Blueberry Scone Bite ready for eating.

Some days, even in the middle of grieving, you wake up & are overwhelmed with a need to do a certain thing. This morning, buttermilk was calling my name. I have lots of it in the refrigerator. The buttermilk was nagging me today. Use me. Try something new. Use me. I swear it was calling me.

So I went to allrecipes.com to search out something. A feature this site has that I love is the ingredient search. You enter the ingredients you want to use and what category of recipes you want & it brings up a list of recipes for you to ponder. The only ingredient I listed was buttermilk, the category I chose was Bread and I didn’t list any ingredients I did not want to use. The search brought back a listing of 357 recipes.

I rambled down the list looking at titles of recipes. Not in the mood to fix biscuits of any kind. Besides I have several good biscuit recipes. Any time I find a name that sounds interesting, I either click the link or look at the number of stars a recipe has received. If it doesn’t have at least 3 stars, I don’t waste time looking at it. I prefer looking at recipes that have at least 4 stars.

The chocolate chip scone bites are on the silicon mat. Trying to decide what to add to the bowl for the next batch.

Moving down the list, I come to Buttermilk Scones. Hmmm. Sounds interesting & I haven’t found a scone recipe I like yet.  Planning on printing out the recipe to try later. I don’t feel like going to the trouble of patting out scones & cutting them. So I move the mouse over some of the reviews to see what they say. Not only have the reviewers liked them, but also several of them have fixed them like drop biscuits. That tidbit of info gets me to thinking!

Dropped the dough like drop biscuits. Aren't the mini-chocolate chips sweet in there?

Suddenly, I’m not interested in printing out the scone recipe. I’m fixing scones this morning. Very simple recipe that mixes up in a very short time. Having trouble deciding what to add to them. Shall I have blueberry or chocolate chip scones? Neither. Instead of deciding, I pull a little of the dough out & add some mini-chocolate chips to it. Spoon it onto the cookie sheet. Next, I pull out half of the remaining dough and add some raisins to it. I add blueberries to the remaining dough.

When the cookie sheet is full, I place it in the oven & set the timer for 9 minutes. When the timer goes off, they’re very ghostly looking so I bake them an additional minute and a half. Pull them out to cool on the rack. Bake the blueberry scones. As the scones cool, I debate about putting a light glaze on them. I decide against it & tell Sarah the scones are out of the oven.

Naturally, I change my mind & decide if I’m trying them out, I should try them with a glaze. While Sarah is scarfing a chocolate chip one down, I mix up a glaze using confectionery sugar and orange juice. Drizzle it on the scones & they’re good to go. The recipe is definitely a keeper. If you give it a try, I think you’ll be pleased.

Drizzled a bit of glaze on the scone bites. Will cover the scones more heavily next time.

That is all going to change today! I am so excited. One of my friends from widowhoods is visiting family members in Marietta, Georgia. We have arranged to meet for tea at Chelsea’s on Thorton in Dalton. Two of her daughters are joining her & Sarah is going with me. I can hardly wait.

Sarah in her hat & gloves.

Sarah & I spent yesterday looking for hats to wear because. Well because it’s a tea & that’s what you do! She has even gone up into the attic & pulled out a box of her grandmother’s gloves. She has picked a lovely black pair of gloves to wear.

We arrive about 5 minutes before my friend & have a few minutes to explore. It’s a lovely older home that’s been redone. When the others get there, we sit down to a beautifully set table with linen & gorgeous china. No plastic plates are used here!

After being asked if anybody wanted cream, a small pitcher of cream is brought out for our tea. A lovely teapot of tea is served & trays start appearing with wonderful goodies. As was to be expected, we had cucumber sandwiches. They were not only tasty, but looked adorable as they are cute little heart sandwiches. In true tea tradition, all the sandwiches are crustless and tiny. The other sandwiches were pimento  cheese & chicken salad. All of them were delicious.

Sandwiches from our tea at Chelsea's on Thornton

Two stands were brought out, one for each end of the table. Besides the delightful sandwiches, the stands were filled with a varity of petit fours. Small scones with strawberry jam & lemon curd finished out the stand. I had heard of lemon curd, but never had it before. It was wonderful with the scones. I easily understand now why lemon curd is a popular filling for cakes. Certainly, I’ll be giving it a try soon.

The scones & petit fours are adorable.

My friend, Jeanne, was a thoughtful & gracious hostess. Sarah & I had so much fun that it was hard to remember that I had never before talked to Jeanne in person. While caution is important with the internet, I must say that the internet can bring wonderful friends in our lives that previously we would have never met because of distance. Unfortunately, Jeanne & I got to know each other through the common bond of our first husband’s death, but I am delighted to call her friend.

If you live close to Dalton, I would heartily reccommend checking out Chelsea’s On Thornton for tea. You won’t regret it. The food is wonderful. The atmosphere is charming & the service left nothing to desire.