Recipe: Luscious Lemon Scones

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Sorry that it's been a while since I've posted - I'm moving temporarily to NYC (for two months) this upcoming Wednesday and it's been chaotic sorting out housing issues on both ends. 

But now it's sorted, I've stuffed impossibly much stuff into one straining-at-the-seams extra large suitcase, and there's time for a little procrastibaking before I finish packing up my room for my time away from Boston.

This brings us to:

Lemon scones! They're great with a lemony glaze, whipped cream and lemon curd, and/or served with tea. 

They're quick to whip up, ready within thirty minutes from the time that you step foot in the kitchen (assuming you don't take a power nap in there), and only use ingredients that are found in most kitchens, anyway. It's the perfect baking on a whim recipe!

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Recipe: Nutty for Nuts Bars

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We're well into June now and with the warm weather and long days comes a lot more time spent outside and, by extension, a lot more fun social activities like potlucks and parties for many of us!

I love baking, so I always try to get dibs on dessert when I go to a potluck. Not only is making desserts loads of fun, but desserts are often also easier to make ahead of time and transport to the party location, since they generally don't have to be kept particularly hot or cold in transport.

These nutty bars are a sweet, delicious, and indulgent dessert that's a big hit at parties, potlucks, and bake sales. They're fun to make, a great way to switch things up from the typical chocolate chip cookies and brownies, and are perfect served at room temperature. They're very rich, so you get a lot of bars out of the batch. Read on for the recipe!

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Recipe Review: Peanut Butter Jam Bars

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I love peanut butter and peanut butter and jelly (or honey) sandwiches are delicious, so today's recipe is what happens when a PB&J has an identity crisis and decides to become a dessert! Or, Une Gamine Dans La Cuisine's Peanut Butter Jam Bars.

Basically, you make a peanut butter dough, press part of the dough into a pan (I didn't measure to make sure I had the right sized pan), and top with a pre-made jam (probably best if you use homemade jam, but I didn't have the time attention span for that today).



Then you drop the remaining dough on top in globs and sort of connect them with your wooden spoon (or fingers - WASH YOUR HANDS before you start baking, always, please). Don't worry about gaps in the dough where the filling shows through.



Now you top with chopped walnuts, pecans, or peanuts. I used chopped pecans because I had a huge bag in the pantry (WHOOT, Sam's Club).



The pan ended up being a little small for everything that needed to fit into it, so I decided to make a little round on a baking sheet, as well.

To make it a little more interesting than just a little leftover from the big, proper thing, I topped it with peanuts and did half raspberry jam and half grape jelly (shhh - I actually sort of preferred the grape half).

I decided to blacken the smaller one to achieve that gourmet smoky flavor that really accents the richness of the peanut butter and develops a more nuanced flavor profile...or I was reading and completely forgot that I had something in the oven, so the little one burned.

It's whatever one you choose to believe.



Burn or no burn, the sun decided to swing around for its gorgeous mid-afternoon warm lights display through my window right as I was photographing the poor little burnt puck of a thing, so it became the subject of a mini-photoseries.

It actually tasted pretty good, considering how over-baked it was.

I just scraped off the burnt bottom and the rest was still delicious and moist. 

I know how you guys love that word. You're welcome, dears. 

Anyway, this is how the large pan turned out. The time was perfect, though it was longer than suggested in the recipe (just check the center to make sure yours is done, since I don't have an exact time to give you).

However, let's have a quick reminder of how the bars looked on Une Gamine Dans La Cuisine.

Lovely.

In reality, the bars are crumbled.

Disclaimer - I used margarine instead of butter (since I didn't have any of the latter) and I probably cut the bars too warm, anyway, since the ragamuffins from next door were over and what under ten has any sort of patience?

Let's be honest - I'm 20 and have no patience. So maybe that will show up around menopause? 

The next day they cut much better, but are still very moist and gooey and a little messy.

These bars are delicious but also very rich, so a small slice suffices and we ended up having to freeze/give away most of the pan because it way just way too much to eat by ourselves, even over the few days/week that it would probably stay good.

These bars are great if you want to make a sweet treat to keep in the freezer or just a fun dessert spin on a PB&J for a party or to share with friends/neighbors.

What are your favorite nuts?

What's your favorite dessert?

What is your favorite type of sandwich?

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The Vegan Garden Meal Delivery Review

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I promised you guys a few weeks ago that I would review The Vegan Garden vegan meal delivery service for you! It's basically a traditional frozen meal delivery service, but 100% vegan and all packaged in space-conserving, roommate-friendly flat packs that are perfect for when you're sharing a freezer.

