The Secret Life of Bebe

Oy vey.

If you know me, you know I don’t cook. Our oven has been broken for about six months now, and I can’t say I especially miss it. I am simply not inspired by cooking. I started cooking for the family at a young age (about 7-8 years old) so it has always felt like a chore.

As an adult, cooking for a vegetarian and two picky children didn’t help much. And now I have to cook for a picky child, a picky adult and a slightly fussy teenager. Cooking is what I do so that I don’t starve. If I didn’t have to, I never would. This means that most of my meals are as easy and convenient as possible (rice and veges in the cooker, chicken on the barby).

The whole lack of enthusiasm is not helped by the fact that I have to eat a low-fat, low-sugar diet, so I can’t eat most of the food from recipe books.

But there are a couple of recipes I use occasionally, so here is one:

Lemonade Scones

4 cups self-raising flour
300ml milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 can lemonade (355ml)
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 220ºC. Cover an oven tray with a sheet of baking paper or spray well with non stick baking spray.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl to a smooth dough. Tip out onto a well-floured bench and cut into squares or press out with a round cookie cutter. Place the scones, just touching each other, on the prepared baking tray. Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes until starting to colour pale golden. Check they are cooked through and cool on a wire rack, covered with a clean teatowel (this keeps the scones lovely and soft).

Cut in half and spread with jam or honey when cool enough to eat.

Variations:

• Add some dried fruit to the mixture for example – 1 cup chopped dates or 1 cup sultanas or raisins or 1 cup dried cranberries.
• Add 1 cup of chocolate chips to the mixture.

To make savory scones, replace the lemonade with soda water and any of these optional extras –

• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup grated tasty cheese
• 6 rashers lean rindless bacon, chopped
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley or fresh herbs

To make a cinnamon pinwheel scone:

Mix 2 teaspoons cinnamon with 3/4 cup caster sugar. Lay the dough mixture out flat on a well floured bench. Pat out to be a rectangle approximately 30 x 20 cm. Sprinkle the cinnamon mixture over the surface. Roll up from the long side into a sausage shape then cut into slices. Lay the slices on a prepared tray so they just touch each other, cook and cool as above. The lovely sticky cinnamon filling can be quite hot so remember to cool them down before biting in.