Strawberry Mint Lemonade

Last time on As The Strawberry Turns we saw the husband make garden pallet-craft for his loving wife, even though he really really doesn't like pallet-crafting... we shared their hopes and dreams of a bounteous strawberry-filled summer... we saw 15 strawberry plants survive neglect and abuse at the hands of the sweet but forgetful couple... 

By the start of September however, the girl was afraid that something was amiss. There were still no flowers, and thus no fruit, happening on these 15 remaining plants. It was then that she began to suspect that these "mid-to-late season" strawberries that they planted (and her dream of berry-ful bounty) might have to wait until next summer for fruition.

The girl, not wanting to take any chances, went and did what any other girl might do in her position and she got herself to the nearest CostCo and bought a big bountiful bag of beautiful (but frozen) strawberries.

The End... (at least until next summer anyway).

Strawberry-Mint Lemonade

5 cups water
20 frozen strawberries (or fresh if you've got them)

2 sprigs of fresh peppermint
1/2 cup lemon juice
6 Tblsp honey

In a small pan, bring 3 cups of the water and the strawberries, to a boil. Remove from heat, add the mint, cover and let cool. Smash the strawberries in the pan, then strain through a sieve. Add the lemon juice, the honey, and the rest of the water. Mix well. Serve over ice.

Notes: A lemonade that's "just right" for me may be too tart (or too sweet) for you. These things can always be adjusted though. Experiment with different amounts, different herbs, different sweeteners... on a hot day you can't go wrong as long as it's poured over lots of ice.

Savoring The Simple Gifts Of Summer

I didn't plan on taking a photo of my dinner last night. I didn't plan on blogging about it today. I didn't plan the meal at all. Sure, I knew we'd be having leftover bratwurst with mustard, but beyond that, it all just fell together, and when I sat down and started to dig into it... my senses took everything in and I had to grab the camera.

What you don't see in the photo is the color of the summer evening sky. You can't feel the perfectly soft warmth paired with the gentlest of breezes in such contrast with the scorching heat earlier in the day. You might get a hint of the relaxed ease of the meal, but what about the thrift? What about the sense of accomplishment, stewardship, gratitude, and relief? And, of course, there's the deliciousness to consider as well. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but how many can you really see? To anyone else, it's just a plate of food, but to me it represents so much more...

Love Is A Many Blendered Thing

I've been wanting to try making a green smoothie for a while, but never seem to have any extra greens sitting around. What I do have are a lot of herbs in my garden… they're green, do they count? I even have beet greens... although the variety we planted are ruby red, I think they'll do.

Wandering through my front and back yards, I clipped a bit of this, snipped off a bit of that until I had a big handful of "greens"...
 

Also intriguing me has been the idea of the whole-citrus vinaigrette. I just love the idea of pulverizing and consuming the whole fruit. Maybe I'm just excited about not having to slice, squeeze, zest, or otherwise fuss with it. It is simplicity and laziness together at their beautiful best. Why not try it in a smoothie?

I picked a small ripe lemon from our dwarf Meyer tree on the back patio and headed into the kitchen...

The smoothie I created is entirely experimental and admittedly, a little bizarre. I basically shopped from my garden and my freezer with a "let's see what happens" attitude. What happened was a surprising combination of flavors and a smoothie like no other. It's very lemon-forward due to the whole lemon of course, but also to all the lemon-scented herbs I used. Each one lemony, but in slightly different ways.

I've included the recipe here, not because I think anyone else would want to recreate it, so much as to show just how completely crazy you can get when making smoothies, and still end up with something really tasty....

The Early Bird Gets The Lemon Poppy-Seed Muffin

When I think back on my years in college, I invariably start craving lemon poppy-seed muffins. They played a big part in refueling my academically exercised brain cells on an almost daily basis back then.

Across from the art department was this little place that sold hot dogs and burgers, chips and sodas, candy bars, ice cream treats... and lemon poppy-seed muffins. They had other muffins too. I think blueberry, and maybe some other kind. The blueberry ones were a little too sweet and cake-y for me, and considering the enormous size of these things, they were just too too much. The lemon & poppy-seed ones on the other hand, were perfect. And they always sold out of those first. Clearly I wasn't alone in my devotion. Scented with lemon throughout and not too sweet, the subtle crunch of the poppy-seeds, and then of course... there was the sweet cap of sugary glaze over the top. Sigh. 

