Pumpkin Patch Part Two: Pumpkin Spice Soy Latte

During Autumn Pumpkin flavored items are abound, even at chain
restaurants. I saw posters for Jamba Juice's Pumpkin smoothie
and Starbucks has it's ever popular Pumpkin Latte out again.

Why waste the +$5.00 when you can make it at home?
Not nearly as sickly sweet as the commercial versions you
can buy, but you can always add more sweetener if you like.
Plus, it's vegan, unlike the Starbucks version which supposedly
Has condensed milk or some such nonsense in it.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Ingredients

2 tbsp agave or maple agave blend
1/2 cup apple juice or cider
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup cooked pumpkin
1/2 cup vegan sugar

1/2-1 cup nondairy milk

Coffee drink of your choice

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until completely
smooth! No lumps allowed!

Transfer into a small saucepan and cook for a few minutes on high.
This will cook off some of the extra liquid and also start to cook
and start to caramelize the sugar. Remove when it starts to thicken
slightly.

Go ahead and brew a strong bit of coffee, espresso, or (my new
favorite) Teeccino!

Heat about 1/2-1 cup of soymilk just until warmish-hot. It will
start to form a little bit of foam on the edge of the pan. To
froth you can either use a french press like me, the steamer on
an espresso machine, or use one of those little battery operated
frothers that look like tiny metal whisks.

I've even seen it done by shaking a jar with the soymilk inside
or by being really good with a hand whisk.

Once you've got the soymilk to a thick enough level, pour your
coffee into your mugs and add 1-2 tbsp of your pumpkin spice mix
and stir. Pour in the soymilk and enjoy!

Clover Tea for You and Me

Recently my cousin got a huge haul of stuff from a household she knew
that was foreclosed upon. Sad, I know. However, the people ditched
and left everything in the house. It was all under someone else's
credit as well. I started to feel bad about the situation and seeing
how people are really suffering in this recession, but that about as
far as my empathy ran. Mainly because I heard they left their horse
as well. They could have at least notified a shelter or someone, but
they just abandoned the horse there like he was a piece of furniture.

Thankfully, the horse is ok now from what I've heard and living with
a new family. Besides that I got a score out of the whole situation.
Most of the stuff was brought to my cousin and she picked out what
she wanted. Super cool and thinking of me she brought home a brand
new bread maker and a whole paloozal of organic herbs/flowers.

Saving the bread machine story for next time, I wanted to talk about
the jars of flowers, herbs, and seeds I got. They are pretty huge.
Off the top of my head there are flax seeds, fenugreek, licorice,
peppermint, echinacea, red clover leaf/flower, and... fennel.
There is more but I can't remember all of them. I'm not too fond of
licorice or fennel so I'm not sure how I'll be using those.
Any suggestions are welcome of course!



But the other day I mixed up some red clover leaf and peppermint
and made some tea. I don't know why I waited so long. I guess I am
a little too hooked on my black tea and coffee. It is a little too
flowery for me at first, but it quickly grew on me.



I know peppermint tea is good for stomach aches and is helps if
you drank the water in mexico and got the runs! Also, I've heard that
peppermint is a great natural way to prevent gallstones. This is
good for me because they run in my family like crazy and being
vegan will only help me deny genetics for so long!

I really want to make a bath with the peppermint or a face wash
because I've heard its great for your skin.

As far as red clover leaf goes, I was reading that the isolated
isoflavones are similar to those in estrogen and can help relieve
PMS symptoms. I'll go with that!

I love the colour too!


I added just a tiny tiny bit of agave to take off some of the
'grassy'(?) taste. I'm just waiting for it to get a bit warmer...
because I LOVE making sun tea in the summer!

Next I think I'm going to infuse this red clover tea with some
lemonade. To me, it sounds like a match well made.