Proper British Scones

Finally found a simple recipe for a true scone. They are easy to make from things you already have in your pantry right now. I added some raisins (because I don't have currants in my pantry). Five minutes of assembly, mixing, a little knead, and pop them in the oven for 13 minutes. Start the kettle. Delicious straight from the oven in less than twenty minutes total.

Accomplished Young Lady -- Proper British Scones

I wanted to make scones because I had some Rhubarb, Strawberry and Ginger Jam that I made last week to try. I found this recipe in The Cook and the Gardener by Amanda Hesser.  The rhubarb in the garden is finally grown enough to cut small amounts from occasionally. I added a few strawberries because they were shriveling on my counter, which just concentrates the sugars and flavor intensity. I cooked it too long, but Brad rescued it by adding a little hot water and stirring it until it loosened up.

Rhubarb-Ginger Preserves

2 cups of rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch lengths

1 T candied ginger, chopped

Juice of 1/2 orange

1 1/2 cups sugar

1. Place the rhubarb in a pot twice its size, add the ginger, 

orange juice and sugar and let macerate overnight.

2. The next day, slowly bring the fruit and sugar to a boil,
 stirring often.

 Simmer over medium heat, until it reaches 220 degrees. 
Skim the surface while it simmers. 

Sterilize a jar and lid. Pour jam into jar while it is hot. 

Keep in the fridge and use within a week 
OR can properly in a water bath for long term storage.

One of my newest obsessions is listening to podcasts while I walk. Seems to keep my mind occupied while I go 'round. Lynn Rosetto Kasper is the QUEEN of cooking, so warm, entertaining and delicious. Give it a try:

Splendid Table

Also, I picked up the latest copy of Country Living from Borders and I've been spending time curling up with these beauties:

British Country Living Magazine and Cath Kidston Online Magazine

All of this started because I've been cruising around the blogosphere searching for British blogs. These were some that have that feeling of real everyday life in England. Maybe I am just missing it because I was there last year at this time. Or possibly the rain this morning makes me dreamy. Mix up some scones, steep a cup of tea and soak up the atmosphere:

MaryJane's Tearoom

Hen House

Sarah-Jane Down the Lane

Curlew Country

Yes, it's Quick Hint Tuesday

Shaved soap curls ~ use a potato peeler to shave off little curls of glycerin soap (opaque won't work). I keep them in a pretty little dish next to the sink in the guest bathroom.

supercook.com ~ you type in the ingredients you have on hand and a list of potential dishes comes up. I did this for carrots, butter, maple syrup, and a few other things and got over 400 pages of ideas.

Greek salad ~ ripe tomatoes, diced cucumbers, kalamata olives, fresh oregano, crumbled feta, dress it lightly with vinegar and olive oil.

Square Foot Gardening

photo from squarefootgardening.com

What luck! just as Brad finished building the garden boxes and filling them with high quality potting mix, I discovered that the originator of Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew, would be giving a lecture at our local nursery. Almost 30 years ago as a civil engineer and efficiency expert, he realized that gardening can be quick and simple--no digging, no weeding, little watering, cost effective--amazing!

I knew vaguely about intensive gardening, but wanted to know exactly what to plant, how much, where & when. It was so easy once he explained the process. Basically, build a 4x4 box that holds 16 square feet of high quality potting mix with compost, vermiculite, and peat moss, 6 inches deep. No local dirt means no weed seeds. No fertilizers needed. No pesticides. All 16 squares are filled with seeds, depending on the mature size of the plant. Water only by hand with a cup of sun-warmed water.

This is pure genius--check out the website. Buy the book. Start a garden.

"So, What Do You Do?"

Over 500 posts here and I have never even mentioned what we do for a living! Well, we just finished our website design and I want to show it off.


