Coconut macaroons, beef stew

Tom's parents hadn't seen the boys in a few weeks so invited them over for the afternoon. Everyone was excited, and I've gotten a lot of cooking done including a double batch of scones and a dozen and a half cherry-almond-coconut macaroons to put in the freezer.  Presently, the most incredible smelling beef stew is bubbling away in my Staub. God, it smells to the nines in here. As you might have surmised from my post this morning, I've been in an autumnal kinda mood all day and finally decided to just go with it even though by any definition, it is still decidedly summer here. Whatever! The stew will be marvelous tonight. I hate fruit flies. They are a scourge, as are mosquitoes.

Happening now...

Fresh ricotta, Shiro plum-basil jam, Nanny's chicken salad, rhubarb scones... In the works: pickled pattypan squash.

Rhubarb scones

Made these for breakfast and really enjoyed them. Rhubarb - straight-up - cream, flour, vanilla sugar. I knew that darn vanilla sugar would come in handy!