Strawberry Scones and Tea

I am sorry for being absent again, it seems friends and family are ill and dying at an alarming rate.
I know that is happens more often as we age but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with .
My love and prayers are with them all .

Today I had a rare home alone day so took advantage of it by walking around the house in my unmentionables and playing the guitar and singing as loud as I like.
I decided to make a nice treat to have with tea this afternoon.
I baked some strawberry scones.

I will leave the recipe just remember to toss your strawberries in some flour if they are thawed from frozen.
Mine were frozen from the summer when Gretchen and I picked strawberries together at Little's Berry Farm.
I thawed them slightly and chopped them and tossed them in flour as they were a bit moist.
The mixture is a bit sticky due to added moisture from frozen berries just flour knife before cutting.

                                                          Strawberry Scones                      Preheat oven: 400 F
In a large bowl add:

2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
combine these four ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
4 tablespoons butter
Cut butter into the flour mixture until like crumbs.
3 eggs
Beat 1 of them in small dish with a tablespoon of water and set aside (this is your egg wash for the top of scones).
In another bowl beat the remaining 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of almond extract.
 Stir eggs and almond  extract into dry ingredients.
Add 1/2 cup of  heavy cream (I used sour cream sometimes yoghurt adding it a spoonful at a time  until it holds together, don't over work dough they will be tough ) then add 1 cup of chopped strawberries.Turn dough onto floured board .
Roll out dough to 1" thick and flour knife and cut it into 8-12 scones.
 Place on a prepared baking sheet or use parchment paper.
Brush the scones with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar (I use Sugar In The Raw).
 Bake 15 minutes until golden brown
Then enjoy with a  lovely cup of tea!

Tea Time Favourites

Tea Time Favourites

                                                                    Laurie's Poundcake

3.5 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix together in bowl and set aside

In large bowl cream 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar gradually add 4 eggs 1 at a time beating well between additions.
Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla
Blend in dry ingredients alternating between dry and wet ingredients. Adding 1 cup milk  beginning and ending with dry ingredients .
Add any flavouring you like, sometimes I use lemon or orange rind and extracts and juices instead of milk.
In this particular cake I added dehydrated cherries and it was a hit!
Pour batter into 2 greased and floured loaf pans bake in 325 degree oven for an hour. Once nicely browned and cooked through set pans in freezer for 45 minutes in the pan right from oven, be sure to place on wire rack, then wrap cakes this makes them moist.
This winter it was so bitterly cold it only took 20 minutes to cool outside on the table on the back screened in porch.
I served this up with my favourite Ahmad Tea- English Afternoon Tea in my new tea mug.
I hope you enjoy this cake as much as my family does.

An Unexpected Pleasure

I got a message from a dear friend asking me if I was available to go to a friend of ours 70th birthday surprise dinner at a new restaurant in town called Jack's.

I accepted the invitation and will be going on Sunday afternoon.

I have been waiting all week to go shopping for a gift for her and today the weather was good enough that I ventured out to purchase a gift for my friend.

I had my heart set on a new china tea mug for her and I knew the local store that carries some of the nicest ones I have seen all done up pretty in gift boxes.

I drove over to the next town to purchase one and when I got there all the shelves were empty that use to hold all the beautiful tea mugs.

When I enquired about them the lady at the front counter explained that today they were getting ready to put out the Valentine's Day display and everything that had been out was now put away in storage until spring.

So with the shelves empty I left disappointed and having to scour the other stores in town.

Nothing was what I ended up coming home with so off to Campbellford in the morning in hopes of finding the perfect birthday gift for my dear friend.

Have you had your heart set on one thing and have to change mid stream?

Frost Quakes

I can honestly say that I hadn't heard of frost quakes at all until the last few years.
Have you heard of them?
Well the temperature drops and the moisture in the ground freezes and the ice cracks and then BOOM!
Water expands in the frozen soil and it put lots of stress on the it and will release the energy all at once causing the frost quake much like an earthquake releases energy and shifts the ground.

This is what we have been experiencing quite a bit this winter so far also the house makes loud cracks and booms like someone is trying to break in or the house is going to fall in or something big hitting the house.
It is cold enough the back room here has cracks in the plaster from it shifting from the cold.

We are quite use to cold winters but this one sure is starting out to be one of the coldest I have experienced.
Today is warming up it is -30C.
I will keep warm inside and hope that everyone else does too!

No Snow In Norway And Warm Temperatures...

Well yesterday I Skyped with my dear friend in Norway and one of the topics of conversation was of course the weather.
I couldn't believe when she was telling me it was raining and 5-10 C.
I let her know we have had a foot of snow and we are in a deep freeze.
 Today is even colder than  the  -39 with the windchill we had yesterday.
I am a summer baby and do love the summer but enjoy anytime of year we have the sun shining.
Weather like today when everyone is complaining how cold it is I find quite pleasant it is not a damp cold is the reason why , I guess.
What are the temperatures like where you live?

Deep Freeze!

Well I hope you live somewhere warm.
Today the temperature here is -39 C  with the windchill and it is windy out there.
I have been sitting next to the fireplace sipping my hot tea and watching the thermometer outside steadily move downward.

I am debating whether I should even venture out to the grocery store today.
Today may be a good day to make some lovely spicy meal to warm up...chilli it is!
Do you have a spicy chilli recipe?
I use habenaro peppers in mine when I think it is time for something to warm up .
A word to the wise, use gloves while chopping the peppers up!
This pot of chilli will make you sweat it is so hot.
I use only 1 habenaro, seeds and all in a small pot of chilli, that should be plenty unless you want it to take the skin right off of your lips.
For a large pot of chilli I would use 2-3 habenaro peppers.
How do you bring the heat to your chilli?

Happy New Year!

From our home to yours. may you have a happy and healthy 2014.