Oh Look Ma, Scones!!

I am not an official FOODIE, but you know what they say...

No? I don't either.

I thought this would make a rather benign first blog. What's not to like about a scone.

Oh Look, Ma, Scones!!

I have to beg off of all the introductions at this point. And the photo that I tried to generate...it was a no go. Apparently AI was having the Monday morning blues because they are not so good with their photo responses and I did go into exacting descriptions of what I wanted. So I am gong to begin right here and right now because if you don't gnome me by now, I may as well throw in the towel.

Good morning, y'all.

I made scones yesterday and of course there is a story on the recipe because good recipes are not that easy to find. Perhaps I'll eventually elaborate on that, but I digress quite a bit. Bakery goods offered in the grocery stores are now and have been for quite a while, loaded with way too many ingredients that actually are not food ingredients. It also seems that they do not want anyone to be able to read the ingredients because not only is the list lengthy, but it is in very small fonts. I am laughing here because I have actually seen it printed in almost invisibly light ink right on top of the grocery store label. I mean it is at that point virtually impossible to read. I checked into ingredient listings and information on food products. The font is supposed to be AT LEAST 8 pt. I know it is not eight point because I am very familiar with point sizes. I have now reached the point (hahaha no pun intended) of which I no longer want to even bother trying to read the three inch list of ingredients or purchase the products with a list that long. Plus, the products are more expensive than ever and I am tired of the entire affair of buying something, eating it and finding that it is so over sweetened that it is devoid of the actual taste of the product that it is supposed to be. If I got lucky and found something that I thought was actually not too bad, bought it, enjoyed it, and then tried to find it again, it was missing in action like so many other products that I find worth purchasing.

Apparently, it is not just me. I talk to people and sometimes, I'd say I average about 50/50 in finding someone that I actually (hahaha) want to speak with or to. It is a blessing to find someone in a store or perhaps even on the street or in some other business that looks receptive. It is a gamble; I will say something to them about one thing or another. For example, the other day, I went to a city office and the parking lot was unusually crowded. So much so that I did not think I would be able to find a place to park. I did find a spot and I got out of the car and while walking to the door, I passed another 'customer' coming out of the city building. I said, "Are they giving something away FREE here today [of course it was a tongue in cheek question and my appearance and demeanor is always pleasant and friendly..OK unless I am pissed and at that point I do not care if anyone is receptive or not]. The person got it immediately [lucky, lucky me] and gave a quick, unexpected laugh replying that she did not know and then she thought for a second and said that it was Friday and she thought perhaps a regular Friday event was taking place. I am not a long time resident of the area and so I smiled and replied, "yes...you are probably right". Then off I went to tend to my business. I love checking in with people and even a brief connection is so much better than sitting in from of a computer screen, tablet or worse yet, a phone on a social media platform, talking to a I r.

Recently, while in a shoe store, there was this wonderfully talkative sales person (yes, there are still stores that actually have viable salespeople that will actually h e l p customers they also have what used to be thought of as p e r s o n a l I t I e s and the list could go on for a while of human traits that are slowly disappearing in the somewhat polluted mist of technology or worse yet, some people refer to it as progress. We exchanged a few pleasantries, and it was actually the salesperson that told of shopping for his favorite food items only to find on all too often that his favorite items were no longer in the store. SO! You see, it may not always be YOU. Sometimes it may be THEM.

I have baked many cakes, pies, cookies and other deserts over the years but I never considered myself a baker. Like many people, I don't always have the time. That is why I began to rely on grocery store baked goods. Finding the time now is a necessity. Ergo the scones and the other day I actually made chocolate chip cookies and I am skeptical about the chips as well. The ingredients can literally change on everything overnight.

I bought a can of fruit a few days ago. I opened it and the sauce was gross. Oh, sure I did try it and the results were not so good. I was going to toss the entire thing in the trash and BTW, I have thrown out more food in the last six or seven years than I have in my ENTIRE LIFE. You are gong to have to figure out what that means and If you can't, perhaps at some point I may revisit this for clarity, but not right now. I have to get a move on.

Instead of tossing the stuff out, I rinsed if off. I rinsed off all the goo. Hahaha...that will fix 'em. My scone recipe is a delightfully low sugar recipe, but it is sweet enough. How high does the sweet content have to be? Sweet is sweet. Adding sugars on top of sugars and forget the artificial sweeteners; seriously especially when most or all of the artificial sweeteners began as insect killers, antifreeze or shellac remover.. High fructose corn syrup?? In my opinion should have been taken off the market completely decades ago, shortly after it was introduced and the findings were that it was and still is HORRIBLE for everyone. Not just children.

I got this recipe quite accidentally from Ben Shapiro. I KNOW. WHAT?!!! I was looking at ingredients only. I saw his name on it and never would have ever guessed that he was a scone aficionado. The ingredients were few, so I took it and I may have . . um, there is no 'may have' about it. I definitely revamped it. I do that with all recipes. Ben would not ever recognize his recipe here. His was elaborate in terms of the shaping, the cutting and then, of course the presentation. You know? You've been to those wonderful semi-confused but still somewhat Victorian restaurants of yesteryear and for dessert, they offer scones? Well, the way Ben's recipe was is that the sections scones would almost be a meal, plus if one wanted to say put almost anything on top of it to make it look oh so irritable. Here I made sort of with a more every day and "I am way to busy for presentation" attitude. However, one has to admit that the bowl and the surface of the counter in and of itself is a work of art. Plus, they're good.

If you bake? I suggest that you look at the flour and sugar ratios that are called out in any dessert recipe and then adjust the sugar to taste. If the batter tastes sweet enough, why bother with all the sugar that, in fact, is not going to improve much of anything other than stress out your pancreas. Too many triglycerides might stress out the heart. The older the recipe, the lower the flour to sugar ratio will be. It almost seems that 'they' whoever 'they' are want us to be fat, sick, and perhaps even u g l y. :-O

Not necessarily in that order.

Bye-bye