British Baking

It is no secret that I am a PBS nerd and I am so excited to hear about the new season of The Great British Bake Off coming out!  I was in England in March and enjoyed a cream tea with my mother and brother and his family in Windsor and my first order of business when I got home was to purchase a dessert tier.  I use it every time they come over for our own family cream tea.  I'm proud to say I keep a supply of cream scones in my freezer at all times ready to be taken out and baked at a moment's notice.  We have a fabulous brand new Hyvee a block away that stocks clotted cream and I make a year's worth of strawberry freezer jam every year so we are set for scone toppings.  I use King Arthur Flour's recipe for cream scones.  You can mix and divide them up, then bake them as needed.

3 c. flour                            1  Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt                           1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla                       1  1/3 c. cream
1/2 c. butter                       additional cream for brushing on top

Combine all dry ingredients.  Cut in butter.  Stir in cream until mixture just comes together.  Divide dough in half.  Pat each half into a 5 1/2" circle about 3/4" thick.  Cut each circle into 6 wedges.  Bake wedges 20 minutes at 425 degrees or wrap in waxed paper and freeze.

John and Amy came last Friday and I baked caramelized onion rolls for our supper.  I used Grandpa Maynerd's mixing bowl, yeast and salt I bought in London, and the wooden spoon I bought in Windsor.  I bought that big container of salt for 33p because our apartment had no salt and pepper shakers.  That is how ill equipped it was.  I figured if I bought the salt, I'd bring it home with me so I did.  Good ol' Tesco salt. 

While the John's were here, we celebrated by opening the package of Tunnock's cakes I'd bought in London but saved until we were together.  They're damned good!  John is being deployed to Uganda next month so it was fitting we all got to share them together.  I have 2 left for my parents the next time I see them.  I will so buy some the next time I'm over there.

My nieces are quite the horse women.  They trained and practiced with my uncle Brad and competed in the Farming of Yesteryear festival in Kiester, MN.  Kiester is the hometown of my mother, my grandpa Maynerd, my uncle Brad, my aunt Mary, a slew of cousins and famously now because of this Preparation H commercial.

So yeah I'm fat.  I've lost 12 pounds without trying since starting on my seizure medication to ward off my migraines.  I find summer is an easy time to sweat off weight.  I've discovered Joy Bauer recently on PBS and one of her substitution ideas was zucchini noodles instead of pasta.  Tonight I made beef stroganoff using ground turkey instead of beef and noodled zucchini instead of noodles.

The tool you use looks like a giant pencil sharpener.  I "sharpened" 3 store bought zucchini (our garden is coming along nicely and hopefully in a week or two we won't have to buy them) and sprinkled them with 1/2 tsp of salt and this is all the water that has leeched out of them.  I'm hoping this is a way to utilize zucchini this summer AND is a diet food!  We'll see!