I have no writing news, but I’ve been cooking and thinking about cooking a lot this summer.

I like to cook, but I’m a lazy person. I’m also a rule-follower. The first time I cook something from a recipe, I follow it exactly. After that, I might substitute ingredients and alter how it is put together, knowing that the changes I make could negatively affect the recipe. For stupendous recipes, I don’t alter anything.

The problem with this system is that I end up not making stupendous recipes very often either because I don’t have the ingredients at hand, because the recipe is difficult or because it is time consuming. Or all three.

I had a scone recipe that fit that problem. I LOVE scones, and this recipe was excellent—so I nearly never made them. Then one day, I had the time, energy, and desire, but not all the ingredients, so I made it with some substitutions. And guess what? It was even better!

Now I made it a little more often, but it was still difficult and time-consuming. For example, I was supposed to roll out the dough into a thick circle so it could be cut into wedges. I hate rolling out dough. No matter how exactly one follows the recipe, sometimes the dough is too sticky and needs more flour or is too dry and crumbles. And it makes such a mess.

I have a recipe for dropped biscuits and decided to follow that concept instead. You know what? Round scones don’t taste much different than wedge-shaped scones.

But still, I didn’t make them often enough because it called for cutting the butter into the dry ingredients. Ugh. What a pain! I have a pastry cutter and followed that part of the recipe for about ten years, then about a month ago, I thought, Why don’t I just soften the butter in the microwave, then add it to the dry ingredients? Pastry chefs may have reasons for not doing this, but I will tell you that I saw absolutely no difference in texture or taste.

So, here it is, my simplified recipe for scones:

Cherry Almond Scones

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, softened in microwave

2 cups white flour

4-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 Tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup vanilla yogurt

¼ cup milk

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup dried cherries

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter, spray or grease cookie sheet. Soften butter in the microwave. Add the flour, baking powder and soda, sugar, ginger and salt. Mix well. Add the yogurt, milk and almond extract. Mix well. Add dried cherries and mix until well distributed. Drop batter by very large spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Should make about 8 scones. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Eat warm.