Irish Limey Bars

Well, they aren't Irish but they are green from the lime....just in time for St. Patty's Day!

So you know you classic lemon bar recipe? Ever change it up and use lime instead? If you bring a GREEN dessert to work, no one will pinch you for not wearing green...but HUG you because they are soooooooooooo delicious.

Limey Bars

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
zest from 3 limes


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Mix 2 cups of flour and confectioner's sugar together. Cut in the butter or margarine. Mix well until the dough resembles pie dough consistency. Press the dough into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
3. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Beat together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lime juice and lime rind for at least 1 minute. Pour the mixture over the baked crust.
5. Bake the bars another 20 minutes, or until the lime topping has set. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar when cooled.

Cook's Notes:
1. Awesome, nicely tart. Thick buttery, shortbread-like crunchy crust. Perfect.
2. Next to the title of the recipe, you can SEE the lime bits....it's wonderful. BUT, you may NOT get 1/2 lime juice from those 3 limes. You may have to supplement with the bottled lime juice. You know how limes are, big on flavor, little on juice. I rolled them, microwaved them for 30 sec. and still got only 1/4 cup of lime juice with all THREE, cheap bastids!
3. Go ahead use those limes you are saving for your cocktails....you got everything else in your fridge/pantry!

Happy St Patty's Day!

Winner, winner Chicken Dinner!

I've posted for recipes on here about my using my "Sunday Special roasted chicken that my grocery sells for 4.99". Now I realize...BIG WHOOP!

When my store has whole chickens on sale for 49 cents a pound. This chicken was 2.49! Divide THAT for 2 dinners for 2 people and my roasted chicken for dinner is 62 cents per serving instead of $1.24. I am seriously getting a freezer for the basement now! Stocking UP!

Then I was making something yummy that needed lots of lemons.....they are zested and all juiced. How oh How can I still utilize these fragrant lemons.....? How about....

Lemon Herb Chicken

1 whole chicken (check for bag of "innards" and a neck in its cavity)
5-10 whole garlic cloves, peeled (how garlicky do you want it?)
4-6 lemon halves (they can be zested and juiced)
preferred herb mix (italian, herbes de provence, Mrs. Dash, etc)
salt and pepper to taste
canola or olive oil for rubbing

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Rinse and blot dry your chicken.

Use a 11 X 7 baking dish instead of a 13X9 (if you can). I like how 'secure' my chicken is in the pan rather sliding all around in the TOO large 13X9. But use what you have!
Rub your chicken with "used" lemons. (I had a recipe that needed lots of zest and juice and I wanted to utilize these) Put half of the garlic inside your chicken. Slide some of the cloves underneath the skin where the hip joints are. Put some garlic in the neck cavity. Anywhere, everywhere! Put the lemon halves inside the hollow cavity and a few underneath your chicken.
Rub your chicken with oil and lightly salt and pepper. Cover with herbs of choice (use fresh if you have them, mine are covered with snow) until heavily coated. Tie your chicken legs together with twine.

If chicken is cold let sit for 1/2 hour on counter so the salt will permeate the skin and tenderize. Bake in 325 oven for 1 and 1/2 hours or until temperature registers 180 degrees in the leg meat.

Now for the fun part!!! Making parts instead of slicing like the T-day turkey!

You DO own a pair of sharp kitchen shears right? OXO are awesome, if you don't own a pair. Turn over your chicken and cut close to each side of the chicken backbone.

See my garlic inside?

Put a paper towel under your chicken to absorb grease and so it won't slide on you when you cut the next part.





If you want to use your shears again go ahead, now cut through the cavity in the middle of the breastbone. Or you can use a large chef's knife for this. Here you have 1/2 a chicken. I can't get over how some restaurants make this a dinner....too much for me!









Take your shears/scissors and cut the leg off from the breast at the thigh. Now you have two quarter chickens. One white meat and one dark meat. Perfect. I like white meat, K-man loves the dark. See how we are made for each other?











Quarter of a chicken is still too much for me. I cut off the wing and give it to K-man with his leg and thigh. I still can barely eat a chicken breast depending on the 'sides' I have.

I peel off my skin and slice my breast piece. K-man likes and wants the crunchy seasoned skin on his pieces.


