I’m feeling really proud of myself this morning. Oh, you ask why? Well, I’m basically the best snow-remover there ever was in the history of snow-removers. I would say snow SHOVELER, but I actually have not been using the shovel much lately.

Our house has a SNOWBLOWER. It’s in the garage, there for our use, and part of the terms of our lease is that we will remove the snow from the sidewalk and driveway. The first time it snowed? Shovel. We live on a corner, on a double lot, and have a LOT. OF. SIDEWALK. That first shovel took me F.O.R.E.V.E.R. You may be wondering why my lovely husband isn’t doing this job. I may be wondering that, too. The second time it snowed this winter, enough requiring sidewalk duty, I took the snowblower plunge. I think it had snowed at least 5 inches, so shoveling would have been a bit of a task anyways.

I’m pretty good with machines, I’ve run a fair number of lawn-mowers and leaf-blowers in my day, so I had no problem firing up the ol’ snowblower. IT WAS AWESOME. Literally, it took three minutes to do the entire sidewalk. The driveway takes a bit more skill/maneuvering, so that adds another 10 or so, but overall: sooooo much faster. I’m sure the neighbors are jealous. And I’m sure the students across the street, who stand there watching me as they smoke their cigarettes and I push this machine around in my sweatpants and snow boots, think I’m absolutely ridiculous. Whatever.

This morning, we woke up to 4ish inches of snow. I knew what I had/got to do: SNOWBLOW. I’d forgotten how easy and quick it was, and wondered why I had even considered getting the shovel out. I may never touch a shovel again in my life. I tromped out there, in my purple velour sweatpants, sent that snow flying into oblivion (err, the yard), and got back inside ALL BEFORE THE OVEN HAD EVEN PREHEATED! BOOM. That’s what I call a successful morning. Now I see pedestrians walking by and say, in my head, “YOU’RE WELCOME.” Clearly I need to take it down a notch.

SCONES! I love love love scones. They make me feel guilty, but I love love love them. Especially with icing (aka guilt). With t-minus three months to use up everything in our kitchen (which is A LOT), I’m working through the freezer and pantry to get through random foods. Found in the freezer: cranberries! I had just enough to make this recipe, and a big bag o’ lemons needing to be used. These scones were perfect!

I may have overdone it on the liquid (the recipe reflects what it SHOULD be), and didn’t chill my scones, so they’re a bit more amorphous than yours will likely turn out. Do as I say, not as I do. As always, the key is LEMON ZEST! Zest + sugar before adding anything else, to get the most lemon flavor out of the zest!