Scones & school friends

Spending time with an old friend was a refreshing experience for me last week. We don't often see each other,  and  I am not usually the one saying "yes please" to an offer of a cup of tea.  More often than not I am busy bustling around serving the tea and cake. It was such a treat to plonk myself down, pick up one of her deeelicious pumpkin scones and enjoy the familiar comfort of deep friendship.  Ohh yes!

Our family went on a bit of a road trip. Not an easy endeavour with 7 children in tow. (Our oldest son had to stay home to work....ahhh the peace and quiet he says!!....)
We went to the city, the mountains and the country. I am looking forward to sharing with you some of our experiences on a farm staying with new friends.

Old friends and new friends.

They make life so rich.

Back to the scones....

My friend whipped these up in no time, helped by two of our peas in a pod who had such a beautiful time together (!!)

The scones were adapted from a standard recipe. Left over pumpkin soup was substituted for the water and milk. They worked out so well. The  colour and flavour were  perfect. 

 What I really loved about this particular day was the fact that we were left alone with only three of the children which gave us time to slow down, look at fabric, talk and talk and drink tea with scones!  We have 14 children between us.  While we love the buzz of having all of our children around us, sometimes it's nice to have a breather and enjoy lingering over a long cup of tea.

 (Good on the Dads!!)

We enjoyed apricot jam and cinnamon cream with our pumpkin scones. My friend insisted that fig jam would have been a more suitable accompaniment, but I loved what we had.

Scone Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 oz  (2 tablespoons ) butter

 Approx  3/4 cup  equal quantities of milk and water 

( or 3/4 cup left over pumpkin soup plus approx 1/4 cup water)

Method

Sift flour and salt into bowl, stir in sugar. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Pour nearly all the liquid in at once and mix to a soft dough. (Flours vary in the way they absorb liquid; if mixture is not soft enough, add remaining liquid.)

 Place on floured surface and knead lightly. Pat dough out to approximately 3/4 in. in thickness, and, using a 2 in cutter, cut into rounds. 

Place onto a greased baking tray , glaze with a little milk.

Bake in a very hot oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes approx 1 dozen

Enjoy!

XXX