No matter what the dish, it's always almost flat - this, for example, is the Szechwan Eggplant

Other frozen meal plans, where you have to somehow magically fit a week's worth of meal trays into a single freezer next to your roommate's frozen peas and questionable frozen, thawed, refrozen, rethawed, (repeat indefinitely) mystery meat.

These are way yummier (and have way better food safety) than that.

Szechwan Eggplant

The packets, since they have all the air sucked out and are flattened for space-saving, can look kind of small. But once you cut the packet open and warm the food up, the meals really aren't! They're well-portioned, satisfying, and absolutely delicious.

Zesty Zucchini Soup

There were several soups, which were all a little salty for my taste but otherwise tasted pretty good.



They're also perfect for warming up on those cold days!

There were also heartier meals and plenty of cheesy meals.



I don't eat much cheese ordinarily, because I'm a bit lactose-intolerant and there's nothing that gets me to that pukey place faster than cheese or straight-up milk, but the Enchilada De Colorado was amazing, so cheesy, so rich, and so delicious.



But the best part was that it didn't make me feel sick! Yay! This was definitely one of the bigger meals - I was stuffed after that.

One of my other favorite was the Jambalaya. Before I became vegetarian, I enjoyed sausage - so the vegan sausages in this and the hearty, creamy, delicious brown rice dish was a real treat.

I would definitely order this again. But it would still probably be a tough call, because there are so many options! 

The Vegan Garden probably has more variety than any other service I've heard of (or at least had the opportunity to try so far). You choose what you want when you want it and it arrives conveniently frozen so you can eat what you want when you want it!

Chocolate Chip Cookie

But let's not forget dessert. Could we ever? 

The important thing to remember is that, while the meals generally take about 3-4 minutes in the microwave from frozen to fully heated (so fast!) the desserts generally only take about 30 seconds. Putting them in for 3 minutes will result in a smoky charred puck in the microwave!

Not like that happened to me, or anything...

All of the desserts were really sweet and delicious - there isn't anything that I wouldn't recommend! The portions were also just right - they weren't overly large, but also not too little. 

Best of all (how many bests can I have in one post?) the service can either be with set meal plans or a la carte - so you have the option of ordering exactly the number and types of dishes that you want! There's so much flexibility, it's great.

Which dish looks best to you?

Have you tried The Vegan Garden?

Where do you have the most problems with space in your household? Freezer and fridge can definitely be up there for those of us with roommates!

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Happy Millionaire's Day!

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Seriously, who comes up with these holidays? I have no idea, but today is Be a Millionaire Day (celebrated every May 20).

In case you feel like celebrating, here are some millionaire-themed desserts to share with your friends! Suggested party activities include pining over the great travel you'd do and beautiful couture you'd wear if you actually were a millionaire. Travis McCoy's Billionaire is appropriate party music today, even though he overshoots the day a bit.

There's nothing wrong with being zealous.

Erika's Missouri Millionaires (GF)

These are actually a yuletide dessert, but you can feel free to be the Christmas-in-July folks to the punch this year, with your own Christmas in May. Why can't Christmas be every day?

That would actually be pretty perfect...

Mr. Food's Millionaire Pie

London Bakes' Billionaire's Shortbread

This one is for all the zealots out there, for whom being a millionaire just isn't lofty enough of a goal. Fun fact: it's known as Caramel Slice in Australia, but B(m)illionaire's Shortbread everywhere else.

Whatever you call it, it looks delicious!

Carnation's Millionaire's Salted Caramel Tart

Is anyone else sensing a theme here? I guess millionaires tend to love caramel?

A Zesty Bite's Millionaire Brownies

It's a zillion degrees here in NYC today (yhee!!! yaya, NYC! even if it's wicked hot) but I'm seriously contemplating turning on the oven, anyway, just to make a batch of these. Seriously, they look just like the sort of ultra-fudgy brownies that I love. I'm not much of a cake person at all (I don't like the fluffy, airy texture) but stick-to-your-front-teeth brownies get me every time! Especially with vanilla ice cream and nuts.

Both of which I happen to have...

So tempted.

Have you ever heard of Be A Millionaire Day?

How would you celebrate?

What's the oddest holiday you've ever heard of?

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Mama Micki's All Natural Bakery and Vegan Bakery

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Mama Micki's is an all-natural bakery and vegan bakery specializing in baked goods made from only organic, natural ingredients. They don't use any artificial ingredients, artificial colors, preservatives, GMOs, or even refined sugar. In addition to biscotti and cookies (some of which are vegan) Mama Micki's even makes dog treats.

