Here’s a raw cookie dough shot from today but the photo of the baked cookie is from Thanksgiving when I gobbled up one two three some for the first time at the Joshua Grindle Inn, Mendocino, CA. Among the many luxury items and attention to detail hospitality that makes the Joshua Grindle Inn the best place to stay in Mendocino County are the fresh-baked afternoon goodies the innkeepers (and our friends) Charles and Cindy, put out in the parlor every afternoon. I should mention that as it turns out the parlor is in the room immediately next to the suite where Dana and I usually stay which means the glass connister of fresh-baked yum-yums is less than 3.2 feet from the door to our room. You know what they say…..location is everything!

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

2 cups peanut butter (no sugar added)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup Splenda
2 eggs

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 with the rack in the center. Toss all the ingredients into a bowl and mix by hand just until combined. Use a cookie scoop or a couple tablespoons to put cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes. Eat. Share. Thank me. Thank Cindy.

As it turned out I was about 1/2 cup short of peanut butter today so I replaced it with 1/2 cup almond butter, and mini chocolate chips wouldn’t be such a bad idea either (are they ever?)  as shown in the last photo.

Now, back to where in the world is Waldo what in the world did Anita eat today . . . I’ve been a tad under the weather today and my interest in food wasn’t a top priority; an event that occurs less frequently than a full ellipse of the sun. Anyway, that’s why my food box for today looks tragically pathetic, but do enjoy anyway.

Bears hibernate in winter. I bake. And this winter was like none other, inspired by the creative baking brilliance and ridiculously awesome blogs of Angie (Bakerella) and Bridget (Bake at 350). This duo of baking babes are doing incredibly things with the simplest of ingredients; Bakerella with cake mix and candy melts, Bridget with unbleached flour, sugar, eggs, and then more sugar. Lots more sugar.

If imitation is the best form of flattery then this winter has been my humble attempt to sing these women’s praises as well as to learn a new skill in the kitchen by practicing, practicing, practicing, and copying, copying, copying ideas I’ve seen on their blogs. The photos below are my rough around the edges copies of what they and others doing what they do have already done. Give credit where credit is do.

In early October I provided food for a gathering of about 40 people who were coming together to learn how they could provide spiritual, emotional, and tangible support to my brother Randy and his wife as they navigate life following his diagnosis with A.L.S. Along with the savory snacks, there was a dessert plate on each table with an assortment of home-baked cookies surrounding a jar of  Introductory Cake Pops 101 in the green of my brother’s A.L.S. support team.

While they weren’t all that good looking they were crazy good tasting and so when Halloween came around I pulled out my beautiful new copy of Bakerella’s Cake Pop book and made a go at a couple of her monster creations.

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The red velvet and chocolate fudge cake pops were a favorite of kids and adults alike but when it was all over there hardly anything left of the spider-web deviled eggs with “spider egg” black salt, salami witch hats and cheese pumpkins, dark rye pumpkins filled with black olive cream cheese, orange bread owls with orange zest cream cheese, and harvest caramel candy corn.

The hit of the day with the littlest ones by far was the brownie graveyard with Milano cookie tombstones, marshmallow ghosts, candy bones and chocolate pebbles.

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There were Nutter Butter ghosts and pumpkin Oreos and black cat Oreo lollipops co-inspired by Bakerella’s cake pop black cat and our little Simbakitty boy. We thought they looked just like him, right down to his Halloween kitty bling.

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So with my Bakerella monster cake pops a smashing success I ordered a boatload of colored candy melts and scoured local candy stores for little sweet decorating doodads and then . . . wait for it wait for it . . . I stumbled into the world of iced cut-out cookies when I stumbled onto Bake at 350. So it seems I’m a little slow on the uptake when it comes to trends because the last time I gave much thought to decorated sugar cookies was back in the days when that meant a roll of refrigerated cookie dough and red and green sprinkles. Who knew it had blown into a new edible art form?

As it happened I came across an Italian flag cookie of hers on the day before my weekly Italian language class and since making it required nothing more than 3 colors of icing and a rectangle shaped cookie I thought I’d give it a go. Bridget’s cookie is on top and mine is on the bottom. But I didn’t need to tell you that didn’t I? Could it be the bumpy, cracked icing and shaky handwriting that gave me away?

