I have to throw myself on the mercy of the blogosphere. I have been woefully absent for too long. I’m back though and while I take full responsibility, I do have an explanation.

I’m pregnant! We’ll be welcoming our second child to the world at Thanksgivingtime. As a result, I was not interested in doing a lot of cooking and certainly not inspired to write about it. And I was exhausted.

Now, however, I’m over the first trimester hump and I’m back! I’m also happy to report that I still can taste food. This is great, as my palate went completely dead when I was pregnant with my son and all I could really taste was hot dogs. No kidding.

So I’m glad to say I will continue to cook and enjoy my food through this pregnancy (now). And just in time for cherry season in the neighborhood. Our neighbor has a cherry tree in her front yard and she came over last week to say we could clean out the rest of the fruit if we wanted. She even left some on low branches so our toddler could pick some, too.

To date we’ve picked more than 24 cups of cherries. I’ve made a few cookie-based desserts, two pies and decided scones were next. 

I used the America’s Test Kitchen Best Drop Biscuits recipe as a starting point and made up my own scone variation. Very easy. Feel free to sub in any fresh (provided it’s not an incredibly juicy fruit — I think a very ripe peach, for instance, would add too much moisture to the batter) or dried fruit. Also, I’ve been doubling this recipe because I have so many cherries and it’s turned out fine.

Fresh cherry scones (Makes about 10)

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup (8 Tbsp) butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/2 cup cold buttermilk
• 1/2 cup cherries, pitted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a separate container, mix melted butter and cold buttermilk. Butter will start to “bead up.” Mix liquids into the dry ingredients. Once combined, add cherries.
3. Turn batter out on floured surface, shape into a flat log and cut into 10 even pieces (I use classic triangles, but any shape will do). Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 14 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly before serving.