Blackberry Cream Scones

Friday I posted an instragram photo of my previous fail making these yummy morsels. Both Gordon and I agreed they were so bad that the remaining 6 went into the trash! I used baking soda instead of baking powder! And because I am a curious girl I went looking to see why that was a bad mistake! It turns out that too much baking SODA can give the product a bitter or soapy taste. But when you add an acid, which baking POWDER has in the form of cream of tartar, it neutralizes the bitterness. Ah, chemistry!!

So today, between sessions of conference, I was ready for a do-over on this very promising recipe.
I donned my apron (Nona's favorite pink one), assembled my ingredients, making sure to get baking POWDER, and set to work.

I made a couple of tweaks to this recipe- Friday the dough was too dry. I thought if I sifted the flour it might resolve that problem. Nope, so I just added more cream again. Is my cream to thick? (I love that problem!)

Another thing from Friday- when I folded in the blackberries they just got mooshed into a pulp. So I divided the dough and put them in between two layers.

Cut the circle into 8 pieces-

Transfer to a parchment* lined baking sheet-

Bake to a yummy golden brown-

This is a wonderful, toothsome treat- (even after you drop it on the floor!) They are very light, moist and delicious!

Right down to the last crumbs!!

Maybe next time I will add a little cinnamon to the dough, maybe top it with some sweetened whipped cream.

**
Funny story about the parchment paper.  I had a new roll in my food storage in the dungeon. When Bekah was here Camille came down to visit. The three of us were talking and cooking and the Bitties were playing in the dungeon with toys. Usually that isn't a problem. But for some reason, THIS-day it became extraordinarily quiet. When I went to check I found that they had opened the parchment paper box on the end and unrolled miles of paper looking for the chocolate chip cookies that surely MUST be inside since they were pictured on the outside of the box!

Bekah said, "Here Me-Mum. Just let me re-roll it!" She did, straightening the somewhat mangled paper, some torn off with jagged edges.  Each time I get out this roll now I chuckle about my Bitties, looking for cookies!

Blackberry Cream Scones
by Liz Berg

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup fresh blackberries
• 1 cup heavy cream (I needed to add 2-3 Tbs more)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Line baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
2. Placer flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into the food processor and pulse to mix.
3. Remove lid and sprinkled the butter over the flour mixture. Pulse about 10-15 times till mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Transfer mixture to a large bowl.
4. Add vanilla paste to heavy cream, then stir in cream with a rubber spatula until the dough starts to come together. Pour out bowl contents onto a floured surface, and knead a few times, then carefully knead in the blackberries. I sprinkled a few on top, folded the dough over and repeated. You don't want to overwork the dough.
5. Form dough into an 8-inch round (alternatively, you can press into an 8-inch cake pan lined with parchment, then carefully flip out). Cut into 8 wedges
6. Place wedges on baking sheet and bake until tops are light brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This is NOT my original recipe! 

All credit goes to Liz Berg of That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Tomatoes? Already?

Yes, I've planted my tomatoes already! A full 8 weeks before the normal planting date! The earliest I've ever put out my plants!

I told some friends at the Temple I was going to do this and one asked, "What if they freeze?" Well, then I'll jank them out and replant! Sounds pretty straight forward to me! But with our early spring I hate to see anymore of these warm days go by without at least trying!

Kaia, 11, Kevin's oldest daughter, is earning money so she can participate in a humanitarian effort with her church's youth group this summer in Guatemala. She posted on Kevin's Facebook page that she was looking for work.  Well, this Grammie just happened to be able to provide some of that!

So lasterday I texted Camille and asked if Kaia would like to help me with yard work. I'd just picked up a yard and a half of compost (aka centrifuged sewer sludge) which equals one heaping pickup load of compost! Fernando was really low on his poor old haunches! And speaking of haunches... this ol' Grammie can only make so many step-ups into the back of Fernando to scoop out said compost. (Looks like I might need to add some kind of stair-stepping exercise to my daily routine) I literally get to the point, after several dozen ups and downs with my short-Grammie-legs, that they will not lift me up. Last spring I almost feel over backwards on my last attempt. So I knew I would need some young legs to help me!

