Cranberry & Mint Cream Scones

This weekend was magical. Scones were involved, for one. Lovingly made with lowbush cranberries handpicked here in the valley forest. Even the rain held off long enough for us to get outside for a delightful walk through the damp woods. Heavily scented with tart and pungent highbush cranberries and the unmistakable aroma of yellowing leaves. 

Autumn light is decidedly the most beautiful light of the entire year and is not to be squandered. I think my friend Nate really said it best. 

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

We even encountered a sleepy bunny friend on the trail. Don't worry bunny, you're safe with us.

Regarding scone and muffin making, I only ever consult one source. America's Test Kitchen. Those folks know their stuff and scones are not to be trifled with. My recipe is veganized and adapted from their blueberry scone recipe.

I have a love/hate relationship with baking. Making these scones was no exception. Tortured with fits of frustration from holes in my dough...being a perfectionist can be burdensome when it comes to making pastries. However, even with a couple openings where tiny cranberries menacingly dared to escape, these scones turned out wonderfully. They're really quite easy and I wouldn't say they take more patience than any other scone recipe. 

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Cranberry & Mint Cream Scones

by Katie @ Produce on Parade September-15-2014

These flaky, mildly sweet, and deliciously creamy scones are filled with fresh mint and tart cranberries. NOTES: Feel free to use almost any berry in place of the cranberries. Larger berries will need to be cut and if they’re frozen instead of fresh be sure not to thaw them. Try to work with the dough as little as possible and keep all ingredients chilled thoroughly the process. America’s Test Kitchen consulted.

Ingredients

• 9 Tbsp. vegan butter (1 stick + 1 Tbsp. ), frozen
• ½ cup coconut or soy milk
• ½ cup vegan sour cream
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for working (10 oz.)
• ½ cup vegan sugar, plus additional for sprinkling (3 ½ oz.)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
• ½ tsp. table salt
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• scant ¼ cup fresh mint, minced
• 1 ½ cup fresh cranberries (7 ½ oz.)

Instructions

Grate one stick of butter into a bowl and place in the freezer until ready to use.Whisk together the milk and sour cream in a small bowl and place in fridge until ready to use. In a large bowl whisk together the flour through and including the mint.Add the frozen, grated butter to the flour mixture and toss with fingers. Slowly add the wet mixture to the dry mixture while stirring until just combined. Flour a work surface and hands. Knead the dough about 8 times, until it forms a ragged ball. You’ll need to keep adding flour to prevent sticking, as the dough is quite sticky. Roll the dough into a 12 inch square. Fold it like a business letter by bringing the bottom 1/3 up and folding the top 1/3 down over the bottom. Next, grab the left side and fold inwards, folding the right side over the left to form a perfect 4 inch square. Place on a plate and put in the freezer for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 F. Melt the one tablespoon of butter in a small bowl in the microwave for about 10-20 seconds. Layer a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Remove the dough from the freezer and roll into a 12 inch square again, keeping your work surface dusted in flour. Evenly scatter the berries among the square, pressing them into the dough gently. Now, tightly roll the dough away from you into a 12 inch long log. Gently flatten the top with the rolling pin, so it’s 4 inches high. Cut into 4 rectangles. Cut those in half diagonally. You should have 8 scone triangles. Transfer the dough triangles to the parchment paper lined baking sheet ensuring enough space between them for expansion. If they happen to be a bit wonky, reshape them as necessary. Coat with melted butter, then sprinkle well with sugar. Bake at 425 F for about 20 minutes until the tops are just barely golden. Cool on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes once done. Store in an airtight container.

Details

Prep time: 25 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 45 mins Yield: 8 scones

I adore Bailey's spotted mouth! We rang in Autumn, officially, with this Alaskan pumpkin porter on our playful walk. 

German Word of The Day

Scones --> Teegebäck (tea-geh-beck)

Good Deed of The Day

Beyond Meat is offering a free pallet of their brand new Beast Burgers to burger joints that agree to offer them. You can ask your local or national burger chain to serve them by tweeting #beastme at them! Pretty cool huh? It'd be great to see more (or any) vegan burger options around!

Thai Purple Pasta

Ever since I stumbled upon black bean noodles, I've been absolutely dying to try them. It's like my life wish, these noodles. Is this normal? Anyways, I finally found some at a health food store in Anchorage along with Beyond Meat (OMG!). I knew exactly what I wanted to make with the both of them. 

When I opened up the noodle package, examining it, I realized they were not in fact my irrationally sought after black bean noodles but instead black rice noodles....whoops. I'm almost ashamed to admit how devastated I was, but alas they turned out to be fantastic.

On purpose, I normally don't buy gluten-free things, so I was surprised to discover that they had a wonderful texture. If you have celiac disease, are gluten-sensitive, or just avoiding the stuff for some reason you give these noodles a try. I think you'll enjoy them. 

“Animals never worry about heaven or hell. Neither do I. Maybe that’s why we get along. ”

— Charles Bukowski

I joined Full Circle a couple weeks ago and received my first box this week. In it was absolutely the most adorable tiny purple pepper, which you'll see in my next post. There was a lot of gorgeous stone fruit, some sturdy kale, and silky chard too (that guy's in the next post as well!) I ordered two bunches of beets because I must have them in excess and a little head of purple cabbage. 

