Before I go any further, I have to profess my love for Deb at Smitten Kitchen. I mean really, what's not to love about a woman to wants to bake scones and brownies in the middle of August? Personally, I'm all for it and I find her website really inspiring. There's nothing like seeing a beautiful baked good appear on her blog and knowing that's exactly what I will be cooking tonight.

And I admire that Deb cooks from a variety of sources and so you can't really blame her if there is a stinker every now and then. I had big plans for the North Fork Scones, but they just didn't live up my expectations. I mixed the dough in my Cuisinart and everything seemed to be going great until I added the milk and fresh fruit at the very end, just like I was instructed. Suddenly the dough turned all mushy and way too wet. I kept mixing in the food processor hoping in vain to achieve a better texture but all I got was pink dough now that the fruit had been over-processed. Despite the fact that the fruit got mixed through, the rest of the ingredients did not. I ended up with pink muffin that had a bizarrely uneven texture. Not quite what I was looking for.

Here's the issue for me: I need to start following my own rules. I am proud that I have moved beyond blindly adhering to recipes when I have plenty of available ingredients for substitution. Now I think that I have gone too far to the other side and especially in the realm of baking. As my Mother says, "Cooking is an art, but Baking is a science." If one follows the directions or ingredients list a bit too loosely than all you end up with is.... pink muffins.