Pumpkin Scones

One score and five years ago, I gave birth to a beautiful, dark-eyed baby girl who grew up to be a fabulous cook. She is pictured in the sidebar on her wedding day, and also in front of a waterfall in Thailand with her husband. Deb and her family live quite far away from us, so I don't get to see them very often, but when I do, I always come home with new recipes. This is one of them.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour (I imagine you could use all-purpose if you wanted to)
6 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ginger

6 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup pumpkin
3 Tbsp. cream
1 egg

Directions:

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. I don't have a picture of this because I like to be just a little mysterious. And I was so excited for scones I forgot to take one.

Cut the butter into the dry stuff. If you have one of those wire pastry blenders, do yourself a favor and go to a restaurant supply store and get a good one that's all stainless steel, where the blades and the curved part are all one piece. I bought this one 15 years ago for $8, and I thank God for it every time I take it out of the drawer. Amen.

Then get out your pumpkin, your free-range egg, and your fresh-from-the-cow cream. If you don't have free-range eggs and fresh-from-the-cow cream, I encourage you to move closer to my friend Kelly, who keeps me supplied with both. Everybody should have a friend like Kelly.

Combine the pumpkin, egg, and cream in a small bowl,

and dump that mixture into the dry ingredients.

Stir just until it holds together. I had to add a few extra dribbles of cream. Then plop it on a floured counter and fold it over a few times, like you would for biscuits. Pat it into one big circle, about 1/2-inch thick.

Cut it into 12 wedges. I used a big knife, but you might try a pizza cutter too.

Transfer your wedges to a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet. Deb also shared with me the delights of parchment paper, which are many, especially when the baking is over and you crumple it up and throw it away, and have a clean cookie sheet. Yes, I'm a fan of the parchment.

Here are my wedges, all laid out pretty-like, ready to be baked at 425° for 14-18 minutes. Mine took just 14.

While they're baking, stir together a big spoonful of powdered sugar with a little cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Add enough fresh-from-the-cow cream to make a glaze that's not too thin.

Here's what your scones will look like when they're done—just beginning to brown a little. I let them sit for 10 or 15 minutes so they're not too hot when I glaze them.

Pour the glaze in a baggie and snip a very tiny bit of one corner off,

and drizzle them. I wish you could smell my kitchen right now.

Now go make a pot of coffee. You might want to keep the fresh cream handy for that too.

Be thankful ~

Thanks for the memories, Papaw.

Many years ago, our good friends Tom and Karen introduced us to Papaw, Tom's dad. Papaw was one of those people who never met a stranger, made everyone feel at home, and was a grandfather to everybody, including my kids.

Over the years we worked with him, celebrated birthdays, and laughed and cried and worshiped with Papaw. My kids all tell stories fondly remembering him.

Ben and Tom remember digging out a corner of Tom & Karen's house one time. They were working on one side and Papaw was around the corner digging out the other side. After a short time (Ben & Tom weren't nearly done with their side), Papaw came around the corner and said, "Well, my side's done. What's takin' ya so long?" I think he was in his 70s.

Leah remembers a summer when she was 15, cutting grass on their two acres when Papaw came running out of his house yelling about "what's the world comin' to when young ladies hafta be doin' man's work . . . y'all ougta be over in the swimmin' hole (the pool)" and grabbed the mower from her. He was in his 80s.

Today Papaw is standing at the feet of Jesus, enjoying his new body and the mansion prepared just for him. I'm thankful to have known him.

Be thankful ~

P52 Week 4: Self-Portrait

Really? Really, Darcy? What were you thinking?

I fretted about this all week and finally decided to catch myself as I really am: sweaty right after a run. So here I am in all my wind-tousled, red-faced, no-makeup, sweat-in-my-eyes glory.

Complete with the sunspot near my chin. I'm glad this is over with. Can we move on to next week's theme now?

To see more P52-ers, go here.

Be thankful ~

A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

I hope so, because my brain is ready for bed, and yet my public (all six of you) calls. Here's a roundup of the last few days.

I think I already told you about the card-making party Saturday night. While everyone was here, I mentioned that Man-squared had awesome dice-stacking skills. So, not to be outdone, Tony had to prove he could out-stack him, and he is now the reigning champ.

