up early. feeling good. ready to have a productive day. everywhere around me, i see piles and stacks. stack of clean laundry that needs to be put away. stacks of mail, magazines, and other junk that needs to be sorted. even a stack of music to learn. how does it accumulate? it seems like every time i get it all cleaned up, new sky-scrapers reappear behind my back ~ a little city growing up around me.

is this normal, or am i doing something terribly wrong?

i like to blame it on my small apartment, but maybe my previous apartment had more nooks and crannies to hide the piles, leading me to believe that there were no piles to address.

in fact, the whole experience in my last apartment, i realize now, was a mirage, hiding truths and leading me to believe that everything was okay. i'm sure i set it up that way because i couldn't handle the truth, as jack nicholson says in the firm. can you quote a movie you've never seen?

anyway, i lived very comfortably and thought i was doing just fine financially and emotionally. but i blindly dipped into my settlement money every month to pad my much-to-be-desired income, while shopping whenever i wanted and buying really expensive groceries and alcohol. but during this time of divorce and total life upheaval, if you had asked me to curb my spending and not buy necessities, like cuervo gold tequila, i would have punched you in the face and stolen your wallet.

now that i don't need tequila (and neither does my waistline), and am not seeing my budget through those infamous tequila goggles, i can face facts and the facts are ~ i'm so glad that settlement money was there for me when i really needed it. but i don't need it, or want it now. i'm glad i have to face my piles and organize every little thing just to make it all fit into my cute little space. i want to run a tight ship here. i know exactly how much i can spend each week and i really appreciate everything i buy because of that. and by the time i have saved up enough money to buy a place of my own, i want everything to be organized and efficient.

maybe you all figured this stuff out earlier than i did, but better late than never, right?

buttermilk scones

don't walk ~ RUN to your kitchen and make these scones as soon as you possibly can. they will make you a better person. bigger, but better. it's worth it. i mean, come on, look outside. you need an extra layer of fat on your body to survive this crazy weather. right?

okay, these are buttermilk scones with dried cherries and orange. i found this recipe in a food magazine we get in kc and the writer recommends these alternate combinations: dried blueberries and lemon zest, dried cranberries and ginger, or dried apricots and toasted hazelnuts. yumm. she (i can't imagine the writer being a he ~ only a woman who has suffered great PMS symptoms could have come up with this amazing recipe) also mentions that you can omit the sugar and they become warm dinner biscuits. oh no.

i humbly admit that i personally tweaked this recipe to absolute perfection. i'm not to the recipe-creating level yet, but i'm one great recipe tweaker.

ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar, plus more for rolling

zest of 1 orange (save the orange for the icing)

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/2 cup dried sour cherries

3/4 cup cold buttermilk

powdered sugar

in a food processor, add the flour, sugar, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda and salt. pulse for 10 seconds to blend well. add the cold butter pieces and pulse until it becomes pea-sized pieces throughout. add the cherries and buttermilk and pulse until the dough holds together in big clumps. scrape the contents out of the bowl and onto a big piece of plastic wrap. roll it all into a log with the plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge while you clean up your kitchen and check a few e-mails. or work out, maybe? because you're going to do some damage when these puppies come out of the oven.

preheat oven to 425 degrees. sprinkle sugar over the dough and roll the log around to coat all sides. slice the dough in thick, 3/4 inch slices and place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silpat lining. bake for 12-14 minutes, or until firm to the touch and golden brown.

make an icing with powdered sugar and the juice of that orange you saved. drizzle on while hot and it will seep through the scones and oh my goodness. i added this step because i thought these scones would be dry, like scones usually are. but they aren't at all, so you don't need to do this. but it is so delectable.

i also added the part where you don't roll the dough out. you just form it into a log. it's so much easier and you won't be working the dough and making it tough. you won't get those pretty scone-shaped triangles, but you won't even notice that when you are stuffing them in your mouth and giggling with utter joy. eat them warm, and don't share them, unless you want a marriage proposal.

gotta go to the gym! just writing about these scones made my butt bigger!