So there you have it. Making your own roasted chicken is REALLY not that difficult. We pay SO MUCH for the convenience of some Perdue chicken part herbed and injected with chicken broth (and the breast is sliced in half, you know!). Once I paid attention to the price I was paying and the effort I am putting into it...on a weekend it's not a big deal. You could prep this on Sunday for a week night as well. It's awesome. TRY IT!

Enjoy!

Give them a choice!

Usually on Friday or Saturday I make a little sweet for us or K-man to enjoy for the upcoming week. Sometimes I ask K-man beforehand what 'sweet' he'd be in the mood for. He requested orange sugar cookies and since I had been to store already, I replied: "Sorry hunny, no oranges in the house today....but I have lemons" His forced second choice was Lemon Bundt Cake.

Just after I poured the batter in the pan, I realized I had some frozen blueberries. I thought it would be nice to offer a choice if you wanted just plain lemon cake or blueberry lemon. So I pushed down some blueberries in only half of the cake with a fork before I baked it. Turned out great!

Lemon Lover's Pound Cake
adapted from allrecipes.com

1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
3 cups sugar (I used 1/2 cup splenda for 1 cup of sugar to help reduce some calories)
6 eggs
5 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sour cream (reduced fat worked nicely)
1 cup frozen blueberries (optional)

ICING:
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in lemon juice, peel and extract. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. Beat just until combined.
2. Grease and flour a 10-in. fluted tube pan. If you are going to add blueberries. Pour 1/3 batter in the greased pan and add some blueberries, push slightly with a fork. Do not mix them in the batter unless you want purple batter. Pour the next 1/3 and layer blueberries, don't push the blueberries to hard! Pour last layer of batter. This batter is dense enough that your berries won't sink!
   
3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. For icing, in a small mixing bowl, beat the sour cream and butter until blended. Gradually add confectioners' sugar. Beat in lemon juice and peel. Drizzle over the cake. Store in the refrigerator.

Cook's Notes:

I realized that I didn't have enough of the powdered sugar when the cake was already in the oven. I had already had the other wet stuff measured out. As you see here it was thin.

If this happens to you don't let it discourage you. Put on your first drizzle (over a cooling rack), let it dry for a bit and drizzle on some more. Keep drizzling on the glaze until it's thick to your liking on top like this:


See? I wasn't going to let my thin glaze win! I kept drizzling and drizzling (drying in between) until it was thick enough for me!

I love the tartness of this glaze....yummy!

Now, you must make your choice....plain or with blueberries? I am waiting...

Enjoy,

OMG! I have to HAVE this recipe!

Ever said that when you ate something from a restaurant? Yeah well, good luck getting the recipe from the chef. Most of us have to resort to sneaking around for a copycat somewhere on the internet.

We ooh'ed and ahh'ed over a Lemoncello Dessert from the Cheesecake Factory. I've been trying many different recipes to try and replicate it....it's not hitting the mark but it's fun trying.


Limoncello Cupcakes

Yield: 1 dozen or 6 Texas Sized

For the cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons limoncello
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
jar of Lemon curd or

Make your own homemade:
For the lemon curd:
Zest of 2 lemons
½ cup lemon juice
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk

For the cream cheese limoncello frosting:

2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon limoncello
zest of one lemon
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1. Prepare the cupcakes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the center. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until light and creamy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the limoncello and beat an additional minute. On low speed, add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix on low speed just until incorporated. Divide the batter between 12 muffin tins (I used one Texas Size Muffin tin). Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely.


2. Prepare the lemon curd. In a heavy medium saucepan, stir together the lemon zest, juice and sugar and bring to a simmer over medium heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and egg yolk. Whisk the lemon mixture into the eggs to temper them. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and place over medium heat, whisking constantly until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let cool completely.

3. Prepare the cream cheese limoncello frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the limoncello and beat for an additional minute. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat until fully incorporated and smooth.

4. Assemble the cupcakes. Cut a hole into each cupcake with the large end of a melon baller or the back end of a large pastry tip. Fill each cavity with the lemon curd. Fill a pastry bag with a star tip (I used Wilton 1M) with the cream cheese limoncello frosting and pipe onto each cupcake. Decorate with lemon and berries, if desired.