And then, as if stacking 3 dice weren't enough, he proceeded to build a house of cards around them. The competition around here is fierce.

Sunday we drove to Drenchburg to cook dinner for Abbie's "family" for her birthday. We fried turkeys and made mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls—Thanksgiving in January. Here are Kim, Abbie, and Marly waiting for the turkeys to be carved.
 

The master turkey cooker/carver in action.

When it was time for cake, everyone piled in the teeny kitchen and sang a most epic version of "Happy Birthday." You can't tell from these pictures, but I would guess there were 20 people in this itty-bitty apartment.

And I'm pretty sure it took her two blows to get all 22 candles out.

Abbie's birthday present (in addition to one more semester at her very expensive school) was a ukelele. Man-squared has one and she steals it every time she comes home. Here they are having a kum-bah-ya circle in the kitchen and learning how to play "Pricetag."

This might be my favorite picture of the day: Abbie and Erin. I just love those two!

Happy birthday, Baby Girl!

Be thankful ~

A whole lotta nuthin'.

Even though I am suffering from "Housemaid's Knee," otherwise known as pre-patellar bursitis, I made myself go run 2.5 on the dreadmill today. And then instead of doing abs, I stood around and shot the breeze with Tony and Cori just so I could say I spent an hour at the gym. I'm not the only one who does this though. I once watched a woman come in the gym, walk around with a water bottle, spend 5 minutes on a bike, go to the bathroom, do 3 minutes on an elliptical, talk to a trainer for a while, then get a protein shake at the cafe and leave.

Then we had a bunch of people come over to make Valentine's Day cards for the nursing home residents for February. We also ate a massive pot of chicken chili and Kelce's homemade cookies, then stood around watching Tony try to figure out how to use his new iPhone. I'm not jealous. In the words of Melinda, I like my buttons. Whose idea was it to make a touchscreen phone where the "keys" are 1/8 the size of the tip of your finger? Anyway, we also practices stacking dice, and if it weren't so late and I weren't so lazy, I'd get a photo up here. Tony built a dice tower with one flat, one on its corner, and another one flat on top of the middle one's corner. And then he started building a house of cards around it, but you know what happens when you get greedy for awesome tower-building glory? That's right. It all comes tumbling down and you go back to fighting with your iPhone.

Now everyone has gone home, Ben has gone to bed, Man-squared is still at work, and I am sitting here enjoying a cozy fire.

Happy Saturday!

Be thankful ~

P52 Week 3: I Dreamed a Dream

I had a very hard time deciding how to represent this week's theme. For the last 27, almost 28, years I have been living my dream of being a stay-at-home wife and mom, and that was the first thing that came to mind when I read the theme. But how do you distill all that is entailed in being a full-time wife and mother into one photograph? (I'd love to hear your suggestions; I'm short on creativity.)

In the end I was limited by my own shortcomings, so I settled on a much smaller, more recent dream—that of being a runner. I had the thought that maybe I could do a little running about a year ago, not thinking it would turn into anything of substance. Then when I broke the 3-minute mark (that's 3 minutes of running without stopping), and saw that I really wasn't going to die from it, I decided to aspire to the lofty goal of running a 5K in this, my 50th year. I did, and wound up winning my age group. It helps to wait until you actually turn 50, thus putting you in the next group up, wherein you are the youngest. Then I ran another, and now I'm looking forward to running my first half-marathon in May.

For more "I Dreamed a Dream" interpretations, check out My 3 Boybarians.

Thankful I'm healthy enough to run ~

There's really nothing to report.

Still agonizing (as if it's really that dramatic) over how I'm going to represent "I Dreamed a Dream" in a photo, but in the meantime, I took this one of Man-squared's awesome dice-stacking skills, and I kind of like it.

 

I spent my day editing, doing laundry, making butter for the first time (unless you count the time in kindergarten when we opened a little carton of cream, dropped in a marble, and shook until our shoulder muscles seized up), and working on a surprise for someone who may or may not read this blog so I can't actually say what it is. But it included a vanilla latte and a lot of laughing with a friend, so it was fun.

