Home from our Seattle visit, trying to catch up on my blog reading, I was sitting in my reading chair next to our bed.  I was reading Joanna’s Joanna’s Food.  

‘Honey From A Weed’ how’s that for a cookery book title?  It’s the kind of title to a book I absolutely get hooked on and pick up or go searching for immediately.  This book is now on order from Amazon.  Oh gadfry, yes another cook book but I think it’s more than recipes.

I think my very favorite book title that I picked up on pure whim in the spur of a ten minute buying spree one summer will always be “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character”.   Every summer I drove our two boys to our place on Lake Michigan for anywhere from 10 days to 3 weeks.   As Jason once told me “It’s the best time because there is no schedule.”  I guess I think of it as their ‘Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn Days’.  In actual fact there was order to those days we spent there and one such order was I would read aloud to them at bed time.   So I always went book shopping before we left.  The library was not an option because there was no way to renew a book without physically taking it in.  (Love the library on the internet today!!!)  The boys were about 14 and 11.  They were so captivated by the story telling and science that we watched for the next one Feynman’s “What Do You Care What Other People Think?: The Further Adventures of a Curious Character” and I read them that one.  Neither is a children’s book.  They are both autobiographical.  The sub-sub-title of the first is ‘The Outrageous Exploits of the World’s Most Outspoken Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist’. He’s the guy who called for the glass of water at the Challenger investigation and showed how the o-rings cracked after they froze.  If you enjoy reading about lives, I think you’d find both of these excellent.

Goodness, I haven’t even told you what we’re about here have I . . . 

There will be a recipe for the Blueberry Oatmeal Scones . . . later.  Well, unless my fingers wear out.

This is actually about a meme that Joanna has put me up to.   The meme directs:

    1.  Pick up the nearest book.
    2. Open to page 123.
    3. Find the fifth sentence.
    4. Post the next three sentences.
    5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

I currently am reading two books. 

How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science by Paula Figoni

and

House of Abraham: Lincoln & The Todds, A Family Divided By War by Stephen Berry

Either of those books would have been excellent for this meme.

One would have given us

As the Arkansas steamed into the elbow where the Yazoo meets the Mississippi, it was sighted by three federal patrol boats: the ironclad Carondelet, the wooden gunboat Tyler, and the ram Star of the West.  The Carondelet was the most storied and the most dangerous, having participated in the campaigns against Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and Memphis.  The Tyler, being wooden, was vulnerable, and the Star of the West’s firepower was limited to whatever potshots its men could take with their rifles.  All three reversed course to avoid the Arkansas’s bow ram, and the Carondelet and Tyler commenced firing with their aft guns.

The other would have given us

Each is unique because of the differences in regional practices.  Most come in varying degrees of color, from golden to dark brown, depending on how they are boiled.  The sugar is generally consumed where it is produced, but quantities are available through specialty distributors, as interest in the unique flavor of each region’s sugar has grown. 

I leave it to you to decide which quote goes with which book.  But those two books were both in the next room on my desk.  I picked up the book to my right and got the following:

Some are made with sponges or other pre-ferments, some by the direct-dough method.  Some versions are immediately fermented and then shaped and baked, while some require overnight chilling.    The anecdotal history of this bread includes allusions to Queen Marie Antoinette, whose last words are reputed to be properly translated as “Let them eat brioche,” and not “Let them eat cake.”

Now wasn’t it neat that it didn’t turn out to be just a list of ingredients like this oatmeal scone recipe very loosely adapted from  Baking Illustrated: The Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker.  (No, the last quote is not from this book.)

Blueberry Oatmeal Scones

190g (1.5 cups)  (4.5 oz) old-fashioned rolled oats

270ml  (9.5 oz) buttermilk

1 large egg

115g (1.5 cups) whole wheat pastry flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

150g (10 tablespoons) butter

2 or 3 handfulls dried fruit - blueberry, cherry what do you like

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.  Toast oats on baking sheet in oven until lightly brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Pre-heat oven to 450°F

I store my extra butter in the freezer.  For a recipe like this or biscuits and pie crust, I use the largest holed grater to grate the butter.   I return the grated butter to the freezer for 5 or 10 minutes.

Whisk liquid ingredients: buttermilk and egg.  Set aside 1 tablespoon to glaze tops before topping with brown sugar (this is extra not in the recipe).

Whisk together dry ingredients: cooled oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Dump the grated frozen butter into the dry ingredients and lightly mix.  Sometimes I’ll use a pastry cutter on this or two knives to cut it in a bit more but it may not even need that.

Now, drop in the dried fruit and gently mix in the wet with the dry.

Dust counter with flour and turn dough onto it.  I use my hands to flatten and shape the dough into a long narrow rectangle. 

Brush with reserved buttermilk and top with brown sugar. Cut triangle scones down the length of the dough. Place on parchment or silpat baking sheet.  Bake at 450° for about 14 to 15 minutes. 

I baked 5 of these (two were the odd shaped ends)  and put the remaining ones on a cookie sheet and froze them.  When frozen I wrapped and returned to the freezer for use over the next two weeks.  I bake them from the frozen state and they still only take an extra minute or two to bake.

I’m counting on the five people I tag to be adults when I tag them “You’re It.”  That means they do have a choice so meme or no.

Susan from WildYeastBlog because her yeast is cultured and wild.

Lynn at CookieBakerLynn because her cookies have star quality.

Michelle at AccidentalScientist because she’s in Hawaii and hosting HotM 15 this month.

Katie at ThymeForCooking because we share memories of TV plus.

Amanda at LittleFoodies because she doesn’t have enough to do :0) with all the Littles and I hope she won’t take another month off!

Can you guess what bread book the brioche quote is from?  See how generous I am, I even tell you it’s a bread book.

And who tagged me?  Such a testy girl I am on Mother’s Day.  Joanna tagged me.

Have a Beautiful Day!!