01/03/2011

I had a quite day. I go up, feed & let out Hank (my bull-mastiff), made breakfast of an egg white & toast then relaxed while watching a documentary on Buddha. I never knew he went to all those extremes to find Nirvana. I suppose the worth of the object equals the amount of struggle that it takes to obtain that object. In other words to obtain enlightenment he has to endure great trials of mind & body for his soul to reach the understanding of the balance. I am by no means a Buddhist. I do believe in reincarnation & the school of thought that what you put out you get back three fold. I believe we should live in balance & that we are connected to everything in this world. So often humans think of themselves in the pretext that we are above or disconnected from our world. We are slowly beginning to realize that we are connected. We need to find that middle road so that we can live in balance with our world.

Ok, I will stop preaching, (for now). I am at a point in my life where everything is changing. I am going to school, Clay & I are talking about where we want to move. Whether we want to stay in the US or move to the UK. (Yes E. I am thinking somewhere I can hop a train & have tea with you.)  We have so many friend over seas & I keep think it would be better for our childeren's education to grow up in Finland, (sorry Great grandma I am going back) or Cern. I just don't feel that confident in the US school systems. Not when the us is the 18th in the 36 industrial nations. Or where only 75 percent receive their diplomas. Or U.S. students finished 15th in reading, 19th in math and 14th in science - and in a study that only ranked 31 nations.Source Link Not good for our future children or the future of out nation. Think about it. On top of all that those that do go to college: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development places the United States 18th among the 36 nations examined. & lets face it the fees keep most of us cringing at the thought of college. Sigh I just don't think we will stay in the US. I do want to stay long enough to have the child, (My mom & sister would kill me otherwise.) But it might not be an option. We will see what will come. LOL!

On the lighter side I did make Homemade scones.

Ingredients:
225g Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 Fructose (or sugar)
50g Butter, softened
120 ml Milk
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 Cup dried Fruit (I used craisins)



Directions:
Preheat oven, or toaster oven in our case today, to 200°C (392°F).
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and fructose in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter (or fork).
In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Reserve 20ml of the mixture and set aside. Take the ca.100ml and mix with the dry ingredients to form a dough. Add more flour as needed. Toss in dry fruit and fold the dough until all dry fruit is evenly distributed.
Traditionally you would roll this out onto a flat surface with a rolling pin to a 1-2 cm thick dough and use a biscuit cutter, but since my husband couldn’t find the rolling pin, he rolled the dough into a big log and cut and sliced off 6 rounds.
Place the dough rounds on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.