You did it!!! You did it!!! Oh, Caroline, I am so happy for you. And tremendously impressed too, not only by the physical difficulty of the trip, but by your dedication to a good cause. What an amazing thing you did. I can hardly wait to see your photos. Welcome back! Now you can sit back and watch the Giro d'Italia starting on Saturday. (Universal Sports, on TV & online) You'll have new appreciation for the pros putting in over a hundred miles a day in mountainous terrain LOL! Wow, you are one tough cookie...

1. They are all quick breads which require low-gluten flour/s and little mixing. They all depend on the fat to shorten the gluten strands. 2. Scones vary widely in texture, shape, size, and flavor. They can vary from (soft) cookielike to cakelike in texture and from savory to sweet in flavor. Making them is similar to making biscuits. Scones can be rolled, shaped, or dropped, but the mixing method is about the same. Scones contain eggs as well as milk or cream, which makes them richer than biscuits. They may also contain pieces of dried fruits, unlike biscuits. a. Mix the dry ingredients together. b. Cut the chilled butter into the dry ingredients - this is done to shorten the gluten in the flour. Everywhere the butter coats the flour, the liquid will not be able to be absorbed by the flour, thus making short, or shortening, the strands of gluten. If the fat is cold and the mixture resembles a coarse meal, this will contribute to a flaky texture. c. Mix the liquid ingredients together (beat the egg lightly and add the milk/cream) and any other liquid ingredients, and add all at once to the dry ingredients, then stir to combine. Some recipes call for a little kneading to help develop the gluten, but avoid overkneading the dough because this will produce a tough scone. d. Judge the recipe... A high butter or sugar content in the dough will help inhibit the formation of gluten and produce a more tender product. 3. BISCUITS also rely on the fat for shortening the gluten formation. The method of mixing is similar to scones. There is less liquid in biscuits than most scones and biscuit dough usually requires a little kneading to develop the gluten because of the lack of liquid. a. The dough is then rolled. A thickness of 1/4-inch for plain biscuits, 1/2 inch or less for tea biscuits, and 1 inch or more for shortcake. Then it is cut into rounds or squares. b. Drop biscuits have more liquid than cut biscuits. 4. MUFFINS - The ratio of liquid to flour is higher than either scones or biscuits. The batter needs to be placed in a pan that forms the muffin, unlike scones/biscuits which will hold their shape once free formed or cut to form. a. There are two types of mixing methods for muffins. b. Traditional muffin-making: all the steps are geared to minimize mixing, and therefore gluten formation in the flour. The fat is most often in liquid form, either melted shortening or an oil. It's usually mixed with eggs and the liquids, then added all at once to the dry ingredients. Since fat affects tenderness, muffins with a high fat content not only taste rich, they also have a soft crumb. c. Stir muffin batter only until the dry ingredients are lightly moistened (NO ELECTRIC MIXERS PLEASE, or you'll end up with tunnels inside from overmixing). The batter SHOULD be lumpy as it's spooned into the muffin pans - even to the point some bits of dry ingredients are still remaining in the batter. d. Muffins made by creaming fat and sugar will be more tender, but they are also more cakelike. This is the second mixing method. -Grainlady

Maureen, I use buttermilk to make country biscuits. When using buttermilk you need to add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Terri, I basically used the biscuit recipe, but chopped up two green onions, lots of fresh dill and lots of white cheddar cheese and added it to the mix. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table ================ Edited/November 2005 2 cups of flour 1 Tablespoon of baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup shortening, lard, crisco or butter (I use butter) 1 cup of milk (cream) or buttermilk if using buttermilk add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda) Optional. Add a little sugar if you prefer sweet rather than savory. . Mix the flour with the baking powder, and salt. Cut in shortening until it resembles coarse meal. Stir milk or cream in to flour mixture. Mix quickly with fork until dough comes together. Using hands gently pat the ingredients together. Do not over handle. Pat out to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick on a lightly floured board. Cut with biscuit cutters and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for approximately 12 to 15 minutes at 450°F. If making cheese biscuits add the mustard and cayenne to the dry ingredients and add the cheese after the shortening has been cut into the flour. (Note: to cut in shortening either use a pastry blender or put the dry ingredients along with the shortening in a food processor and pulse until the fat is the size of little peas. Do not over process. Pour the mixture into a bowl and add the liquid stirring with a fork.) (Options: For cheese biscuits, add cayenne pepper, dry mustard and some shredded cheddar cheese) or add some fried ham and green onions with the cheese) Option for using Blue Cheese(s): Add chopped green onion and Gloucestershire cheese or another type of blue cheese. And black pepper to taste.

Nancy, there are regional differences, and culture group differences, in how things are said. "For myself" is centuries old. In my own way of speaking, "As for me" would be said in direct contrast to something specific which others have put forth, whereas "for myself" is more or less a short form of "speaking for myself". Subtle difference. I totally agree that it's simpler to use a regular pronoun in the other examples you gave, but there are some places that use reflexive pronouns. Unfortunately, bad teaching has proscribed the use of "I" for many people. They're taught that they shouldn't say I, I, I all the time, so instead of varying their sentence structures, and using I when appropriate, they twist themselves up to avoid it, so that might be another source of these irritating constructions. "Persons" is a legal usage in your examples. I think it's meant to denote individuals or something, since "people" is a group noun. Signage is a collective noun which usually refers to a system of signs rather than to merely to the signs themselves. So the display manager will discuss signage with the graphic designer. They create a system of signs that are meant to work together to make the shopping experience better for the customers. "Signs" are what the clerks have to stay after hours to put up. The overlap is when the display manager asks the floor manager if she received the signage for the Autumn promotions. It is correct in that the box holds the physical instantiation of the system of signage. Signs would also be correct, because the box is full of signs. I totally get your .AARGH!!, Linda, but I think it's normal for the speaker not to count himself in the people there. I remember when I went to school and there was no one there. That's the way I've always said it. (They had called a holiday but a few didn't get the word...) Perhaps it's directional? Because the act of my going there implied that I wasn't someone there yet? Whereas, if I were already inside, it would be more accurate to say, "There's no one here but me." Which should probably be "I", but that sounds funny.