Looking back, I'm sure they were massively unhealthy on many levels and probably were made from a mix, but I don't want to think about that now. My ignorance of such things was nothing short of lemon & poppy-seed bliss. Now I am on a quest. A quest to recapture the flavor and texture of those lemon & poppy-seed muffins.  To recreate in my kitchen with real eggs and real lemons (and without all the junk that I don't want anymore) the lemon poppy-seed goodness that sustained me at college. If nothing else, it should be tasty fun trying some of these recipes out to see if I can come close...

Lemon & Poppy-Seed Muffins

• Pint-Size Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins at Epicurious 
• Lemon Poppyseed Muffin Love at Gluten Free On A Shoestring  
• The Way the Cookie Crumbles: lemon poppy seed muffins  
• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins at Tasty Kitchen

If you have a tried-and-true Lemon Poppy-Seed muffin recipe... I'd love to hear from you! (I'd love to hear from you even if you don't)...

My Summer Loves

straw hats clothes drying on a line cherries crushed ice  

children playing on the lawn fields of lavender in bloom strawberries 

soft breezes through open windows eating breakfast on the patio blackberries  

sunflowers ripe cherry tomatoes warm from the sun wearing flip flops every day

blueberries flying kites at the beach bossa nova  

farmer's markets and lemonade...  

For me nothing quenches on a hot summer day better than homemade lemonade. Lemonade redolent with fresh herbs and ripe fruits in a tall glass of ice. Pick your favorite summer flavors and customize your next pitcher or glass of lemonade.

I made two today: Triple Berry-Lavender and Peach-Thyme (that's the one in the photo)...  so now I'm going to go have a seat in the shade, put my feet up, take a long sip and remind myself that maybe, just maybe, summer isn't so bad after all.

Lemon Pepper Pasta With Chicken

I've been wanting to make this dish for a while now, but I knew I wanted to tackle making the actual lemon-pepper flavored pasta itself from scratch... so that's just what I did. 

It's nothing more than my favorite go-to pasta recipe, but I added the zest from 2 Meyer lemons and about 20 cranks of the old pepper grinder. It might have been more, I lost count. Let's call it a 1/2 tsp.

The pasta itself turned out great, the only drawback was that the sauce pretty much stepped all over the subtle lemony-pep of the noodles. But, in a good way... it's an easy sauce with great flavor. I'm just thinking that this would be a perfectly fine dish with regular pasta. Or... I might try doubling the lemon zest and pepper when I make the pasta next time. Either way it's an easy and tasty dish that we both really enjoyed. We must've... we ate all of it in one sitting.*

Yellow, Like The Sun Above The Clouds

Need something to brighten up a dreary day? This is a cake to make you forget all about the soggy gray weather outside. I know, because it happened to me.

Last Sunday we had a potluck to attend and, well, due to pantry limitations, I had decided to bring either a Meyer lemon tart or a chocolate bundt cake. Approaching the decision in a typically sideways manner, I ended up making a lemon bundt.

Cook's Illustrated calls this lemon bundt cake "The Best" and I can't really disagree with them. While I always hesitate to apply that title myself (it doesn't leave any room for improving), it is after all, a lot easier than calling it The Pretty Dang Close To What I Imagine The Best Lemon Bundt Cake Would Taste Like.

Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cranberries

Picture this: Thanksgiving morning, I sit with my mug of tea trying to clear the night from my eyes and focus on what I need to do: bake a pie and make cranberry sauce. Both are easy. The pie I've made before about a billion times, and the cranberry sauce... even the most complex of those are little more than chop-simmer-cool. Though I'm surrounded by a half-dozen excellent recipe options from holidays past, I decide to go online and look up more of them. I do stuff like that. Last night, too tired (and too cold) to want to stop at the grocery store on the way home for a couple oranges, I had decided to use Meyer lemons in the cran-sauce this year. They go great together in lots of other things, and I'd already seen one recipe in a Sunset magazine using that combination. Two results from my online search looked promising. One was from Bon Appétit and the other from Figs With Bri, a lovely food blog that overflows with warmth and deliciousness.

The holiday season is always a magnet for bittersweet emotions and this week has been the official start of them. Hubs and I are disappointed that we couldn't celebrate Thanksgiving with my family or his (all of them hundreds of miles away). We are overcome by the generosity of good friends offering to share their family table with us. We are concerned about friends who are having serious health issues. So, how do I handle all of this? Simple really, I sit and weep over a cranberry sauce recipe I found on the internet. But I never forget the sweet side of bittersweet: our relatives are relatively healthy and happy, we have loving, caring friends with big hearts, and we have food, clothing, and a roof over our heads. When you boil it all down, anything more than that is just sauce for the turkey... it's nice to have a little on your plate, but it's the meat that matters.

