spontaneous scones

I'm not usually compelled to bake during the summer -- probably because it's so hot and humid, I don't want to add to the madness, but today, I was watching PBS (this is why I can't pay for cable, I won't be able to get off the couch...I watch everything!) and caught an episode of "Baking with Julia"-- Child, that is. I normally don't following recipes from cooking shows, but 2 glorious things happened in this episode featuring the late Marion Cunningham. 1 - The episode featured breakfast pastries (read: i heart carbs) and 2 - They baked muffins, scones, Irish soda bread and popovers! All four in one episode! Under 30 minutes! Marion made popover batter in a blender! Needless to say, I had to try them.

I was a little hesitant after my biscuit mishap. I was mislead by a Miss Lily featured on another PBS show: "A Chef's Life". She pulled the whole, "a little bit of this, and a little bit of that and tada! biscuit!" I got half uncooked rocks. But Marion's scones? They came out great! I've never made scones or biscuits from scratch successfully, until now and while they're not out-of-this-world, they're pretty good considering the ingredients and how quick and effortless they are to make.

The ladies forget to mention how much butter to put in during the show so I had to find the recipe. In all honesty, the written instructions look far more complicated than what she demonstrated, outlined below.

Mix all dry ingredients, lemon zest and cold butter until the texture of cornmeal.

I forgot I wanted to add craisins, but I imagine it's best to add your fixin's in before the buttermilk, combine with a fork.

Knead very briefly - just to help bring the dough together.

Divide into 2 discs, flatten, brush with butter, sprinkle with sugar and cut each disc into 6 pieces.

Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes et voila!