Cook's Notes:

• I feel I am getting close. This cake was too dense for me. My first recipe used a Japanese Soft Lemon Cheesecake recipe and it was still soft and spongy despite being refrigerated. This cake became too firm.
• The jarred Lemon curd was okay but I've made homemade lemon curd for pies before and it's definitely better and more tart....jarred stuff is not tart enough and overly sweet.
• This frosting was lovely, spot on.
• So the next time you see my post on this again, I will have used the Japanese Soft Lemon Cheesecake recipe in a springform pan split into two layers. Homemade lemon curd as filling, and this frosting lightened up with whipped cream. Oh, and some strawberries of course. I am definitely in the process of cracking this case...perhaps I need to go to the Cheesecake Factory and try it just onnnnnneeeeeeeee moreeeeeeeeee time! You know, for research!
  

And if you are FEELING CHEESY, scroll down to my last post and enter my giveaway. Try your hand with cheese powder and see what you come up with! I wrote a post note about how I used the fresh powder I am giving away....please go and read!

Enjoy!

No pressure for me!

I love seeing all these posts for TWD. There were no spots open for membership when I did try....but OH how naive I was....I had no idea about all those rules! Well, now that I am aware....I have no rules to follow. This way I get to see all these creative ways to make Dorie's recipes (especially the ones without a pic) and best of all...

I can make it whenever I want when I FEEL like it!!!! :D

K-man loves lemon and when I saw all these Tartest Lemon Tarts out there....that does it....dessert for tonight!Tartest Lemon Tart
adapted from Baking from my home to yours

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick plus 2 Tbsp (10 Tbsp) very cold butter, cut into small pieces.
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in- you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir in yolk, just to break it up and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses- about 10 seconds each -until the dough, which will look granular soon after the add is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change - heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and very lightly and sparing, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

Butter a 9 inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom (I used an 11 inch one is why my measurements are a little different than the book). Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

Center the rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Use the nonstick foil and fit foil tightly against crust. Even though I froze the crust, the directions wanted you to keep spare dough to fill in the cracks and that the dough would perhaps puff....so I put pie weights on the foil. No crack or puffiness happened. Put tart pan on a baking sheet and bake crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove foil with weights.

Filling:

1 1/2 lemons, scrubbed and dried
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 stick butter, very softened

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Take a peeler and remove all the yellow of the peel. Use the peeler to remove the pale yellow layer (peeling the lemon once and then twice). Slice the lemons in halves and use the knife to remove all the white pith. (Dorie's book says to use the pith....no way....it's beyond tart, down right bitter. I know better). Using 1 1/2 lemons (without any pith) chop up lemons just enough to remove any/all seeds.
The filling is best made in the blender, (as suggested by Dorie and I agree very little scraping this way). Put lemons and sugar in the blender and pulse. blend and scrape down the sugar until the filling is a smooth mix. Add the remaining filling ingredients and pulse and blend until the filling is homogeneous. Rap the blender container several times to de-bubble the filling as much as possible (I also used a thin scraper to help break the bubble by slowly moving the surface around). Pour it into the partially baked crust.

Very carefully- the tart shell will be full (this is when I was glad I used an 11 inch pan instead of 9. No way it would have fit!) -transfer the baking sheet to the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake the tart for an additional 25 minutes. Don't be alarmed when the filling bubbles up (and it WILL bubble over the edge and onto the parchment paper I used an 11 inch pan when she called for 9 inch and it still went over!) When the tart is properly baked, it should be set although still shaky in the center and most of the top will have formed a light sugary crust. Transfer the tart pan to a cooling rack and let it cool to room temperature. Chill if you like (K-man prefers it this way- ice cold). Serve with whipped cream or dust it with powdered sugar.

Here was K-man's suggestion....

He wanted blueberries on his....I heated up some with some sugar and a scant of tapioca to thicken...

But I wanted whipped cream to cut the tart....K-man doesn't like whipped cream....but I wanted to try the blueberries as well. Yes, I know...have some tart with your whipped cream!






YUMMY!

Light and Lemony

If you ever see some lemon pepper pasta at the store. Pick some up and make this dish. I found mine at Trader Joe's. This is papperelle style pasta BTW.