Ghosts Of Cookie Parties Past

Limoncello Macaroons. These little babies are what all the recent almond blanching and pasting were leading up to. Not that any of it was laborious or time consuming (it wasn't), but if it was... it would have been so worth it. Crisp-ish on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. Each cookie a perfect bite. Almost more like candy than cookies. The only thing better than these cookies, would be these cookies dipped in dark chocolate.

Fun and easy to make, once they've completely cooled* they tasted um... [insert your favorite ultra-positive food descriptor here]. Lately I've run out of synonyms for "delicious". It was the French Tomato Tart that ruined me for adjectives. Let's just say that these are some of the best cookies I've ever made in my whole entire life and I should not be left alone in the house with them. Ooh...I'm thinking about dipping them in dark chocolate again.

Peaches And Herbs

The Lemon Herb Biscuits I made on a whim the other day, brought on a true "food and brain pairing" moment. My synapses fired in sequence long enough for me to realize that those biscuits were just a few tweaks away from an outstanding shortcake. The light bulb over my head was all aglow and my tummy said "Do it! And do it soon!".

The closest I think my mom ever got to making biscuits was when she would make strawberry shortcake (shortcakes are essentially sweet biscuits), a dessert she made often and one that I've always loved. She always used fresh strawberries when they were in season and always always made real whipped cream. I called to ask her what recipe she used for her shortcakes, and the answer was what I pretty much expected to hear: "It was on the box of Bisquick". Well, that was the era (at least she never used Cool Whip). Never one to leave things alone though, she would always add orange zest to the baking mix which took it from ordinary to extraordinary. Sometimes all it takes is that little something extra.

This dessert that I made has ever so many little somethings extra. Too many? Nah. Sometimes more is more. I think this is one of those times (or should I say "thymes"?). So here is my peachy-herbal twist on that quintessential summer dessert...

Summer Thyme Biscuits

I just received the ultimate compliment: "OMG! These biscuits are wonderful!"  And this was from a man who grew up eating biscuits as a regular feature at dinner time. To say I was pleased as punch would be an understatement.  I thought they were pretty darned great also, it's just that I don't have a lot to compare them with.

Sweet/Tart

This tart was almost too tart, but then again... if you love lemon, it was just right. A fantastic dessert that seems light and rich at the same time. I'll have to make another one though, as we ate it all before I had a chance to photograph it! Mine was nowhere near as smooth and gorgeous as the one in the Gourmet photo, but I'm pretty sure it tasted just as good!

• Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil from Gourmet.com

My Notes: Made this tart with... Meyer lemons (of course). The recipe called for a "fruity olive oil (preferably French)". I used a Clementine Olive Oil from Sonoma County instead (pretty sure that's not what they meant by "fruity", but I think it worked out really well). The crust dough was very unusual, unlike any I've used before: really soft as you spread it in the pan, but light and almost sandy once baked. It was a perfect foil for the rich lemony curd. All in all, it was quite quick and easy. Be sure to chill it for at least 4 hours before serving.

Meyer Van Marmalade

Marmalade. Just say it slowly a few times: mar-ma-lade. Slightly exotic sounding, it's name reveals a somewhat more complex nature than its sisters, Jam and Jelly. They're both sweet girls of course, everybody likes them, but marmalade has seen a little of the world, lived life, and has come home to tell you about it.* Both the dark and the light of it; the bitter with the sweet.

Traditional orange marmalade was essentially born from someone making the most out of what they had: in this case, a boatload of inedible bitter oranges. In a country that is not exactly known for its sunshine and citrus, they were probably happy to get whatever of those exotic fruits that they could.

My favorite store-bought marmalade was from Scotland and came packaged in white glass jars. It was an occasional special treat when our budget allowed. I would keep the jar in the fridge and only use it on weekends, when I wasn't in a hurry and could appreciate it more. It has virtually nothing in common with the domestic brands available, and is a world away from the little plastic single-serving packets found in diners and chain eateries in this country. Good orange marmalade is like dark sunshine in a jar. And it is at its best when smeared thickly on top of crispy hot sourdough toast that's been slicked with butter... and accompanied by a big mug of strong hot tea.

