Garlic Scape and Strawberry Mint Lemonade

So its summer, which means its herb season! I bought myself a few herb plants from the farmers market and I'm super excited.



Basil, Lemon Thyme and Mint!

In celebration of summer and mint I made strawberry mint lemonade, which is pretty much the most refreshing thing I've ever tasted.



1 cup water
1/4 cup raw sugar or maple syrup

2 cups cold water
The juice from 3 or 4 lemons
1 cup strawberries
a handful of mint

Put the sugar and 1 cup of water into a pot and heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool.

In a blender, pulse everything until there are no strawberry chunks left. Be careful not to overload your blender or you'll end up with lemonade on your ceiling and your floor. I started by only putting in 1 cup of water and mixing in the rest once everything was blended, just to thin it out.

This makes about 4 cups of lemonade, maybe a bit more.

I also picked up some garlic scape, which is one of my personal favorites. Garlic scape is the plant from the garlic bulb. It looks and feels a bit like asparagus but it tastes like garlic.
If you slow roast them, they get sweet and soft like roasted garlic. I like the garlic bite so I just quickly sauteed them.



3 or 4 garlic scape
1 teaspoon oil or margarine
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Cut the scape into 2" or 3" pieces.
Heat the oil in a pan on medium high.
lay the scape in the pan in an even layer and sautee for 3-5 minutes or until they start to take on a little color, but are still firm and crisp.
Add the balsamic vinegar and let it reduce slightly.
Remove from heat.

This would be really good with roasted potatoes and tempeh or maybe over a salad. I just ate it alone and barely shared with my gentleman. Poor him...oops.

I'm working on getting this whole thing regular and updated.
Until next time!

Spelt Chocolate Chip Walnut Scones

Oh Hai there internuts...
so yeah in June I may or may not have said something about it being a week until I posted again but uh...clearly that didn't happen.
BUT now I have a brand spankin new computer, a real internet connection and a kitchen to cook in so maybe I can get this together.

Anyhoodles, lately I've been experimenting with alternate flours and the Gentleman brought me home some spelt flour and coconut flour to play with. Spelt has less gluten than regular wheat flour and some people with wheat allergies can eat it.

Now, normally I am a cookie freak but this week I've made these scones 3 times and they are an excellent cookie alternative as they use less earth balance and you just drop them onto the cookie sheet instead of having to shape them. Plus they're so easy I memorized the recipe after the first time. Honestly I have been trying to get this recipe up here for a week, but we keep eating all the scones before I get pictures.

If you can't get coconut flour you can just grind up some unsweetened coconut flakes in a food processor or coffee grinder.

Chocolate Walnut Scones with Spelt and Coconut flours
Ingredients:
-1 3/4 cups spelt flour
-3 teaspoons baking powder
-5 Tablespoons cold margarine, cut into small chunks (I use Earth Balance soy-free)
-1 Tablespoon raw or brown sugar (I use florida crystals)
-1 Tablespoon flax meal
-1/4 teaspoon sea salt
-1 cup almond milk (you could use soy milk, but rice milk might be too thin)
-1/4 cup coconut flour
Optional:
-1/3 cup chopped walnuts
-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Dry bowl:
-Sift together the spelt flour and baking powder.
-Using a fork, cut the cold margarine into the spelt flour until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Be careful not to over work the spelt flour or it will get tough. Using cold butter helps keep the flour from getting overworked.

Wet bowl:
-mix coconut flour, sugar, flax meal and almond milk together.

Add chocolate chips, walnuts and the Wet bowl to the Dry bowl. Using a spatula or a spoon, fold the wet into the dry. Be careful not to over mix.

You can either make 6 big scones or 10 medium size.
Bake until the outside is slightly firm and a toothpick comes out clean. This usually takes between 10-20 minutes depending on how large your scones are.

You can choose to omit all the sweetness and maybe add caramelized onions or rosemary or vegan cheese or spinach or garlic or you can top a pot pie or take over the world...really the possibilities are endless.

The point is that these are an excellent base for your sconey imagination.
Let me know what you come up with!