Even though I wanted more practice before putting my cookies “out there” for others to see (judge, mock, ridicule) when Dana asked me to make a dessert for a co-worker’s baby shower I decided to take a chance and follow Bridget’s awesome and easy directions for making monogram cookies, which I sent along with milk chocolate cupcakes filled with coconut-pecan icing and topped with milk chocolate and white chocolate buttercream. Yum.

Next on the calendar? The hospitality hour at church on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. And here we go!

It was so fun to see everyone’s reactions to the “giving thanks” cookies and especially the little hearts with the names of the children of our church on them. Along with the cookies I thought it would be fun to provide a little taste of everyone’s upcoming Thanksgiving dinner so I lined mini pie crusts with cream cheese and filled them with turkey I’d roasted the day before topped with fresh cranberry sauce and a sprig of rosemary. They were adorable and a wonderful savory, creamy, sweet bite.

Oh. And then there were the Turkey Cake Pops that I spent an entire day making and no one ever saw.  Oh sure, they look great in the photo I took a few minutes after finishing them but within two hours every one of those little birdie poops pops  cracked in half and were a total mess. Apparently I compacted the cake too tightly when I mixed it together with the cream cheese. Bakerella suggests using a spoon for combining but smartypants me reasoned if a spoon was good, a standing mixer would be better. Not so. Once the cake mixture thawed from having been in the fridge it expanded in the candy shell and disaster followed.

I not only learned from my mistake but I also learned that Oreo truffle pops are easier than cake pops! My new go-to sweet on a stick, like these I made as a hostess gift for our friends, the wonderful innkeepers at the Joshua Grindle Inn in Mendocino.

Around mid-December I traveled up to my brother and sister-in-law’s in Oregon to spend the week baking cookies for an open house party to celebrate her daughter’s recent marriage.

I practiced and experimented until I came up with a  selection that included Oreo Truffle Balls brushed with gold luster dust, ginger sandwich cookies filled with lemon cream (Oprah’s December issue), chocolate shortbread dipped in white chocolate and crushed peppermint, miniature wedding cakes made from a stack of vanilla cookies layered with rolled marzipan and decorated with royal icing and fondant flowers, and at the bride’s request my triple chocolate chunk cookies that are so over the top good they’d make your momma cry.

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These two photos professional photographer Mark Galligan took really classed up all those platters of  humble little cookies.

We now interrupt this nightmarishly long baking post with a photo of bespectacled me and my dashing brother Randy.  So it seems that Mark’s photographic magic works as well on people as on cookies.

Halloween, then a baby shower followed by Thanksgiving and a wedding celebration, at now at long last we’ve reached Christmas, complete with a church table buckling under the weight of holiday goodies from iced cookies inspired by Bake at 350, Cookie Crazie, The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle and other cookie rolling, baking, icing fools to cake pops and even a Nutter Butter Baby Jesus or two. The following photos were also taken using my new table light box that’s the coolest thing since forever. I’ve provided this series of cookie photos commentary free. Feel free to write your own captions.

With the cookies and cake pops all done for the year, I headed up to Portland to spend Christmas with family. I baked an apple cranberry citrus pie for my brother.  I roasted a crazy big 24 pound organic turkey for Christmas Eve dinner. And then on Christmas Day under the watchful eyes of my brother and sister I made crispy fried rosette cookies just like our Grandma use to make  every holiday when we were young.  While my rosettes tasted just like the ones Grandma we were all reasonably certain that her pile of failed attempts was significantly smaller than my towering pile of crumbled burnt bits.

Whatever the case, it was a fun baking season thanks to all those fabulous baking bloggers out there and to my grandma who passed along her passion for baking to her youngest granddaughter . . .along with a cardboard box full of old cookie cutters and baking sheets!

Fall and baking. The perfect combination, and so I decided to start off the new fall season of baking last Sunday because we Lutherans like our after worship hospitality hour.

Nothing fancy. Just delicious. Starting with Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies. That would be white chocolate chunks, dark chocolate chunks, and M&M’s Harvest Blend. 1 – 2 -3.

Harvest Blend M&M’s.

It almost sounds…

healthy….

organic….

natural goodness.

I love creative marketing.

But not as much as I love my new cookie jar! Dana and I found it at our local “gorgeous stuff we don’t need but we’re weak and we can’t resist” gift shop. It was love at first sight. I loved everything about it…the warm colors, the pinecone design, the shape, and oooooh….this baby can hold a seriously massive batch of cookies. Swoon.