Here's how you do it and the recipe:

Lemon Pepper Chicken Pasta

2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes

4 Tbsp. cornstarch

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely choppped

1 cup chicken broth

1 head of brocciflower (this is a broccoli and cauliflower hybrid. It's much mellower than cauliflower)

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. butter

salt and pepper to taste

1 package lemon pepper pasta

1 cup heavy cream

juice of half a lemon

Cut up your chicken, season with salt and pepper and put in bowl with corn starch. Shake the chicken around in the corn starch and set aside. Cook your pasta a few minutes UNDER the package directions. You want the pasta slightly under cooked. I cut my broccoflower into flowerets and cook them with the pasta (the broccoflower takes longer to cook than the cubed chicken).

Saute your garlic and shallots with the olive oil and butter (I wanted a butter taste but less fat and the olive oil keeps the butter from overbrowning BTW). When shallots and garlic are slightly soft put in the chicken and cook until slightly pink. Slowly add your chicken broth so it thickens from the cornstarch. Add your undercooked pasta in the chicken mixture and then add your heavy cream. Keep stirring so the chicken and pasta finish cooking and sauce* thickens/reduces. Season with you salt and pepper. Finish with the juice of half lemon and serve while hot.

This will not be a overly saucey pasta dish. Just enough moisture to coat and flavor but not too much to drip on you. The lemon from the pasta and extra lemon in the sauce is so subtle and delightful with the garlic. Also I find the lemon in the dish help cut the 'cabbagey' taste of the brocciflower. And can I just say, I love the light spring green color of this dish!

K-man thought the lemon in the dish reminded him of some Thai dish he eaten before and here I was going for a North Italy kinda flavor....go figure...LOL Anyway, he loved it, cleaned his plate and THAT is all that matters!

I think I am onto something...

First let's just say my picture taking needs some work. (it's my first month of blogging, so you'll cut me some slack, right?)

Secondly, the pictures I take during the daylight are def. much nicer (as the tip pages tell you to do!) but let's face it...I cook all hours of the day and can't always snap the pic when it's light out. (BE 4 Real, right? LOL)

Lastly, the whole thing food styling thing with the color plate that it is on or the background, some type of garnish....is a pain in the butt. (just venting)

BTW, I can't figure out foodgawker and tastespottings REAL criteria for pic submissions. I submitted 3 to both sites. Foodgawker declined the first two; said were 'dull and unsharp' yet tastespotting published both that foodgawker declined. The last of the trio (the burger one)...tastespotting 'passed' on it...yet now foodgawker accepted it! GEEZ. I guess the best thing is just submit and not worry about it, the love it or don't....their loss.

OKAY, these photos...AREN'T being submitted but as I said...I think I am onto something....

I've done the apple crostata thing. I LOVE:
taking the premade crusts,
rolling them out a little,
putting on chopped apples with cinnamon and sugar,
folding up the edges,
brushing with egg,
baking for 1/2 hr on 350
BAM...apple pie....easy peasy!!!

My mom went to that Amish market place (latter post talked about the hotdogs she keeps getting me there) and she brought me this long tube thingy with Lemon pie filling. She was thinking of K-man who loves key lime pie and other tart things...that perhaps I could take this lemon tubey thing and squirt it into a pie shell.

S00000, I am thinking about how I do that apple crostata thing....I have this lemon tube of filling. I so don't want to make the TRADITIONAL pie with the whole meringue stuff....*hands on chin....hmmmmmm....thinking* This is what I came up with:

Inside Out Lemon Meringue Pie

1 all ready pie crust
1 egg
half package of large marshmallows
Prepare lemon pie filling

Roll out thawed pie crust. Fold over about an inch of the edge and crimp. Brush with egg. Place marshmallows all over crust. Bake 1/2 hour @ 350. Remove from oven and place a few marshmallows to melt slightly from heat of pie crust. Cool throughly.

Place pie filling on top of melted and crusty marshmallows but around those slightly melted ones. Luckily since my pie filling came in a tube like bag, squirting the filling on the crust was quite easy. Refrigerate until cold. Serves 6-8

Since the marshmallows underneath are melted they totally taste with the lemon like a lemon meringue pie...but UPSIDE DOWN....

I am going to do more pies like this, so easy....I think I am onto something.