Tomorrow looks to be about the same with the addition of a trip to the gym and minus the latte.

Be thankful ~

A pictorial essay of today's highlight.

Subject: the fabulous Cori, girlfriend of Tony (the trainer who trains). Cori's little brother calls this her "bath-tism."

Cori and her mom.

Be thankful ~

PS. I'm having a hard time not coveting that camera in the last photo. Just keeping it real.

Saturday news update.

So, today was a hodge-podge of stuff. Abbie and Cesia and I went shopping this morning for, uh, necessary things, and also for Farkle. If you haven't played Farkle yet, please go buy 6 dice and read the very-easy-to-understand rules here. Don't spend $10 like I did on the official Farkle game at Books-a-Million, because it's nothing more than an oversize box containing a fake-leather-covered cup, 6 dice, and a single sheet of paper with rules in English and Spanish. Totally not worth $10. If you go to Target or Walmart, you can get a package of 10 dice for $2 and download the rules. Much better deal and you can afford to lose 4 dice and still play the game.

I bought Dockers and a sweater for Ben, then went to Target for another black shirt for Man-squared and some food, and also stopped at the dry cleaner's to pick up Abbie's skirt.

This is better than reality TV, isn't it?

Anyway, I also made a big dinner, which included a hashbrown casserole and two coconut custard pies. I know what I'm having for breakfast, and it's not oatmeal.

I'm going to watch the Tebows Broncos and cheer them on.

Be thankful ~

P52 Week 2: Made with Love

One of my goals for the year is to remember the camera I have sitting on my desk and actually use it. With that in mind, I've committed to participating in Darcy's P52 project. The weekly themes help me think about the photos I take, and this one was especially easy since I just spent a week with my grandbabies. Here's my take on Made with Love:

 

Why do boys get the long eyelashes?

Check out more P52-ers here.

Be thankful ~

The rest of the visit.

For the last few days of our stay with the grandbabies, we hung around the house baking and eating (pumpkin scones recipe is coming) and playing. One night Abbie sat on the couch reading Bean a bedtime story. Unfortunately, he was more interested in taking a picture of himself with her phone. She tried to get him to turn it around, but he just wouldn't believe that was going to work. He got lots of pictures of the staircase.

Then another afternoon, I was sitting on the couch with Button and Abbie grabbed the camera and started taking pictures.

You know a baby is teething when he chews on the hard plastic side of the pacifier.

Playing makes us sleepy.

Every time I look at those photos, I yawn too. Did you?

Be thankful ~

More from the grandbaby visit.

I was just sitting here going through all my pictures from the trip and realized I'll never get them all in one post. It's so much cuteness the Internet would explode.

As usual, our trip began with a few hours of driving through the mountains of western Virginia, complete with snow blowing in sideways. I'm betting the weather's even like that in July. It was still snowing and blowing when we drove home seven days later.

As soon as we got there, I started snapping pictures, hoping to get a few that were blog-worthy. Few is the key word there. Here's Button with his big eyes and adorable heart-shaped face.

Sticky Bean wants to rough-house all. the. time. But we did get him to sit still twice while we were there for pictures.

Abbie worked on figuring out how to use Deb's camera so we would get more photos of the boys.

And we drank coffee. Organic coffee. With fresh-from-the-cow cream. There are advantages to living among the Amish.

Button is the opposite of Bean. This baby is snuggly and mostly happy. And did I mention the huge eyes and precious heart-shaped face?

I can feel the Internet getting close to terminal cuteness threshhold.

Sorry. One night Abbie and I got out the Play-Doh with Bean. I made a taco. Bean made a spoonful of sour cream to put on it. Abbie sculpted Hitler.

Show-off.

Bean loves food, so Play-Doh creations are always edible things, even though they're not.

Putting sour cream on a hot dog.

Making peas.

Deb and David recently rescued a litter of kittens that someone left by the side of the road. They found homes for all but two, who are now members of the family. They had not yet named the kitties, so Abbie did. This is Beyoncé. Jay-Z is playing in the woods.

And that's about halfway through the week. More to come tomorrow.

Be thankful ~