Midwife Monday
SCONES
Scones are a classic of the British tea table, though as a baking powder-leavened dough, they are a relative newcomer to the culinary repertoire. Baking powder was invented in the mid-nineteenth century and didn’t become universal in scone recipes until the early twentieth century. Before then, scones were made with yeast and had a strong Scottish association. However, the rise of afternoon tea in the late nineteenth century, and more particularly the growth in motorcar-based tourism from the 1920s onward, meant that tearooms with an eye to the tourist trade wanted cheap, easy goods to sell to hungry motorists. Scones are quick to make and neutral enough that they can easily be given a flavorsome individual twist, ideal for busy catering operations. They became popular in homes as well, and we see them in Call the Midwife at such occasions as the various street parties and being served with tea at Nonnatus House. They would have been an ideal accompaniment for Violet Buckle’s infamously excellent jam.
CHUMMY
Mater would thoroughly approve of this. She always wanted me to slenderise. Then, when she was dying, she pushed a plate of scones towards me and said, “Camilla, look after your face. The other end’s for sitting on, nobody will ever see it.”
SEASON 4: EPISODE 8
I did enjoy Chummy very much. Although I wasn’t sad to see her storyline end either, what she contributed was very good. The characters that come in go is like real life in nursing, not too many stay longer than 5-10 years in one place. Some do of course, but most travel on.
I have never made scones before and I liked these quite a bit, especially with jam and tea- it equals quite perfection on this cold, snowy Monday.
It is Martin Luther King Jr Day today and this is my favorite quote of his that I do my very best to live by:
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is,
‘What are you doing for others?'”
Peace.
