Strawberry Rhubarb Scones

Wowza,  this has surely been the longest I've gone without a blog post in the year I've been writing this. I was beginning to feel this emptiness inside that I couldn't quite put my finger on, then I realized it was the  urge to blog about baking. I have several excuses for my absense, the most prominent of which is that my computer is out of comission for a while thanks to a virus I'm pretty certain I got from Food Network's website, so beware! I didn't expect to get a cyber STD from such a reputable site, but I'm almost sure that's where it came from. Also, I started a new job, nay, new career, so that's been amazing and overwhelming in so many ways. I'm only baking one day a week, and that's not going to last much longer. So then I'm sure the blog will be abuzz with all the baking I'm sure to do when I'm not forced to do it 40+ hours a week to make a living. I lie awake at night thinking of the fun things I'll make, and the doorsteps I'll leave it on, because I'm bound to get pudgy if we eat it all, and we can't have that  now...

It's the middle of glorious summer, and that means there's a great bounty of fresh fruits to enjoy. I recently went strawberry picking, and there's nothing like a warm handful of sun-kissed strawberries to make you feel like a kid on summer vacation again. A lot of us still have rhubarb hanging on too, so I made up some of my tasty strawberry rhubarb scones.

Strawberry Rhubarb Scones

-3 1/2 cups flour

- 1 cup sugar

- 2 cups buttermilk

-2 eggs

-1 stick butter

- 1/2 cup chopped strawberries

-1/2 cup chopped rhubarb

- 1 1/2 T. baking powder

-2 t. vanilla

-1/2 t. salt

-Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl whisk the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk together to combine. using a cheese grater or pastry knife, cut butter into dry mixture until it resembles small peas. Fold the wet mixture into the dry and fold until just combined. Gently fold in strawberries and rhubarb, and spoon 1/4 cup or so dollops with a spoon onto a greased cookie sheet and bake 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in comes out clean. Devour.

Scone recipes often call for heavy cream, and I'm not going to pretend like that's not delicious. But, by using buttermilk, you can cut out approximately 10+ grams of fat PER SCONE. And they're still amazing.

These are the ideal summer baked good, and an awesome way to use the scores of rhubarb and berries that seem to be everywhere in the middle of the scorching summer heat. They're extra delicious with a nice smear of strawberry or rhubarb jam.

On that note, I'll be back to my regular blogging schedule from now on. Life has settled down, and I've learned patience with the ancient crappy laptop I have to use until my lovely computer is fixed from it's trist with a nasty website, so I should be up and running from now on. Enjoy!