chocolate chip scones

It’s Friday — and that means tomorrow is Latte and Scones Day! Here’s the recipe I use:

Chocolate Chip Scones
adapted from Baking Illustrated, a cookbook I highly recommend

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 T baking powder
3 T sugar
1/2 t salt
5 T cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes*
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream/half and half/milk

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Whisk dry ingredients together.

3. Using two knives or a pastry blender, cut butter into dry mixture until it resembles coarse meal with a few larger lumps. (Don’t be afraid of butter lumps!)

4. Add chocolate chips.

5. Stir in heavy cream (or your dairy of choice!) with a rubber spatula just until dough begins to form — about 30 seconds. The mixture will be very shaggy.

6. Turn out onto a floured counter and knead the dough by hand for a few seconds. Pat into a round, about 1″ high. With a sharp knife, cut into 8 wedges.

7. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Brush tops generously with cream, then sprinkle with sugar.

8. Bake until tops are light brown, 12-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.** Serve warm.

*Cold butter is the key. If you get interrupted mid-recipe (’cause that never happens, right?), throw the bowl into the fridge. It’s gotta be cold in order to be light and airy.

**Don’t skip the cooling part. These are much better after they’ve had a chance to cool and firm up a bit.

Make ahead: I usually make a few batches at a time, whenever I have time. I shape them into wedges, cram as many as I can onto a baking sheet, and then throw them into the freezer. Once they’re hardened, move them to a ziploc bag. Then on Saturday morning, I pull out whatever I need and proceed from the “brush with cream” step. Frozen scones may need a few more minutes in the oven.

just another day

Today, so far:

– a quadruple batch of blueberry muffins
– a house to myself, and a chair with panoramic views of amazing beauty
– a quick vacuum of the whole house (because you can’t just sit forever, you know)
– a new shovel
– the 8th evergreen shrub removed from the front of the house
– referring T-ball and rake-sharing
– wheel barrow rides all around our [huge, awesome, amazing, I-can’t-believe-this-is-ours] yard
– baths for dirty boys
– eggs and toast for lunch, and not just any eggs: eggs from the boy down the road. so pretty. so yum.
– wiping golden goo from 10 little fingers
– naptime for two, a bit of quiet for me.

What a nice day.

new walls!

Still to do: paint ceiling fan to help it disappear; install light fixture for over table; install wide plank wood floors; buy more tapers for my sad candlesticks.

Now to decide what to do with the cupboards: paint, hardware… Also, this light over the sink. At least until we rearrange the layout by putting the sink under the window and ditching the peninsula, at which point it will be moved to suspend over my kitchen island. Someday.

Someday, this sort of chair where the green chair is currently. The mantel needs to be reworked and painted. Trying to decide how I feel about the brick. I do love painted brick, you know!

Wood floors and some sort of non-invasive window treatments. Someday.

this week.

My kitchen is painted and we’re slowly settling in.

I’ll put up pictures and words about that later.

Because the small joys of new wall colors and clean counter tops have been largely eclipsed by the tragedy of death this week. A 14 year old boy — a young boy — suddenly gone. A mama’s heart, torn, robbed. Siblings confused, aching. A daddy, soul collapsed beneath grief.

Some might say these are the moments when you ask, “Where is God?”

But I think these are the moments when the curtain of temporal shadows is drawn away, and suddenly, we realize what’s true: we, finite beings; He, eternal Rock. We, battered souls; He, tender Father. Our very real tears dried by His very real comfort.

Pray for that comfort, will you?

get me to the church on time

Yesterday morning, by the time my alarm went off, I was already trying to justify calling a sick day and skipping church. William hadn’t slept well, due to a bit of stuffiness, and I was exhausted.

BUT.

But roll out of bed, I did, and I got to work preparing myself and the boys for church. This all takes a bit longer, as we’re still very, very far from settled into a working organizational system. Actually, that makes it sound much better than it really is: barely contained chaos. In fact, I look around and am amazed that I’m not totally freaking out. I’m thinking maybe that has to do with this meditation. (When I wrote that, I wasn’t thinking that this season of craziness would extend into April and include sheetrock dust and paint fumes, but God knew!)

The big goal is to be at church at 10:00, so we can enjoy a bit of visiting before the service begins at 10:30. At 9:55, Ryan is looking for something and can’t seem to find it. Five minutes later, he really can’t find it. Okay, strap the kids into the car so we can check my parents’ house.

It’s 10:15 as we leave our driveway.

And no luck at my parents’.

Back to our house.

Give up, and Ryan decides to just drop me off with the kids, and he’ll resume his search.

10:27, we’re heading to church (which is, fortunately, a mile down the road.)

Did I mention that I hate being late? Than I wake up very early on Sunday mornings, just to avoid being late? That I had put in four hours of work, and was still going to get to church late?

I said as much to Ryan in a wry voice, and he laughed a bit, too.

“Good thing ‘being a Christian is about more than just Sunday morning church’,” I said, still a bit sarcastic.

But the Holy Spirit jumped on that thought. “It sure is, isn’t it?,” He whispered, and suddenly, suddenly I knew that my four hours of ironing and bathing and looking and finding and bed-making and cereal-pouring and tidying was not in vain, and that getting to church at 10 was so far down the priority list, really. The [somewhat miraculous] fact that I’d done all of that with a smile and joy and servant’s heart — well, that counts as important. I mean, really: does church count as a powerful Jesus encounter for my family if it’s preceded by four hours of Mean Mom? And is Jesus any less present in my conversations about how important the Lord is to me as I put on socks, buckle sandals, then He is in the 20 minutes of congregational worship?

Isn’t it great that being a Christian is so much more than getting to church spit-shined and on time?

I think so.

(Of course, we’re aiming at 10:00 next week. Wish me luck! Ha!)

this weekend


Jameson and his cousin, Jackson, wearing new shirts from Nana. These two boys are getting to be good friends. How fun.


William enjoyed dessert at my dad’s birthday party.

Do you even know how much fun it is to be at my dad’s party, and not just waiting to see the pictures from 3,000 miles away? Fun, I tell you!


We love each other.