Homemade Cranberry Scones

My daughter made some scones the other day– Cranberry Scones. Oooooooooooo oo oo oo. They are amazing. She makes three batches all at once, and the family eats them up almost immediately.

Cranberry Scones
2 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup butter (no substitutes)
1 cup chopped cranberries
3/4 cup buttermilk (or Half n’ Half with lemon juice)

Combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the cranberries. Stir in the buttermilk just until moistened.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead 6 to 8 times. Divide the dough in half. Pat each half into an 8-inch circle. Cut into 8 wedges.

Place the wedges 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 F for 15-18 minutes.

Devour while still warm. SO GOOD.

The glorious finished product.

Believe me, these are simply amazing scones. They are not sweet like muffins. The scones are perfect with tea or coffee, and are perfect as a light breakfast or brunch. Kudos to my daughter for making these! Er, maybe instead of kudos she’d prefer a gold bullion.

Try them, you will like!

Four Foods on Friday #128

The Four Foods on Friday meme is a snoozer this week, I think, because it’s about tea. I’m not much of a tea drinker anymore. Tea doesn’t excite me. When I was younger, I drank regular orange pekoe black tea, like my mom. No sugar, just creamer. I dabbled in coffee when I worked in radio (used to have to get up at 4am for the morning show, ugh)… but that was instant coffee and not very tasty. As a young adult, I started drinking fanciful herbal teas after meeting my future husband (he liked herbal teas something fierce). He also tried tofu, too… yeah, I must have REALLY loved him to marry a tofu-tasting, herbal tea drinking husband. lol. Well, it’s a LOT better than marrying a lush who slogs liquor all day long!

Anyway, after having my second child, who had colic as a baby and who was full of energy as a toddler, I started drinking coffee heavily. And I have been a coffee drinker ever since.

Just recently during the summer, the kids have acquired a real thirst for teas. And we’ve been reading the benefits of green tea. So I’m trying to cut back on the coffee and drink more green tea… but I’m not consistently successful and I always seem to revert back to coffee. Green tea is bitter, I think, without the honey or sugar. It tastes like something you’d stuff your straw-tick mattress with. And the health benefits really don’t kick in unless you chug gallons of green tea per day. Yikes.

Anyway. Today’s simple question is:

Tell me four hot teas you like or don’t like.
1. Any kind of spicy “Chai” or “Thai” tea. If I want my mouth to burn as I drink, I’ll slug Tabasco sauce.
2. Orange tea. Is it just me, or does that stuff SO not taste like orange?
3. I love peppermint tea. We have a box on hand for stomach ailments, too.
4. Green tea is “OK.” Tolerable.

Tea is also WAY WAY too expensive. Compared to coffee, per pound, tea is like liquid gold. This year, we hope to grow some herbs and make our own teas. I probably spend about $15-20 a month on tea for the family.

Licorice Tea

I’m a coffee drinker. I used to be a tea drinker, but then I got married and had four children, 2 years apart, give or take 6 months. I NEEDED coffee. I had three kids under the age of 3 for a time. It’s a good thing I had them all when I was very young, I don’t think I could ever do something like that again.

Well, now that I am *cough* OLD, I am getting back to teas now and again. I still like the regular, plain old, orange pekoe tea that my mother and grandmother drank before me, but I’ve tinkered here and there with testing out herbal teas.

HANDS DOWN, the best herbal tea I have ever had is this: Stash Licorice Spice Tea. Wow, folks– Wow! I found it at my local Hannaford’s Supermarket (WalMart doesn’t carry it), and it’s a little pricey- $2.50 for a box of 20. But if you’re thrifty, one teabag can make two cups of tea.

The scent drives me wild. After making the tea, I frequently carry the empty package in my shirt pocket, to smell the licorice all day. It makes the house smell incredible. The tea requires no sugar- it’s really nice tea. Perfect for afternoons or as a dessert tea after dinner.