But I stuck to trying the human treats this time.



The cookies come in cute bags of six (not a bad gift, as they're nicely packaged!) and the biscotti come in bags of three.

I tried two flavors from their normal cookie line and two flavors from their vegan cookie line.



The top two cookies on the plate (sugar and chocolate chip) are vegan, the bottom two (oatmeal raisin sunflower seed and peanut butter chocolate chip) are not vegan. But even the non-vegan cookies are made of organic ingredients like organic malted barley flour and organic cage-free eggs.

The cookies are all fresh and good-sized (not huge, but not tiny either). They're soft and chewy (but firmer on the outside, crisper) in a good way and are sweet and buttery (even the vegan cookies, who get their buttery flavor from Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks).

My favorite of all four varieties that I tried was, in fact, one of the vegan flavors. The combination of the melty sweet chocolate chips with the organic golden flax seeds, organic walnuts, and organic almonds makes the vegan chocolate chip cookies every bit as nutty and delicious as they are heart healthy and nutritious.

These cookies make an excellent accompaniment for a chilly glass of milk and, with their all natural ingredients, are a treat you can feel good about.

I was less impressed with the vegan sugar cookies, because I like cookies with a lot of different flavors. My little sister really enjoyed them, though, as they are quite good for sugar cookies. If you like a simple, sweet cookies, these sugar cookies are a good bet.

And aren't the pink sprinkles pretty?

I couldn't choose a favorite between the two non-vegan cookies that I tried. The Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip was a rich chocolatey cookie with sweet, melty peanut butter chips throughout. There were enough chips to give the cookie a nice balanced peanut-butter-and-chocolate flavor and the chocolate was flavorful.

 The Oatmeal Raisin Sunflower Seed cookies improved upon the already delicious oatmeal raisin cookie (one of my favorite types of cookies for the last seven or so years now) by adding salty, crunchy sunflower seeds. The addition of the seeds, paired with the plump raisins and perfectly sweet (not too sweet, but sweet enough) base made for a delicious, more gourmet oatmeal raisin cookie.

I tested these in the freezer and they hold up quite well if frozen right after purchase (you can order them online or find them at several locations across the South Shore and Boston) and defrosted in the microwave.

Even if you're not de-freezing them, a few seconds in the microwave are great for these cookies - it gives them that great fresh-out-of-the-oven warmth and brings out the flavors even more!

What's your favorite type of cookie?

Do you like nuts in your chocolate chip cookies? I do!

Do you microwave (to warm) baked goods before eating?

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Friday Foodie Finds #24

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Since Christmas is rapidly approaching (YAAAY!) this Friday Foodie Finds is, ever so appropriately, a round-up of great food gifts that you can make for friends this holiday season!

It's a budget-friendly gifting strategy that I'm pretty sure no one will complain about ;)

Betty Crocker Caramel Sauce

Khris Cochran's Hot Chocolate in a Mason Jar

It seems to be a universal law that putting something sweet in a mason jar and adding ribbons and homemade gift tags makes for an adorable DIY gift!

Bakers Royal Peppermint Crunch Truffles

You can make your own fancy chocolates box, just find a cute box to put them in - and add a layer of white tissue paper for extra prettiness!

Even baggies of Christmas cookies for teachers/advisors/coworkers don't have to be boring - it's all about the way you package them!

Emporio 74 Christmas Cookie Gift Bags

This next one is just as adorable as it is quick and easy!

Read Write Sing's Reindeer Noses

You can even make these with kids, whether it's a younger sibling, kids you babysit, or your own kids!

Another great gift is a food subscription (magazine subscriptions are so last Christmas's gift)!

Bestowed Box is a healthy food deliver service (perfect for gifting to yourself in your healthy new year!) that ships an assortment of at least five (often more) health food products to your door once a month! The contents of the box vary month to month, but it's consistently nutritious. 

I tried the November box:

Everything was delicious! I especially liked trying the Hail Merry raw macaroons (two servings of delicious vegan coconut macaroons, even better chilled) and the Sea Sprinkles. I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the sea sprinkles - the packet advertised that they're great on soup & salad or enjoyed as a snack.

I really liked them as a snack, straight out of the bag! They're clumps of seaweed in bite sized bits, coated in a yummy topping of oil (non-hydrogenated), maple syrup, spices, and sesame seeds. It's a salty, slightly greasy (but not in a bad way) potato chips-esque snack, but with more of a nutritional punch!

