Apricot Scones

 This morning I taught Anthony how to make scones. They came out great, and I made so many modifications on the recipe that I found online, I knew I had to record just what amounts of each ingredient we used.

Apricot Scones

Preheat oven to 425  Cut a piece of parchment to fit a cookie baking pan

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup COLD butter (one stick) cut into 1/2 tsp size cubes

1 egg

about 1/2 cup half and half

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped into raisin sized bits (other dried fruits could be substituted)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt in bowl of food processor and pulse a few times. 

Add butter and pulse about 12 times, until butter is in small chunks. 

Being careful not to touch the blades of the food processor, smash larger chunks of butter between your thumb and forefinger. 

Add apricots, egg and half and half and pulse until roughly combined into a dough.

Pour mixture onto baking pan and gently mold into one 9 inch disc shape, using the large blob to add the stray dry bits onto the larger body of dough. 

Slice into 12 triangles like you are cutting a birthday cake, and flatten them a bit as you spread them around on the baking pan.

Bake in center of oven for 12 minutes or until you can see a golden color develop on the scones.

Chocolate Chip Scone variation-

Follow above recipe, with the following changes. Reduce sugar to 5 T, substitute 1 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels for apricots. Anthony made these today, and we used less than 1/2 cup half and half. The mixture was so dry that it was hard to get all the crumbs back together to form the disc, but the resulting scones were incredibly delicious!

Browned butter chocolate chip cookies

 Ingredients:

one cup of butter- starting weight 236 gr after browning 189 gr

2 cups of flour (I am considering adding more flour)

2 TBS cornstarch

1 t baking soda

1/4 t baking powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 t vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups of chocolate- can by chips or chopped bars of dark, semi sweet, or milk chocolate

Procedure:cook two sticks of butter on medium heat for about 5-8 minutes, watching closely for the butter to foam and the milk solids to start to brown. Remove from heat and pour into dish to refrigerate until solid.
Browning the butter adds flavor to the cookies, and reduces the amount of liquid in the recipe. If you need to add more liquid, add a tablespoon or two of milk.
Cream butter with sugars, add eggs one at a time and add vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, cornstarch, backing soda, baking powder. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix briefly to combine. Add chocolate of your choice. Scoop by the ice cream scoop of your choice and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. 

Bake at 350 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet. No need for parchment. 15 minutes for smaller cookies, 18 minutes for larger cookies.

Cucumber Coconut Lemon Ginger Smoothie

 Did your garden produce too many cucumbers? Is this summer so hot you need a cool, refreshing drink? Or, like me, did you miss dinner to go to Yoga class and now you rather drink your dinner? Maybe all of the above? Yup!

Peel or don't peel one large cucumber. Squeeze one half of a lemon into your blender. Add chopped cucumber and one inch of piece of peeled ginger root. Blend.  Too strong.

Add 6 ice cubes and blend again. Better, but I'd like it sweeter and I know that there is about one tablespoon of cream of coconut left from some cocktails, so I added that and .... perfect! Just what I wanted. 

If I didn't have the coconut I was going to add a handful of green grapes or frozen pineapple.

Keto peanut butter cups

 We've all been doing a high fat diet, keto, in fact, to try and lose weight. Keto is crazy and not very vegetarian, but this recipe doesn't contain meat, so I'll record it here for posterity. Or as long as we keep reading the blog.  

PS: its really good!

ingredients:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

4 T ghee

2 T swerve confectioner's sweetener

1/4 cup Lily's sugar free chocolate chips

2 T cocoa powder

Melt peanut butter and 2 T ghee in microwave for 30 seconds, stir until smooth. 

Add 1 T sweetener.

spoon into candy molds. I use a silicone mini ice cube tray and chill for 15 minutes.

meanwhile, melt chocolate with remaining ghee, stir and add sweetener and cocoa powder until its chocolatey enough for your taste. I added another smidge of peanut butter, too.

spoon chocolate mixture carefully on top of peanut butter mixture, and refrigerate overnight. 

pop out of trays and store in fridge.

 Easy and Elegant Cheese "Soufflé"

This recipe is from Frances Moore Lappe's 1970 era book "Diet for a Small Planet," a book that influenced and guided millions how to eat a balanced vegetarian diet. This is a dinner that is perfect to cook when you have bread, milk and cheese, but not much else in your fridge. It's satisfying, savory, and easy to throw together. There are numerous ways to change it up, different cheeses, seasonings, and maybe a vegetable or two. Send me a comment if you find a different way that you think is even better than the original recipe.

Layer in an oiled 9 x 11 baking dish: 4-6 slices of bread and 3 cups of grated cheese.

Pour over that 2 cups of milk. You may add 1/2 cup of wine if you have some handy.

Mix separately and pour over 3 eggs beaten, 1/2 t salt, 1/2 t thyme, a splash or two of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 t dry mustard, 1/2 t black pepper. NOTE: Worcestershire sauce is not vegetarian, as it contains some little fishy bits, anchovies! There are vegetarian substitutions available if you so desire. (See recipe for vegan chex mix)

Let sit for 30 minutes and bake in a pan of water at 350 degrees. 

Rigatoni with broccoli and bok choy

I was harvesting my garden fresh bok choy today, on a day when I wanted to make a veggie pasta dish. It tastes good, so I'll share the recipe. Bok choy adds bulk and good nutrition to the dish, but is a mildly flavored veggie, so it will appeal to new leafy green eaters, who would turn up their noses at more bitter greens.

2024 Update! I got both broccolini and Bok Choy in my crop share from Von Thun's Farm CSA this week, so I gave this recipe a new try.  I cut both the pasta and heavy cream in half, and eliminated adding hot pasta water. I think it would have been too juicy!  Try it and let me know what you think.

Rigatoni with Broccoli and Bok Choy

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 red onion, chopped
1 pound bag of chopped broccoli, cooked in microwave
1 bunch bok choy (I used two) chopped, stems and leaves
1 pound of rigatoni or your choice of macaroni. I used the big ones.
4 T butter
1 T vegeta seasoning
1 t Italian seasoning
1t oregano
Salt and Black pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Melt butter in large Dutch oven sized pot, and sauté garlic and onion. Add broccoli and bok choy, season and cook while your pasta boils. Salt the cooking water. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water and drain when al dente. Add cream and pasta to pot. Add additional cooking water as needed to make it saucy. Add cheese and play with your food. I mean eat it!

Vegeta!  If you read my recipes, you might wonder what Vegeta seasoning is. I first learned about it from my Aunt Helen's Slovakian caregiver, Melanie. Vegeta is a combination of dehydrated vegetables, ground into a rough powder, that adds a boullion like flavor, like you cooked lots of veggies into a rich broth, and then added that to your dish. You can buy it with msg (mono sodium glutimate) or without. 

I buy mine at the local vegetable market, where you find international seasonings. 

Vegan Chex Mix

This is only a slight modification of my standard Chex Mix, which I made today for Molly's bachelorette party.

Ingredients:

4 oz Earth Balance Original Spread
2 Tablespoons Annie's worcestershire sauce- Annie's is vegan. Most others are not.
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, more or less to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Nutritional yeast, about 1 Tablespoon, or whatever you think is good.

6 cups corn Chex
6 cups rice Chex
1 1/2 cups Oyster crackers
1 cup pretzel sticks

Preheat oven to 235 degrees. Melt Earth Balance Spread and add other seasoning ingredients.
Stir until well blended. Add dry crackers, cereals, and pretzels and stir until sauce is evenly distributed. Bake for one hour, mixing every 15 minutes.

Have a great time, Molly, Mary, Sandy, Olivia and Mallory!