Baking again

I used to bake a lot...in fact I made quite a few wedding and birthday cakes years ago, but I also have a weakness for breads and carbs in general.  Unfortunately, those turn into sugar when they settle in your system and I have been trying to watch my sugars. I have been pretty successful so far.  However, that has limited my baking! I find that I am not the only one with this love for breads and my neighbor, bless her soul, sparked the need to find a scone recipe that wasn't too sweet.  In fact we were on the quest to bake biscotti.  How sad is it that friends have to schedule time together by checking their calendars. This biscotti lesson was scheduled days ago and last night I scheduled a quilt trip with a friend for a date the two of us could find  open.  Even that was difficult.  We just are blessed to be able to stay so busy with these friends.  So these are the scones that I tried and I would make them again, tweaking the recipe a bit.  This one had chocolate chips which I would eliminate and dried cranberries which work really well. I would also cut them a bit bigger...8 pieces rather than 12.  It was a pretty basic recipe, not too sweet, which could be adapted and I will make it again.  We did make the biscotti...carbs again...but it is also a "go to" recipe and perhaps I will post it another time.  Baking is always more enjoyable when you do it with friends.

"Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting." ~ anonymous

Trunk re-do

This is an old trunk that I purchased over 20 years ago and it has followed me for the six moves since.  It was always my intent to refinish it in some manner and is in relatively good shape.  I discovered that it does have original hardware although some had been painted and the leather handles have been replaced.  The tray is missing, but the paper inside (sorry I forgot to take a picture), is in wonderful shape.  Finally I began that process this week. I first stained the wood with a can of some stain that I already had on hand and it really looks great.  Then I proceeded to paint it with another jar of acrylic paint that I found at Hobby Lobby on sale for little or nothing. The last step was to embellish the hardware with "rub and buff" .  I did spray it with an all purpose clear matte spray. Forgot to mention that it was actually pretty dirty, so I spent some time just cleaning it with some steel wool and a soft cloth and mild all-purpose cleaner.  The canvas had a few worn places but all in all not bad so I did not attempt to remove it.

I am totally please with the results and can cross one more thing off my bucket list!