Half of that little purple cabbage, you'll see found it's way into our purple pasta today. Good thing the noodles were already purple I guess! Feel free to use soba noodles in this recipe, I think they'd work beautifully. Black rice noodles probably aren't lingering around your local grocery store, so don't feel bad.

My cilantro has been showing off these sweet and delicate little white flowers now that the autumn leaves are falling and the mornings are windy and chilly. I'll be sad without my little herb garden in the coming month.

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Thai Purple Pasta

by Katie @ Produce on Parade September-12-2014

A beautiful purple pasta with sauteed purple cabbage and plant-based meat, laden in a sweet, Thai sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ small purple cabbage head, chopped
• 12 oz. plant-based meat strips (I used grilled “chicken” strips), thawed and halved
• 9 oz. black rice noodles (soba work too!), dry
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)
• -- Sauce --
• 2/3 cup water
• ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. vegan sugar
• 1/2Tbsp. sweet chili sauce
• dash of crushed red pepper
• dash of sesame seeds

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the noodles. Once boiling, parboil the noodles according to package but deduct a few minutes. You want the noodles to be a super al dente. Mine only needed three minutes, so place them in the water when prompted below. In a large rimmed frying pan, heat the oil over medium low. Add the garlic and sauté for a few minutes, until fragrant. Add the cabbage and meat strips. Increase the heat to medium and cook for about 8 minutes, until the cabbage becomes wilted and tender and the strips are heated thoroughly.Meanwhile whisk together the sauce ingredients, ensuring that the sugar has mostly dissolved. Place the noodles in the boiling water to cook. Drain when super al dente and add to the frying pan. Next, add in the sauce and stir well to coat. Turn the heat to medium-low for a few minutes, until the noodles have soaked up most of the sauce. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Serve hot and topped with sesame seeds and additional cilantro.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 25 mins Yield: 5

German Word of The Day

Purple --> Violett (vee-o-let)

Good Deed of The Day

Don't take my word for how great being vegan is. Check out Bustle's, The 7 Best Health Perks of A Vegan Lifestyle.

Matcha Mint Chia Pudding & A Review

I love matcha.

I love it prepared traditionally (as much as a white, Alaskan girl can...). I love it whisked into cold coconut milk with maple syrup. I love matcha lattes, and thrown into my smoothies too! Of course the stuff can be expensive. Especially if you're buying the ceremonial, high quality matcha. 

However, there are several different grades of matcha. Simply, they can be organized into culinary matcha (used for recipes, baking, smoothies, etc.), quality drinking matcha (best for matcha drinkers who don't require a super high quality matcha for their tea...like me), and then finally ceremonial super-premium matcha (very expensive and I'm no where near rich or exquisitely-palated enough to purchase it, though sometimes I wish I was).

Matcha is so beneficial because it's basically the baby green tea leaves just completely pulverized, so you're consuming the entire leaf (as opposed to just soaking it in hot water, like most teas). Try buying regular green tea leaves in the bulk section and tossing them into your smoothies for equal nutrition but a little more wallet friendly. However, if it's the matcha taste you want, then it's best to use actual matcha. If it's solely the nutrition of the actual tea leaves though...give plain green tea leaves a try. 

Today, I've created a smooth and creamy pudding made with chia seeds and non-dairy milk, featuring bright green matcha and sweetened with agave nectar. It's made with Kiss Me Organics Culinary Grade Organic Matcha, which was gifted to me to test. 

I was thrilled to try this matcha. Normally, I buy matcha from an ethnic market in Anchorage, but it's the middle of the road matcha that I use for drinking and I would never put it in my smoothies or recipes. The Kiss Me Organics matcha is great for recipes though. It lends a bold matcha flavor that's perfect in dishes. I whisked it into cold coconut milk, which was wonderful. However, I didn't prefer it to my other matcha when drinking hot tea. No surprise there though, it's not for that!

Because I don't buy culinary grade matcha, I haven't made many recipes with it, so this was fun and exciting! I can't wait to possibly bake with it and make other fun matcha infused recipes. 

I'll definitely buy this matcha again. It's $6.25 for one once. The same brand of matcha I normally buy is $13.65 for one ounce. The same brand, but culinary grade is $8.69 for one once and the ceremonial grade is $18.08 for one once, for comparison. 

Have you added matcha to your recipes? What's your favorite way to use culinary matcha? I want to make cupcakes soon!

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Matcha Mint Chia Pudding

by Katie @ Produce on Parade September-8-2014

A smooth and creamy pudding made with chia seeds and non-dairy milk starring bright green matcha and sweetened with agave nectar. Inspired by Detoxinista.

Ingredients

• 2 cups non-dairy milk of preference
• 6 Tbsp. chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. agave nectar
• 2 tsp. culinary grade matcha
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• small pinch of kosher salt
• 6 fresh mint leaves

Instructions

Place everything in a high speed blender and blend on high for a few minutes until smooth and it begins to gel. Place in fridge for about 3 hours to set.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: Total time: 3 hour 10 mins Yield: 2 cups

German Word of The Day

Green tea --> Grüntee (groon-teeh)

Good Deed of The Day

Guess what? You ladies can keep wearing yo' bras. Damn. Check out this article on the new study that was conducted to find out whether or not bra-wearing gave women an increased risk for breast cancer. It didn't

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