Solstice dessert

Wow, am I a good cook.

Cream scones, which were so amazing out of the oven I wanted to marry myself:

Recipe:
Cream Scones from Cook's Illustrated: The Quick Recipe

I doubled the recipe. Makes 8 good-sized scones for each batch, and of course they could be made smaller. Original recipe:

2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 T unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
1/2 cup currants
1 cup heavy cream

My mods:

• omitted the currants.
• when I made the double batch, I used 5 T sugar total, so maybe 2 1/2 T for a single batch
• added zest & juice of one lemon
• added some recently-dried rosemary. maybe 1/8 or 1/4 tsp total - made for a very (maybe TOO) subtle effect
• for next time, I will not use heavy cream. maybe whole milk?

To make: sift together the dry ingredients (incl the rosemary & zest)
Cut in the butter - it will still be very dry
Pour on the cream and stir til just mixed
Put onto a floured surface, gather into a cohesive lump, knead for just a few seconds to get it all together, flatten out a bit, and cut into ~8 scones (or even more! they're quite big!)
Bake in a 425 oven for 12-15 minutes

Then I made a strawberry-basil topping to smear on the scones. I knew I wanted some sort of basil topping to go with strawberries, and some Google searching led me to this recipe:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2006/06/strawberry_basil_pesto.php

Here are the original instructions:

Pesto Fraise Basilic

35 grams (1/3 cup) freshly grated Parmesan
35 grams (1/3 cup) whole blanched almonds, toasted
A small handful (about 1/3 cup) fresh basil leaves
5 small strawberries (or 3 large), hulled [be sure to use fragrant and full-flavored strawberries: if they're a bit bland, I'm quite sure they'll get lost in the battle]
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt, freshly ground pepper

Makes about 1/2 cup (the recipe can be doubled).

Blend the Parmesan, almonds, and basil (I have a mini chopper, so I doubled the recipe, but did one batch at a time.)

 

Add strawberries and blend some more. Then add olive oil, salt & pepper to taste. I never got it perfectly smooth, but I liked it kinda chunky-looking. 

My mods:

• I made a double batch. After tasting, I then doubled the strawberries again - I wanted a big strawberry taste
  
• I added a splash of balsamic vinegar (2 tsp total, maybe - definitely to taste)
• I then stirred this into some mascarpone cheese - maybe half of a little 8-oz package

Finally, I made a strawberry topping: I sliced enough strawberries to fill a pint jar. Added 2 T sugar and 1 T balsamic vinegar, and let it stew in its juices.

Here's the yumminess ready to go:

And here's my breakfast this morning:

 Insert self-satisfied belly rub here!