Coffee & Creamer Cookies

Coffee with Creamer Cookies (Eggless)

2/3 Cup oil
1/3 Cup liquid non-dairy creamer or milk (flavored or plain)
2/3 Cup sugar
3 teaspoons (1 Tablespoon) ground French Roast coffee (Turkish ground)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon dark molasses
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a bowl, combine oil, creamer, sugar, coffee, vanilla, and molasses. If using a thick creamer, mix 50/50 with water to thin for a total 1/3 Cup. Stir ingredients until incorporated. Add the remaining dry ingredients and stir until mixed evenly.

Bake on a cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes. Makes 1 1/2 dozen 2" cookies.

This dough is safe (and delicious) to eat raw.

Lemon Lavender Cake with Lemon Icing

This is an easy recipe that uses plain, non-fat yogurt and safflower oil, with just a little butter to fill out the flavor notes. I used culinary lavender from Lost Mountain Lavender Farm in Sequim, Washington. If you are a fan of lavender, you can experience the best-smelling festival around: the Sequim Lavender Festival, which happens each year in July.

Though our lavender is spectacular here in Washington, our citrus is less  wonderful. For this reason, I had something called "volcano lemon burst" on hand instead of actual lemon. Volcano Lemon Burst comes in a plastic lemon-shaped container; it's a blend of water, lemon juice, and lemon oil. Since I didn't have any lemon zest or lemon oil for this recipe, it was a good choice for this cake. You could use fresh lemon and its zest, if you have them.

The other ingredients are available year-round, allowing a taste of summer any time the winter blues get to you.

Cake Ingredients:

1 TBL unsalted butter

1/4 C oil

1 C white sugar

2 medium eggs

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½  tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 C plain yogurt

1 ½ TBL dried lavender flowers

¼ C lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 12 Cup bundt pan.

Cream butter, oil, and sugar. Add in eggs and beat until mixed, about 1 minute.

Mix dry ingredients except for the lavender. Add the dry mixture into the oil-sugar mixture, alternately with yogurt. Do not overmix. Fold in lemon juice and the lavender.

Bake for 1hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely before removing it from the pan. When cool, drizzle on the glaze. (See recipe below.)

If you cover the cake (such as putting it in a cake carrier or covered container) before the icing sets completely, the icing will wrinkle slightly.

     

Lemon sugar glaze

For the sugar glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

A pinch of dried lavender flowers

Prepare the glaze:

Combine the powdered sugar, milk and lemon juice in a small bowl. Stir with a rubber spatula until the glaze is smooth and of drizzling consistency. Spoon the glaze over the top of each slightly cooled cake, letting some run down unevenly on the sides. Sprinkle the lavender decoratively over the tops of the glaze and serve.

Bob's Red Mill Vegetable Soup

The time I followed the recipe on the package, I got mush. Maybe I didn't follow the recipe to the letter, in that it may have boiled, but -- mush? The mush became meatloaf.

There was still an almost full package of Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix in my kitchen, however. The first thing I decided to try was making soup again, this time soup that would not be mush soup.

This is a soup mix of barley, lentils, split peas, and vege pasta. The cooked down vege pasta was responsible for the mush factor. While there is a recipe on the back for creamed soup, where after the hour of cooking, the soup is blended mush, I didn't completely believe that the shorter cook time for the pasta elements had been factored in when creating the mix.

I looked to Alton Brown's advice on rice, and took elements from a great white bean minestrone recipe that I have.

1 Cup Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix
1 TBL Earth Balance non-hydrogenated buttery topping (coconut oil would be a good substitution)
3 Cups water (not stock!)

1 tsp tomato paste
2 large cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1 carrot, cut into circles
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (a seasoning blend similar to Mrs. Dash, list below*)

 Melt the buttery topping in a saucepan on low heat. Add the soup mix. Stir until coated with the melted fat.

 Add the water. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes on very low heat. Do not allow to boil.

Test a split pea; tender "al dente" but not at all chalky or hard is perfectly cooked for this soup. When ready, add remaining ingredients and cover. Turn off heat, and allow 5 - 10 minutes for the flavors to incorporate. Taste; increase seasoning if desired.

This makes a hearty, thick soup with a lot of chew factor. I didn't have any other vegetables to add in besides the carrot, and I'm glad. I think more would have upset the texture. The basic soup mix has what it needs for the foundations of a satisfying soup. It made a good main dish for dinner. I was happy that it reheated well in the microwave, for take-to-work lunch.








TJ's 21 Seasoning Salute (below) has muchin common with  Mrs. Dash - Original Blend .

Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute ingredients label

*Onion
Spices (black pepper, celery seed, cayenne pepper, parsley, basil, majoram, bay leaf, oregano, thyme, savory, rosemary, cumin,  mustard, coriander)
Garlic
Carrot
Orange peel
Tomato granules
Lemon juice powder
Oil of lemon
Citric acid

Gruyere & Applesauce biscuits

2 C all purpose flour
2 1/2 TBL baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C non-hydrogenated shortening
small knob of gruyere, about 3 TBL


1 C small curd cottage cheese (including separated whey)
1/4 C unsweetened applesauce

Preheat oven to 450F.

