graduating class were he alive today. I've always been a fan of Teddy so I enjoyed the speech and even found myself hearing it spoken in what I consider to be Teddy's voice in my head.

So what did I take away from the book? That I need to be more diligent in teaching my kids and grand-kids how to learn to solve problems, to encourage them to be more self reliant and to take opportunities to serve others. That making great adults also makes great citizens.

Note: This morning my 14 year old son asked me when I was going to get him a phone. I said you have a phone. (he has a phone called a Gizmo that can call 4 numbers and only the numbers we programmed in) He said, "No I mean when are you going to get me an I Phone or something like it?"

"Hmm", I said,"Why don't you ask the older kids when they got phones, and trust me you aren't going to like the answer."

By the way I never bought my older kids smartphones. The oldest was in the Navy when she bought her own phone and the younger two had a "dumb" phone when they were 17 and 15 that they had to share and they only used it when they left home since we lived 20 miles from town. Until that time, if they were going out I just loaned them my phone to use. (gasp)