Food + Friends = Happy Alex

Brunch today want wonderfully! My friends are all brilliant and wonderful conversationalists and funny and like my cooking! Several people complimented the scones, which I was a little uncertain of as I was making them: It had been something over five years since I last made them. Since I'm a geek, my recipe was pretty thorough, but there were still a couple of moments where I felt a little at sea. Why are the dry ingredients still roughly the consistency of flour after I chopped the butter in? Scratch head. Look at recipe again. Start to slap forehead. Stop before getting flour all over my face. "a cup of butter, not a cube of butter...." Fortunately caught in time to make it right. (And I now have a revised version of the recipe using standard units.)

There were only two downsides, neither exactly earth-shattering. I joked with some of the guests about one of them: "What on earth possessed me to decide to bake something, for the first time in years, in August?" (Today's high was 36C.) The other I didn't find out about until after: several people who don't yet know where I live now sent me mail late last night or this morning saying they wanted to come, and I didn't think to check email until after everyone left. Oh well; next time I host a brunch, checking email will be on my checklist.

And there will be a next time, and it will be soon. I remembered today why I used to do this every month. And while I'm not quite willing to make that much of a commitment at this point, I do plan to start holding regular brunches. Probably every other month; details to follow....

Thanks to everyone who came; you were great!