Camille came down with Kaia, Elise and the babies. Elise wanted to help too... she's quite the worker! They arrived just in time to finish the compost unload.

Miss Bitty thought she could help too. She had so much fun playing in the dirt. At first Camille was concerned that Miss Bitty was dumping it into undesignated locations... no worries! It made her very happy...

And very dirty! This is the cutest little dirty baby!

By the time they left we had the tomatoes planted, complete with water walls, and all but one wheelie-cartload of compost spread.

So here's looking forward to tomatoes; sweet, garden-fresh tomatoes in June!

Waiting for Liam

When you're a tiny girl waiting can be hard...

Although Fiona was able to go to the hospital to see Mommy and Daddy in the lobby each day she wasn't able to meet her new baby brother due to flu season.

Finally, after three long days of waiting, Mommy would be coming home and bringing Liam and Daddy! We thought it would be nice to go get balloons for this new sweet sibling. Fortunately as we were walking into the store it occurred to this Grammie that Miss Bitty-girl would NEED a balloon too! The trip home was a little stressful for Fiona trapped in the backseat with balloons wanting to attack her... good thing it's just a short jaunt.

After tying the *Happy Liam* balloons to the mailbox we couldn't bear to go inside. How many warm February days do we get in Utah? (Well, actually this month every day so far has been in the high 50s and today was 68°!)

We walked up and down her street several times finding many treasures, running, saying hi to all and practicing stepping up and down all by ourselves without using hands!

After such a busy morning we needed to have a nice peanut buttah-louw-unch! This Bitty-girl is crazy for peanut butter! Her Grampy taught her the delights of peanut butter straight from the jar on Sunday night just after Liam's arrival! Yes, and Grammie accommodated every request from this Bitty-girl for pb-straight-up on a spoon!

Then it was time for a story or two, snuggles with Grammie, a bottle and a nap...

She woke up happy and we played a little game. She is a funny girl, every time I get out my iPhone for a pix she comes running to see what photo I'm taking... but you get the idea of this darling, somewhat blurry, face.

At last the time arrived! Miss Bitty waited at the window most patiently to wave as Daddy brought the rest of her family home. (Camille said it made her cry to see this little cherub waving at her through the window.)

This look! This wonderful, most precious look sums up Miss Bitty's opinion about her new brother!

And we all think he is pretty awesome!

LIAM- 19 HOURS OLD

(Liam will get his very own post tomorrow)

As an aside-

I ruminate at night when I'm trying to fall asleep. One night I lay there thinking of the level trust given me by MY precious daughter to provide care for her MOST PRECIOUS daughter for the past 3 days. My cup runneth over!

And now, today, here alone at Grammie's own house I'm having Miss Bitty withdrawals! Good thing we can FaceTime!!

In Her Mama's Chair

Miss Fiona came to spend the afternoon at Grammie's house while Mommie did her last day of school training before summer (YAY!) and Daddy took the *bigs* back home. After a nap on Grammie's big bed, with Grammie, it was time for some lunch.

One of the first things she did when I put her in the highchair was hook her little toes under the edge of the stainless steel tray.

That is when the memories started rolling in. It seems like only yesterday that this sturdy little highchair was Mama's meal-time seat.

This happy little highchair has been host to several generations of children. It joined our family almost 48 years ago when my sister, Sue, got it for her first baby, Cindy. After two more babies at her house Sue gave it to me for Spencer. He used it until I got a second highchair in preparation for twins. It even took a trip to Rebekah's house for several years (where it got recovered with white vinyl) before it came back to me.

Now it gets occasional use from visiting grandbabies.

Happy little friend!

MY *Awkward Family Photo*

I have to make a disclaimer at the beginning of this post... of all the sewing I did for my kids (and it was tons) this is the only epic awkward fail!

