It Reminds Me

I don’t know what it is about summer, but I want to eat seafood All. Of. The. Time.  Shrimps! Fish! Ceviche! Crab (and crab cakes!) Mussels and Frites!  There really isn’t a downside to any of this.  Actually, there’s an additional plus.  All of these thoughts of seafood reminded me of Red Lobster, which immediately brought to mind Cheddar Bay Biscuits, the true source of everyone’s obsession with the place.


I found a riff on these in the form of Cheddar and Jalapeño Scones from Smitten Kitchen, and by golly I had to have them one Friday night not too long ago.  It wasn’t a convenient time to make them: 

A) It was after work.  On a Friday. Which usually equals happy hours and a lack of work. 
B) It was before a concert (that I ended up ditching out going to anyway, but still).  
C) There aren’t a lot of scones being baked at 7pm on a Friday.  It's kind of weird...it's a breakfast food. 

As you might already know, I am, unabashedly, a cheese lover. And I had to have these scones. Nothing could deter me! I was a woman with a mission, and that mission, once it was ingrained in my head was one that needed to be completed.   And complete it I did, in all its buttery, cheesy, glory.  These scones are most excellent fresh out of the oven, though they’re fine put back in the oven the next day to warm up a bit.  I wish I had some crab and butter or a nice green salad to go along with them instead of just hoarding scones for my dinner that night, but c'est la vie. 

However... these white cheddar scones were met with approval from a bevy pre-concert peeps that night, and I’m sure would meet approval with your own crew of summer devotees.  So for your next clam bake, BBQ, picnic, or crab-fest, make these and you won’t think twice about needing to turn your oven on for a few minutes, even in the midst of summer heat.  Your cheese-loving soul deserves it. 

Springly Morning

Sometimes I’m just a hot mess. Or, a hot tamasha as my G-ma likes to say.

I really don’t have much of an excuse as to why I haven’t been posting here, except for the fact that I just haven’t been cooking as much, winter blues and blahs kind of snuck up on me, I lost my camera for a few weeks, and I had a whole post ready to go last week, when I realized I’d accidentally deleted the photos of said post at some point or other…. Yes. Like I said… sometimes I’m a hot tamasha.

No more! Spring is here!

I had a lovely day away from DC yesterday with Roni and some new gal pals, Catherine and Nikki, and we ventured to Harrisonburg, VA, home of James Madison University, great views of the Shenandoah Valley, and a few dudes from Old Crow Medicine Show (le sigh).

From Winter and Everything After

Basically we just ate and slept and talked and ate and read some books and ate some more, and, on the way home, Nikki’s lovely mother-in-law, Elsie, gave us some homemade strawberry jam to take with us. Oh, how the heavens sometimes open up and deliver a bit of summer in a jar!

Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to try it and nothing but fresh scones would do. I woke up this morning, turned to Alice Waters’ trusty tome, The Art of Simple Food, and found a perfectly scone-y scone recipe, simple, delicious, and perfect…perfect for the jam.

From The Vagabond Table

It’s a drizzly Sunday, with chilly early-spring rain that nudges you to stay indoors, listen to some Josh Ritter, and whip up some Apricot Scones. Scones that don’t actually take all that long to throw together, scones that bake in seventeen minutes, and scones that are rather chummy with hot coffee and, of course, strawberry jam.

From The Vagabond Table

Also, scones apparently originated in Scotland, so all morning I’ve been muttering things with a horrific Scottish accent, like “Oh-ho, there! I’ve got a wee-bit of jam to munch on these lovely Scones with!” and “Aye, it’s a bit o’drudgery out there, to be sure. But I’ve got this Scone, a spot of coffee, and I’m rarin’ to-go!”

From The Vagabond Table

…..like I said. I might be a hot tamasha, but at least I’m armed with a solid scone recipe, and that’s not bad. Not bad a’tall.