To This!

Sometimes nothing else will soothe my soul but making fresh berry jam. And then of course this labour of love must be artfully partnered and mindfully consumed. Here is my very last baking for 2007; saffron infused scones. I adapted an old family recipe given me by my mother (and which has found its way via word of mouth the length and breadth of Dunedin!) by infusing the water called for in the recipe with saffron before preparing the dough. The scones blush with a pleasing saffron hue but on tasting I decided they needed something! Enter my freshly made strawberry jam and a blob of marscapone cheese. Ahh the delight! In my more poetic moments I am inclined to say that saffron is the flavour of eternity but on an average day I am more likely to explain that as the flavour of tobacco, hay bales and dark bitter tasting honey.

This combination of ingredients is a playful and exhilarating farewell to 2007. Rather like lying back in a field of hay eating just picked strawberries dipped in a bucket of fresh cream you hauled there from the milking shed! Well yes perhaps it is a tad decadent but is this not New Years Eve!!!! (Well right now it is where I live)