Then there were these pumpkin-pecan cakes that I made with this awesome fall cakelet pan from Williams-Sonoma, and then sandwiches together with a cream cheese frosting flavored with pure maple sugar, glazed with a maple-infused simple syrup and then frosted with sugar. Big hit with the Lutherans. Big.

And finally to round out the table, I arranged three paper bags of fall-themed candy into a miniature apple basket. Yep, more of the M&M Harvest Blend, the ever-popular sugar-busting candy pumpkins, and some fall-colored Jordan Almonds I found in the Halloween section at Cost Plus World Market, right between the gummy bloody fingers and chocolate eyeballs.

Oh. Did I mention I’m in charge of the hospitality hour again on Sunday, October 31? Those chocolate eyeballs are sure going to come in handy is all I’m saying.

]]> http://www.anitasblog.com/fall-and-food/feed/ 1 http://www.anitasblog.com/planting-without-a-green-thumb/ http://www.anitasblog.com/planting-without-a-green-thumb/#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:01:23 +0000 Anita http://www.anitasblog.com/?p=1128 When I recently saw these lavender-lemon flower cookies presented in plant-able pots at the Half-Moon Bay farmer's market I knew it was an idea worthy of stealing and making my own so that my friends, having seen my version on someone else's... Don't stop now...keep reading!

When I recently saw these lavender-lemon flower cookies presented in plant-able pots at the Half-Moon Bay farmer’s market I knew it was an idea worthy of stealing and making my own so that my friends, having seen my version on someone else’s uniquely original idea would be immediately awed by my ingenuity and creativity.

“How do you come up with such incredibly creative ideas, Anita?”

“Oh, I don’t know. They just come to me.”

Yes. I’m just needy enough that I’m willing to deceive those I love for the attention. I’m the baby of the family. What can I say?

There’s a skill in plagiarizing someone else’s idea, that being the ability to change the idea just enough that should one of your friends, having previously stumbled upon the original say to you, “Hey, I saw something just like that a couple months ago at a farmer’s market on the coast!” you will be able to simply cock your head slightly to one side and with a puzzled look on your face reply, “Oh really?! Gosh, I guess it’s true what they say that there’s really nothing new under the sun. Cookies you say? Uh. I would have never thought of that.”

So with that in mind, I now present my uniquely original creation, Anita’s FlowerPot Nibblers.

I know. Cute, huh? I tell you, I just don’t know how I come up with these ideas! Anyway, here’s all you need to make some Flowerpot Nibblers of your own. Just don’t forget to tell people where you got the idea because that would simply be rude to not give me credit!

Any kind of flower-shaped cracker, celery, garden vegetable cream cheese, cheddar cheese slices, salami rounds and plantable pots which you should be able to pick up at any nursery.

Begin by lining the inside of the pot with plastic wrap or wax paper. I would have preferred using brown parchment paper but since I used the last of the row last night for roasting vegetables, plastic wrap served the purpose howbeit less organic in appearance.

Add two or three rounds of salami.

Now put a small spoon full of the garden vegetable cream cheese in the bottom of the pot.

Toss a couple rounds of cheese into the bottom of the pot…

and place the another round into the center of the cracker, gluing it with a smidge of the cream cheese (a smidge being like a dollop only slightly smaller).

Slice up a five or seven celery sticks for each pot (it’s a number thing…I can’t do even numbers with food items).

And that’s all there is to it. Each pot makes a substantial portable snack for a picnic or backyard party that includes five or six bites of meat, three bites of cheese, a cracker, and a little cream cheese for dipping the celery in. Arrange a number of these mini snack pots on your serving table around a pot filled with real flowers, and once the snack pots are empty provide the children at your big social event with potting soil, seeds, and plastic spoons for planting.

And that is my idea!

]]> http://www.anitasblog.com/planting-without-a-green-thumb/feed/ 2 http://www.anitasblog.com/and-the-best-of-the-best/ http://www.anitasblog.com/and-the-best-of-the-best/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:51:55 +0000 Anita http://www.anitasblog.com/?p=793 Fruit Soup! I know. I wouldn't have believed it myself but this traditional Swedish food received nothing but rave reviews from everyone! Swedes, non-Swedes and most impressively children of all ages who had no idea what it was, tasted a... Don't stop now...keep reading!