I got the great idea to make matching outfits for the kids and I for Easter 1993. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but the fabric choice... yeah, within a few weeks I began to question it.

And after I saw this photo I think the whole kit and caboodle went to Goodwill!

This is the days before digital... so I have a series of shots taken that are similar to this. I would set the timer, run to get into the photo and then try to look all cool and collected. Fortunately one of the kids 'fessed up that they'd been goofing off in the photos so I did get ONE group shot where we all looked normal... even if our cloths were...erm... interesting!

But look at my darling children! They never complained.

Spencer, 9.

Camille, 7 1/2.

Stuart, 7 1/2.

These photos have produced a lot of laughter in the last 21 years. Now I think I am brave enough to show them to the world...

I just have one thing to say... be kind!

The Joy of Photos

I've said this before but my memory works like photographs; I have a whole library of mental images. I think that is one of the reasons I love photographs so much. They freeze a moment in time and when I look at them all of the emotions from that moment come back to me with clarity.

After finishing the 8 bridesmaid dresses the next item on my To-Do list was to scan photos of Stuart for a video presentation to be shown at the groom's dinner (aka rehearsal dinner) and the reception. I leafed through 21 years of photos and pulled out the ones I liked the best; the ones that captured Stuart for me.

Not many days later Stuart informed me that he looked goofy in all of the photos (and that's MY fault?) He looked through 15 years of photos, marked ones he wanted me to add to or replace. I sent them off to Liz and told her she would have to get with Stuart to pick the ones that don't look goofy!

This whole *search and scan exercise* got me infected with photo-phever again! I want to be able to share these wonderful memories with my kids... you know, the ones who made these wonderful memories.

Working in no particular order I started in 1993 and decided to scan every page and label them chronologically so they will *read* like the paper photo album. (I have about 6 years scanned)

It didn't take long before this photo jumped of the page at me! Look at these beautiful girls! Rebekah and Megan were room-mates at BYU before Rebekah got married. So when Megan and Erik got married two years later I captured these two friends, and now sisters. I just want to cry with love for these two beautiful girls who have matured into wonderful mothers and women.

August 23, 1994

Another of my favorites is this one of Rebekah and Spencer. Rebekah is wearing a cute little jumper I made for her to wear in the ward road show. Spencer is just 2 months old; the same age his little Annabelle!

March 3, 1984

And here are Camille and Stuart when they were only 7 months old... just about the age of little Fiona. How is this happening to me? This fast forward of 30 years?

May 1986

OK... and then there's this one of my babies with mustaches...

 DRAWN BY DADDY WITH A PERMANENT INK MARKER!

He said they liked it. What really happened was he liked to vex the mama because they wouldn't wash off! Can you see how unbelievable cute these babies are?

April 1987

And my beautiful Rebekah again. She is 13.5. When I was that age I looked like a boy (Stuart, in fact, and whereas it looked good on him at 13.5, it didn't work so well for me!)

May 1987

No list of favorite photos would be complete without this one! These precious little children! What a joy! We have two more re-enactments of this photo. Camille just commented that we need to do that again. Wouldn't that be fun with them and their spouses and kids?

August 1989

And here is that same cute group... 1st day of school 1995. Spencer is starting 6th grade and Camille and Stuart are starting 5th grade. Such happy siblings.

July 26, 1995

I'm so grateful for all of these happy photo and memories! What a blessed life I have!

Old Towel Gets New Life

You all know that I am a sap, a romantic, a head-in-the-clouds-kinda-girl, but I can't help it when I see things that make me happy, when I see history repeat itself.

About 28 years ago, when Camille was just a six-month old baby, my dear friend, Auntie P, gave me several pieces of terry cloth. I immediately fashioned a hooded bath towel from a wonderful 60s era floral print. (I'm pretty sure this was a find of Edna's at DI) Camille used that happy little towel for many years before she outgrew it.

