this has been a very fun week of gingerbread chicken coop building, cookie making, and spending quality time at home*

*and realizing what a slob i am and that i need to devote all of my holiday break to cleaning up this place.

how do people stay clean? where do they put all of their cookbooks?? i feel like i'm in an igloo made of cookbooks and boxes that are about to be filled with cookies and it's all going to cave in on me soon unless i start adulting. at least i finally feel like eggboy and i have some time to get to work on it all. his work days are shorter since the farming season has slowed, and i have barely enough sunlight to photograph for more than a couple of hours each day, so we shall become clean people in these remaining few weeks of 2016! i have these fantasies that i'll one day be able to walk into my prop room and not have to tip toe around breakable dishes as if i'm playing twister, or that i'll be able to quickly find a specific cookbook without having to somersault through slobby stacks in our living room...

remember when fantasies were more centered around hello kitty and lisa frank chrismukkah presents? lololol.

here is an anytime snack that is perfect for when you need something cheesy and carby but you don't have any bread in the house and yes, you could use a little break from cleaning! it's a savory scone that's laced with onions, cheddar, and tiny flecks of thyme and served with sweet tomato jam. shoutout to eggmom for stocking our freezer with garden tomatoes from the summer! they were perfect for this. these scones are crumbly yet moist and i've used kerrygold's reserve cheddar here since it's flavorful enough to cut through the scone dough that surrounds it. (also because whenever i think about scones my inner voice puts on an irish accent since i ate about 12 million of the best scones of my life when i was in ireland on kerrygold's farms.)

cheddar and thyme scones

makes 9

ingredients

2 c flour

1 tb baking powder

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

1 tb sugar

5 oz shredded kerrygold reserve cheddar

1/2 c kerrygold unsalted butter, cold and cubed

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 large egg

1/2 c heavy cream

for the tomato jam:

2 lb Roma (plum) tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped

1/2 c sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

a pinch of crushed red pepper

black pepper

1 tsp lemon juice

clues

preheat the oven to 400ºf and line two baking sheets with parchment.

in a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder, thyme, salt, a few turns of pepper, and the sugar. add the cheese, reserving 1/2 cup for the topping, and butter to the food processor and pulse until the butter is pea-sized.

add the mixture to a large bowl and mix in the onion. in a small bowl, whisk together the egg and heavy cream. add this to the dry mixture and mix to combine.

turn the dough onto a surface (you may need to give it a few kneads to bring those last few crumbs in) and pat it out into a square that is 1 inch thick. cut the large square into 9 smaller squares and place the scones on the baking sheets spaced 2 inches apart. top each with salt, pepper, and a bit of the reserved cheese.

bake the scones until they're lightly browned, beginning checking for doneness at 15 minutes. remove from the oven and serve warm with tomato jam (recipe follows).

for the tomato jam:

in a saucepan, combine the tomatoes, sugar, salt, crushed red pepper, and a few turns of black pepper. set over medium heat and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has cooked off, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. press through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the tomato skins. stir in the lemon juice. let cool and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

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