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Fruit Soup!

I know. I wouldn’t have believed it myself but this traditional Swedish food received nothing but rave reviews from everyone! Swedes, non-Swedes and most impressively children of all ages who had no idea what it was, tasted a scant smidgen of it with frowning suspicion and then came back for more!

I originally stumbled on this recipe when RuthAnn, a facebook friend of Scandinavian heritage mentioned preparing it for her family holiday gathering. I was intrigued by the idea since the Lutheran Church D and I attend has a number of Swedes in the congregation, several of whom moved to the States in their lifetime and return regularly to visit their homeland. Since everyone enjoys a taste of home at Christmas I thought I’d give Fruit Soup a try even though I’m not a fan of dried fruit and prunes in particular. Prunes. Seriously, I’ve always considered them the food of Grandparents, consumed more for their miraculous powers of regularly than for flavor but I’m not too proud to admit when I’m wrong.  Or regular for that matter but that’s a post for another day and another blog.

I found about a dozen recipes online for Fruit Soup, all a little different and so I took what I thought was the best from every recipe and then gathering some additional input from RuthAnn threw the ingredients in the massive seven quart Le Creuset Doufeu D gave me for my birthday and magic happened! The next day I took more than 2 gallons of fruit soup to church along with a table full of other holiday treats and the soup was the first thing to go and was sooooo good and soooooo easy I knew I wanted to share it with you! The problem was when I had made my first original batch I didn’t follow any written measurements but just kept tweaking by tossing in a few more lemon slices, another scoop of brown sugar, another splash of cranberry juice. And so when I remembered that our next door neighbors were going to be having their annual Swedish Christmas Eve dinner in a couple days I used the opportunity to not only do a neighborly thing and take them a pot of the soup but to write down the recipe as I tossed it altogether.

Before giving you the recipe I should probably tell you how to actually serve Fruit Soup. Traditionally Fruit Soup is served either cold or warm as a dessert. You can serve it just as it is or crank it up with a dollop of softly whipped whipping cream. I beg of you, use real whipping cream that comes from a cow rather than someone’s chemistry set. Do NOT allow Cool Whip or any other wannabe whipped topping to defile this amazing treat! It just isn’t the same, no matter what you say.

So yes, serve it in the traditional way as a dessert at the end of a meal but here’s a few other ideas I came up with because I love this stuff and have nothing better to do than obsess about all the ways it can be consumed.

• Reheat it in the morning and serve it over pancakes or french toast with a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
• Serve it cold at lunch over a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
• Make a stunning dessert at dinner by ladling it warm over a slice of homemade pound cake, angel food cake or a hard meringue shell and top with whipped whipping cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

People. I’m talking deeeee-licious. I’m talking show-stopper. I’m talking impress your friends and woo your enemies. Trust me on this. I know you questioned my passion for roasted brussel sprouts in the past and raised your eyebrows at my recipes for Kale Krisps and Cauliflower Candy but this is heaven in a bowl. I promise. Make it, enjoy it, and sing my praises as you bow gratefully in the direction of Stockholm.

And after you make it, let me know what you think. If you can stop eating the Fruit Soup long enough to type that is.

Fruit Soup
Difficulty: Easy Peasy
Time: 30 minutes
Serves: This recipe makes one generous gallon of fruit soup which will serve approximately 16 people one cup each which is a generous portion given the sweetness and richness of the dried fruit.
Calories Per Serving: You don’t even want to know. Really.
Storing Leftovers: There won’t be any but hypothetically, if there were leftovers they should be stored in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 – 2 …pounds of dried fruit – (I use a combination of prunes, apricots, and pineapple), chopped into bite-size pieces
• 2 ..cups small pearl tapioca
• 1…64-ounce bottles of cranapple juice (you may substitute half the juice with water)
• 4-5 ..cinnamon sticks
• 1…teaspoon ground cinnamon*
• 2…lemons, thickly sliced*
• 1/2…cup Brown Sugar*
• 1…cup raisins
• 1/2…cup currants
• 2-3…apples (tart variety like Granny Smiths), cored and diced into bite-size pieces

Directions:

1. Add the dried fruit, cranapple juice and pearl tapioca to a 5-6 quart saucepan and stirring occasionally, bring to a gentle boil over medium high heat.  The soup will quickly thicken as the tapioca pearls release their starch. As long as the soup remains on the stove top be sure to stir regularly to prevent the sugars from sticking and burning to the bottom of the pot.
2. When the soup begins to boil immediately reduce the heat to maintain a low simmer. Stir in all the remaining ingredients.
3. Continue to simmer for another 10 minutes and then turn the heat source to the lowest setting.
4. Now comes the time to tweak the soup to your personal preference in terms of thickness and taste. Served as a soup the thickness should be similar to a cream soup such as New England Clam Chowder and thicker when served over other foods. Additional water or juice can be added to thin and turning up the head slightly to reduce the liquids will thicken the soup. The soup is best when there’s a balance of tart, sweet, and spicy so level out the flavor with additional cinnamon, brown sugar or lemon to taste.
5. Remove the lemon slices and cinnamon sticks prior to serving.

* The amounts listed in these ingredients are the base quantity to begin with so have a little extra of each for tweaking.

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This photo could have been taken just about anytime during the month of December but as it was, it was taken a couple days before Christmas with only two cooking projects remaining before I entered the “I’m so done with being in this kitchen” zone. .

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Even my furry sous chef sensed my growing weariness and kept at a safe distance from flying dough shrapnel but as it turned out my two last recipes, after all the pans of pumpkin pie bars and lemon cakes, muffin tins of tiny lemon tarts, jars of lemon curd and more cookies than I care to recount or relive, were the best above all the rest and here’s one of them. You have to wait until tomorrow for the last and the best!

A Lemonized Version of
Paula Deen’s Sour Cream Pound Cake

See Paula’s original recipe here

Ingredients:

1 sticks butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup sour cream
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups flour
3 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the sour cream and mix until incorporated. Sift the baking soda and flour together. Add to the creamed mixture alternating with eggs, beating in each egg 1 at a time. Add vanilla.
• Pour the mixture into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

So that’s where Paula’s recipe ends but then Paula apparently didn’t spend November and December haunted by a bottomless bowl of lemons on her kitchen counter, so while the cake is baking away, make a simple lemon sugar syrup by combining 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice in a saucepan, heating over medium high until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. When the cake has been removed from the oven, allow it to cool for 10 minutes and then poke a dozen toothpick holes into the surface. Spoon the lemon simple syrup over the top. (Option: Replace the lemon simple syrup with Italian Lemoncella, a refreshing lemon liqueur)

Wait! We aren’t done yet. Once the cake is completely cool, drizzle with a glaze made from mixing 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Allow the cake to cool completely before slicing.

Now, is that enough lemon for you? No? Okay. Fine.

How about serving the cake with some homemade lemon curd. Oh. Yum. Moist. Light. Buttery. Creamy. Lemony. Par-a-dise in a loaf pan.

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And so until that day comes I continue to juice and zest, cook and bake. While there actually is another batch of lemon curd in my immediate future (to be consumed by unwary congregants following the Christmas Eve service along with scones, warm buttered cinnamon bread, and wassail) on Monday I made 1o mini-loaves of Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake spiked with rum, and 10 mini-loaves of Ina Gardner’s Lemon Cake. I gift packaged a third of the baked goods and distributed them to our neighbors that evening, another third my beloved took to the lunch room at her work place, and the remaining loaves will find their place on the after church hospitality table along side the pumpkin pie bars I’m making this afternoon. The reviews so far have been mixed. Everyone LOVES the Ina Gardner Lemon Cake and understandably so. It’s real lemony. Three layers of lemony. The light lemon cake is soaked with simple syrup infused with lemon and then topped with a lemony sugar glaze. In my book the sign that people truly like what you’ve made is when they ask, or rather demand, the recipe and without exception, everyone has asked, or rather demanded, this one. Now, the Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake spiked with Rum….not so much. Okay, not at all. It’s not that it’s terrible. There’s just too much rum, too little lemon, and was overshadowed by the grand citrus splendor of its companion cake.

So if you have some extra lemons just hanging around in a bowl on your counter threatening to over-ripen if you don’t do something quick, go with Ina.

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For the past five years I’ve been organizing this little sugar-fueled holiday event for the kids at our church and every year I think I enjoy doing it more and more, primarily because I have the system down at this point and so everything runs smoothly….unlike the year when I over-estimated the amount of ingredients needed and ended up with our home pantry filled with ginormous bags of flour and gallons of molasses…or the year I made the icing so thin I was tempted to staple the roofs on.