Brad has been a roofing contractor in the Tahoe-Truckee area for 30 years now. As you can imagine, that is a difficult profession with all the snow and ice to cope with. Our son, Jeremy, is now the one in charge of the crews and the actual completion of the work. We finally came to the realization that it is too hard to roof in the winter, and that is why we have free time for 4 months out of the year. And Jeremy gets to go off and be a ski racing coach at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort every year.

As a complimentary business, we also have another company that distributes a radiant heating system, West Coast Heatizon. We got involved in this because it can be used on the edges of roofs to melt the snow and ice, but it is also used to melt snow in driveways and walkways, and inside floors to heat buildings. It doesn't use water and pipes like most radiant systems, it's all electric. We have it in our floors in our home and it is a dream come true.

Quick Hint Tuesday

Kitchen sponges--keep your sponge in the dishwasher permanently. I could never find a good place for it next to the sink. Now it's always close, always in the same place, and always sanitized from the latest wash cycle.

Eat This, Not That--I am currently obsessed with this book (available at Costco for $10). Compares the best choices in a given situation, listing specific restaurants and fast food joints, grocery store selections, and drink options. I was horrified to learn that my favorite Smartfood popcorn is a "Not That." Hint: the website covers all the basics too.

Method daily shower--this non-toxic spray cleaner keeps soap scum, hard water deposits, and mildew from your shower. And it smells delicious, ylang ylang, whatever that is.

smallnotebook.com--a new blog to me. I really enjoy reading about this young homemaker and her very practical solutions to everyday situations. Rachel and her family just had a no-spend month. Very interesting.

Quick Hint Tuesday

SundryBuzz: Cool website with “advice you didn’t ask for.” Actually I found quite a bit of very useful information here.

Cherry-Chicken Salad: We have to do something with all these cherries around here. This is loosely based on a recipe from Sheila Lukins in the USA Cookbook. Mix equal parts halved and pitted cherries with cooked shredded chicken breast, add in chopped celery and walnuts. Mix in mayonnaise and/or plain yogurt and tarragon or other herb.

Digital Elph: Amy’s boyfriend bought her the best little camera~a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS. It’s smaller than a deck of cards and has 8.0 megapixels and almost all the same features as my camera.

If you cut off the butt of endive and put the ends in salt, it will take away the bitterness.

The Return of Quick Hint Tuesday

Thrilled me greatly to find these glass coasters at a thrift store for $3. Took me less than three minutes to cut out photos that I had laying around here and slip them into a pocket on the back. I can change them anytime I want. Go to a thrift store and find a treasure.

Artichoke dressing~In a blender, mix some marinated artichoke hearts with 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1/8 cup of vinegar, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a little pinch of salt. By the way, one of my best finds lately is White Balsamic Vinegar from Trader Joe's~it goes very well in this dressing, on cucumbers, or beets.

Minor's Chicken Base from Costco~This is a little tub of chicken bullion that you can use in place of chicken stock. You mix one teaspoon to a cup of water. I like it because there are not 16 cans of chicken stock filling up my pantry. Watch out though, it's pretty salty.

idrive.com~this company offers an external off-site encrypted back-up of all your personal files on your computer. I did all my pictures, music files, and Word documents. You get up to 2G for free. Or $4.95 a month for unlimited personal use (business use is more). It backs up every night! Absolute peace of mind if anything happens to my laptop.

Movies

I know this is nothing new to most of you, but Netflix has been a wonderful thing in our lives lately; we've seen 3 or 4 movies a week. It's another way we get to spend time together. Brad has been quite generous about going along with my choices. Since I basically refuse to watch anything with gratuitous violence, that pretty much eliminates anything he would choose. My taste in movies is what you might call quirky. I avoid the big, popular movies and instead search out the oddball, but quality ones. You can specify categories of DVDs that you prefer, so I have films based on contemporary literature, documentaries, music, and independent; they give me suggestions based on those. RottenTomatoes.com is valuable for getting an good overview of the plot outline and a rating based on the opinions of hundreds of film critics. I won't watch anything with lower than 70% in general.

How many of these have you seen?