Combine flour, b. powder, & salt. Mix thoroughly. Cut in shortening until you create a sandy consistency. Slice the gruyere into small pieces and blend in.thoroughly. You can do this with your hands.

Add cottage cheese and applesauce. Mix in, allow to rest 5 minutes if it looks dry. Knead to incorporate the dough into a ball, shape into a log, and slice into 6 pieces. Bake for 15 minutes for a golden color.

Not even Krupnik is safe

Burning Maple Forest

12oz maple syrup
2/3 Cup brewed smokey tea, hot (I used one that I dubbed "Burning Village," an uncomplicated, Chinese smokey black tea)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 green cardamom pod
4 sticks cinnamon
lemon and orange zest (about 2 strips of each)
2 Cups cheap vodka

empty bottle
no fuss double boiler (pyrex measuring cup in a saucepan of hot water)

Don't use good vodka. If you buy something in a 750ml bottle and have an extra bottle of equal size, make a double batch. It will use everything perfectly. You won't need to measure the vodka. Just pour half of the full bottle into the empty one.

Pour the vodka into an empty bottle. Start steeping your tea. (1 tsp of leaves in 190F water)

Using a double boiler method, warm the maple syrup. (Heat a saucepan with enough water to make a bath for the glass measuring cup, no deeper than 3/4 the height of the cup deep.) Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, and zest. Allow to infuse on low heat for 5 minutes.

Carefully remove the measuring cup from your saucepan. Pour the warm maple syrup infusion into the bottle with the vodka. Pop the citrus zest and cinnamon into the bottle, but do not add the cardamom pods. (It should not age with the cardamom in it.) Pour your brewed tea into the measuring cup, then add to the bottle. If there is any space left, top off with hot tea.

Cap. Do not touch for at least 2 weeks. It will improve if left longer.

This is a variation on Krupnik, which uses honey, plain water, 2 whole cloves, no cardamom, double the cinnamon, and one whole vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or 1 tsp vanilla extract).

Roasted Parsnip Soup

It started with this recipe for spicy parsnip soup: Jamie Oliver's soup.

Tired of the repetitious paring of coconut milk with curry seasoning and appalled by a recipe that makes enough soup to swim in, I restructured the whole thing. It becomes vegan very easily.

2 parsnips
2 TBL butter or high-heat oil (suggestion: sunflower oil)
1/4 tsp salt

1 TBL olive oil
1 Cup Vegetable stock (homemade)
1 can (15 oz) Coconut milk (Trader Joe's light coconut milk)
1 small red onion (about 1 Cup, chopped)
1/4 C celery
2 cloves of garlic (at least), chopped
1/2 a carrot
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp fresh parsley


Onion, garlic, and herbs are to taste. Feel free to use fresh herbs if you have them on hand.

Preheat your oven to 425F. Peel your parsnips (you don't have to, but it will make the soup prettier) and slice into thin (1/4") circles. Cut each circle again into 4. The faster way to do this is to cut each parsnip in half, then split the half lengthwise, then cut two longs at a time as if you were cutting half-circles. You want an end result of confetti sized pieces that will roast quickly.

A 9"x12", 1" deep pan is the perfect roasting pan size. Put butter and parsnip confetti into the pan and into the oven for 2 to 5 minutes, until the butter is melted. If using oil, skip to the next step. Remove, and stir the parsnips around so that they get a good coating of butter. Sprinkle with salt. Set a timer for 20 minutes and let those beauties roast. Give them another stir up during the roasting if you like. They should be tender but should not be soft; think "al dente".

Chop your onions, garlic, and parsley. Slice the celery. Cut the carrot into thin (1/8") coins. Half a carrot is plenty; just eat the rest! Proceed when the parsnips are roasted.

In a medium saucepan, saute the onions & celery in oil until the onions start to become clear. Add your garlic, and saute one more minute. Lower heat. Add your roasted parsnips. Add your sage, rosemary, thyme, and carrot. (If you are using dry or frozen parsley, add it now.) Add with vegetable stock and coconut milk. Stir.

Cover and allow to simmer for 20 minutes (already on the timer, how convenient!). Check your parsnips for tenderness. If they are not soft enough for your taste, allow another 10 minutes of cooking on low heat.

Sprinkle with parsley before serving.

From Food

This photo does not do this soup justice. Peeling and roasting the parsnips makes the soup a creamy golden tone, and the carrot coins create accent points of color without being flavor bullies.

The Pastry Crust that Works

Here is the pastry crust recipe from Great American Home Baking: Chicken Pot Pie. It's usually successful when made exactly to recipe. I think it would also work with shortening instead of butter. It can be made several days ahead as long as it is well sealed in the refrigerator against air.

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup chilled butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg
2-3 Tablespoons ice water

To prepare pastry, in a medium bowl, mix together flour and salt. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut butter into flour until course crumbs form.

In a small bowl, beat together egg and water. Add to the flour mixture. Mix lightly until a soft dough forms. Shape into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the pastry to fit your dish. Bake at 400 F. (This is from a pot pie recipe with a 25-30 minute bake time.)