At some point I put it in the basket of pool towels that lived outside the back door. And when we moved to Utah, hence no pool, it went to live in my rag-towel basket under the bathroom counter. Which is were I found it when baby-Fiona arrived. I KNEW she would need her Mama's cute little hooded bath towel.

Recently, while on Grammie-duties, baby-Fi had a blow out and needed a bath (oh no, poor Grammie!) so I got to do my favorite thing... give baby a sink bath. I did a quick pre-bath search and found this old-friend, happy to be needed again (just like Grammie!)

Fiona

Our little Fiona, Camille and Kevin's first baby girl, arrived on 10 September 2013 at 1:46pm. She weighed 8 lb 1 oz, was 20.5" tall AND she was eight days late! (The good news is that they don't let mamas go three weeks over-due anymore!) We are so grateful to have her here!

Camille checked into Orem Community Hospital Monday evening to be induced, since baby-cakes didn't want to get things started on her own. Not every thing went as planned, because of complications it was decided that Fiona needed to be born by C-section. Kevin, the family and I all discussed how even 100 years ago he would very likely have lost one or both of them... yes, we are so grateful to have baby Fiona here save and sound.

We were allowed to watch through the window while they did the C-section (and, yes, I got LOTS of photos, but I won't be showing them around any time soon!) It was the most interesting thing to watch... a couple of times I had to look away (look out of the way!). But the whole process helped me understand why women with C-sections take a while to heal.

They cleaned little Fiona up quickly and sent Daddy out to show the rest of the family! Here she is... only 11 minutes old!

As my mother-in-law used to say, being born is "no joke"! Poor little Fi was pretty swollen for a couple of days.

Here she is 1-day old.

I love watching Camille with her new baby... you'd never know she was a first-time mom!

Fiona at 2 days.

After four days it was time for the new little family to head home. Fiona's first time in "for-real" baby-girl clothes.

Fiona's first impression of being in her car seat was not a happy one! But here she is having her first car ride.

Bye-bye Baby Fi! You are headed to a wonderful, loving home.

We are so glad to have you in our family!

Another Move for Miss Camille

This marks the end of six years of teaching for Miss Camille! And wouldn't you know it? Time for another move! (If you want to read more about our previous adventures click here or here)

Westmore Elementary has a brand-new building built adjacent to the old 1950s building that they've been in since, you guessed it!, the 1950s!

But, here's the problem... school ended on May 30th and the teachers needed to have all of their stuff moved to their new room THAT SAME DAY! ACK!!! I went on Tuesday to help Camille and we worked until she was exhausted (she'd taught all day and then put in another day's work packing)... we knew there was still a lot left for us to do on Thursday, the next day I could come and help her.

Miss Camille in her new room!

You know the old adage- "many hands makes light work"? It is so true. Desi and Alex came over to help us finish. But let's be honest here... Alex was the real hero here! It is a definite advantage when one set of those *many hands* are strong man-hands. Alex schlepped desks, bookcases and stacky-stackyertons like only a young man can do! He did in 3 hours what it would have taken Camille and I alone three times as long to accomplish! Once again, a big thank you to Alex!

So it's *good-bye* to good ol' room 4! I can promise you that this room has never been this empty since its birth 60 years ago... (and the collection of accumulated junk from all past teachers that Miss Camille inherited? She passed it on to a very deserving intern teacher who will be teaching the newly created 4th first grade class this year)

My favorite thing about the old building! Teeny kindergarten sized toilets!

October Birthdays

... and, boy, is it crowded!

You know how they say a picture's worth a thousand words? I knew we had a lot of October birthdays... but it wasn't until I turned the page on my calendar that Camille made us for Christmas that I realize JUST HOW MANY!!



Roxie, Camille and Jessica blowing out their birthday candle...



And Uncle Stuey, with help from Roxie and Sophie (Actually Sophie changed her mind when she got up close and personal with the candle. But no worries- Uncle Stuey was there to save the day.)