December 2017

  It all began with boredom. It was a sweltering August day, and my younger brother, Ciaran, and I couldn’t agree on what to do. “We could play Go Fish,” Ciaran suggested. I shook my head. “No.” Okay,” Ciaran fidgeted a little, trying to think. “How about—” “I could read to you,” I interjected. Ciaran sighed. “C’mon, Evelyn, it’s summer. School doesn’t start for two weeks. How about—” Once again, I interrupted: “We can pick raspberries and make a raspberry smoothie.” On the side of our house, there is a colossal, overgrown raspberry bush that produces many raspberries from about May up until mid-October, when the weather turns cold. One of my favorite summer activities is picking raspberries and then eating them. But it was a small spark of genius that it might be fun to try to make raspberries into a smoothie. After all, we had a blender—though I had never used it before. Ciaran smiled and agreed with me. “Let’s do it.” And after grabbing a couple of bowls and calling, “Mom, going outside to pick raspberries!”, we were on our way. When we pick raspberries, it isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world. It just so happens that the bush is west of the house, and that at 3:00 in the afternoon, the scorching sun is in the west, too, and it decides to roast your back. It doesn’t help that the bush produces raspberries as well as thorns. The thought of getting a cool smoothie at the end of all of this kept me going, and at least it was only 90°. As soon as we filled three bowls with raspberries, we went inside, dumped the raspberries in a strainer, and washed them. As we did, Mom came into the kitchen. “Hi,” she greeted us. “What are you doing with the raspberries?” “Making a smoothie,” Ciaran replied as I set down the strainer and searched in the cupboard for the blender. “You’ve never made one before,” she said. “Do you need help?” I shook my head. “We’re good. This was our idea, after all.” “Okay,” she said and left. As we dumped the raspberries from the strainer to the blender, we couldn’t help but be excited. We had never made anything with raspberries, and now we were making a smoothie. “Moment of truth,” I told Ciaran as I plugged the blender into an outlet and switched it ON. The blender began to whirr, and the raspberries began to spin. It looked pretty good, actually, in the minute before raspberry smoothie bits began spewing out the top and onto the counter that had just been cleaned. “No, no, no!” I fretted. To Ciaran, who was closer to the blender, I said, “Switch it off!” “I can’t do that without—” Ciaran began, reaching for the switch. Before he could, mushed raspberry bits sprayed him in the cheek. “Who cares?” I snapped at him. “You can wash your face after!” A few raspberry bits in the face later, Ciaran flipped the switch and it was off. I reached for a towel so that I could cover the top of the blender. A few minutes later, after we drank our smoothies, Mom came into the kitchen. “How did it go?” she asked. I smiled. “Perfect. Just perfect.” Now picking raspberries and making smoothies out of them is one of our favorite summer activities. Of course, we put a rag over the top now so that raspberry bits stay in the blender. But if I were to choose, I wouldn’t put a rag over the blender, just for the fun of it. Serves 1 Ingredients 1 cup (200g) fresh raspberries 1 Mandarin orange, peeled 2 ice cubes Method Put all ingredients in a blender and switch it to high. Blend until thick and smooth. Note: If your blender is over-reactive, make sure to screw the top on tight and put a towel over the top, just in case! Evelyn Kelly, 10Spokane, WA

My best Brownies ever. The first bite of my OWN recipe. All in that one bite, I tasted what I had been working on for such a long time. About a year before I made my brownies, I had found a recipe on the internet that I wanted to try. It turned out so well that when people tasted it, with a smile on their face saying it was so good, that they wanted another one, saying they couldn’t stop, it made me want to keep going. I bake for many reasons, it makes me happy, I go into my own world in the kitchen, I forget all my troubles and just BAKE. But the main reason I bake is that lots of kids have allergies like me and my family do. I can’t have gluten or wheat. I also can’t have too many eggs or dairy. The rest of my family is allergic to things like me but they are also allergic to nuts and soy. It sounds pretty impossible to bake without all of those crucial ingredients, but I do it differently. I put my heart, soul, love, joy, sorrow, sadness, my everything into what I bake. I hope that you give this recipe a try and come to adore baking as much as I do, and I hope that you and your family enjoy these brownies as much as we do. Serves: 16 Ingredients 1 cup (175g) vegan/dairy free butter, melted and cooled in the fridge 2 tablespoons (30ml) grapeseed oil 1 cup (200g) brown sugar 1 cup (200g) white sugar 4 flax eggs, made from 4 tbsp ground flaxseed 5 tbsp hot (not boiling) water 4 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup (200g) gluten free flour blend 1 cup (85g) good quality, unsweetened cocoa powder (I use a combination of regular and dark) 1 teaspoon salt Dairy-free chocolate chips added to your liking (up to 1 ½ cups (200g)) Method Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) then line a 7×11 inch baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. Make your flax eggs: combine your ground flaxseed meal with your warm (not boiling) water and set it aside for at least 5 minutes. In a large bowl combine the cold melted butter, oil, and both sugars. Add the flax eggs, vanilla and salt then whisk for about one minute until evenly combined. Over the same bowl, sift in the gluten-free flour blend and cocoa powder. Gently fold the all of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until JUST combined (do NOT overmix). Fold in half of the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then smooth the top. Generously top with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 35-40 minutes*, or until the center of the brownies is JUST set to the touch. Remove your brownies from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before removing from the baking tray and cutting into pieces. *A note from the Stone Soup test kitchen: we only needed 30 minutes of baking, as our oven is quite hot, so you might want to check yours a bit sooner. Ours came out of the oven bubbling like lava so if yours do too we’d advise not touching them until they have cooled! Charlotte Weimer, 12McLean, Virginia

