The other day, I had breakfast with my friend Preethi, and I was blown away when she told me that she wears running tights underneath her work pants in order not to freeze to death on her way into work (she lives in D.C.). I was also shocked today to see a Facebook picture of Petrie playing in actual snow in my parents’ backyard in Oregon. These are places that, I know, get really, really cold. And still, somehow, whenever the temperature dips to 50 or below here in California, I can barely stand it. This past Saturday was one of those days, so I stayed in and mixed up a thick, sticky batter for a large batch of crumpets. I had found the recipe in the paper the day before, and it seemed like just the thing to smother in butter and jam and pair with a mug of hot coffee.

Note: the whole crumpet-making process can be sped up through the use of more than one biscuit ring on the griddle. However, it can be fun to make them the torturously slow way, one at a time, and to eat them standing up in the kitchen as they come off the griddle so that they are all gone before the last one is even finished cooking.

The mock clotted cream the recipe suggested sounded good, but not as good as simple salted butter and blueberry jam (my favorite).