Peach Nutmeg Scones

When Di at Di's Kitchen Notebook tweeted that she'd made peach nutmeg scones, several of us jumped at the chance to try the delicious sounding recipe she was baking from. Compliments of the King Arthur Flour website, these light, flaky scones use fresh peaches and freshly ground nutmeg to make a powerfully yummy pastry. I had worried that fresh peaches would be too wet, but scone doughs like to be wet and shaggy,and this one is no exception. The flavor of the fresh peaches comes through clearly.

If you aren't a nutmeg fan feel free to substitute cinnamon (and why not toss in some blueberries while you're at it?) I mixed this in the stand mixer as I do with all scones. I've had good success with freezing scones and saving them to bake another day (well wrapped, of course). Don't bother defrosting them, just brush them with the melted butter and sprinkle with sugar before baking. Give them an extra 3-5 minutes in the oven if baking from the freezer.

Peach Nutmeg Scones (adapted from King Arthur Flour)
Printable recipe
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup diced peaches (about one good-sized peach)
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 375°F. In the bowl of a stand mixer, sift the flour, salt, sugar, nutmeg, and baking powder together. Toss the butter into the dry ingredients, turn the mixer on low, and blend until most of the butter is the size of peas. Remove mixing bowl from the mixer.

Mix the eggs, yogurt, and almond extract. Stir this into the dry ingredients with a spatula. Add the peaches and stir just until mixed.

Liberally flour the counter and your hands. Put the dough on the counter and pat it into a 1-inch-thick rectangle. Cut into 10 triangular scones or use a 2 1/2" round cutter to make smaller scones.

Place scones on a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle with the sugar. Bake for 20 minutes, or until nicely browned and a cake tester inserted into a scone comes out dry. Yield: Ten triangular scones scones or 18 round ones.

CEiMB - Mango Lassi

Craving Ellie in My Belly has been rejuvenated by Marthe at Culinary Delights, and I was thrilled when, in spite of my spotty participation of late, Marthe invited me to host this week.

Hosting is a big deal. First of all, I try to pick a recipe that will be easy, use seasonal or inexpensive ingredients, be flexible (so you can leave out things you don't like) and be something kids and adults alike will love. I've had good success with my past picks for this group (Nutty Granola, here, and Sweet and Spicy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, here), and I didn't want to pick a dud and ruin my record.

It's hard to pick a dud with Ellie Krieger's recipes. For the most part, they are fast, flavorful and always better for you than most similar recipes. I picked the Mango Lassi because M. loves mangoes and we love lassis. I may not have ever posted this before but we love spicy food, me even more than the hubs, and dairy (the base of a lassi) is the best way to turn down the heat from capsicum, the active ingredient in hot peppers. My heat tolerance level is burn-my-face-off, and M. loves to tell the story about the time we were in Tokyo eating at an Indian restaurant and the Indian owner admitted he couldn't even eat the curries as spicy as I do. I really enjoy a good lassi not only for its ability to take the edge off of the burn but because of its full body and tangy sweetness.

So it was incredible that I've never made one of these at home until this recipe, indeed, this morning. See, things are crazy busy at work, I'm working 12 hour days and I'm kind of tired. Yesterday, I carried my cereal bowl around with me, trying to eat breakfast and didn't manage to eat lunch until almost 4 so a meal I can drink out of a glass sounds ideal!

The trickiest part of the recipe is getting the mango out of the mango, but Ellie has a great method for freeing the slippery mango from its skin. Once you have cubed mango, you're almost done! Put it in the blender with yogurt, honey, and ice. I added a scoop of protein powder and called it breakfast--a small glass to drink while writing this post and a big take-along cup. This was a yummy, creamy, delicious breakfast I had time to enjoy on the drive to work. Give this one a try, it's super easy and tasty. Next time, I think I'll branch out and try peaches or apricots for a twist.

You can find the rest of the CEiMB cooks here...check out how they did with this one. I can't wait to see what flavors they introduced to their lassis!

Mango Lassi

Ellie says: This is my take on the classic Indian drink which is traditionally made with lots of sugar. I use a bit of honey to bring out the natural sweetness of the mango and the result is nirvana--a silky-smooth delight that is sunny shade of yellow.

2 ripe mangoes
1 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt
2 tablespoons honey
2 cups ice (1 tray of cubes)

To peel and cut the mango, cut 1/4" of the top and bottom of the fruit and sit it on its larger end on a cutting board. At the top end, find the pit with your knife and cut down alongside it (a mango's pit is flat). Do the same with the other side. Cut each half lengthwise into 4 slices. Cut the peel from each slice and slice the mango crosswise into chunks.

Place the mango chunks in the blender and process until smooth. Add the yogurt, honey and ice and process until the ice is crushed and the drink is frothy. Serve in tall glasses with additional ice if desired. Serves 4.

