Yummy Weekend Recipes

Ready for some good eats? Here are two brilliant foods that I ate over the weekend. One is a quick and easy snack, the other a breakfast/lunch/dinner/dessert. Make ‘em. Eat ‘em. Love ‘em.

Pumpkin Yogurt

• ½ cup plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp canned pumpkin
• Dash of cinnamon
• Stevia or other sweetener to taste
• ¼ cup dried fruit, nuts, or cereal (or all of the above)

Mix it up and enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Almond Scones

I used the same recipe I used for the Almond Raisin Scones with a few little tweaks.

• 1 ¾ cup GF dough mix (must have XANTHAN GUM) 
• 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar 
• ½ tsp baking powder 
• ¼ tsp salt 
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder 
• 3 tbsp sugar/Xylitol 
• 4 tbsp butter cold 
• 2/3 cup vanilla yogurt 
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten 
• 1 cup almonds, chopped 
• ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 
• \Rice flour (for dusting) 
• 2 tbsp milk (brushing on top) 
• Powdered sugar (optional) 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, salt,  cocoa, and sugar. Pulse a few times in food processor. Add butter and pulse 15-20 times until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg and yogurt and run food processor for about 10 seconds or until it makes a large lump of dough. Transfer dough into bowl and fold in chocolate chips and almonds. Dump dough onto lightly floured surface (rice flour) divide into 8 to 10 equal parts. Make the dough into whatever shape you like (I chose triangles), about ¾ inches thick. Place on greased cookie sheet or one lined with parchment paper. Cook 25-30 min. Dust with powdered sugar.

Eat them alone...

...for breakfast...

...or as dinner.

Enjoy the deliciousness.

The Greatest Game Ever Played

Cooking is my favorite pastime. Correction: it’s not a pastime; it’s a way of life. I am obsessed with it. It used to be a hobby, back when I was a vocal major and completely focused on music (opera, to be specific). But, when I came to the realization that I wanted to have a life and a family before the age of 45, I made a drastic life change and career shift. Now, music is my hobby and cooking has taken its place as my every day passion.

When I talk to people about cooking, sometimes I just don’t think they get it. I try to explain, but they just smile and nod while scarfing down a mouthful of my latest creation. Friday morning, I woke up with the bright idea of making scones-the anti-croissant (I am angry with croissants right now). After I made them, I felt like I was on Cloud 9. When I spoke to my hubby-to-be, I kept saying over and over how happy I was that I made some awesome scones. Like me, he has an all-consuming passion in his life- his pro soccer career. So, I conjured up the perfect analogy to make him understand the culinary high I was on. 

Here it goes:

I see cooking as a game (a soccer game- duh). I am like the coach, and the ingredients are like my team. When I see a recipe, it’s like the opponent. People might tell me how to choose my team and use my players most effectively, but I am always looking for something new and innovative that hasn’t been done before. When I cook something and it doesn’t turn out (case in point: Pastries from Hell), I feel like I’ve been defeated by the opponent. 

Sometimes, it seems that the recipe might not turn out, I feel like I'm one down at half time. I look in the pantry and see that I am missing an ingredient- one of my players has been injured. Gotta find a substitute, and fast. Sometimes, it's just doesn't measure up to my injured man. But sometimes, my sub is (literally) the secret ingredient I've been looking for to spice up the game. 

When the I look in the oven and see the dough rising or open the lid and see it simmering with a few minutes left on the clock, it's like watching one of my players setting up to take a a penalty. As soon as I take that pan out of the oven and realize I've just kicked the recipe's butt; I feel like my team has just scored the winning goal. Get it guys? Ladies, if you feel the same way I do, let him read this. You can't go wrong with sports analogies.

I plan on cooking every day (or almost) for the rest of my life until I die- and possibly even after that. Making a simple omelet makes me happy. But Friday morning at 6 am, omelets weren't on my mind- these British beauties were.

Almond Raisin Scones

• 1 ¾ cup GF dough mix (must have XANTHAN GUM)
• 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 tbsp sugar/Xylitol
• 4 tbsp butter cold
• ½ cup milk or 2/3 cup yogurt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• ½ cup raisins
• 1 cup almonds, chopped
• Rice flour (for dusting)
• 2 tbsp milk (brushing on top)
• Powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, salt,  and sugar. Pulse a few times in food processor. Add butter and pulse 15-20 times until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg and milk and run food processor for about 10 seconds or until it makes a large lump of dough. Transfer dough into bowl and fold in raisins and almonds. 

Dump dough onto lightly floured surface (rice flour) divide into 8 equal parts. 

Roll each part into a ball and press into a round, about ¾ inches thick. 

Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Cook 25-30 min. 

Then, devour! Enjoy.

Pastries from Hell

After finding a GF recipe, I went to bed Tuesday night thinking about croissants. Craving croissants. I dreamt about croissants (this is not a joke). I woke up to a puking dog at 3 am Wednesday morning, and thought about croissants. Cleaning puke quickly wiped the reverie from my brain. I went back to bed, and then woke up for the final time at 7:30 am. Guess what I was thinking about.

I got ready and jetted over to the grocery store for some baking supplies. I couldn’t find xanthan gum (What grocer doesn’t have xanthan gum?), but I read that gelatin can be a substitute for it. I figured it would be fine.  I got home, and went straight to work on my fluffy pastries of the French gods. I then came to the shocking realization that the cream cheese was MIA. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing- we ALWAYS have cream cheese.

Substitutions and recipe tweaks are my specialty, so and used cottage cheese in place of the cream cheese. Maybe I was blinded with hope, but I really thought they would turn out. After letting the dough cool, I took to rolling. To my dismay, it started sticking to the parchment paper, tearing, crumbling, and doing everything else that can screw up dough. I rolled it, added flour, added and egg, added more flour, which seemed to add some cohesiveness to the mixture.

Dough refusing to be rolled

So sad. 

I rolled it out again for the millionth time, and made my little croissants. They were the saddest looking things I have ever seen.

Observe: cracked, gooey, lumpy. 

I cooked them and they smelled delish (at least). When they emerged, my disappointment turned to frustration. 

Ugly, dense piles of crap.

No fluffiness. I didn’t expect it, but nevertheless. I ate two small ones. They tasted great, but I was disgusted. They were crunchy bread rolls parading around as croissants. Gah. I refused to eat any more. My family raved over the little imposters, but I was angry with them. I disowned them. I no longer claimed them as my creations.

It was a major fail on my part. Baking is clearly not my forte. I have major issues with following directions. I bring my cooking creativity and free-spiritedness to the baking which, apparently, doesn't go over well. I plan on trying to make these things again using a different recipe and following directions to a T. I am too depressed to try any time soon…

I’ll probably get more ingredients tomorrow…