March comes in like a lion so let’s tame that beast, shall we? In this Feed Your Fire podcast episode, we explore the value of small iterations and celebrate the good things that carry us. All while auditing with a sweet and savory scone that’s perfect for the season.
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Episode Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Feed Your Fire. I'm Kim Baker, founder of Kim Baker Foods. March has come in like a lion, so we are gonna tame this beast.
In today's episode, we're gonna welcome the transition into spring, the rebirth, the renewal, the vibrancy, letting the good things carry us, and iterating as we go, as we enjoy the most fabulous strawberry balsamic scones taking us right into the season.
If we go viral today, it won't be because we used a $19 Erewon strawberry in our recipe. This recipe was inspired by the coming of spring and the month of March specifically, when we leave those winter doldrums and turn into something bright and warm. This recipe is also the product of iteration. I was inspired by another recipe. I made this one my own, and then I continued to doctor it up a bit more until I was happy with it, making small shifts that kind of accumulate, bringing me to a new outcome. Iterating is about change. It's just not a drastic about face. It's incremental. It's more akin to continuous improvement and building on something that has a foundation.
It's the kind of change most of us can embrace because it's not jarring. And when we learn to embrace small changes, it helps us with the big ones. March brings us to this interesting paradox.
We're at the end of winter, but we're not quite yet at spring. Things are moving along nicely, and then boom, you get a tornado warning, and then the next day, it's sunny. That really did happen last week, by the way.
I was thinking about those in betweens because so much of life is made of them. Most moments in our life are like the month of March, moving from one thing to another, and managing through those fluctuations along the way. And even though it's unpredictable, it's a beautiful month.
This week is the anniversary of my brother's passing. That was a time of life where we were in a total shitstorm, but we found our way through it into a new season. And at this point, enough time has gone by where it doesn't make me melancholy, but it always makes me reflective.
I think about him and what he would have looked like if he were still here today. He'd no doubt have gray hair, and would have changed over the years. I think about how he would have responded to some of the challenges that my sisters and I have faced.
And I think about how his passing shaped us, creating a solidarity and an inner strength and sense of self that I wouldn't trade for anything. Destruction and change is actually an agent for creation. And while that experience was not an iteration, it was a radical transformation in our lives.
It equipped me with the growth mindset that we're going to practice here today. I believe all of us can become change masters in our life. It's a foundational skill, much like cooking, that makes life just taste a whole lot better. It allows you to be free of bitterness and resentment. It helps you move through frustration. And on the other side of those things is the joy and fulfillment that we all seek.
Now, this skill building requires some serious adulting, which is why I like the idea of scones for today. Nothing says adult quite like a scone. I don't know why that is, but it's true. I'm not going to say that a scone can help you get through difficult challenges. I wish it were that simple. I'd be going into the scone business. But analyzing the creation of something develops a formula that we then could apply to other things. The first thing I did when creating this recipe was to get inspired by other recipes. Blueberry, chai, there were endless options.
But I had just bought these beautifully sweet strawberries at the grocery store. And so I thought I should use what I already have. I wanted something a little sweet, maybe also a bit savory.
Nothing too fussy, but it needed to be delicious. So I grabbed a bowl, and I mixed together some dry ingredients. About two and a half cups of flour, a pinch of salt, and two teaspoons of baking powder. One of the recipes I read for went butter, and used all cream. And I thought, well, that's interesting. Maybe we could learn from that.
So I grabbed a small bowl, and I combined a cup of cream with a quarter cup of Greek yogurt. And then I added about a teaspoon of vanilla, the zest of a lemon, and a scant half cup of sugar. Scant is the perfect word when we're making scones. They're both very adult terms, which is not only very befitting, but quite amusing to me, actually. Then, I cut up a cup of washed strawberries, and I put them in a paper towel to just kind of dry off. And then I put them in the center of those dry ingredients.
I mixed up that cream mixture really well, and then poured it into those dry ingredients with the strawberries, and just mix them all together. Then I put big round spoonfuls of this mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. The batter makes about eight.
And then I put it in the refrigerator for about a half hour, just to get it really cold. Then I removed a bit of the refrigerator, I brushed a little bit of cream on top, almost like we were making biscuits, sprinkled some sugar, and popped it in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees. Now, here's when that process of iterating really started.
When they came out of the oven, they smelled divine. But I felt like they needed a little something. So I took some powdered sugar, put it in a little bowl, and I combined it with some balsamic vinegar and a splash of vanilla. And then I drizzled that icing on top of the scones. It definitely took it up a notch, but I still felt like it needed a little something more. I added a little bit of flaky salt, and then a pat of butter, none of which were revolutionary ideas, but combined, it was amazing.
My son was obsessed with them, and at one point, there were about five 16-year-old boys sitting around the kitchen eating scones. But I didn't get to that outcome in one try. It took some finesse, some shifting.
And what I love about this recipe is that I didn't just discard what came out of the oven when it wasn't quite right the first time. And it was by trying new things that ultimately I landed in this sweet spot. And I might still iterate further, adding some chopped thyme to the batter, or a little maple syrup.
Next time, I might use some cold cubes of butter in the flour to add a little extra flakiness. Now, in this case, iterating was the perfect solution. There was enough good that could be built upon. And there are times where the right solution is a total pivot. But I would argue that in the grand scheme of life, that too is an iteration. The next time you go to make something, you'll carry that insight about what worked and what didn't.
And you'll use that wisdom to refine and adjust. This past week, my sister's boyfriend Josh had a scan. It happened to be on his birthday, nearly two years after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma. So we're going to do a little shout out to them for making their way through these million months of March. And just bear a witness to that moment, to that milestone, is the spark to spring, pulling us out of those winter doldrums towards the promise of whatever comes next. Until our next episode, I say so long.
Feed Your Fire, where food nourishes growth.