Tag: scones

Baking

First taste of spring

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two rhubarb scones on a blue plate with one stalk of rhubarb resting along the top edge

While technically a vegetable, rhubarb (tart and firm) enables a baker to make that first garden foray into spring, most often transforming garden goodness into sweet confections. The emerald green, heart shaped leaves emerge after snowmelt with just a few sunny hours during blustery spring days.  The tastiness of deep summer fruits like blueberries and cherries is still just a dream; hidden in the tight buds whose flowers have yet to reveal themselves in riotous color.  Like generations of bakers before me, our rhubarb patch called to my morning creativity and tomorrow we will enjoy a favorite sweet concoction, Rhubarb Pecan Scones.  

With bibliographic appreciation to Kim Ode and her book, Rhubarb Renaissance, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2012, as part of the northern plate series.

Gardening

Brought to you by the letter B

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a round basket filled with bright green basil leaves
fresh blueberries in a gray and blue porcelain bowl

If we were on Sesame Street, today’s harvest would be a B – day with a Basket of Basil, a Bunch of Broccoli, and a little bit of Blueberries.

The basil is drying in the oven, the broccoli is ready for tonight’s salad and the blueberries may make muffins, grace vanilla ice cream, or simply provide the perfect snack.  We anticipate a meager berry season as this first picking only yielded a cup and did not fill the Caradori bowl.  Thus, the tasty decisions must be made with careful deliberation.

After the Bs, my alphabet harvest gets a bit jumbled, as I also harvested Mini-Me™ cucumbers (a first time variety in our garden) and rhubarb for another dozen scones.

Baking

Summer sweets for our winter pleasure

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left to right: two triangular scones, three slices of bread, five blueberry muffins on a clear plate with painted blue flowers
Rhubarb Pecan Scones, Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread and Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins – July 2021

The beauty and the bane of summer bounty are the kitchen hours required to transform a morning’s abundance into delicious treats.  On blue sky, temperature-perfect days just made for hours of pleasure on my screened porch knitting the 4-Day Fireworks KAL sweater, I joined the women of ages past toiling in summer kitchens.  Admittedly, my experience was far more pleasant as my work time was spent in air conditioned comfort with good tunes coming from surround sound.  Some of the tasty delights will be eaten immediately and some will be stashed in our small deep freeze to be enjoyed on frigid winter days as a talisman against the cold and a sunny reminder that spring will come, even in the North Country.

My Sunday & Monday garden-to-kitchen yield:

  • Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins – two dozen regular-sized and 24 minis using  a recipe shared by Betty D. from Older Mommy Still Yummy
  • 16 Rhubarb Pecan Scones – an annual favorite from Rhubarb Renaissance by Kim Ode 
  • Two loaves of Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread – courtesy of Mary Ann H. and the St. Ann’s Parish Cookbook, Olmitz, Kansas; and
  • Tsatsiki – The Enchanted Broccoli Forest variety just because we have an abundance of cucumbers and it goes so well with toasted pita bread and Greek seasoned chicken-kabobs.

Bon appétit!

Baking

A Rainy Rhubarb Baking Day

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Having returned from Eau Claire with a large bunch of tartness, tonight we will enjoy a freshly baked crisp, topped with newly mixed Crème fraîche and served with Rhubarb Daiquiris.  Mom’s patch is overflowing with hefty stalks, so full my harvest went undetected.  In contrast, our small cluster of thin stems barely able to support the large triangular leaves struggles.  I suspect the ginormous root system of the neighbor’s black walnut to be the unhealthy culprit.  While the tree is gone, the natural chemicals genetically designed to give this once deciduous giant an advantage, may still be contributing to unhealthy dirt.  After all – who cannot grow rhubarb?