Lockdown Mooring 4

How I would like to write about our day, a walk around the fields of Nantwich, Tilly playing on the towpath, conversations with family, some work, sanding down the gunnels to make them look pristine again.

But today has been totally crap!

Sorry for the swear word, if I could bring myself to write something far stronger then I would. None of the above has happened today. Instead our hands have been forced into doing something that we really didn’t want to do. In normal times it would have been a very bad day, but with the current state of the worlds health it is even worse. We are just very thankful that we are healthy.

Needing cheering up, I turned to baking, a batch of cheese scones. Followed by a Quinoa and Parmesan crust chicken quiche. Both tasty.

Late afternoon a musical flourish came along the canal. Was that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita? It certainly was. She was singing her heart out of the back of a tatty cruiser heading towards Nantwich, pleading with Argentina not to cry. A couple of hours later she returned, still pleading. At least this brought a smile to our faces, especially when the chap continued on his way towards Barbridge!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 TV, 1 walk to the bins, 1 window, 10 cheese scones, 1 section 21, 1 quiche, 3 months, 2 boaters at sixes and sevens.

Dimitrios from NB Galene has asked for the cheese scone recipe. This is a gluten free recipe and was very tasty. I suspect if you have normal glutenous plain flour you could substitute it for the flour and miss out on the xanthum gum. The original recipe used garlic powder, but I used mustard instead. You may also want to add a milk wash before baking.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (250 g) plain gluten free flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (I used mustard powder)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tablespoons butter (60 g)
• 3/4 cup (190 g) plain yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
• 2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cup (125 g) grated cheese, I used a mixture of extra strong cheddar and red leicester

Instructions

• Mix flour, baking powder, mustard, sugar, salt, and bicarb in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it in.
• In a separate bowl whisk together the yogurt, egg, oil, and lemon juice. Stir the yogurt mixture and cheddar into the flour mixture well. Cover bowl and let sit for 30 minutes (important for gluten free version), Preheat oven to 450ºF Gas 8.
• Line a baking tray. I then pressed out the dough onto a floured top and cut out 10 scones. Placed them on the tray about 1/2 inch apart (this traps a little extra steam between the scones and makes them more tender).
• Bake until golden, about 15-17 minutes turning the tray 1/2 way through.
• Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving with butter whilst still warm.
• Yumm!