My work situation has changed.
When I began working in the Global Command Centre in 2014, I found a lot of things that were good (not having to talk to a Great Mass of Outside Persons all the time, being the Subject-Matter Expert at a LOT of essential things you learn how to do in technical support; almost no one in there but me is a tech support veteran) and some that were not: CNN shown on multiple screens with their continual diet of Doom and Disaster, and continual clickbaity Holocaust-y political headlines. The latter just got. on. my. nerves. 9×5, and left me feeling depressed and distressed despite my good anti-depressants (and make no mistake, the ones I’m taking are good and effective).
It used to be that all of us in GCC had one day a week to work from home, which provided a respite. However, our most recent great-grandboss (The Irishman, from Limerick) believes in standardizing practice across ALL the worldwide command centres. And Circulith was the only one had work-from-home. So the Irishman said we weren’t allowed work from home any more, because none of the other centres had it nor had asked for it (no surprise, they don’t have the kind of ubiquitous broadband we do). And it was back Doom and Disaster from CNN nine by five.
I spoke to my boss and my grandboss both about the diet of disaster, and what could be done. My grandboss agreed yes, it really is bad and she has to restrict her own diet of news for the same reason, and said she had been thinking anyway of switching from CNN to the BBC, which doesn’t have a continual diet of clickbaity headlines on the crawl, and didn’t focus exclusively on the US. She did that, and it made things more pleasant if not ideal.
But the one very germane thing both she and my direct boss recommended was that I ask my headshrinker to write a letter saying he thought it would be a good idea for me to work from home full-time as an Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation. Both said they would happily sign off on it and take it to Human Resources for approval, and after that the Irishman couldn’t do a thing about it.
And I did that. I asked him to write the letter at my October visit and explained why, and he said he would write it for me, and he did. I took it to work and handed it in, my managers approved it and ran it through HR as they said they would, and as of about the second week of November, I’m working from home full-time. I get to sit at the dining table, pull back the curtains, and watch the life of the neighborhood go past all day as I work, and I don’t have to listen minute-by-minute to the disastrous things the Cheeto-in-Chief and his minions are inflicing on the country daily.
But the one thing I don’t get from it is to go out and have breakfast or lunch that I didn’t have to make myself, and that gets boring. The result being, I’m starting to rummage in MasterCook for breakfast and lunch things to make and eat that aren’t the Same Old Thing every day. It’s become quite a journey and a search.
I’ve thought for a while that I wanted to have scones, which are almost ubiquitous at Austin bakeries. I have a lot of recipes, but never ventured into actually trying to make them—until today. I’ve had a couple of boxes of sultanas (AKA golden raisins) in the cupboard and when I rummaged in my scone recipes I found a couple that specifically called for raisins rather than currants. That was all the invitation I needed.
Raisin Scones
Categories : Pastry
Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method ———————— ———————————— —————————————————————————————— 2 cups Flour ½ teaspoon Salt 1 tablespoon Baking powder 2 teaspoons Sugar ¼ cup Cold unsalted butter ½ cup Sultanas, soaked 30 minutes in hot water then drained ½ cup Half and half, or cream 1 Beaten egg
Sift the dry ingredients together. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients, using a pastry blender. Add the drained raisins to the flour mixture. Mix the half-and-half with the beaten egg and stir into the flour mixture. Use a fork, and Do Not overmix. It should take only a few turns to get a dough.
Generously butter a ten-inch (#8) cast-iron skillet.
Pat the dough into the buttered skillet, making sure there are no gaps or hollows. Bake at 450° F. for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown. (Convection oven: reduce to 425°.)
Allow the scones to cool for a few minutes in the skillet after removing from the oven; cut into eight wedges. Serve with butter and raspberry jam.
Source: Jeff Smith – The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American
Original poster: Garner Miller
Yield: 8 servings
— – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – —
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 153 Calories; 6g Fat (32.8% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 23g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 32mg Cholesterol; 222mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; ½ Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
L and I were both charmed by them with only butter; I expect the same from Alyks, who said “Now you’re making me want to go to Quack’s” before they left to crew the theatre performance this afternoon
In Seattle there is a tulip which has petals in the shape of sleep. Fnord.
