Animals and Nature, Cooking, Knitting

Happy Birthday My Little Redhead

Posted on by Jean

From this (Aggie is on your left):

to this:

in two years.  I took this picture on Aggie’s 2nd birthday (Saturday).  Happy birthday my sweet girl.  To celebrate I bought Aggie a gift!  Wasn’t that nice of me?  She’s always wanted a skein winder that she didn’t have to clamp down!  Who knew?!

What better way to try it out than with the yarn Kim (Woolen Rabbit) gave to me over Labor Day weekend. 

Finished the socks I started on Labor Day from Regia.  I have to say that the mismatched look drives me nuts.  Someone in the family is definitely getting these socks.

The color got me thinking of blueberries and blueberries got me thinking of one of my favorite treats:

Blueberry scones and a cuppa tea.  Must be the Scottish blood roaring through my veins.  I’ve made them enough to have been able to tweak the recipe a bit from various recipes I’ve found in books and on the web.  I like a denser, not so bready scone with an almost crunchy outside.  This was my latest try and so far it’s our favorite.

Scottish Lamb’s Blueberry Scones –

  • 2 1/2 c flour
  • 1/3 c sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 TBS baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • fresh nutmeg (I grate about a tsp worth if you’re using the already grated stuff, I’d double it)
  • 1 TBS grated lemon rind

Preheat oven to 400F.  Mix above ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until well blended.  Then cut in:

  • 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup) – do NOT use margarine

Until it looks like cornmeal.  I usually stick the whole bowl back in the freezer (or at least the fridge if there’s no room in the freezer) for about a half an hour before continuing so that the butter gets nice and cold again.

Then add about a pint of fresh blueberries (you can use frozen but don’t defrost them so they won’t turn the dough blue).  Really, you have a lot of choices at this point.  Try raisins, craisins, nuts, cranberries, etc.  You really can’t go wrong.  My favorite is blueberries or raspberries though.

Beat together:

  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup milk (buttermilk will make the crumb softer and lighter if you’d like to try it)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoonula until it comes together into a ball.  Dump onto a floured surface and gently knead just until it is combined well (you have to do this carefully with berries so you don’t crush them).  Flatten out into a disk about an inch thick and cut like a cake into wedges.  Place on a sheet pan and brush with either milk or an egg wash.  Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 400 for about 20 min or until golden.  Best when fresh out of the oven. Brèagha (Gaelic for Beautiful)

Jean

17 thoughts on “Happy Birthday My Little Redhead”

  2. Suzann says:

    So good to see you blogging again. I missed your posts. Aggie is indeed a very sweet and beautiful girl. Happy Birthday missy.
    I just had dinner but those scones are making me hungry.
    Strange I got the same sort of swift for my dh’s birthday. Who knew that was what he wanted :-}

  5. Angie says:

    The scones look luscious. Thank you for the link to the swifts. My neighbor has one that someone made for her and I have wanted my FIL the woodworker to make me one for some time, but he hasn’t gotten around to it. This one was so reasonably priced, I decided not to wait. Thank you, Thank you. Glad to read your postings again, glad your family is again all back in the same place. Take care.

  7. Wool Winder says:

    I have a freestanding swift, but it sits taller than yours (I mean Aggie’s). I like it, but if you wind the yarn too fast it will rock. This one looks very stable. What size did you buy? I might get one for my daughter.
    The socks look great to me! I don’t have a problem with mismatched stripes. Funny though, I always try to match my socks. What a contradiction.
    And the scones look so yummy! I have to stay away from foods like that now or I’d be trying the recipe for sure. I guess there’s no such thing as a low-fat scone.

  8. Daryl says:

    Thanks for the scone recipe. My girls adore scones, but we never found a recipe that came out well, could be our cooking but I know what we will be making for breakfast this weekend. Daryl

  10. Kim says:

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGGIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Geez, it hardly seem possible that 2 years have already passed by! Aggie is absolutely beautiful!
    Scones………..sigh, I just joined Whale Watchers today, so they will have to wait just a bit, but they look scrumptious!

  11. Theresa says:

    I’ve been looking for one of those skein winders. Two questions, when you have time…which size did you get, med or large? and does it stay stable since it is not clamped? Thanks for sharing the scone recipe. It’s in my blood too. My mouth started watering when I saw it! LOL

  15. LisaB says:

    Wow, they grow up so fast (as I am currently experiencing with our 6 month old pup). Aggie is so sweet looking.
    Mmmmm your scones look good. Thanks for the recipe.

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