Marvelous Meyers

Our dwarf Meyer decided to finish it's inaugural year with a "huge crop" (6 lemons) all ripe at the same time. In light of this unexpected bounty, I combed through my bookmarked recipes to find something wonderful to make with them. Now all I have to do is decide...

• Lemon Pepper Pasta with Capers sounds like a lovely light supper. I may even try making my own lemon-pepper noodles to go with it.
• Always wary of the label "ultimate", this one may well be justified... The Ultimate Lemon Butter Bar at epicurious.com
  
• Glazed Lemon Cookies from ATK by way of Serious Eats sound pretty tasty...
  
• ...as do the Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze from Giada at Food Network.
  
• Can't decide between cake or pudding? Make individual Lemon Spongettes from The Kitchn
• This Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil from Gourmet.com looks absolutely stunning.
• Super-Lemony Soufflés from David Lebovitz sound sensational but they will have to wait for the next dinner party or the Hubs and I will be forced to eat all 6 servings...
  

Breakfast Glam Slam

I've done it... I've made a recipe from one of the gazillion torn-out magazine pages that I've been collecting for too many years (this particular one from Glamour circa 1994). It's a little embarrassing admitting that, but also a little triumphant. All this time I just knew I'd like it, and I did.

It was easy and delicious and even sort of healthy... even after we poured maple syrup and cream over it. Yes, we did. We just happened to have maple syrup and cream on hand (unusual for us actually), and it seemed like the thing to do.

It turned out quite similar to the Baked Pear Pancake that we like so much.* The pear pancake had the advantage of going from stove top to oven in the same pan. This recipe uses one additional pan. I can handle that (even in the morning).

It's not the heartiest of breakfasts if that's what you're looking for, but a little bacon or sausage on the side should fix that right up! It says it serves four, but fearing that it wouldn't reheat well the next day, we polished off the whole thing between the two of us. We didn't feel too guilty though. Check out the ingredient quantities and you'll see why.

Breakfast Puff
(adapted from Glamour magazine, May 1994 issue, Gourmet On The Run by Jane Kirby r.d.)**
Serves: 4 ...(or 2)

1 Tbsp butter
3 Granny Smith apples, cut into 1-inch chunks
4 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup flour
Zest of one lemon
1/4 tsp salt
2 Large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk

Optional (but recommended) for serving:
Powdered sugar
Maple syrup
Cream

Heat oven to 425°F. Grease a 9-inch pie plate and set it on a baking sheet (see note). In a large skillet on medium heat, melt the butter. Add the apples and cook until softened, about 15 minutes. Stir in half of the sugar. Arrange the apples in the prepared pie plate.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, zest, salt and the rest of the sugar. Using a whisk, blend in the eggs and milk, then pour the mixture over the apples. Put the baking sheet with the pie plate on it into the oven and bake for 30 minutes (or until puffed and golden).

Let rest for a minute, then cut into quarters and dust with powdered sugar. Serve with cream and/or warm maple syrup drizzled over the top.

*We do seem to really go for breakfasts that combine cooked fruit baked in a puffed batter. What's up with that? Maybe it reminds us of dessert?
**The book Gourmet On The Run published in 1987, is out of print. This recipe was published in the magazine in 1994. I do not believe it was included in the book.
Note: This greatly reduces any accidental sloshing of batter onto the counter (or floor, or oven door), while attempting to carry a pie plate full of batter across the kitchen and then into a hot oven. It will also make it easier to retrieve the blistering hot pie plate out of that same oven when the time comes.

Lemon Love

Oh, how do I love lemons? Here are but a few more ways...

• Two of my favorite flavors together: Lavender Lemon Bundt Cake from williams-sonoma.com. It may be a little early for fresh lavender, but I always keep a jar of dried in the pantry.
  
• A Lemon Crostata (my favorite form of pie) from gourmet.com featuring a toasted almond lattice crust.
  
• Lemony Angel Food Cake from marthastewart.com (originally published in the May 2009/MSL magazine, this version has been updated). Lemon cream frosting on top... yes, please.
  
• Little Lemon Hazelnut Cakes at JoyTheBaker.com

Many of these recipes call for cake flour which usually brings me down real fast, since, just like buttermilk, I don't usually have any in the house. I know I can just go to the store and get some, but I tend to be a spontaneous baker: When I get the urge to make something, I want to jump right in and get started. If I don't have a crucial ingredient and can't immediately substitute something, I move on.

Well, now I never have to pass over one of those recipes again while lamenting my lack of cake flour. Joy The Baker has busted up the mystery of cake flour and shows us how to make it at home from regular all-purpose flour (which I always have in the cupboard)... how very cool!

