Loxosceles

I love to travel, and I love to fly. Sure, the seats are cramped, the planes are often late, and the TSA staff perpetually uptight and cranky, but you just can't beat ACTUALLY FLYING through the ACTUAL AIR as a method of transportation. It's like an amusement park ride that lasts for hours, and gives you a chance to catch up on your reading.

As a kid, my family lived in a USAir hub city and every flight was a nonstop. Now, I live in a little podunk town and have to take three or four planes for every trip. There's nothing like landing hungry and thirsty, looking forward to a nice lunch, when your plane is late and you only have five minutes to run to another terminal to catch the next flight.

So I learned, early in my podunk traveling days, to always bring a full water bottle with me to the airport. (To keep with the times, I now bring an empty bottle, and find a water fountain as soon as I'm through security.) And on those long, lunchless flights, a bag of scones stuffed in your carry-on is a lifesaver. It doesn't even matter if they get crushed; the crumbs taste just as good.

I have a hard time predicting whether I'll get hungry for food or hungry for candy, so for today's flight I made half my scones sweet and the other half savory. Don't let the unknown scare you: the savory cheese scones smelled almost like a pizza coming out of the oven, attracting both dogs and people to the kitchen, even the people whose reaction was "you put CHEESE in your SCONES?". They quickly changed their tune!

You can whip up these scones in just a few minutes, so long as you have heavy cream in your fridge; no need to soften any butter or bother with eggs or oil. The cream is the secret ingredient, making the scones light and fluffy. They'll be fluffier the less you stir the cream, so if you're using a mixer, only turn it on for a few short seconds.

I firmly believe that these scones are, if not healthy, at least better for you than anything you'd get at the airport newsstand on your way to your gate. Feel free to vary the ingredients. Scallions go particularly well in cheese scones; fruity scones are delicious with lemon juice in place of the vanilla extract.

These two half-batches can replace breakfast and lunch for 1-2 ravenous travelers, with some left over. If you're staying home, that works out to 12-18 medium sized scones to eat at your leisure.

Sweet cranberry oatmeal scones

• 1/2 pint cream
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1 tbsp baking powder
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 cup quick oats
  
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (or try other dried fruits or nuts)
  
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1.5 cups flour
  

Preheat the oven to 350, and mix all ingredients except the flour. Slowly mix in the flour to make a fluffy dough. (You may have some flour left over; that's fine.)

Transfer the dough to a baking sheet, and pat it into a round cake. Cut the cake into triangles, as you would a pizza (or form the shapes of your choice, say round or square), and space the scones equally on the sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, or until the corners just start to turn golden-brown.

Savory cheese scones

• 1/2 pint cream
  
• 1 tbsp baking powder
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
  
• 1/2 cup grated pepper jack or sharp cheddar cheese
  
• 1.5 cups of flour (I used half white flour and half wheat)
  

Prepare as for sweet scones, mixing the flour in last, and dividing the dough into triangles or the shapes of your choice. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until the corners just start to turn golden-brown.