The Eboost drink packs are still in my backpack, waiting for when I desperately need energy during the bleakest hours of final exams (*shudder*) but the pumpkin puree has already found its way into some pumpkin pie bars that a friend and I enjoyed over the weekend. 

The vinaigrette is very light and oil-free and I kind of like a bit of an oil on my salad, to increase the satiety factor and enable better absorption of the nutrients in the veggies, but it's good if you're eating a salad with lots of nuts and cheese and you just want some sauce to bind it all together. 

There's also a voucher for a free entree at Qdoba and a coupon for a free pack of Chobani Champions - I'm super excited about that one, because I love greek yogurt but have yet to try the Champions!

Overall, there are some really nice picks in the box and I, for one, would be thrilled to get a Bestowed Box subscription for Christmas. I might send one to one of my friends who's pretty into good food - it's a toss-up between the subscription and a really cute handmade journal and pen set I saw in an odds-and-ends boutique shop window.

And I won't tell if you gift one to yourself (shhhh....).

Do you give coworkers gifts? What's your go-to?

Are you attending any holiday parties this year?

When do you start your Christmas gift preparations?

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WIAW #59

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Happy WIAW!

And be sure to enter my organic cheese giveaway for 8 blocks of organic non-GMO cheese in honor of October as non-GMO month!

So...I've been working on a recipe for you guys.



It's for a green tea microwave breakfast cake that is every bit as delicious as it is nutritious and energizing for a busy day of back-to-back Harvard classes.

Because my schedule on Mondays and Wednesdays? 

9am-11am: Lecture #1

11am-12pm: Lecture #2

12pm-1pm: Lecture #3

1pm-2pm: Lunch and Homework

2pm-3pm: Work 

3pm-5pm: Lecture #4

I pack a lot of snacks and am an incessant lecture snacker, but I still need a good meal to start a day like that off on the right foot! 

An early attempt - the consistency is all off!

I've come pretty close with the recipe, but I'm still working on achieving consistency with it, so that it's reliably amazing.

Pretty Close!

I'm trying to provide you guys with a quality recipe here, guys :) But I'll share it as soon as it's ready - it's close!

But this needs to not happen in the microwave...

 In the meantime, here are some baked goods from some guys who already know what they're doing. And they do it well!

Alternative Baking Co. makes vegan cookies, with no dairy, no eggs, no trans fats, no hydrogenated oils, no cholesterol, no animal ingredients, no artificial ingredients, no refined sugar, but a whole lot of yumminess!

They generously sent me their gluten-free cookies (there are five varieties) to review. 

There's Cinnamon Burst:

It's soft, sweet, and (like all of their cookies) tastes fresh baked! Alternative Baking Co. doesn't use any preservatives, so their cookies are made fresh and shipped out promptly, so you get them still tasting like they came out of the oven that morning.

Oh, and just so you can kind of see what's in them (the basic ingredients are pretty similar), here's the back of the Cinnamon Burst:



Um yes - there are chickpeas in these cookies. And they're delicious.

Cinnamon Burst had a really nice cinnamon flavor that made it perfect for fall (wow, it's fall). Speaking of perfect for fall...

Please note that I'm not even crazy for pumpkin. But if you like pumpkin at all (and maybe even if you don't), you'll enjoy this. It tastes like Thanksgiving, like pumpkin pie without the goopiness!

Chocolate Explosion is the All-American soft-baked, thick, chewy, sweet, and delicious chocolate chip cookie. I recommend microwaving it for 30 seconds, so that the chocolate chips get all melty, and serving it with a class of frosty chilled milk. YUMMY.



The lemon dream balances the sweet-tart flavor complexity through-and-through, never veering too much in either direction.

But I saved the best for last.

Fudge Indulgence, be still my chocoholic heart! It's a soft stick-to-your-teeth good cookie that's the love child of a mall cookie and a Ghiradelli brownie. This is 100% pure decadence and it's unbelievable chocolaty and rich.

Neither pictures nor words can do it justice, so just know that you'll want to try these ASAP.

In fact, if you like thick, chewy, delicious cookies, you'll need to try all of these ASAP. But order the Fudge Indulgence cookies first.

Oh is that a Fudge Indulgence Cookie hiding back there in my breakfast? 

They are just sooo delicious. 

I'm hoping to find lots and lots of them in my Christmas stocking this year (haha, a little early? Never!). *Hint, hint*

What's your favorite vegan baked good?

Do you like making up recipes?

Do you prefer thick, soft cookies or flat, crunchy ones? For me, thick and soft is the hands-down winner as far as my cookies are concerned!

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