• How To Make Cake Flour from JoyTheBaker.com
  

I've Got Sunshine On A Cloudy Day

Lavender Lemon Mini Tarts – because it's cold outside, and I'm dreaming of the month of May.* Looking at the lemons and egg yolks sitting next to each other on my counter as I got ready to make these tarts, brought to mind those great lyrics and thoughts of sunny days ahead. After our little false-Spring came to a cloudy end yesterday, I've realized how sick of Winter I am. But then I think about all the things I love about Winter and I start to miss it before it's even gone. Twisted, I know. It's like that with every change of season for me. So relieved to finally welcome the next one, but wistfully sad for the loss of the last. A good reminder to appreciate the things we have while we have them.

Lavender Lemon Mini Tarts
These are a combination of two different recipes. With a dozen+ egg yolks in my fridge and some of the first lemons off our little tree, making lemon curd seemed the thing to do. I liked the idea of a butterless lemon curd, since I'm running low on butter and the word "butterless" sounds healthy (or at least less fattening). The spiced tart crust recipe that I found, appealed to me as much for the flavor possibilities as for the promise of less shrinkage from the addition of vodka.

Butterless Lemon Curd (from the Lemon Angel Food Cake recipe), page 510, The Martha Stewart Cookbook, 1995

My Notes: Butterless but not effortless. Unless you consider 40+ minutes of whisking over a steamy stove-top, effortless. It's times like this that I wish I was more ambidextrous than I am. But what better opportunity for practicing, right? This lemon curd is a lovely shade of creamy pale yellow and it took 8 of my egg yolks left over from the other day. The Meyer lemons from our tree are pretty small, so it took two of them to come up with enough zest, but two were not enough to make the 3/4 cup of lemon juice required. I augmented it with some lemon juice I had frozen some months ago and then made up the difference with a little bit of bottled lemon juice. After the lemon curd cooled, I pressed plastic wrap onto the surface and refrigerated it until the tart shells were ready. The flavor is lemony lovely. The texture is very light, almost fluffy or foamy, as if there were egg whites in it instead of egg yolks. I can see why it would go nicely inside an angel food cake. Maybe it's not the best choice texturally for tarts but I was curious and am glad I made it.


Lavender Tart Shells adapted from Spiced Lemon Tarts at sugarlaws.com

1-1/3 cups flour
2 Tblsp sugar
1/4 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried lavender
1 stick of cold butter
1 large egg
2 Tblsp vodka, ice cold (we keep it in the freezer)

Put all dry ingredients into bowl of food processor and pulse a few times until lavender flowers are ground up. Cut the butter into small pieces. Add the butter and egg and pulse until combined. Dribble the vodka into the mixture a little at a time as you continue to pulse. Once the dough begins to form into a ball, take it out of the food processor and pat it together on a lightly floured board. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

On a floured board, roll out the dough to approximately 1/8" thickness. Cut out 12 circles from the dough using a cookie cutter or an empty can (I used the 3.5" ring from a large Mason jar canning lid). The circles need to be large enough to fit into the bottom of a muffin cup and go up the sides 1/2" or more. Press the dough circles down into the 12 muffin cups. Prick the bottoms all over with a fork and place pan in the freezer. Turn oven on to 350°.

Bake tart shells for about 20 minutes, or until they begin to turn a nice golden brown. Place pan on rack to cool. When cool enough to handle, remove tart shells from muffin tin and finish cooling on the rack. Store in airtight container if not using right away. To serve, fill with lemon curd and top with fresh berries and/or whipped cream.

Notes: There was enough dough left over to make 12 super-mini tart shells (and 6 "cookies"). I used an old tomato paste can with both ends removed (2.25" diameter) as a cutter and pressed the dough circles into a mini muffin pan using my dough "tamper". It was the first time I'd used it and it worked perfectly.** These little bite-sized tarts turned out so itsy-bitsy cute. If I had my Teddy Bear here, we could have a splendid tea party.

*Paraphrased lyrics are from the song "My Girl" written by Smokey Robinson. Simple, pure, and timeless: "I've got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May." In other words, carry it with you in your heart, and you'll never be without it.
**Plus you can use it as a muddler for making mojitos in the Summer!

Curds And Tarts

I've finally got a couple of Meyer lemons from our little tree and a ton of egg yolks left over from the angel food cake the other day. Oh, what to do? What to do?....