CEiMB - Curried Chicken Salad

What's that you say? It's Thursday? Already??

That means it's time for Craving Ellie in My Belly. And this week's pick, hosted by Sarah of the eponymous Sarah's Kitchen Adventures, is Curried Chicken Salad. I LLOOOOVVEE curried anything. In fact, my default tuna salad is curried. I am a huge fan of the curried chicken salad at Whole Foods, so I was eager to make this one.

Ellie's chicken salad begins with poaching the chicken, but I roasted mine instead. Once the chicken was cooked, the work was 3/4 done. After mixing fat free Greek yogurt with mayonnaise, adding curry powder, toasted sliced almonds, and a chopped apple, I gave it a stir. Since it's been a little chilly here, I couldn't get excited about serving this as a salad, so I served it on toast. It was so creamy and delicious. I finished it off last night, and was sorry indeed that it was gone.

If you'd like to see the recipe as Ellie intended it, you can find it here. Here is my take on the recipe:

Curried Chicken Salad - 4 servings

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cooled
1/4 sliced almonds, lightly toasted
1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder (more or less, to taste)
1 small apple, cored and chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup arugula, washed and dried
8 slices whole wheat bread

Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces and place in a medium bowl. Add the chopped apple and almonds and stir to combine. In a small bowl, thoroughly combine the yogurt, mayonnaise and curry powder. Pour over the chicken mixture and fold together to combine.

Toast bread, if desired. Divide the chicken salad over 4 slices of bread, top with the arugula and the rest of the bread.

CSA - One week, one box, many opportunities

I have been getting a box from J&P Organics, a local CSA, for a couple of months now. For those of you who haven't heard of CSA, it stands for community supported agriculture. Farmers grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and sell them directly to consumers in what is basically a variety pack each week. For those of us who are idealistic, it's a way of helping family farmers survive in a nation of mega factory farms.

I like belonging to a CSA not just because we're helping to preserve family farms, but because you get to have a personal relationship with the farmer, in addition to having organic fruits and vegetables picked at their peak.

I'm not always good about finishing all of the bounty that comes to me in my box each week (and I don't always order weekly, I usually order every other week--because the produce was picked that day, it generally lasts two weeks). In order to spur myself to finish all of the box this week, I'm going to post the contents of this week's box, and post updates daily on how I'm using my veggies (we get less fruit, so I generally don't have a problem finishing that!)

Here's what we got this week:

eggs (available if we want to order them with our box)

golden raspberries

strawberries

yellow globe squash

green squash (maybe tatuma?)

sweet potatoes

new potatoes

red spring onion

Swiss chard

oranges

broccoli

carrots

green leaf lettuce

spinach

M. is gone for a couple of weeks, so it's up to me to finish off this week's box! I'd love to hear your suggestions especially for the swiss chard as I've not cooked with it much before.

For my A.M. pick-me-up, I'm having a Green Monster with about a cup each of chard and spinach, a banana, unsweetened Almond Breeze and a T of flax seeds. Since I'm not yet sure how I'll cook the chard, I decided to add it to a Green Monster to take advantage of its nutritional benefits (it's high in folate, thiamin and zinc, plus lots of vitamins). I first learned about Green Monsters on Caitlin's blog Healthy Tipping Point, and although I thought anything with pureed greens would be revolting, the banana and Almond Breeze add great flavor so you don't even taste the greens. I loved GMs from the very first one I made. It feels virtuous to get in 2 cups of leafy greens without even tasting them!

My usual summer breakfast is muesli:

1/2 cup oatmeal (NOT steel cut)

1/2 cup 1% milk

1/2 cup fat free yogurt (I'm using plain, but I usually use vanilla)

1 T maple syrup

Combine ingredients in a bowl, refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight.

Today, I'm topping my muesli with strawberries and golden raspberries from my CSA and a couple of toasted pecans.

I usually get up around 5:00 AM and have a small snack then eat breakfast at my desk around 8-ish, so this will be all ready for me when I get hungry. With a breakfast this yummy, I'll be ready to face whatever problems crop up (the last couple of days have been insane at work!)

TWD - French Yogurt Cake

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick is French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze. It was Liliana's turn (of My Cookbook Addiction) to pick, and she really hit it out of the park. I proved that is it impossible to mess up this cake, as did a few other bakers, judging by the comments on the P&Q.

I made this recipe twice. The first time, I doubled the recipe as I needed to be able to serve twenty ladies with it. It requires no butter, and mixes in one bowl!! It rose as it baked and looked pretty spectacular. I let it cool five minutes before running my thin knife around the edges and dumping it out of the loaf pan. It didn't want to come, didn't want to come then POP! it came out and landed on the rack. I say came out, but that's not the whole story. Most of it came out. The rest stayed in the pan. Why oh why did I spray not butter as Dorie recommended?

