Hotel Happenings and Wicked Awesome Cinnamon Chip Scones - Delicious Wonder Drug?

I'm happy to report an unexpected possible benefit from The Old Wilmington Tea Company's Cinnamon Chip Scone mix and recipe. Marge and I bought a bag of the mix when we visited Blue Moon Gifts on Sunday and she whipped them up and served them for dinner. (I was out of the kitchen blogging and Twitting for a couple of hours and when I came back the scones were on the table - isn't it cute how I wrote she "whipped them up"? OK, it also wouldn't be correct (or safe) to say Marge labored in the cooking for two hours either, so . . . allow me to reset.) Correction: Marge made them.

OK, so anyway, the recipe allowed Marge to "make" eight scones. She plated (cool chef verb) four of them for our evening meal and four we saved to take to a recuperating friend (this is where the Wonder Drug lie comes in, but that's later). They looked so pretty I couldn't resist grabbing my camera and grabbing a photo. Actually it took a 6-8 attempts to get a decent shot for this blog entry - the problem, beyond my combined technical and artistic ineptitude, was the sugar coating which made it difficult for me to get a good exposure. Whatever, they looked great, smelled better, and tasted awesome and at the end of our meal only crumbs remained - in the interest of continued domestic harmony I'll mention that there only two human food eaters in our house and Marge consumed only one of the scones.

So here they are (below). As always, depending on your browser you should be able to click to see the image in much larger size. (Caution - click at your own risk, you may experience an immediate visceral reaction that causes you to eat cookies or hop in the car for an emergency Krispy Kreme run.)

So here's the Wonder Drug part: Monday morning I dropped off the remaining four scones at my friend and colleague Craig Spafford's house. Craig's recovering from a medical procedure and I hadn't seen him since the day after the surgery a week or so ago.

On Monday I dropped off the scones on Craig's porch. On Tuesday our Office Manager Kari Essig and I dropped by after attending the Lanvale Forest Grand Re-Opening in Leland and Craig was up and dressed in street clothes. Wednesday he showed up at the office for a while to give everyone a hard time. He also mentioned that the scones lasted less than 10 minutes, their disappearance assisted by generous slatherings of sweet butter.

To summarize:
- Monday - no Craig in sight, drop off scones - scones consumed rapidly
- Tuesday - Craig dressed and smiling
- Wednesday - Craig in office fussing about but really being his usual stellar professional self
My conclusion: Old Wilmington Tea Co. Cinnamon Chip Scones Made by Marge are a Wonder Drug - Works for me!


Hotel Progress - The Comfort Suites hotel is going up fast right next door to our office in Leland, NC in front of Magnolia Greens.


Here's a shot of dirt and the slab on October 7th:




Here's a shot of the first structural steel being delivered on October 13th:

And here's a shot from yesterday, November 13th, of a bunch of workers hammering away on the third floor!

Occupancy expected for May 2009!