Pop quiz! Oh, don’t complain; it’s just one question.

Suppose it is the beginning of spring break, which means you don’t have to go to class or to work. You’re going on a trip later in the week. You also have homework for class, and a 200 page manuscript to revise by mid-April. How do you spend the first few days of your break before you embark on your travels?

a) Do your homework assignment
b) Work on your manuscript
c) Clean your apartment

or

d) Bake a shit ton?

If you chose D), get out of my head.

These are lemonade scones–which I’ve never heard of, but apparently they’re somewhat known in Australia. I had some leftover lemonade from last week’s potluck, which I wanted to finish. The great thing about these is that they only ask for three ingredients: lemonade, cream, and self-rising flour. Well, it’s actually more than three ingredients if you make your own self-rising flour instead of going out to buy some. I actually recommend this, because it’s simple: for every cup of self-rising flour you need, just take 1 cup of all-purpose flour and mix it with 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Oh, and you may want to whisk 1 egg and brush it on the tops of the scones before you put them in the oven.

Most scones call for working in butter with dry ingredients. While I love butter (though perhaps not as much as Paula Deen), sometimes it’s a pain to work with, especially if you don’t have an electric mixer and mix everything by hand. These scones were fluffy even without butter–probably because of the fat from the cream. The lemon flavor is very faint. In fact, I wish it were stronger. Maybe put in lemon peel next time, or some sort of flavored extract. These reminded me more of biscuits (in the American understanding of the word) than what I’d consider scones. I do like biscuits, though. And I had iced tea leftover from my potluck, too, so I’d pour myself a cup and eat a lemonade scone. You could say I’m attempting to be Southern, in preparation for my Louisiana trip.

Now these are sweet potato muffins with crystallized ginger. I had some extra sweet potatoes. I also made the crystallized ginger because neither of the two grocery stores I frequent carried it.

I forgot to take a picture of the crystallized ginger on its own. I know that sweet potatoes and spices are autumnal/wintery, but I love them any time of year. Plus, these only have 3 tablespoons of canola oil in them–not that I’ve really been counting calories. My dress for the Louisiana wedding is loose and swingy, so I haven’t been fasting or upping the ante on my yoga-Pilates workouts.

Oh, and I also made Greek yogurt pancakes to finish some Greek yogurt I had in the fridge. So tender! But they were made on the stovetop and not baked.

Three conclusions:
1) I’m grateful for all the people on the Internet sharing recipes and writing about food.
2) I’ll kick myself for procrastinating from writing when I return home from this trip and realize I have a ton of things I must do. (But I have snacks for the trip down to Louisiana?)
3) I know I’m pretty ridiculous.