Bakers' Challenge - Scones!

Left to right: Me, Kay and Trish

It was the Great British Baking Show that sparked Kay's and my interest in doing a baking challenge of our own. We agreed our version would be a "challenge" rather than a "contest." In other words, we wanted to stretch our baking skills, but not name a winner.

To kick off our challenge, we decided to do something rather simple - scones.

We felt that scones were the perfect choice, since Kay and I both have Scottish roots, and scones originated in either England, Scotland or Ireland. In fact, the first known mention of a scone is from a 1513 translation of the Aeneid, translated by Scotsman, Gavin Douglas. In Scotland, these little sweets are called skawns or skahns.

We invited Trish to join in the fun, which was fitting, since she also boasts Scottish ancestry. We might include more bakers in the future, but for our first try, we wanted to keep it low-key.  So last night, after our Wednesday evening Bible study, we brought our baked goods - and our husbands - to Kay's house to enjoy some hot tea and scones. 

Trish baked blueberry/lemon scones, using the fresh lemon juice of the fruit of her own little lemon tree. They were great! Kay outdid herself with cinnamon/apple scones, and I brought orange/apricot ones. Our husbands raved over all of them, making us all feel like winners. 

Before we left Kay and Andy's house, we asked Dan to take a picture of the three bakers with our scones, which he did. Then Trish's hubby, Kelly, took on a challenge of his very own. Kelly is blind, but he, too, wanted to try taking our picture. The one posted at the top of this post is the picture he took. He did ask Dan if he had all three of us framed in the picture, and I did do a little post-processing crop, but BRAVO to Kelly for being the official First Baking Challenge photographer.

A Summer Catch-Up Post

It's been a while since I sat down to post a new blog. I can't say nothing has been happening, because I've been whining, almost daily, about my calendar being too full. However, the busy-ness I've been experiencing hasn't always been blog-worthy. None the less, I'll try to do a quick summary of the past month.

TUTORING
Once a week I do volunteer tutoring for the Temple Literacy Council. My current student, whom I will just call "R" is a young mother of two little boys, from China. She is a delight! She's smart, her English is better than that of most of my ESL students in the past, and she has a great sense of humor. She is way past just learning grammar and vocabulary, and wants to understand colloquialisms, idioms and word plays. For instance, yesterday she asked me to explain the English phrase "to go off" or, the past tense, "went off."

At first I didn't see why this was confusing to her, and explained "went off" as in "the power went off." This she already understood. "But," she asked, "what about 'alarm went off'?  "Oh! Yes," I said, "'went off' sometimes means something stopped working (such as power), but sometimes means something started making a sound (such as an alarm)." Easy, right? Sometimes it means "stops" and sometimes it means "starts." Then she brought up a phrase she'd heard about her boss . . . that he "went off' on someone." Isn't English fun?! Maybe not, but my student, "R" is a lot of fun!

"R" has also had problems ordering from a menu, so we took our class outside the classroom last week and went to a Mexican restaurant, where she sampled enchiladas and a taco. She liked most of the food alright, but not the re-fried beans at all.

Next week we will begin reading and discussing Old Yeller, which I've found, in the past, to be a great book to use with my ESL students living here, since it is easy reading, exposes them to lots of colloquialisms, and introduces talking points about Texas history.

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY DINNER
On Tuesday, August 14, we got a call from our friend, Andy. He wanted to know if we wanted to join him and Kay and another couple of friends, Trish and Kelly, in a drive down to Hutto, to The Texan Cafe, to celebrate Trish's birthday. We almost NEVER turn down an invitation to have fun with friends, so I cut short my afternoon MahJongg playing, and we went down to Hutto. The Texan is famous in the area for its pies. We all had dinner and pie to celebrate.

Here's Trish wearing her flashy, lit-up birthday card glasses, given to her by Kay and Andy.

ROAD TRIP PLANNING
Each fall I try to take Clara on a weekend road trip (last year we missed out, partly due to Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent flooding). One year we did all things fun in Waco. Another year was San Antonio. And this year we'll be doing Austin. It seems like such a simple thing, but I spend a lot of time planning and making reservations. We'll be doing a tour of the Capitol building and visiting the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, where we'll take an art class. On Sunday we'll go to church and enjoy a boat tour on Lady Bird Lake before heading back to Houston. It's still a couple weeks off, but keep watching for a post with lots of pictures.

AND . . . ANOTHER TRIP
Next year will be our 50th anniversary. Since we've talked about going on a European trip of some sort for years, we decided 2019 will be the year to DO IT. We have been working with a tour agent, who has helped us book our adventure of a lifetime. For now, the rest remains a secret.

WHAT ELSE HAS KEPT ME BUSY?
Our ladies Bible study, which happens on Tuesday mornings during the school year, was dismissed for the summer. But that doesn't mean we can't get together! So every Tuesday morning this summer those who can meet for brunch at McCain's Bakery and Cafe in Salado. It's been great fun.

I've been invited to be a "sub" for one of the Salado MahJongg groups. This group meets every Tuesday afternoon, sometimes having lunch together first, and at other times just meeting to play for three hours at the Salado Library. I love being a sub, because I don't feel compelled to be there every week, but there's almost always a seat for me when I want to play.  I amazed myself and everyone else the first time I played with this group - winning six games in a row, then losing one, and winning one more before end of day. I told them not to expect this ever again, and I was right about that. I typically win two or three games out of the eight or nine that we usually play. I first learned to play MahJongg with our Japanese exchange students, back in the late '80s. Picking it up again has been a challenge, because I am now playing the American rules, which are quite different from the Japanese rules.

My book club meets once a month, and I always look forward to it. It's such a fun group of people - sharp and witty and friendly. We usually meet in the Library board room, but once a year, in the spring, the whole group comes to my house, where we watch some old black and white movie that was first a book. Last year it was The Maltese Falcon (1941), and this spring we read Now Voyager, and then gathered to watch the movie at our house.

My involvement in the Bell County Genealogical Society has become a little overwhelming. Besides being one of the VPs (for publicity), I also chair the research committee. Requests come to us for help researching other people's ancestry from Bell County. Sometimes the request is simple - find an obituary from, say, 1901. At other times it's a request that involves much more time and effort. I'm thinking about asking to be relieved of the chairmanship of this committee. But I have a hard time giving up or saying "no," so am not sure I'll follow through.

My friend, Kay, and I have way too much fun together! She needed to go to Austin the other day, to the Apple Store at The Domain. So I tagged along and we made it a day of shopping, eating and talk. The Domain is a huge outdoor shopping center in a park-like setting. There are somewhere around 100 upscale retail stores and restaurants. It also has residential units. Kay and I did a little dreaming about what it might be like to actually live at The Domain. But, when day's end came, we were kind of happy to get back to our less glitzy, more homey neighborhoods.

Kay, as we were eating lunch on the outdoor patio of one the many restaurants.

Today I had lunch with a another friend from church, Jan. She is a fun, warm, firecracker of a gal, whom I love spending time with. What was nice was that while she and I had lunch, our husbands got together somewhere else and did the same. In fact - SURPRISINGLY - I'm back home, but Dan and Larry are still lunching!

Next week our D.A.R. monthly meetings resume, after the summer break. One more thing to go on my calendar.

Have I mentioned that I love being retired!