Cornmeal Cheddar Scones

Not all scones have to be sweet you know. ;-)

Cornmeal Cheddar Scones

1 1/2 cups Baking Mix
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons cold butter cut into chunks
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
Cayenne pepper for dusting the tops

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium bowl, stir together Baking Mix, cornmeal and sugar. Cut in butter until it resembles small peas. Stir in shredded cheese. Make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, combine egg and buttermilk; mix well. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and mix lightly until incorporated. Do not overmix.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for 4 or 5 turns. Roll or pat dough into a circle 7 inches in diameter. Cut into 6 wedges and place on a baking sheet. Make sure to leave enough room between the scones as they will rise a bit and spread out. Brush the top of each scone with a little milk and sprinkle with cayenne pepper.
Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes until golden brown.

These sold really well today at the Farmer's Market. Actually, everything did, which is always a good thing when dealing with perishable products! I only ended up with five muffins leftover. Can you say Sunday morning breakfast?!? LOL!!  
Sharing with Farmgirl Friday and Farm Fresh Friday on Saturday!

Old Mescal

Here are some more pictures taken at the Old Mescal movie set just to the north of us. It does look like an old west town out in the middle of the high desert, huh?!?

We can actually see the movie set up on the hill from the front door. Let's take a closer look at the big brick building on the right.

Why look, it's the saloon building from the movie The Quick and The Dead starring Sharon Stone and Russell Crowe!! A little the worse for wear but still pretty cool! :)

Linking up with Lisa and Nancy for Rural Thursday.

Tuesday's Tails - June 05, 2012

For the past several days, every evening about dusk, the mule deer come wandering through the front yard. They are stopping to nibble on the fallen yucca flowers. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I was shooting through the front window. :)

Uh oh! I've been spotted! The one on the left is a young buck, you can see his little antlers.

Off they go to see what they can find to eat at the neighbors' place! There are seven deer in this picture (two butts on the far left). There were at least five or six more in this particular group. I'm glad to see they are finding something to eat this year, as opposed to last year.

Farmer's Market - June

We had our opening for the St. David Farmer's Market this past Saturday. For awhile there, we weren't even sure if we were going to have a market this year, the board members were getting burned out. Anyway, it all came together and the vendors and the community were glad! :) We aren't a real big market but we do have nice community support and lots of regular customers. It is still a wee bit early for most summer produce here but one of the vendors has a lovely greenhouse and she brought some amazing tomatoes, cucumbers and Swiss chard. Another of our produce vendors brought lots of greens, onions, potatoes and garlic. We also had local salsa and honey and several vendors had eggs. I took baked goods. In the past, I have taken yeast breads, rolls, and artisan breads but decided to change things this year. I have expanded my offerings to include cookies, brownies, muffins, and scones and will cut back on the breads. I wasn't having as much fun as I used to and by changing things up a bit, I have rediscovered the joy that baking brings me!

Things went well for our first market, everyone seemed to have a good day, and I'm looking forward to this coming Saturday. I know I need to make twice as many scones as last week and more brownies too! LOL!!

Sunday Photo - Oxen

Meet Fluffy and Cuddles...yep, that is really their names! These guys came to the Farmer's Market yesterday to offer free wagon rides to anyone interested.

Their owner, one of our local doctors, is a big supporter of our Farmer's Market and really believes in eating locally grown foods. In fact, he raised these two behemoths from calves and trained them to the yoke so that he could use them to plow and plant wheat...and he does!! His family also harvests, cleans and grinds the wheat into flour for baking. I bought some flour from them a couple of years ago and really liked it!

Here is their "dad," Dr. Andy, standing next to them. To give you some perspective, he is 6'3'' tall. He walks beside and drives them with the whip. It's always fun when Fluffly and Cuddles come to visit, they hang out by the road and we get a lot of people stopping in just to see them and they usually come visit the vendors at the Farmer's Market too! ;-)

Linking up with Madge for Weekly Top Shot, Jan for Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday and Nancy for Your Sunday Best.

First of the Month - June

I'm joining Jan at Murrieta 365 for her First of the Month meme all this year. Here are the ground rules per her site: "The goal is to capture one thing repeatedly on the first of each month. It can be a landscape, a person, an animal, a project; whatever your focus is, is fine. It can even be a record of where you are each First of the Month."

Well, as I reported last month, I sold Abigail and her two little boys. I kept BW, the bottle baby, here until he was old enough to be weaned.


"Hi BW!!"




"Come here big guy!"




"No, I didn't bring you a bottle, I just wanted to pet you and take your picture!"


BW's new owners came and picked him up the other day. They were so impressed with how nice he looked and how much he had grown that they are considering leaving him a buck for breeding purposes.

He was such a character but, then again, most bottle babies are! :) I am going to miss him.

 
So, with the departure of BW, that ends the Abigail chapter. For next month, I will focus on my sweet little Daphne! She is even starting to convince Jerry that not ALL goats are full of mischief and a pain in the a**!!

Weeelll...maybe NOT!! ;-)

Wildfire Season In The West

The massive Whitewater-Baldy Complex wildfire burning in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico is over 100 miles from us but we were affected by it Thursday because of the wind blowing the smoke our way. For awhile, I felt like I was back in Los Angeles! There was a health advisory issued for sensitive people and you could smell the smoke and feel it burning your eyes in the afternoon.


Sunrise



Just before 6 A.M. looking south toward the Whetstone Mountains



Early afternoon looking north toward the Rincon Mountains

 

Early afternoon looking north, there really are some mountains in there!



Sunset and the smoke lingers

The good news, for us, is that the wind is supposed to shift tomorrow. Not such good news for El Paso. Some friends of ours have a cattle ranch just to the west of the fire in Arizona. We hope that everyone in the fire area is safe and that the brave firefighters can get this under control soon but it may not happen until the rains come in July. Linking up with Skywatch Friday.