I may have said a bad word at this point. I mean, when will I learn not to start baking at 8:25 on a Sunday night? I oh so carefully extricated the second one with a thin, flexible silicone flipper and pondered my options. I would have to make another cake.

As I was measuring the almond meal, I realized that when I doubled the first recipe, I quadrupled the almond meal. So my first two loaves, even the one I eased out of the pan without incident, weren't going to be fit to eat. I forged on anyway, again doubling the recipe to make two cakes, baked and cooled them and went to bed (it was almost midnight, and the next day would be the first work day after the time change). I figured I would make lemon curd to serve with the cake and all would be well.

I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 to make lemon curd for the yogurt cake. I had skipped the marmalade glaze as I couldn't find lemon marmalade and I'm not big on orange marmalade. I had exactly enough eggs for a double recipe of lemon curd (this is one of my insanities; I double everything I make for social gatherings). I figured I would use the egg whites to make meringues as a fallback, pick up whipping cream at Safeway on my way home from work, and let the meringues sit in the oven all day while I worked. This is another of my insanities. Time is very elastic in my mind. I have to be at work at 8, and I do have to shower, dress, and drive to the office. Any reasonably sane person knows you're not going to pipe out 25 meringues and bake them, make lemon curd and get in to the office before 10:00. But that was my plan. And it hinged on not goofing up on cracking any of the eggs and thereby polluting the pristine whites, which have to be completely free of fat to whip to their airy best. Miraculously, I didn't have any yolk breakage, and all went according to plan with the curd, except I didn't cook it long enough and it was slightly eggy. I have existential difficulties in serving a dessert that isn't perfect.  Eggy lemon curd? Not perfect.

This was when I went to plan C. I gave up on bringing a home baked dessert and went to Costco on my way home to buy a cheesecake and a chocolate cake. This I did even though I didn't yet know if the lemon curd was truly too eggy to serve. So I toddled on home, sliced a piece of the French Yogurt Cake, spooned the lemon curd over it, supplemented it with sliced organic strawberries, said a little prayer and took a bite.

It was amazing. The cake is perfect...it isn't exactly a pound cake, but it's not like a quick bread either. It has some lemon zest that hints at lemon without hitting you over the head. I made peace with the lemon curd. I washed and sliced the strawberries and relaxed. The world did not end.

But this, dear readers, is not the end of our story. The next day, I tasted the loaf with double the almond meal. It was wonderful, nay, almost better than the one I didn't screw up. I quickly threw together a batch of hot fudge and took it to work (with the leftover lemon curd). The Costco cakes I purchased but didn't need? They went to work, too. They were good, but not Dorie-good. As we know, that's a whole different level of flavor.

So this cake is not only good, it's easy, darn near impossible to mess up and it's beyond versatile. That's a real keeper in my book. I can't wait to make it again with cinnamon instead of lemon, or with maple syrup to replace some of the sugar. Or with chai spices. Or...

People ask me all the time "How are you not as big as a house with all the baking you do?" Even though I'm doing battle with an extra 20 pounds, I try to eat fairly healthy and one of the best tools for me has been recipes by Ellie Krieger. Maybe you've seen her on Food Network. I always thought she was a little smug, but once I tried her recipes, that girl can be as smug as she wants! Her food is delicious and healthy. She cuts out the unnecessary bad stuff and keeps the flavor, and most of her recipes are ridiculously simple.

Why am I telling you this? There's a group of us who make her recipes and blog about it. We call it Craving Ellie in My Belly. We take turns picking the recipe and we all blog about it on Thursdays. It's the perfect antidote to the poundage from Tuesdays with Dorie. If you'd like to join us, email Sara and Nick at cravingellieinmybelly@gmail.com. Ellie got me to eat, and even enjoy, brussels sprouts!

Yogurt, elevated

One of my biggest obstacles to losing the last 10 20 pounds is my love of all things dairy. I have friends with varying degrees of lactose intolerance, and I am sincerely sorry whenever I think about what they are missing.

When I crave something creamy and delicious, I often reach for yogurt in one form or another. I lean to fat free and low fat, and fat free Greek yogurt is frequently the one I go for. It's thick and creamy, and good with both sweet and savory adornment. This week, I got to indulge my love of lemon and my love of yogurt by utilizing some left over lemon curd. Yes, I made my own lemon yogurt. Here's how you do it:

Put desired amount of yogurt (I used low-fat Stonyfield Farms Organic Vanilla) in a bowl. Pour leftover lemon curd over yogurt to taste. Sprinkle with toasted nuts or granola. Eat. Repeat. Lick bowl (only if no one is looking). Feel virtuous for using up leftovers AND getting in a calcium serving.