I am up at 5AM right now writing this blog on a caffeine high. I totally had a lapse in responsibility last night because I was just too, too tired. To get the early 7AM flight out of New York, you really have to get up at like 4:30 AM. Um, for those of you who are feeling slow this morning, that’s 1:30 on my Seattle Body clock, and that is just wrong in every way. To add insult to injury, Pete and I went out to dinner on Wednesday night with a friend and we were celebrating all kinds of fun stuff and I totally drank too, too much.

So lets recap. Pretty much, I got kind of drunk, and then I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning. And now I am going to reveal the fact that I am not the greatest traveler anyways. Efficient and well practiced yes!! But I don’t think I have ever told you about how I am car sick, plane sick, pretty much I can’t go on any moving thing at all. (I jumped on a giant trampoline this summer in whistler and I was sick for the rest of the day). I also am a little hypoglycemic- like I start to gag if I have too much of an empty stomach. How did my husband get so lucky?! So basically I was a real piece of work on the way to the airport.

Oh, and in order to just lie there and “doze” (aka: feel sorry for myself) for an extra 15 minutes yesterday morning, I decided that I totally didn’t need a stich of makeup or anything. Just a bun and my new cute sparkle flats I got (they are on instagram). When I saw my reflection in security, I saw how very, very , very wrong that descision was by the way. But who cares- it’s not like I was going to see anyone I knew? Right?

I then proceed to watch two movies on the plane. The second if which was “Marley and Me.” Oh. My. God. I usually avoid any type of animal movies, because I just know they will make me cry. Well, I am not sure what made me fall off the wagon on the airplane, but I basically caused a scene with my uncontrollable crying. Pete kept reaching over what I thought was a reassuring hand squeeze and a pat, pat on my leg. I now realize he was probably like so embarrassed. But have you seen that movie??! Then I turned off the airline digiplayer and saw my swollen, bloated, blotchy red face in the reflection as we landed. Oh good god- it was really bad. Like my mom or sister would have been real with me, like “don’t you have any coverup in your bag?!”, but my sweet husband, was like “oh honey, you look beautiful”. Then when we were standing there, trapped by the closed door, waiting to exit the plane, I had what should have been a really fun and kind of humbling moment. I was a little bit loudly recognized as having been on tv. So then everyone turned and stared at me. Oh jeez. I smiled as big as I could. #1, because it was a genuinely nicely meant comment. #2, I thought that maybe my huge grin and crinkled eyes would take up some of the red blotchy real estate happening on my face. At least the very nice flight attendant smiled sympathetically at me after everyone studied me. Good times. At least I was wearing my cute new shoes.

My biggest take away from this: don’t watch crying movies on the plane. Nothing good can come of it. And apologies for the rant, I had to get that off my chest.

And now for a recipe that will perfectly soothe my nerves for the weekend and delight my children with morning sugar: Almond Joy Scones. They have a day off school (already!) and I have promised Pia and Coco that we shall have a batch of these this morning and a “My Little Pony” marathon. My idea of a perfect morning.

Crunchy almonds, sweet coconut and obviously a naughty little bit of chocolate. The perfect breakfast or brunch item, or my favorite- as a late afternoon snack with my 5th cup of coffee for the day.

This is how you make these Almond Joy Scones:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a sheet pan with a silpat or parchment paper. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and coconut. Pulse until it is well combined. Add in the cold butter and pulse until you have a fine crumb. In a small bowl, combine the heavy cream, almond extract and the egg and whisk together with a fork. Add the liquid and pulse again until you have a sticky dough.

Transfer the dough to a plate and mix in the chocolate chunks and almonds by hand.

Drop the dough by rounded spoonful onto the prepared pan. (I got 12 small out of the dough, but you could do 8 large scones).

Bake the scones at 400 for 12 to 14 minutes, until the tops are golden.While the scones are baking, melt the chocolate and whisk until smooth with a fork.

When you pull the scones out let them cool for a few minutes, then drizzle the chocolate over the scones. Let them set up for a few minutes and then serve warm or at room temperature.