Death at a Funeral
2 Days in Paris
Rocket Science
Junebug
Once
The Darjeeling Limited
This is England
Across the Universe
Who Killed the Electric Car?
The Savages
The US vs. John Lennon
The Feast of Love

Grateful Friday

daffodils, definitely daffodils, in January

big bowls of berries for breakfast—my uncle and his girlfriend have berries for breakfast everyday. I would love to live like that ~ imagine how good that would be for you

I’ve been tagged for the first time! If you are unfamiliar with the concept, it’s a game bloggers play with each one. I need to list six things that you don’t know about me and then name six other bloggers to play along.

1. I used to be a pretty good gardener, but the truth is that since we moved to hot dry Nevada, I haven’t gardened at all (just hired a landscape company). I hope to remedy that this spring, or I will have to take it off my description to the right.

2. I am fanatical about being organized, making lists and putting things away. Yet at the same time, I am forgetful, spacey, and constantly loose things.

3. If I could live anywhere, it would be in England or Wales. I am enamored of every little detail about the countries. I definitely belong somewhere green.

4. I really forget that people actually read this. Every time someone says, “I read it on your blog” I am stunned.

5. I swoon at the smells of basil, vanilla, and wood smoke. Maybe they can combine them into a perfume someday.

6. I start every morning with Brad bringing me a cup of tea (black tea with milk and sugar) and my computer. I sit in bed until I have read all my e-mail, news, and blogs. Sometimes that is a very long time. I know that I am wonderfully blessed to get to start my day this way and I am wholly grateful for it.

I will not tag Tina back because that would be unfair, but you should go by and check out her lovely blog.

I tag Ani, pancake mama extraordinaire,

Vanessa, who has been relaxing in Hawaii, so might not get ‘round to it soon,

Tiffany, who makes fascinating miniature rooms,

Laura, recently started a new card making business on etsy.com

Emily, sent me three little flat rocks in the mail, and for some reason I adore them as much as anything else I own,

and Dominique, my most French Canadian friend.

All of them postcard swappers, and creative fun bloggers. See what you think.

Quick Hint Tuesday

English placemats—these cork bottomed placemats are approximately 8x11 inches. They are the perfect size for a small plate or bowl, but we mostly use them as hot plates to insulate the table from hot serving dishes. For some odd reason, in the US, you can only find the bigger 12x15 and smaller coaster sizes. I don’t know why because it is obvious that this is the best size. I got these in England. They have them in every store in amazing patterns. You could find them online, I’m sure.

ZenHabits.net—the website addresses issues of organization, purpose, balance, peace in your life. If you become a regular reader, I’m sure your life would improve.

Raw Sugar—I love using these big sparkly chunks of sugar on my oatmeal. They are so pretty. It has to better for you than straight white granulated sugar, right?

Palette Generator—This is sooooo cool. If you put a picture into the program, it comes up with a harmonious color palette that matches. This is a boon for any scrapbooker trying to match papers to your photos. It will take any photos that are on your computer, you do not need to use Flickr.

Tuesday Quick Hints

Cinnamon—Fall is the perfect season for adding cinnamon to your life. It levels out your blood sugar, increases antioxidants, and aids digestion. I sprinkle it on fresh fruit to keep the sugars from spiking. Add it to your oatmeal or cereal. You can stir it into peanut butter too.

Good gossip—Find a way to tell wonderful things about your friends, co-workers, or strangers to other people. It creates a feeling of goodwill. Not only are you avoiding negative gossip, the people whom you told will feel good about you, and assume that you also say nice things about them to others.

Grammargirl.com—Find out the answers to all those little naggy questions, who or whom, lie or lay? Short and easy to understand answers. There are podcasts that you can listen to also.

