sun, snow, and chili

Ah, back in the snowy cold of an Iowa winter. The Boy, his family, and I returned from Mexico last Friday evening. I had a lovely, relaxing week full of food, sun, beach, and tequila. It was beautiful and refreshing for all the senses. We stayed at an amazing timeshare/resort called Fiesta Americana, and I spent my days lounged out on the sand, listening to the rolling surf, and reading trashy magazines and not-so-trashy books. The Boy spent his time exploring rocky crevices and small pools of water at low tide, periodically bringing me bits of the ocean to look at – sea urchins, tiny hermit crabs, rock crabs, etc.

The deliciously hot weather was reflected in the much lighter fare we all elected to eat during mealtimes. There was a lot of seafood, ceviche (I’ll throw up a recipe for that when I’m more inspired), citrus. All in all, my tongue and stomach were extremely happy.

Once we got back to IA, things were immediately different. The temperature dropped about sixty degrees (it’s now sub-zero, actually), and soft, blinding snow blew across the highway the entire way home. The contrast was as stark as the blank, white landscape.

The cold, sparkling glitter of snow and the close warming of a down jacket, inspired me to cook up something that would be rich and warming from the inside all the way out. It might not be as wonderful as a luxurious week of sun-tinged skin and basking in heat, but it’s pretty delicious nonetheless.

blueberries and cream

My extremely lax posting schedule has sort of rendered this particular post out of context. The making of the scones actually occurred… something like a month ago? But I was reminded of these awesome blueberry scones today, since the Boy and I went to Istria and split one of their scones.

My inspiration for the scones actually came about because of Istria in the first place. For a few successive weeks, each time I got some scone variation, I was sorely disappointed. They were dry, had the texture of muffins (if I wanted a muffin, I would have ordered a muffin), or had some other nit-picky little problem (I’ve been reading too much food criticism as of late). In any event, tired of all the sub-par scones from my favorite coffee place, I decided to make my own.