Winter – Page 3

Preserved Lemons

December 4, 2014

I was all set to write up a post for a salad dressing using preserved lemons, when I realized that I never got around to posting about the preserved lemons themselves.

I actually made (and photographed) these preserved lemons almost a year ago, using some of the last of that season’s Meyer lemons from my little potted tree. I had to leave the tree behind when we moved from Texas to North Carolina. The movers wouldn’t take it and, even if they had, I’m not sure the tree would have survived a week with no water on a hot, dark, moving truck.

I did, however, manage to bring some of the lemons with me, in the form of marmalade, lemon curd and preserved lemons. The jars of marmalade were simply slipped into boxes with the rest of our pantry items, but the lemon curd and preserved lemons got the VIP treatment. I packed them into little soft-sided coolers along with a few ice packs and crammed them into my checked baggage….

Carrot and red lentil soup

January 13, 2014

Carrot and red lentil soup from https://test.pleasepassthepeas.com

Things have finally warmed up around here after a vicious little cold snap — or at least what passes for vicious cold in these parts. Today felt practically like spring, but the cold weather of the past couple weeks still had me thinking of soup.

Also, I spent a good part of yesterday using up piles of butter and chocolate on what turned out to be a disaster of a baking project (lesson learned: get an oven thermometer). It seemed like time for something a little lighter. And foolproof….

Meyer lemon curd

January 9, 2014

meyer lemons from https://test.pleasepassthepeas.com

When I was in third grade, two of my best friends and I pooled our meager resources, walked to the nearby grocery store and bought our teacher a little, flowering houseplant.

Sycophants, clearly, but I also think the teacher had suffered some sort of personal tragedy — I can’t remember what — and we wanted to express our sympathy. Impressed with our purchase, we carried the plant back and set it on the floor of my friend’s bedroom.

You can probably see where this is going….

Chewy molasses sandwich cookies with meyer lemon filling

January 6, 2014

molasses cookies with meyer lemon filling from https://test.pleasepassthepeas.com

Sometimes you make something and, right away, you know it’s a winner. But often, it takes quite a bit of trial and error before kitchen experiment turns into a recipe worth keeping.

I started making molasses cookies last month, to send in holiday care packages.

I tried an online recipe so bad that, after foisting a cookie on my husband, I threw the rest of the batch out. I devised my own approach the next time around and was much happier, but then a subsequent batch turned out almost rubbery. I wondered what went wrong until much later that evening when we discovered an egg still resting on the kitchen counter.

Fortunately, I remembered the egg the next time and, after a few more adjustments, the end result was a soft, chewy molasses cookie coated with sugar for a little sweet crunch….