Lemon Curd

Lemon Curd - not lemon crud as my fingers keep wanting to type. This is a result of my friend Maggie Facebooking about lemon curd, lemon curd lemon curd. I looked through her site for her recipe but didn't find it so I searched and melted and mingled a combination of a few recipes for this one.

3/4c Lemon Juice
Zest of 1 Lemon
3/4C Sugar
3 Eggs
1/2c Butter

Couple of things; Already said this but use real lemon juice, but also real butter. I once heard margarine is more closely related to the make up of plastic than food. I'm not sure if that's true but it taste horrific. Don't use it. Don't feed it to your kids. Butter baby. mmmmm butter.

Now you could cook this with a double boiler and feel fancy shmancy. But I don't have a double boiler. And Lemon Curd seems fancy shmancy enough so why overdo it?
The reason a lot of recipes say double boiler is because you don't want lemon and scrambled eggs and if you plop some eggs into a hot lemony pan of goodness you're going to get scrambled lemon eggs. So, people go the double boiler way. But there is another way and I like it.

Take the butter and sugar and cream them up in your mixer. Then add the eggs one at a time and incorporate them fully. Everything will look lovely and soft and yellow. Then add your zest and juice and mix it up a bit more.

NOW let's cook it. Pour that lovely lemony mix into your pot and cook it on medium. Note I said medium, not medium high, not high medium, just medium. Cook it on medium and stir it. Don't stop stirring it. Okay you can stop to find the little one her binky or kick the dog out but don't walk away. Stir it on MEDIUM for about 15 minutes. It will start to get thick and delicious. When it starts to get thick and deliciously sticky on your spoon then you're golden. Pour it into a pint jar cover it up let it cool and really thicken up. Then my friend you are ready for lemon curd joy. Biscuits, scones, cakes, cupcakes, pancakes, crepes, lather it on and have your tiara near by because you are going to feel like your pedigree just came in and you are now Princess Lemonbottom of Curdshire.

Creamy Lemon Pasta

Delilah told me about this great lemon pasta recipe she has. But I couldn't remember it. This is an improvised version.

3 Chicken Breasts
2 Lemons

5C Chicken Broth
2tsp Garlic Powder
1tsp salt
Dash o' Pepper
Juice of 1 Lemon
1pkg dried Pasta

2C Half and Half
1C Frozen Peas
Zest from 1 Lemon

I cooked my chicken in a pressure cooker. I slapped those breasts with a little salt. Cut up the lemons and juiced them into the pot then threw the cut up lemons in, a touch of water and cooked them up in a jiffy. If you don't have a pressure cooker get one! It makes cooking up chicken a dream.

Cube up the chicken. I set my cooked chicken aside but saved the broth that it had made. In a big pot I added the reserved broth and enough canned broth to get about 5 cups. Salt, pepper, garlic powder and the lemon juice makes the broth the perfect spa day for the pasta. Add the pasta and let it cook up until most of the liquid is gone.

Take it off the heat and then add chicken, half and half, zest and peas. Stir it up and even my kidlets ate it.

Things I would have done different? I think I would have roasted and added some walnuts with the chicken. I think the crunch would have been nice. You could also replace the peas with broccoli and even top with a little Parmesan if you like things cheese. I suppose you could use full cream but the lemon is so light and lovely I didn't want to make the sauce too heavy (or my thighs).

Raspberry Lemonade Bread

This is one of those inspired by recipes. I saw this recipe as I was surfing around and it looks incredible. I knew I wanted to make it. I also knew that I wanted to Tera-fy it. My favorite drink out is Raspberry Lemonade. Hands down my favorite berry of all, my favorite fruit of all is the raspberry. They blend perfectly with lemons so, I had to give it a try. I followed her recipe exactly except for this...

I took about 4TBS of Raspberries and a TBS of raw sugar and nuked that until they were soft and juicy and the physical representation of heaven in my kitchen. Then I added about a TBS of this yumness into each mini loaf. I just folded it in. I wanted it to ripple through the bread and not be totally incorporated.

The other twist I did was to add 1/4c of raspberries to the lemon juice sugar glaze. Oh my gravy boat! I made the mistake of trying this before I topped it on the cooled loaves. I could barely stop myself from downing it and going glaze less on the loaves. But don't it's totally worth it.

Try this!
I did a BOLD Italic on the things I added.


FOR THE CAKES:
½ cups Butter, Softened
1 cup Granulated Sugar
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 whole Large Lemon, Zested (about 5 Teaspoons Zest)It took me 2 lemons to get this
½ cups Sour Cream
1-½ cup All Purpose Flour, Sifted
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Salt
3 Tablespoons Milk
4TBS Raspberries
1TBS Raw Sugar
FOR THE GLAZE:
¼ cups Fresh Lemon Juice
½ cups Granulated Sugar
1/2c Raspberries

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray mini pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream. Scrape the sides and mix again. With the mixer on low speed, incorporate all dry ingredients until just combined, then stir in the milk. Scrape the sides and mix a few more times by hand. Spoon batter equally into prepared pans. Nuke raspberries and raw sugar until warm and lovely, about 30 seconds. Fold in a TBS of Raspberry and Raw Sugar mixture into each loaf. Bake 15-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and are baked thoroughly. I used Pampered Chef clay mini loaf pan and it took about 25 minutes.
While lemon loaves are baking, mix ingredients together for the glaze and microwave on high for 2 minutes, stirring every 20 seconds or so to dissolve the sugar into the lemon juice. The glaze is done once the sugar has dissolved.

