Well.
It has certainly been a while. I have been busy committing the most egregious blogger sin: writing posts, then leaving them in a draft state while I “think things over”.
As if I needed to edit that recipe just one more time.
F.
So. I’m just doing this, because I’d like to. And there are things going on in my personal life that make this little sphere of food and fitness so very appealing. Is it unhealthy if you use healthiness as an escape?
Don’t tell me yes. It’s only one blog post.
I had people in town this weekend. Family-type people. So I made snacks:
- Watermelon chunks, wrapped in jamaican sorrel and topped with goat cheese and mint chiffonade.
- Caprese skewers with fresh cherry tomatoes, ciliegine mozzarella, basil from my balcony garden, and a tiny snippet of crispy, salty tempeh bacon. (You could also use raw eggplant bacon.)
- Hot peppers stuffed with neufchatel and mozzarella cheese, garlic, and herbs from my balcony.
- Figs, broiled with a touch of sugar and a sprinkle of truffle salt.
I didn’t make the olives or the almonds, sorry.
I also made dessert, but my mother thought it looked like frosted corks (rather than mini gluten-free vanilla cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting and fresh berries), so no photo of those. Yet.
And I made the heck out of these scones, which are adapted from a Giada recipe. True love, y’all.
Gluten-free Berry Rosemary Scones
Ingredients:
- 2 cups gluten-free flour, plus more for dusting (I used 1 cup rice flour, 1/4 cup ground flax, 1/4 cup chia seeds, 1/4 cup buckwheat flour, and 1/4 cup garbanzo flour)
- 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes (I used half butter, half coconut oil)
- 1 cup cold almond milk
- 1/3 cup strawberry jam (**see step 2 below for what I do, which requires about 3/4 cup of fresh berries and 1 T of honey)
Procedure:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- If you’re being fancy (and I am ALWAYS being fancy), chop the berries and add them to the honey. Mash with a fork until jam-like.
- Mix the flour, xanthan gum, sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter (and/or oil – just work it in with your fingers) and mix until it resembles wet sand.
- Slowly pour in the almond milk until you can gather the dough into a neat ball. Depending on the humidity and your flours, you might not use quite all of it.
- On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough down until it is about 1/2″ thick. Cut using a cutter (3-4 inches) or a sharp knife; I used a knife for these triangles, but followed Giada’s original recommendation the first time to use a heart-shaped cutter. Transfer scones to a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheet.
- Using a wet finger, make a dent in the center of each scone. Fill with a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of jam.
- Bake about 20 minutes or until just golden.
They’re delicious. The leftover berry topping is fab on yogurt.
Have I been trying to cook myself out of this funk? A little bit. The going has been a little rough, but I’ve learned a lot about myself. And I have miniature blueberry pies in the oven. More on those next time; I have to go see what 387 items iTunes is downloading. (????)
(I am perhaps a wee bit behind on everything. Except work. Never work. I can’t keep working until 8 pm. Project is almost done.)
Oh, and those corks…corkcakes…cupcakes…I’ll post them anyhow. I made the little skewer decorations as well, thanks to some tips from the Martha.