7 Habits of People with Great Memories from Prevention magazine:

1. Less than two alcoholic drinks a day
2. Less than one hour of TV daily
3. Read novels
4. Do crosswords
5. Eat fish
6. Drink tea or coffee
7. Keep a journal

Tuesday Quick Hints

Fruit Compote over Brie—melt 2 T butter with 2 T brown sugar until the sugar dissolves. Add small diced fruit (pears are good, or peaches, or whatever you want) and cook until just soft. Add some chopped nuts. Pour warm over a slice of brie cheese. Serve with crackers. (Lori N made this for bookclub, who got it from Jan.)

Anagramsite—I had fun looking up names of people I know on this website, seeing if I could find a secret about them. I am This Calmly, Lilac Myths, or Silly Match.

Hornsby Hard Cider—I never liked beer, but I love this apple cider in a bottle. You can get it in most grocery stores. Look out, it’s stronger than beer, and much more pleasant.

Flickr Leech—Let’s you look at 100 Flickr photos at a time. Their motto is “Because paging sucks.”

Tuesday Quick Hints

Cutting a pineapple -- to properly cut a pineapple, use a big sharp knife to cut off the top and also about an inch off the bottom. Stand it upright on the cutting board. Slice off the outer rind using long downward strokes, from top to bottom. Cut deep enough to get those eyes out. Cut the whole thing in half, also with one big downward slice. Place both halves face down on the cutting board, and cut each of those into halves, so you have quarters. Now it's to easy to slice the core from each quarter, and cut it into bite size pieces. Viola!

The Mood Changer--The Comfort Queen website has this place where you put in your current (negative) mood and it will come up with suggestions and thoughts to make you feel better. Isn't that nice?

Visual Profile

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Above I've posted my visual profile. In addition to this flashy little widget, you get a little book that describes your quirks. This website lets you choose pictures that relate to your life and comes up with incredibly accurate reading of your personality. Try it.

Return of Quick Hint Tuesday

Popsicles in a Smoothie: Brad thought of this. Use one of those 100 percent juice bars to mix in a smoothie. It gives it a nice texture.

Current Codes: to find out the discount codes on any shopping website go to www.currentcodes.com

Bread Crumbs: Much better than store bought and uses up stale bread. Keep it in the freezer. Into the food processor put bread torn into pieces, parmesan, dried oregano, basil, thyme, black pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper. Whirl.

Flickr

Ok, today I'm officially obsessed with the photo sharing site, Flickr. I have written about it before, and I've had an account there for awhile now. But I never actually uploaded photos until last night. I've been meaning to do it for a long time, I swear, but it was such a big job. So far I've got 156 of my best photos on there. I still need to do the ones that are on the older computer too. Labeling each photo with a title, information, and tags, takes time!

But this is the part that got me hooked--I had 3 comments before I even finished loading them. People who said nice things about my pictures. It just made me so happy. So now, of course, I have to load a lot more, to get more comments. It's an additive vicious cycle.

You can see it here: http://flickr.com/photos/homestretching/

After I have them all on there, I will order the Moo MiniCards--100 of my own photos on little cards with all my info on them, for $19.99. And probably the stickers too because, you know, I'm like...hooked.

Reno Envy

When we lived in Truckee, I used to say that you couldn’t pay me enough to live in Reno. Well, lo and behold, someone did pay me enough when they bought our house on Donner Lake! Be very careful of what you say. We moved “temporarily” into a typical suburban house in a small community just west of Reno. After a few weeks, Brad and I started looking at each other, thinking we kinda like it here. The weather is pleasant most of the time, there’s things to do, restaurants to try, etc. Well, like turned to love, and we are infatuated with it now.

Here are the things you’d be jealous of, if you knew how great they are:

Nevada Skies—to say that the sky is dramatic is an understatement. There are gorgeous pinkpurplegold sunsets, lenticular clouds, awe inspiring thunderstorm, brilliant clear mornings.

Arttown—the month of July is dubbed Arttown, meaning that over 100,000 visitors come to experience all forms of creative arts; this year Mikhail Baryshnikov is dancing. Nevada Museum of Art is wonderful, modern, and intriguing. We have live performances of dance and music almost every day.