Once loaves come out of the oven, cool at least 15 minutes before removing from the pans. Spoon glaze over the loaves and continue to cool completely. Store in airtight containers until ready to serve.

Muddy Lemonade

It sounds boozey doesn't it? It's addictive but not alcoholic. This is inspired by the Alamo Drafthouse. They serve a brown sugar lemonade and after I had it I had to figure it out. Again, this is super easy and so yum.

1 1/2c squeezed lemon juice
1c water
1c brown sugar (I like dark)
1/2tsp vanilla

Here's the thing I like my lemonade more tart than sweet. If you like it more sweet then add up to 1/2c more sugar.
Combine water, vanilla and sugar together to make a simple syrup. You could cook it over the stove slowly stirring and stirring and stirring until the sugar dissolves but why? That's why we have microwaves. Nuke that bad boy for a minute. Stir it up and if the sugar isn't dissolved nuke it another minute.
Then pull out your pitcher add the lemon juice and syrup you just made. Fill it up with about 8 cups of water (more or less depending on how concentrated you like it.
Let it chill.
Pour a glass and then you can chill.

Coconut Lemon Bars

You're hooked already huh? I know I was too. Figures I start with a dessert.

Recipe
1 1/2c flour
1/2c powdered sugar
3/4c cold butter
4 eggs
1 1/4c sugar
3/4c lemon juice
1tsp baking powder
zest from 1 lemon
1c flaked coconut divided

This is easy peasy. Take the flour, the powdered sugar, 1/4c of the flaked coconut and the cut up cold butter and mix them together. Not in a mixer, no need to get fancy. Use your hands or if you must a pastry cutter. When it's nice and crumbly stick it in a 9x9 pan and press it down. Let it cook at 350 for 15 minutes.

While that is getting it's yum on mix the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and baking powder together. I used my Kitchen Aid and whisked it for a few minutes until it was creamy goodness.
Let me stop here for a moment and say a word about lemon juice. Just juice your lemons yourself. Go buy a bag of lemons and juice them. Get out your frustrations on those little globes of sunshine. For the love of all that is good and holy do NOT use bottled lemon juice. It doesn't compare and you're cheating yourself and lemon growers everywhere if you do.
If I can do it you can do it.

Okay now your crust is beeping at you. Take it out and pour the lemon concoction on top. Set your timer for 15 minutes and bake away at 350. When the timer dings don't turn the oven off. Sprinkle the rest of your shredded coconut on the top and let it bake another 10 minutes.

Pull it out and try to hold yourself back. The more you let them cool the better they will set up for you. If you cant wait, like me, grab a fork because they will be a little gooey. If your family doesn't devour them and you let them cool they will be barish (that's a word right?).

La la la Lemon

This weeks flavor of the week is lemon.
My friend Delilah is big into aromatherapy. She once told me that if you are constantly drawn to a particular scent that your body is craving some property of that. I am constantly drawn to citrus scents. Usually it's grapefruit smells but this week it was lemon. I looked it up and apparently lemons have calming properties and help to bring balance and clarity. If that's the case I should be drawn to lemon 24/7.
Lemon wisdom for you;
Nuke a lemon for a few seconds and roll it hard on the counter before you juice it. You'll get way more juice out of it.
Take the lemon rinds and stuff a few in the garbage disposal. It makes it smell yumalicious.
Women used to put lemon juice on their lips to make them pink up. I tried this and didn't notice pink.

How I Roll

Okay before we begin let me make a couple of things clear.
1. I am not a great cook. There are times I don't even like to cook. Don't come to my house and expect gourmet food. You'll get Cheese Nips.
2. I am not a recipe genius. I don't dream up recipes in my spare time. Don't call me up and say, "I have an apple and a can of olives, what can I do with that." You'll get the number to pizza delivery.
3. I am not a foodie. I don't know how many different types of potatoes grow in North America. Don't expect proper cooking terms. You'll get thingamajig and whatchamacallit.

But...

1. I do love a challenge. I like to try something new and see if I can conquer it. If I can be creative while doing it all the better.
2. I can follow a recipe. Throw a recipe at me and I can usually make it with some tweaks or additions that make it yummy to my family or me.
3. I am trying to impress my family. I can't promise success but I get a charge when I make something and my family loves it. But if they don't and I do, it's still a win.

So, my plan with this is a new feature flavor each week. I'm going to try three to five different recipes featuring that flavor and I'll share here. I'll post the recipe, and give credit if I got it from someone. I'll share what I learned and tell you if I liked it or my family liked it or if miracle upon miracle we all liked it. I'll even try to post pictures but I am not going to go all picture crazy. Seriously, if you need a picture of someone measuring a teaspoon of salt then you'll be disappointed.