Tea & Embroidery: Gluten Free Scones! 6/26/2014

French Cafe Radio playing in the background.  The oven up to temp.  Mixing dry ingredients together in a bowl.  I pick up my pastry knife and begin to cut the cold butter into my oats and buckwheat...

  

Even though I have made this recipe before, every time I experiment with Gluten Free baking, I have a sense of nervous anticipation and excitement as I place my pans into the oven.  

I love to experiment, and recently choosing to follow the gluten free diet I have had ample opportunity to experiment. Today's experiment is oatmeal buckwheat scones with golden raisins, craisins, pecans & white chocolate chips.

They turned out lovely, and just as delicious as the previous times!

Now to read my new book that I picked up at the library this morning.

Buckwheat Oatmeal Scones:

1 Cup All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour

1/2 Cup Buckwheat Flour

1/2 Cup Gluten Free Oats

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/4 Cup Butter

3 Eggs

1/2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Preheat Oven to 400

Mix together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives worked in a scissor fashion.  Mix until flour/butter mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Mix in eggs & heavy cream until mixture is rather wet.  If it is too dry, your scones will crumble apart as you try to eat them.  Don't forget to add your favorite tiddly-bits to these.  My personal favorites are Golden Raisins, Craisins, Pecans & White Chocolate Chips!

Portion dough out onto a greased cookie sheet.  I like to plop the dough onto the sheet, rather than forming the scones with a rolling pin and cutter for this recipe.

Makes approx. 6-8 scones (depending on how big you make them)

Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes or until they begin to brown and smell delicious!

Eat warm with Clotted Cream and jam, or cold or however you want to!

I hope that you enjoy!

Tea & Embroidery: Tea, Embroidery & Danish Puff! 6/26/2014

My newest project: A pillow case with a border of leaves and flowers.

 I originally started with the flower being pink.  I have since changed it to yellow, more Chrysanthemum or Marigold like.

Here is the updated color palette!

My new apple blossom tea cup, with my apple blossom tea pot.  Also a bowl of black cherries.

 This morning's culinary creation: Danish Puff! YUMMY!

 Tea and Danish Puff with embroidery.  What a great way to spend my day off.

Want a piece?

Enjoying some quiet time on my day off.  A little embroidery, a little baking.  A little later I plan on attempting another baking extravaganza.  Perhaps some scones will follow yet today...

Tea & Embroidery: Let's Get Up To Date! 6/26/2014

A pillow case, being embroidered for my Niece for her birthday.

The second pillow case I embroidered for my Niece for her birthday.

A better view of the second pillow case's design.

Tea and Embroidery: Where It All Began 6/26/2014

This blog is going to follow my embroidery projects as well as photographing my collection of tea cups and tea pots and various tea cakes, scones, etc...

I started playing with embroidery last fall.  It all began with a set of cape patterns that I purchased around Halloween last year.  But no, I have to go further back than that.  I thoroughly enjoy costuming, creating characters, etc.

Early last fall I was in the office of the camp where I work and one of the ladies turned to me and said, "Lois, you know what you should do?"

Ummm.... No, but I bet you are going to tell me.  She went on to say that I should do a photo shoot in the woods this last winter wearing a red cape.  The contrast of the red against the snow.

I said to her, "But Jean, I don't have a red cape......yet...." And that started it all.

I had decided that I wanted to embroider a cape (which I have yet to do) for my niece, but somehow it turned into embroidering on the red cape that I had just made.  And so, I hope that you enjoy following along with my adventures.  And that I can inspire you to pick up a camera, a needle and thread or a spatula and whisk and get out there and create something!

After some deliberation...

After a good deal of deliberation, I have decided to combine this blog with my other Blog, Tea And Embroidery.
Therefore, you may see some posts which are dated to some time this last year as I transfer them over to this blog.  I thank you for you understanding and hope, if you have not seen them yet, that you will enjoy the little things that make my life happy!

Writer's Life: Diving Deep Again

I woke this morning, though in truth I've been working over these ideas for about a month now, with the desire to head to the library to work on research for my newest work.  In truth, it started several years ago, but stalled.

It would have remained stalled, if not for a dear and wonderful friend with whom I was talking just before Christmas.  And a dream.

I will admit, I had the dream first.  I dreamt of a peg-legged heroine.  Though, in my dream, she was really more American Old West that she will become in my story. (I had been reading heavy doses of Louis L'Amour at that time.)

Then, swapping ideas of different stories we have come up with I got that spark.  You know, that light bulb moment.  I knew what I needed to do in order to jump start this story that I felt had incredible potential.

Since then, I'm been doing some digging and research.  And this morning, I brought a bunch of it with me to the library in order to better focus on what I wanted to accomplish today.

I can imagine that you are picking up a little bit of a theme from the books I have stacked before me and the print out of the map.  I am setting my story in Wales, in an alternate time stream to the Victorian 1860's.

I now know where my fictional family will live in Wales, and why they moved there.  I have ideas about the rest.  But today, this was a good start.  Thanks, Jenna for being willing to listen to my ridiculous story ideas and to give me your amazing ones in return.  And I know mine aren't always ridiculous!

But, I am called back to my purpose today!  Diving back into Welsh folktales, mythologies and fairy tales, Welsh history, Victorian etiquette & of course Welsh Verse!  Not to mention learning what artists, authors & poets were busy writing in the 1860's.  Already have the works of one!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets From the Portuguese" in this lovely volume that I scored for free last week at a local thrift store!

Country Diary of a Lady: 05/06/2014

Well, fingers crossed, it would appear that spring may have finally decided to grace us with it's presence.  Though, there was a dusting of snow yesterday morning.  But today, the skies are blue with fluffy clouds, the air is clear and warm and the frogs are singing LOUD and CLEAR in the low marshy places around camp.  Both the Spring Peepers as well as Northern Leopard frogs (which I had to look up because I didn't know what I was hearing, haha).

I know that I was very quiet the past few months, and the only excuse I can give is the weather was so dismal, and nothing seemed to be changing.  Oh yeah, and I moved! Ha ha!  But now that spring is just around the corner (finally) I feel the old creative juices beginning to flow again.

It only seemed appropriate that I just finished reading "The Secret Garden" by Francis Hodgson Burnett.  The tale of a little girl who is transformed through a garden, more or less.  I love the imagery.  She talks about a haze of green or a green mist (I can't remember which) creeping over the gray bareness of the garden.  I am looking forward to seeing the green mist this year.  Though we do have a lot of evergreens up here in the Northwoods, I long to see the soft fuzz of new leaves.  The maples are budding right now.  I can see them outside the window where I am sitting.  Their little red buds are bumping out all over the branches and twigs.

I am so looking forward to this spring.  I have bought so many different packets of seeds, I don't think that I have enough places to plant them all!  Morning Glories, Nasturtiums, Moon Flowers, Pansies, etc.  I can't wait for the earth to bring forth it's bounty!

I plan to plant the Nasturtiums in our south facing, full sun beds in front of the house, to spill over with their color!  And I have a few small trellises to send the morning glories up in the same beds.  I just enjoy growth.