Wingfield Park—with a kayak run right through the heart of downtown on the Truckee River, there’s a lovely walk and a theater for free music on Friday nights and outdoor movies.

Hawkins Ampitheater at Bartley Ranch—an outdoor venue so cool that it will make your heart sing along with the music.

Patagonia—the factory is only 2 miles from my house. They have an outlet right there and three times a year 40% off the discount price. I will never buy clothes anywhere else.

Wildlife—on a daily basis, my backyard is filled with quail, cottontail bunnies, hummingbirds, and a variety of songbirds. Also I often hear coyotes yipping close by.

Rancho San Rafael Park—Great Basin Adventure Park for kids, and an arboretum for me. The May Museum is a fascinating place where you can see a real shrunken head amongst all the other animal heads. This is the site of the annual Balloon Races.

Unique Festivals--in addition to the Balloons, there's Hot August Nights; The Drum, Dance, and Digeroo Festival; The Air Races; The Basque Festival; Rib Cook Off; BBQ and Blues.

Quirky and interesting shops—independent, resourceful shopkeepers have started popping up all over the city, along with the plethora of antique shops. Just a few—The Melting Pot, Art Dogs & Grace, La Bussola.

Outstanding restaurants—I would put up our restaurants against any in New York or San Francisco. We have talented chefs in high quality restaurants because of the tourist traffic.

Awful, Awful—I know, but I have to mention the world famous Awful, Awful hamburger from the Nugget. You have to stand in line for an hour to get one, but it’s worth it.

So if you ignore the casinos, the sagebrush covered hills, the dirty skies from the inversion, the homeless population, the Walmarts, etc. It’s a very nice place to live. A local man has started a company called Reno Envy (NV), get it? I think I’ll get a T-shirt.

Tuesday Quick Hints

Fodor’s Photography Hints: Good overview of various tips for better picture taking—quick and easy review.

Summer Reading List: I often go to the NPR website to listen to things I missed when they were aired on the radio. Yesterday, I caught the end of Talk of the Nation while they did the Summer Reading List. You can listen to it here, it’s over 30 minutes long, but I thoroughly enjoyed thinking about what I’m going to get to read soon. They also have the results on their blog at npr.org/blogofthenation.

Calling Foreign Phone Numbers: To dial a number overseas dial 10 10 297 011, the country code, then the phone number. If you use the codes 10 10 297, it only costs 3¢ a minute plus a connection fee of 39¢ BUT if you call a cell phone they charge a lot more-- connection fee of 39¢ PLUS 25¢ a minute.

Tuesday Quick Hints

Rottentomatoes.com: This website compiles the reviews of hundreds of movie critics and then gives each movie a score based on the average. This is a fair way to represent the quality of a film, no one critic can unduly influence the score. If it gets over 70 percent it is “fresh” or under 70 gets a “rotten” tomato. There’s a “tomatometer” at the top for the exact score and quotes from various critics, so you can see why they rated it. Look under the tabs at the top for “Tomato Picker” and “Certified Fresh.”

Take off Labels: We are crowded in our lives with too much advertising. I prefer that my home is a quiet refuge from all that, so I go around pouring contents into clear jars and pulling the labels off shampoo bottles. It’s very satisfying.

Quick Panting: Give your insides a good quick workout by panting deeply for a minute. Take a big breath and let it out in short strong bursts until you can’t get any more out. You’ll feel the muscles around your diaphragm tighten. It’s great exercise for your core muscles.

Tuesday Quick Hints

Cooking Spray: Trader Joe’s has a baking spray with flour already in it. This is a miracle to me. Usually I ended up with spray all over my kitchen when I use that stuff, but now I learned to open the dishwasher door and spray into the empty or dirty dishes (not clean ones).

Candles: This is from Lifehacker--put votives inside the well of bigger pillars. Your big expensive candles will last forever.

Corn Silk: To quickly get rid of those annoying hairs on an ear of corn, wave it over a gas flame on your stove. They sizzle right up.