Holiday treats: Eggnog Scones

Yummers!!!
The recipe for these scones was on the side of a carton of eggnog about 15 years ago. I cut the recipe off the carton, and these are my official "Holiday Scones". Put the Christmas music on, brew a pot of coffee and bake a batch of these tasty treats. (And as you can guess, this recipe has been copied into my Holiday Book.)

Eggnog Scones (makes 16)

3 cups (about 360 g) flour (I make these with part whole wheat flour, mostly white, in a ratio of 1 part whole wheat to 3 parts white)
1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
2 teaspoons (10 mL) baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) salt
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 mL) nutmeg
3/4 cup (180 g) butter
1 cup (240 mL) eggnog
1 tablespoon (15 mL) milk
sugar for dusting tops before baking

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter. Add the eggnog and stir quickly with a fork, drawing the dry ingredients into the wet.

This mixture will be quite crumbly at this point. Time to get your fingers in the mix. Gently mix with your fingers. When most of the dry ingredients have been combined with the eggnog, knead very gently until you have a dough ball. Turn the dough out onto the counter top and divide in half.

Pat each half of dough into a 1-inch thick circle. Cut each into 8ths. Transfer to a greased baking sheet.

Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. (No pastry brush? Just dip the back side of a spoon into a small dish of milk and gently spread on. Do this a couple of times to coat the scones.)

Bake at 425 degrees F (218 C), for 10-12 minutes. Transfer to a rack immediately after baking.


Extending eggnog

I don't know if you do this, too. We extend the eggnog with milk, nutmeg and vanilla extract. I've never cared for full strength eggnog. It's too rich for me. So I've always extended it. Makes it more to my taste and saves money (eggnog is not cheap!).

For each cup of beverage, I use 3/4 cup eggnog, 1/4 cup milk, a pinch of nutmeg and 1/16 teaspoon vanilla extract.

University/college application fees: a couple of ways to avoid these fees

My two daughters have been in the process of applying for university for next year. As if the tuition alone will not be expensive enough, there are all sorts of fees ahead of us to add to it.

There's the SAT/ACT score forwarding fee, for the standardized exams needed to apply. With the SAT, at least, if you designate which university you want your scores sent to, when you register to take the exam, you are allowed a certain number of universities that your scores are sent to, absolutely free. If you delay deciding to which schools you want your scores sent, until after registration for exams, there is an $11 fee per school. 

We made this mistake with my two daughters. They each applied to 2 schools, costing us $44 for test scores to be sent out. This could have been free to us, had we thought this through from the beginning (chosen our desired schools up front, instead of taking our time to decide). Lesson learned. Now maybe someone else can benefit from our mistake.

The next fee most students will encounter is the actual application fee, due when submitting your application. This can be a hefty charge. However, some schools will waive this fee entirely if you fit certain income requirements. (We didn't. But it's worth checking to see if you do.) 

There's one other way to have this application fee waived at some schools. There is something called the Early Action application. Basically this is where the student submits their application a month or two ahead of the general deadline. For one of my daughters' schools the Early Action deadline was Nov. 15. At this university, if you make the Early Action application, they waive the application fee, for a savings of about $50-60. 

Not all schools offer this incentive, but if your child knows where they want to pursue their university education, and they can put together their application in time, check to see if this is offered. The other bonus this school offered with the Early Action application is they automatically put our daughters into consideration for merit-based scholarships -- one less form to have to fill out.

The other university that my daughters made their applications to was a state university. The only waiver of fees there is based on financial need. And this school has eliminated their Early Action deadline altogether. The cost for each application was $60. That's a pretty hefty fee, just to have a back-up school, should the university of their choosing not work out.

One bonus to these fees related to their applications, as I'm paying for this application, I handed my credit card to each daughter, in turn, to enter all the numbers into their applications submission. My daughters have limited experience with credit cards. This gave me a moment with each to discuss credit cards, expenses, paying off bills in full each month -- it was a teachable moment. So, for $60 each, I got the opportunity to discuss money with my daughters. Who knows, that moment may save hundreds or thousands in my kids' lifetimes.