What's a weekend for if not to make scones and, more importantly, to sit and eat them with jam and cream with people you love?
My scone recipe came from my darling friend Angela Thompson who I knew when she was Hyslop, in fact who I knew when she was TWO (and I was three) and she was like my fourth sibling.
Anyway, Ange can cook. I mean cook. And she gave me this recipe written on a napkin after I ate one of hers hot, about 8, maybe 9 years ago when she shared an apartment with my sister Naomi in Sydney, and Ange... would you believe it honey... I still have your recipe on the napkin. How's THAT for hoarding?!
And THEN, very surprisingly, when I worked as a cook in a kindergarten for 100 children last year in Brisbane, THIS was their scone recipe that I used! It's the best. Sorry Nan. It really is the best.
Scones
4 cups self raising flour (The kindergarten's recipe says sifted. I have to admit I don't bother.)
300ml lemonade
300ml cream
Ange has a note on the napkin: tip - use a new pkt of flour and good lemonade. (I don't usually do this either. They still rock.)
Cook on moderate oven (180deg) for about 15 minutes.
And jam, oh the jam. Who was the marketing genius who came up with this homemade looking thing that just tastes like heaven?
We'll do jam-making another day. Not this weekend.
A perfect weekend for me usually involves a trip to Leichhardt; specifically: Norton Street Grocer. Ciabatta (spread with goats cheese and avocado for lunch and to go with pumpkin soup for dinner), Meredith Dairy Goats Cheese which I've talked about before in awed, hushed tones, and The Grocer's own yoghurt. A big pot to dollop onto homemade fruit salad.
And one more thing: my biscuit of the week. Ideally not one I've made myself but a delicious one I sneak out of the back of the cupboard (i.e. not for kids) and nibble with a quiet cup of tea. This week: McVities Chocolate Digestive. I blame Rachel, my beloved sister in law, for this small weakness. Without Rach surely I would never have developed such a habit. Surely.
And my teacup - from my Grandma, who won it in the Berry Show in about 1934 for making the prize winning Sponge cake of the Show.
I love this cup.
xxx
