Cheesy

A couple of days ago saw another fluky win at Scrabble, significantly helped by hanging the seven letter word 'burnish' off 'hire' by means of a linking 'r', just a couple of rounds into the game. What with the double word and the seven letter word bonus, that made the score 86. A lead which I hung onto for the rest of the game. BH was a little put out, declined to use the remaining slot on the score card, which she consigned to the bin.

I celebrated with a round of cheese scones, something we do not seem to have had for a while. Perhaps the colder weather brings them on. Them being a triple take on the Whitworth's recipe, that is to say 12oz of flour, which makes a dozen scones. Four of them we were left after the first shift, three of them were still left in the morning, but they were all gone by around noon, what with morning coffee and one thing and another.

A recipe which is simple and reliable, taking maybe half an hour from getting the flour out to the scones being on the table, but which does not seem to be much used commercially, with fresh cheese scones being a rarity, at least in the sort of places we use. Perhaps if one goes to the Savoy or to Claridge's for tea one can get a proper scone - at some very inflated price.

While BH explains that television celebrity chefs favour very high rise scones, involving a very wet mix or extra raising agents or both. Some even fuss about cutter action, with the twist that I use to finish the cut being alleged to be bad for the rise. But then I suppose that they are paid to be always dreaming up something new to say.

On the other hand, I have read that wet dough is also needed for high rise bread, something I have failed to make satisfactorily, despite having had just 700 goes at it now, counting both white and brown bread. Don't see how one can handle, let alone knead, wet dough. While finished seed cake mix, much wetter than my finished bread dough, does not get handled at all, the whole job being done with a wooden spoon. But there one is using raising agents and cake flour, rather than yeast and strong flour. All very puzzling.

In the margins, I was interested to read first (reference 1) of the huge amount of money that has been spent on hanging steel nets under the sidewalks on the Golden Gate Bridge, in an effort to reduce the number of suicides, which had been running at the order of 30-40 a year. One might have thought that doing something about the railings, just over four feet high, would have been cheaper, but no doubt they knew what they are doing. Perhaps the heritage people objected to any change in the appearance of said railings. And second (reference 2) that the Daily Mail has now latched onto my moaning about all the hire cycles and scooters littering the streets of central London and beyond. They point more to the hazard to the blind rather than to the unsightly mess. They also say that the Mayor does not have the power needed to regulate the hirers - but is working on central government to get it. A reminder, if nothing else, of the tenacity with which central government hangs onto what should be local powers.

References

Reference 1: What the Golden Gate Is (Finally) Doing About Suicides: After years of pressure from victims’ families, the installation of $217 million in steel netting is almost complete - John Branch, Jim Wilson, New York Times - 2023.

Reference 2: E-bike scourge of London: Pressure grows on Sadiq Khan to ban the two-wheeled gadgets that are hijacked by yobs and litter pavements and streets - John James, Daily Mail - 2023.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-lost-car-key-episode-2.html. This appears to be the last notice of commercial scones, from the Sainsbury's at Kiln Lane of all places.