My family makes three kinds of cookies every year at Christmas. There’s a dark chocolate mint brownie, a sugar cookie, and a chocolate chip peanut butter cookie. Ever since I’ve been small, I’ve asked my mom every year if I can help. For as long as I can remember, she’s let me get things for her—whisks, bowls, measuring cups. However, this year, even though I’m twelve, I don’t expect any more than a “Not this year, Lily. Maybe next year.” But when, as she’s getting out the ingredients for the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, I ask, “Can I do them this year, Mom?” I’m surprised when she says, “Sure, Lily. You’ve helped me for a bunch of years. Do you think you could manage it?” “Sure,” I say, thrilled. I’ve made muffins before, but never one of the Christmas cookies. She hands me the recipe, and under her watchful eye, I gather the ingredients and begin to mix them together. When I’m about halfway through, the phone rings. My mom picks it up, saying, “I’ll be on the phone for a little while. Finish mixing them and put them in the oven. I should be off the phone by the time they come out, but if not, let them cool and put them in some Ziploc bags and put them in the box with the rest of the cookies.” Then, to the phone, she says, “Hello? Oh, hi, yeah, this isn’t a bad time…” She walks up the stairs to talk in peace. I finish mixing most of the ingredients. The last ingredient is butter—I look at it for a moment, then shrug. Dad always substitutes oil for butter. I get out the oil and pour in the correct amount. Mixing them together, I accidently spill the chocolate chip bag a bit. Oh well, I think. A few extra chocolate chips never hurt anybody. I set them on the cookie sheet in little balls and stick them in the preheated oven. By the time I’m done cleaning up the timer is beeping and I open the oven. The cookies look slightly…flatter…than usual, but I think nothing of it as I let them cool, then lay them in plastic bags and put them with the other Christmas cookies. A few minutes later, Mom comes back in. “Done?” she says. “Good. It’s time the Christmas cookies were done, we’ve never been doing them on the twenty-third before.” *          *          * Now it is Christmas day, and we’re spending it, as always, at Aunt Lavinia’s with the rest of our family. Mom and I lay out the cookies on a large tray. She unloads our box and looks at me very, very hard. “What did you do to the cookies?” she asks, rather angrily. “I only traded the butter for oil like Dad always does,” I say, brushing my hair out of my face nervously. “Not for cookies!” she said. She never fools around with recipes. I’m expecting more, but she just sighs. “Oh well,” she says. “Too late to change them. They’ll have to do.” About halfway through the night, Aunt Lavinia comes up to me and Mom, one of my cookies in her hand. “These are the best you’ve ever made!” she says enthusiastically. “What did you do differently?” Mom’s face breaks into a smile. “Ask Lily,” she says. “She’s the one who made them.” Aunt Lavinia turns to me. “These are great,” she says. “You should make them again next year!” Since then, I’ve always made the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies at Christmastime. Aunt Lavinia’s yet to be disappointed. Note: “Christmas Cookies” is a fictional story! However, it was inspired by the following recipe. Recipe makes approximately 36 cookies. Ingredients 1 cup (200g) all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon salt ⅓ cup (80ml) vegetable oil ¼ cup (60ml) milk ½ cup (55g) granulated sugar or honey 1 cup (200g) packed light brown sugar 1 cup (200g) peanut butter 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup (200g) chopped peanuts 1 cup (200g) semi-sweet chocolate chips Method Preheat oven to 350⁰F (175⁰C). Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper or butter. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set it aside. Cream oil, milk, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a mixer or with a whisk. Slowly add the eggs and vanilla, continuing to mix until they are incorporated. Then add the peanut butter to the wet ingredients and combine thoroughly. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring constantly, to make a soft dough. Stir the peanuts and chocolate chips into the cookie batter. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto sheet pans, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool for about 2 minutes before removing from pan. Ella Martinez Nocito, 10Sunderland, MA