No, at this point it all comes together as smooth as glass….

In August or September I purchase all the gingerbread cookie ingredients and spend several hours pre-measuring and bagging the ingredients into batches. The next morning using the stack of Pampered Chef Stoneware Gingerbread House molds I’ve accumulated over the years I start baking around 9:00 a.m. and finish with the final wipe-down of the kitchen 12 hours later with all the house components packed away in the freezer.

Through September and November I buy candy. The day after Halloween is the best time to get all the miniature candy bars and then as soon as the holiday-themed candy hits the shelves at Targets and Costco, I’m there. Last year I over-bought so much candy that it was almost enough for this year too which had stayed wrapped up airtight and cool in the back of our storage unit all year long. It held up so well that this year on the day after Christmas while the rest of you are scoring on half-price Christmas wrap I’m going to be loading my cart with leftover Christmas ribbon candy and green and red foil wrapped chocolates for Christmas 2010.

Getting back to the countdown, on Thursday I make and individually bag the royal icing and remove the gingerbread from the freezer to thaw. On Friday the houses are assembled at church and the church gathering hall is transformed into a candy construction zone.

Come Saturday morning the children arrive and the magic happens. Now, the best part of all this is that the parents and children think I go to all this effort for them and I’m going to let them go on believing that, but between you and me, I’m pretty sure I more fun than anyone!

Zest and and then juice 8 lemons. Be sure to remove any seeds. Crunchy isn’t considered a good thing in the world of lemon curd.

Place the zest and juice to the side. We’ll get back to them in a minute.

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Take one cup cold butter (2 cubes) and cut into 16-20 chunks and then return to refrigerator.

.Make yourself a double-boiler by paring one of your metal mixing bowls with a sauce pan. You should be able to put two inches of water in the saucepan and the bowl shouldn’t touch the water when you rest it on the top.

Remove the bowl and bring the water in the saucepan to a rapid simmer. While the water’s heating whisk 2 cups of sugar and 10 egg yolks in the metal bowl until thoroughly blended. Write a note for yourself so you don’t forget to have an egg-white omelet for breakfast.

To the blended sugar and yolk mixture add in the lemon zest and juice and mix thoroughly. Once the water in the saucepan has a fast simmer going on, turn it down to medium high, set the bowl on top and whisk continually for about 8-10 minutes or until the mixture thickens and you begin to notice bright yellow streaks showing up. Remove from the heat and still whisking, add the butter one piece at a time. Be sure that you don’t add more butter until the last addition is completely melted into the curd.

I made two batches and my arm was so tired from the first batch (time for a little more strength-training at the gym!) that I transferred the second batch directly from the stovetop to my standing mixer and let my little friend Kitchen Aid do the whisking while incorporating the butter.

Transfer the lemon curd to the refrigerator to cool, covering with a layer of plastic wrap directly on the curd surface to prevent it from developing a gummy skin. The lemon curd will last refrigerated for 10-14 days.

So now that you have lemon curd, what do you do with it?  You can start with sticking your finger in the jar and licking it but if you have a little more style than that….schmear some on a breakfast scone or biscuit, drop a dollop on the center of a thumbprint cookie, spackle it between two meringue cookies or ginger snaps, or put a spoonful on top of fresh berries and if you must with a drizzle of chocolate. For a super easy lemon pie, fold a cup of lemon curd into a pint of whipped whipping cream and spread in a pre-baked pie crust. Add a thin layer of plain whipped whipping cream to the top and decorate with a sprinkle of lemon zest or better yet, with candied lemon peels!

To make candied lemon peels (orange works too!), use a vegetable peeler to peel thin lemon strips. Take care to peel lightly so that you don’t pick up too much of the white flesh underneath but don’t worry, a little is fine. Once you have a saucepan of water boiling on the stove top drop the peels in and let them jacuzzi at an easy boil for about 15-20 minutes. Remove the saucepan from heat, tossing out the water and leaving the peels to drain on a stack of paper towels or in a colander. [The hot water bath softens the peels while removing some of the bitterness from the taste]

Bring two cups of sugar and one cup of water to a boil. If you use the same saucepan you just boiled the peels in either wash it first or at least wipe out the inside of the pan to remove the bitter oils that clung to the sides. Continue boiling the sugar water until it reaches 230 degrees on a candy thermometer. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, get one. If they don’t have candy thermometers in the Land of Oz where you apparently live you’ll know it’s ready when you can drop a little into a cup of really cold water and then form it into a soft little ball. If you can, you’re at the soft candy stage and all systems go! With the sugar water still on the heat add the peels and let them simmer in the hot goo for about 5 minutes before removing and draining.

