Happy Birthday Your Majesty.

Today is Queen Elizabeth's Birthday. It is her 94th birthday. It is usually a time she celebrates with close family and friends while we all celebrate her birthday publicly with the Trooping of the colors scheduled for June 13th in London. At this time we don't know if this will carry on but I do hope it will. 

I watched over the weekend, a video from a former Palace Chef Darren McGrady on how he made scones for the Queen.  In honor of her birthday I thought I would give them a try.

I will be honest that I did not have the right sized cookie cutter and all though I love the idea of these, I did not find that mine rose as nicely as Chef McGrady's did. They were yummy for sure, but I like my way better. I was really surprised to learn that the Queen apparently puts her jam on first!
I truly enjoyed watching this video and I hope you do too. Cheers to hopefully many more years. Long live the Queen.
Thank you for joining me here for a cup of tea and a birthday toast to Queen Elizabeth. I would love to her from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Super Sweet Start To Your Week Mixed Berry And Oatmeal Scones

Monday Morning, new week, new season and a new cozy on my kindle app. This morning I decided to throw a bunch of things in the bowl and made some mixed berry and oatmeal scones. Pre heat your oven to 400F

2 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of quick oats
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup of apple sauce
1/2 cup of milk
1 egg
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 cup blue berries
1/2 cup frozen raspberries

In a large bowl place your flour, quick oats, sugars and baking powder. Add the butter and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into your mix. Add apple sauce, milk and egg. Mix until just combined. add your frozen fruit,fold in and then spoon on to a parchment lined baking sheet. I made 12 coffee shop sized scones but you can make them smaller and get 24. Bake until edges and tops are golden brown serve with a pat of butter or with Devonshire cream.

Serve with a healthy dose of cozy mystery or your favorite poetry and a great cup of strong Irish Breakfast tea.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea a cozy mystery and a scone recipe.
I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

A Dickens of A Murder And A Mixed Berry Scone Recipe

My friends I am so thankful that you have joined me again for tea and a cozy mystery. I am still struggling with the news that Joyce Lavene is no longer with us and spent much of the weekend thinking about her, her family and connecting with other fans and friends of Joyce and her husband Jim's work.  Yesterday my friend Lisa hosted an on line Memorial Event in her honor and I made some scones and tea to share virtually on line for the event. I was thrilled to receive my ARC of A Dickens of A Murder from Jim, and I am thankful and looking forward to being able to read it and share it with all of you. It comes out on November 6th and you can pre order by clicking here. 

To Make Your Own Mixed Berry Scones You will need:
-2 cups of flour
-3/4 cup of sugar
-1/2 cup of butter
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/3 cup of milk
-1 egg
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 cup of mixed frozen fruit (blueberries and raspberries)

Pre heat your oven to 400
In a bowl combine the flour, sugar and baking powder, add the butter and combine until the bread crumb mixture starts to form. Add your milk, egg and vanilla fold the wet into the dry and then add your frozen fruit. If your mixture is to wet add a 1/2 cup more flour, if to dry add more milk until the dough is the right consistency,( hold's its shape when dropped onto a cookie sheet)
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop equal sized and spaced spoonfuls of scone batter on the cookie tray. Bake at 400 until the sides and top are golden brown.

Serve with your favorite tea, some butter or Devon-shire cream a great cozy mystery or your favorite book of poetry.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery. I look forward to sharing more tea with you soon. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

A Recipe For Raspberry Scones

Today is the first week back at school for my boys and I found myself for the first time in two weeks home alone with the cats and the sound of silence. I had a craving for raspberries and remembered I had some in the freezer so I threw together scones for a special back to school treat for myself and thought some of you may like the recipe too.

To Make Your Own You will need:
2 1/2 Cups of All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup of white sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of frozen strawberries
1/4 plain yogurt
1/2 cup soften margarine, butter or lard

Method: In a large bowl place your flour, sugar, baking powder and mix with a spatula until combined add your margarine and mix until the consistency of bread crumbs. Add your egg, vanilla, yogurt and raspberries and fold your mixture together and shape into a ball. If your ball is too soft add 1 table spoon of water, if it is too dry add a bit more flour. Dough should be soft but hold its shape

Transfer to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Then press pat down slightly and cut triangle wedges from your scone ball.

bake at 400 until the edges are golden brown.
Enjoy with your favorite cup of tea in your favorite mug and top with a bit of clotted cream, cool whip ( I am lactose intolerant so I use this) or whipped cream. You could also ice your scones.

Enjoy!
As with all my posts I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Murder in the Mystery Suite and A New Scone Recipe

 

 Murder in the Mystery Suite by Ellery Adams has been by far the most fun cozy mystery I have read this year. Action and Adventure await the reader in this new and fantastically written cozy.

Captivated from the first chapter and begging myself not to read it too quickly for fear the story would come to a very quick end I have tried my very best to read only a chapter at a time to savor it.

The main character like so many cozy mystery has a tragic back story and has overcome her sadness and strife and lives a full and happy life until she discovers there is so much more going on then she realizes and her future is ever so more complicated  and wonderful, then she could have imagined. Complicated, wonderful and so exciting!

 

If ever there was a new cozy series to dive into it is this one. Each character is so rich and mulch-layered you will feel totally invested in each of their lives. The Storyton Book Retreat series is going to be one I read for as long as Ellery Adams writes it. I am anxiously awaiting word on when we can next expect  to pre order the next adventure!  Murder in the Jane Austen Parlor is due Summer 2015!

More then just a picture perfect setting and your average cozy mystery this story is packed with so many wonderful surprises. From fantastic character names to sub plots that will have you laughing out loud, imagining, wishing and hoping for more!

I highly recommend picking up Murder in the Mystery Suite by Ellery Adams and am pretty sure we will need to start a fan club for this series.

As promised to my Facebook Friends who follow my daily photo post and Instagram  I am including my newest scone recipe I created while reading Murder In The Mystery Suite. 

Enjoy! ~Karen

Vanilla Yogurt Drop Scones
Pre Heat overn to 375 degrees 

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup margarine, butter or lard
3 tsp baking powder
1 egg
4 tbsp Vanilla Yogurt

Method:
In a mixing bowl place the Flour,Sugar and Margarine. Mix together until the mixture resembles chunky bread crumbs. Add baking powder and mix in. Add the egg and Vanilla Yogurt until mixture is just combined.
Spoon  large drop fulls of batter on to parchment lined baking sheet bake until the edges and top of your scones are golden brown. Remove from oven and sever still warm with jam and cream ( Use Whip cream, Sour cream or Cool Whip if you do not have clotted cream sold near you)
These are perfect with Earl Grey Tea.

As with all my posts I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

* I will mention that this book was not sent to me to review and was a mystery I pre ordered from The Book Depository. I live in Canada and the free shipping from The Book Depository is where I order my books from. I do not work for them and they do not advertise with me but as a public service announcement I thought I would share.