breakfast – A Musician's Travels

Late Summer Sounds at Chesterwood with The Salisbury Four and Vegan Raspberry Spelt Scones!

What a pleasure it was to perform a concert at the end of August with my group, The Salisbury Four at Chesterwood, located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. For many years we have presented an annual Holiday concert for the Salisbury Association in Salisbury, Connecticut.

Chesterwood was the home, studio and gardens of America’s foremost public monument sculptor Daniel Chester French who lived from 1850-1931. French is most famous as the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial. The concert was held in the artist’s spacious studio that had high vaulted ceilings It was thrilling to sit next to studies of Lincoln’s hands and of the Lincoln sculpture!

The studio opens up onto a lovely peaceful garden and the large wrap around porch overlooks Monument Mountain in Great Barrington, Massachusetts!

Our repertoire for lute, recorder, voices, historical harp and Baroque dance has expanded to include a new summer themed program; with our recent concert titled: “Fortune, Love and Time”. We are so fortunate that one of our singers, Zahra Brown, is also a gifted dancer and is a specialist in Baroque dance. Enjoy this short video of our warmup rehearsal!

The other Salisbury Four members are all food lovers and are talented cooks and bakers. When we rehearse at our singer and harpist Marcia Young’s apartment, she always has a wide assortment of unusual teas at the ready and often a freshly baked goody such as a lemon drizzle cake. Another person once brought a rich chocolate babka.

I often make spelt raspberry scones that are super easy to make with a nutty delicious flavor and they also happen be healthy! I planned to bring a plate to the concert and our lutenist Christopher Morrongiello mentioned that he was thinking about the scones a bit obsessively on his long ride up from Long Island!

I have been using this vegan recipe for spelt scones from Erin McKennas’s Baby Cakes cookbook for several years; the dough for the scones, without the sweeteners also make a great topping for either savory potpies or fruit cobblers. I substitute coconut sugar for the agave syrup used in the original recipe.

Spelt Raspberry Scones

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup whole grain spelt flour

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup hot water

To Make Scones:

In a large bowl, combine flours, salt, cinnamon baking powder. Mix well.

Add oil, vanilla and hot water, stir to combine and knead mixture gently a few times with your hands. Lightly stir in raspberries. You could also use blueberries or add chopped walnuts.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pat dough into 10-12 mounds.

Bake aprox. 12-15 minutes until light brown.

ENJOY!

AND: Here is the “Tree of the Week”!

HAPPY FALL!!

A Misty Early Spring Stroll and Wild Blueberry Ginger Crumble

It had been raining lightly most of the day, stopping long enough for a misty stroll on Kite Hill in nearby Ancram, New York. The air was invigorating, raw and cold. I headed up the gentle slope; the trees that lined the path were just starting to bud.

As I continued on my walk, thoughts of Passover came to mind. This year, our daughter Alicia would join us. In addition to being a professional singer and cantor, she is a member of a group which specializes in Early Jewish music called Myriam. She is also currently in the rabbinical program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. We were thrilled that she would be leading the Passover Service- just a little proud here! I could happily kvell for an extended period of time!

With the plans for the Passover service under expert hands, I looked forward to thinking about the guests that we would greet and welcome to our Seder table and about the food we would serve. On the menu was traditional Maztoh Ball Soup, with extra fluffy matzoh balls flavored with small amounts of nutmeg and ground ginger; a recipe inspired by the incredible Jewish cookbook author Joan Nathan. We also planned to serve often requested Smoked Whitefish Gefilte Fish, a modern take on Gefilte Fish, featured in an earlier blog: https://wordpress.com/post/musicianstravels.com/4917. Chicken breasts stuffed with wild rice, shallots and pecans and a vegetable medley of carrots, zucchini, roasted red peppers and caramelized onions rounded out the menu!

With the current strife and terrible loss of life in the Middle East and the continued war in Ukraine, this year our Passover service was all the more poignant. We chose to spend our time together talking about these important issues and our collective human frailty, but also found a way to celebrate our precious time together. AND, somehow, we found room for fresh juicy strawberries and a delicious almond torte brought by a dear friend. This dessert is so good, that an entire blog will appear soon featuring Swedish Visiting Cake!

During the Passover week, it is traditional to not eat leavened bread or flour. One night during her visit, our daughter made an improvised flourless blueberry crumble with no leavening or flour. It was so good, that I tried to recreate it and this is what I came up with. For my version, I added ground ginger and a bit of finely diced candied ginger. Easy to make, this is also good for breakfast topped with plain yogurt. Feel free to add sugar to the blueberry and tapioca mixture. This would also work with regular blueberries- I like the flavor of the smaller wild blueberries, frozen is OK, but the full intense flavor of fresh wild blueberries in the summer makes me nostalgic for past summer vacations in Maine and fresh wild blueberry pie!

ENJOY!

Wild Blueberry Ginger Crumble

Ingredients:

Filling:

5 cups frozen wild blueberries- defrosted (I used Wymans Wild Blueberries). Use fresh blueberries in the summer! Sprinkle tapioca over berries and set aside.

2 tablespoons instant tapioca

Crumble Topping

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt

1 egg yolk

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup maple syrup (more if a sweeter taste is desired)

1/4 cup finely diced candied ginger (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F

Place blueberries in a medium sized oval baking dish and sprinkle tapioca over the berries. Set aside while you prepare the topping.

Whisk together dry ingredients and then add egg yolk, coconut oil, vanilla, and maple syrup. Add candied ginger if using. Mix with your hands until you can form medium sized clumps. If the mixture is too dry, add either a bit more coconut oil or syrup.

Drop pieces of mixture over the berries and place in the oven on a rack that is in the middle. Check after about 10 minutes- if the top is browning too quickly, cover with foil and continue baking. Bake for aprox. 40 minutes.

ENJOY!

*Trusty baking dish awaiting another crumble!*

AND: Here is the “Tree of the Week!”

*First wildflowers of the Spring: Trillium and Trout Lily!* *William Cullen Bryant Homestead- Cummington, MA*

HAPPY SPRING!

Happy Winter Solstice and Blueberry Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins!

Sometimes, after a brisk walk in the cold, the perfect thing is to make a batch of muffins- with a cup of tea, a good book and a cozy fire in the woodstove- nothing could be better!

Here is my recipe for delicious moist muffins that also happen to be healthy- made with whole grain flour, a small amount of low glycemic coconut sugar, they are guilt free and also perfect for breakfast.

Blueberry Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or a combination of whole grain spelt and whole wheat pastry flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 very ripe banana

1 cup blueberries

1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips ( I like Equal Exchange or you could also use Lily’s Stevia Chocolate Chips)

1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts or pecans

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup soy or almond milk

To Make Muffins:

Preheat oven to 375 Degrees

Butter a nonstick 12 cup muffin tin (this recipe will make about 10 muffins)

In a medium size bowl, whisk dry ingredients together.

Add egg, oil, vanilla, banana and almond or soy milk and stir until combined.

Add blueberries, nuts and chocolate chips and stir to combine- do not overmix.

Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full and bake aprox. 12-15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Cool in muffin tin about 10 minutes before removing muffins- they will stick less.

ENJOY!!

This year for the holidays, I baked two very rich desserts on the day before Christmas earmarked for Christmas Day. As the rich aromas of chocolate, butter and spices filled the air, temptation won over and we all decided to eat the desserts for both days- a wise decision! Recipes for Kabocha Squash Pie and Chocolate Cherry Torte to follow in another blog post soon!

AND: Here is the last “Tree of the Week” for 2023!

BEST WISHES FOR A JOYOUS HOLIDAY AND A HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEAR!