Maybe you’ve noticed. I like keeping my hands busy. When I’m home there’s lots to do… Too much to do sometimes. While in Hawaii, there was less to do, but my fingers were itching to do something while driving around the island, sitting at the beach and the pool. I didn’t feel like working on my knitting project, and a quilt project didn’t feel right either. Learning to play the ukelele was the answer.
By the way, that’s not me in the video.
Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts
I’m sorry I missed Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts. I was on the wrong coast for the six days that the exhibition was displayed. Actually I was on an island off the wrong coast, so this was really not in my neighborhood.
Joanna Rose ‘accumulates’ quilts (her word, not mine). Red and white ones. As an 80th birthday gift, She and her husband, Daniel Rose, put up Mrs. Roses’s collection of red and white quilts at the Park Avenue Armory. She thought she had about 70, and she’d never seen them all together at once. They discovered that she had 651.
It is a dazzling collection. There are some incredible pictures of them up on the webs now. If you like red and white, or you like collections, or you like quilts, or art….Check out the American Folk Art Museum’s Flickr group.
And read more about it here: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/finally-mrs-rose-and-the-public-can-see-all-her-rugs/
Freshly baked scones are a powerful persuasive tool. Especially when served with homemade strawberry jam and/or lemon curd. My favorite recipe is adapted from Tartine, by Elisabeth M Prueitt and Chad Robertson, owners, bakers and founders of the bakery and cafe of the same name. I found their recipe to be close to perfect with one exception – the published recipe says it makes 12 scones, and contains 4-3/4 cups of flour. If you’ve baked much, you’ll know that that’s a lot of flour for 12 servings….scones that mean business. Maybe these were scones that were sized to share, but I don’t want to share my scone. I want you to have your own scone.
The Buttermilk Scone recipe below is the Tartine recipe halved (approximately), but still made into 12 scones. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed in the size of the resulting scones, but if you are, double the recipe and you’re back to square one.
Ingredients:
Topping
2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter Melted
Large Crystal Sugar (I use Turbinado sugar) or granulated sugar for sprinkling
Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt and stir. Scatter the cubes of butter over the dry ingredients. Use a pastry blender, large fork, or mixer to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. You want to end up with a coarse mixture with pea sized lumps of butter visible.
Add the buttermilk all at once along with the lemon zest and currants and mix gently with a wooden spoon. Mix just until the dough is holding together slightly. If the mixture seems dry, add a little more buttermilk. You will want to see butter pieces at this point still. They are important to add to the flakiness of the scones.
I then dump the whole mixture straight onto a Silpat lined cookie sheet and pat and knead slightly just so the raggedy edges are incorporated. Do not overwork. Pat the dough into a couple of rounds about 1-1/2 inches thick.
Cu
Cut the rounds into 6 triangle wedges each and space them out on the sheet. Brush the tops with the melted butter and then sprinkle with sugar.
Bake the scones in a 400 F oven until the tops are lightly browned, approximately 25-35 minutes. Serve as soon as possible.
piecedgoods 