• Alton Brown's Lemon Curd recipe on FoodNetwork.com looks good but I don't have enough lemons this time.
• These little Lemon Tarts from SugarLaws via tastespotting.com look great and have a no-shrink vodka crust.
• I've made Martha Stewart's beautiful Caramelized Lemon Tart* once before when faced with a glut of egg yolks. Luscious, rich and lemony (and a brulée top)!
• Also from Martha, a Butterless Lemon Curd**. Meant as a filling for her Lemon Angel Food Cake, I bet it would make for a great little tart too!

*page 492, The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook, 2000; and Martha Stewart Living magazine, April/May 1992 issue.
**page 510, The Martha Stewart Cookbook, 1995

Blackberry Lemon Redemption Cookies

First of all, these treats were named by my Hubs. I had wanted to call them Reincarnation Cookies or Resurrection Cookies, or even Recycled or Repurposed Cookies. Hmm... How 'bout Metamorphosis Cookies? His idea trumped them all for its sweetness, appropriateness, and positive once-bad-now-good swing.

You see these cookies are the final reward for my Blackberry Pâte de Fruit from last summer. I'd saved it, ate one or two sticky globs, but there wasn't much to be said for it. Except that it was a big fat fail. Disastrous, yet still edible. It was thick, gooey and crunchy (the sugar that it was rolled in had been absorbed but not dissolved), beyond jam but not quite candy. But still there was that incredibly intense blackberry flavor that I couldn't turn my back on. So there it sat in an airtight container in the fridge. In limbo.

Cornmeal Cranberry Scones

Last weekend a friend took me out to tea. How I love saying that! Took me to tea... maybe it's the alliteration, maybe it's because I love tea so much, maybe it's because it was such a terribly lovely surprise. It's no secret, I do so love tea. Not just the drink itself, but also the preparation of it, the vessels that hold and serve it, and the traditions behind it.

Tea is the perfect thing to drink in solitude and yet is even more enjoyable when shared with someone else. Tea can pick you up when you're down, and calm you down when you're wound up. Beautiful poured into a delicate bone china teacup; comforting drunk from a hand-thrown pottery mug. The nibbles that traditionally accompany tea offer up their own kind of comfort as well, whether dainty or rustic in nature. Some things are just so right together.

Cornmeal Cranberry Scones
Adapted from this recipe that I had torn out of an old BHG magazine but couldn't make because I didn't have: buttermilk, limes, or blueberries.

1 - 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp brown sugar, packed
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup (cold) butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 egg
zest from a small lemon
1 cup dried cranberries (or "Craisins" if, like me, you couldn't find plain ones at the store)

Preheat oven to 450°. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt (or pulse a few times in a food processor). Add the zest and whisk into the dry ingredients (or pulse a couple time in the food processor). Using a pastry blender, cut the butter in until the mixture looks like very course clumpy sand (or add it to the food processor and pulse 10 or 15 times for the same result). If using the food processor, dump the contents into a mixing bowl now.

Add the yogurt and egg and mix them together a little bit in the bowl with a fork or rubber spatula. Add the cranberries to the bowl. Working quickly, fold everything together, scraping down the side and back up with one hand and rotating the bowl with the other. Do this only until the mixture is evenly moistened. It will be wet and clumpy.

Pat the mixture into a rectangle or circle (1/2 to 3/4" high) and cut into wedges, or use a biscuit cutter. Alternatively, you can drop blobs of it onto the baking sheet for "drop scones". Transfer scones to the baking sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden on top. Make the optional icing while scones cool slightly on rack.

Optional Icing: 
lemon juice
powdered sugar
sliced almonds, toasted

Put 1/2 cup to 1 cup of powdered sugar in a small bowl and add lemon juice a little bit at a time while whisking together with a fork until thin "syrupy". Drizzle over warm scones and immediately sprinkle a few toasted, sliced almonds over each one if you like. If freezing the scones, leave the icing step until ready to serve.

Notes: In addition to not having the buttermilk, limes and blueberries for the original recipe, I also didn't really have the cornmeal. What I had was the course-ground kind for making polenta with. I measured it out and whirred it around in the food processor for 20-30 seconds. Probably could have used even more time, but it seemed to work o.k These scones are supposed to have a little crunch, right? I also used the food processor to cut in the butter (note to self: 1/3 cup is not the same as 1/3 of a stick). Instead of making drop scones, I patted the dough flat and cut out circles using an empty tomato paste can as a biscuit cutter. Ended up with 17 small scones.