Simple Pleasure #2: Date Scones

My mum is a baking whizz. Sadly, the baking gene that my mother and grandmother possess...has skipped a generation. The Man can bake, but doesn't bake as much as he'd like to. When I was a kid, I took my mum's baking ability for granted because instead of store-bought we always had baked. But let's face it- there's nothing like home-baked goodies.
My mum will regularly have lots of delicious baking when we come around to visit, bless her. Good for the soul but not so great for the waistline! The other day we popped around and she already had the oven going, making an apple crumble for dessert. Now, when I have read a magazine that has recipes in it, I always pass it over to her when I am finished. And she stumbled across a new recipe for date scones that she hadn't tried. She said to me and The Man, "feel like date scones?" and as quick as a wink she was in the kitchen, whipping up a batch and in fifteen minutes' time we were savouring the delights of date scones.

I LOVE date scones. The stickiness and sweetness of the dates means you don't have to add any extra sugar to the mixture. But you cannot have them cold, oh no. They must be either straight from the oven with a bit of butter or warmed up in the microwave. It's hard for me to describe for my American friends what scones are, and I won't put a recipe up because there are just so many on the internet. But they are delightful. I also love my mum's pumpkin scones, which are always made out of necessity when her pumpkin crop gets out of hand- at last count her crop had 21 pumpkins on it, so I'm guessing that very soon we'll have a batch of scones. Lovely!