Christmas Cooking

Came home from Truman and Monson's two holiday choir concerts totally in the mood to cook!
Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly.....I sang as my cooking night began.
My foodie-friend, Si, inspired me on her blog and I gathered all of the ingredients to make Fresh Cranberry (English) Scones with Almond cream.

MMMMMMmmmmmm!
I know you are thinking...is this diet food? Is this going to be healthy? These sound healthy because of two words: Cranberry and Almond......... AND....I was only going to eat one.

I had the fresh cranberries, flour, baking powder, eggs, buttermilk....oh, wait, no buttermilk-- how do I make fake buttermilk. Looked on line-- "add lemon juice or vinegar or cream of tartar to whole milk and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then use."
Great...I can do this. I wonder how old this bottle of lemon juice is? No whole milk...1% will have to do.
I begin to chop the cranberries.
My those little, red, round balls are slippery. Hard to chop. Berries are flying all over the floor. Rinse and reuse. I'm making a mess on the front of my shirt. Need an apron. Where is an apron? When's the last time I used an apron?
No apron.
Back to the mixing.
I put all of the ingredients in a bowl...follow the recipe "exactly" -- well tried to.
Patted the berry studded dough into a 10 inch circle. Cut 8 wedges. Sprayed my baking sheet.
"Sprinkle on Turbinado sugar....."

What the "H" is Turbinado sugar?
(I picked up letter swearing on my recent China trip-- thanks Laura and Kimi...it's not good....and I'm going to stop.)
I used granulated sugar.....
Okay...The scones looked pretty good to me at this point. They looked "English" to me-- white, pasty , red bumpy complexion, you get the idea.
Baked them off-- 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

My house smelled divine at 10pm. The boys were salivating and commenting on their mothers cooking prowess. The UMOZ-- delights her children once again.
Scones....not so divine. Took a few bites. My kids took a few bites. Picked the cranberries out. Took a few nibbles more.
Hmmm?
Didn't cook long enough? Something wrong with my oven? Maybe the buttermilk was the issue...or the special T- sugar? Who knows. Threw the rest away.
I Didn't even make it to the Almond whip cream stage.
FA- la- la -la -la-la-la-la-la!