To finish the candied zest, put a cup of white sugar into any small container you have with a lid. Toss in about one third of the now sticky peels and shake them in the container of sugar until they’re thoroughly coated. Remove and separate. Repeat with the next third. Shake and separate. Repeat. Rinse and shampoo. Repeat.

Store the candied lemon peels in an airtight container….that is until you decorate the top of your pie or just nibble on them for no particular reason other than it’s the weekend or Wednesday.

Here’s the little goodie plate I gave to six of our neighbors and with even more lemon curd remaining I think there’s going to be some mini lemon tarts at our church hospitality hour very soon in the future.

]]> http://www.anitasblog.com/lemon-curd-candied-peels/feed/ 1 http://www.anitasblog.com/roasted-cauliflower-candy/ http://www.anitasblog.com/roasted-cauliflower-candy/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:05:22 +0000 Anita http://www.anitasblog.com/?p=680 In the Spring and Summer I grill vegetables and in Autumn and Winter I roast vegetables. Whether roasted or grilled I fix them simple and keep them on the heat until some have turned to crispy bits. While I'm not fond of raw or steamed... Don't stop now...keep reading!

In the Spring and Summer I grill vegetables and in Autumn and Winter I roast vegetables. Whether roasted or grilled I fix them simple and keep them on the heat until some have turned to crispy bits.

While I’m not fond of raw or steamed cauliflower, it turns into something wonderful when roasted. The flavor mellows and takes on an almost nutty flavor with a smooth but firm texture that’s not crunchy like when it’s raw or mushy when it’s steamed. Last night I ate nearly a full head of cauliflower all by myself. It may have been a small head, approximately the size of a league-sanctioned softball (leave it to a lesbian for that comparison) but it was mine, all mine and it was deee-licious. This is how I prepared it.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 and put the rack one up from the center of the oven.

Either break or cut the cauliflower into very small florets. The other way to speed up the prep time is to use a mandoline if you have one and if you don’t have one, get one. Seriously, when you get comfortable using a mandoline, meaning you learn how to use it without slicing off your finger tips, you’ll find yourself using it more and more often. The one I have is the OXO V-Bladd Mandoline Slicer and priced at just under 40.00 it’s one of the cheaper mandolines on the market and is Cook’s Illustrated top choice.

Once you have a pile of cauliflower dump it on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Spray with a generous spritz of Pam Butter-Flavored Vegetable Spray. Toss the cauliflower on the baking sheet to mix it up and spray it again. Now spread the cauliflower out to the edges of the baking sheet so you have a flat layer instead of a pile. If the cauliflower is piled up too thick on the sheet the cauliflower underneath will essentially steam and only the top layer will get crispy and brown.

Before you put it in the oven sprinkle your preferred seasoning over the top. The top choices in our house are lemon omani (a black seed spice that tastes like lemon), smoked paprika, and garlic powder. Once your seasoning is on add a sprinkle of kosher or sea salt. Please, don’t use table salt. Not even at the table. Morton’s Table Salt is so yesterday and the crunch of sea salt adds a whole other texture to every bite.

Now just roast the cauliflower until it’s a rich dark brown. Depending on your oven it will take between 20-30 minutes. You might want to check it after the first 15 minutes and stir it up a little to allow the still white cauliflower on the bottom of the sheet to get some much needed color too.

That’s all you have to do to have a simple but beautiful vegetable side dish. A medium head of cauliflower (just under 1.5 pounds) has just 140 calories, provides a truckload of fiber and other stuff that promotes good health. And it’s yummy!

If calories aren’t a concern to you (and if that’s the case consider me rolling my eyes in your direction), then use a splash of olive oil instead of the vegetable spray and as soon as you take it out of the oven mix it with some roasted pinenuts or chopped walnuts and grate some fresh parmesan reggiano or pecorino over the top. If you just want to be decadent then go ahead and had some diced crispy bacon. You know you want to.

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