On a cold day like the ones we've been having, all you really want to do is lie around your apartment slurping tea and rereading an old favorite book or knitting something.



    Or at least, that's all I want to do. But when one is lying around one's apartment slurping tea, reading and/or knitting, one is apt to become a mite peckish. One craves something like a cookie...but not a cookie. Something like a biscuit...but not a biscuit. It is at these times that I like to mix up a batch of raisin oatmeal scones. Sweeter than a biscuit but subtler than a cookie, I can polish off a whole plate of these in one afternoon if nobody else is around to stop me. To get really technical, this recipe is sort of a hybridization of scones and welsh griddle cakes, but I call them scones because that's what they taste like to me. You can call them whatever you like once you've made (and rapidly devoured) them.

Ingredients:
* makes about 15 scones
6 tbsp butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup quick oats
1/4 cup raisins
2 tbsp skim milk

In a medium mixing bowl, cut the butter into the sugar until it is in small, sugar coated granules. Stir the egg into the butter and sugar. Add the flour and baking soda together, and mix well into the dough. Incorporate the quick oats and raisins into the dough, then add the skim milk and stir it in. The dough should form a sticky, single mass. Dump the dough onto a well-floured flat surface, and form it into a ball, rubbing flour into the sides to keep it from sticking to your hands. Once the dough is in a manageable ball, knead it 3 or 4 times. Roll the dough out to 3/8 inch thick. Use a drinking glass or a round cookie cutter to cut the dough into circles. Dip the glass or the cookie cutter in flour if it begins to stick.



    Place the dough circles about 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until the edges of the scones are just beginning to turn golden.