lemons

A few weeks back I wanted to make lemon meringue pie. Since I didn't know how many lemons I needed, and the price seemed right, I decided to just buy a big bag of (13) lemons at Costco. Then for sure I'd have enough lemons. Turns out the pie only needed 2 lemons...

So, I started searching for recipes using lemons to help use the lemons before they went bad. I found quite a few that sounded good, so I weeded out those that sounded best and started making them.

The first was Meyer Lemon Gnocchi. I'd wanted to try making gnocchi for awhile, and had actually found a recipe recently, but then lost it. I'm not sure it would have been better than this. I didn't have Meyer lemons, just your plain old lemons, but man, this was so good!



The other recipe I made was Lemon Blueberry Bread. Unfortunately, it was so good that we ate it all before I got a picture of it!

I made another recipe, Lemon Ginger muffins. They looked good, and sounded good, but something isn't right with them. They ended up kinda mealy, and just not good texture. The taste is great though.

I used a few lemons this week for hot lemon honey water to try to kick this stupid cold I have.

I'm thinking the rest of the lemons will go into more lemon blueberry bread and lemon pound cake. Yum yum!

Our super yummy supper this evening consisted of Buffalo Chicken tacos, Cornmeal Crunch, and Chile Lime Tequila popcorn.

Cornmeal Crunch and Chile Lime Tequila popcorn recipes came from 101cookbooks.com. The Cornmeal Crunch is fantastic, though I'd next time choose a smaller pan, or not cook it quite so long. Still delicious though! The Chile Lime Tequila popcorn is addictive! The two of us ate almost the full 4 quarts last night. Had to make more today it was so great...

Buffalo Chicken Tacos came from a little weekly paper we get. I don't know where they got it. I tweaked it a bit, since they seem to have not quite completed the recipe.

Buffalo Chicken Tacos
serves 3-6

11 oz packet taco seasoning
2 TBSP cooking oil
1/2 c water
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 avocado
1/2 c ranch dressing, prepared
2 oz blue cheese, crumbled
3/4 c carrots, shredded
1/4 c cilantro, chopped
6 flour tortillas, warmed
hot sauce, to taste

Combine taco seasoning, oil & water. Place chicken in resealable bag and add marinade. Marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes or longer.

Mash avocado into small chunks and mix with ranch dressing until smooth.

Remove chicken from marinade and discard used marinade.

Grill chicken over medium-high heat about 8 minutes per side or until thoroughly cooked. Remove chicken from grill & place on cutting board. (alternately, you can bake the chicken in the marinade in the oven, 25 minutes, 400F)

Slice chicken into thin strips and serve hot in warmed tortillas, with blue cheese, carrots, cilantro, and avocado ranch dressing.

NOTES: I'd go easy on the ranch dressing, adding more as I went. I got a little too much. I'd probably make my own taco seasoning also, as the taco seasoning I had was super salty. Next time I may add a cabbage mix and some lime juice also.

Chocolate Cherry Cake

When I was little, my best friend´s mom made this cake. As I got older, I really loved it. She would make it for me whenever we´d see her. It´s a really easy cake to make. A bit rich, but goes down well with a cold glass of milk. Time for a piece right now...

Chocolate Cherry Cake

Cake ingredients

1 devil´s food cake mix
2 eggs
1 can cherry pie filling
1 tsp almond extract

Mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Icing ingredients

1/3 c milk
1 c sugar (can use a bit less (2/3- 3/4) if you don´t want it quite as sweet)
1 c chocolate chips
5 TBSP margarine

Heat to boiling. Boil one minute. Spread onto cake.

Springtime Vegetable Quiche

Again, going through all my recipes, and found my quiche recipe that we´ve enjoyed before. It´s from Taste for Life, but I can´t seem to find the recipe on their site.

Lately eggs have been on sale here, so I´ve quite a few to use, and quiche is a great breakfast food that keeps us going through the morning.

Springtime Vegetable Quiche
Serves 4

Pastry for a 9¨ pie crust
1 to 1 1/2 c fresh peas or broccoli florets or asparagus or spinach
1 c grated Swiss or Jarlsberg cheese
4 eggs
1 c milk or half-and-half
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 TBSP chopped fresh chives
1 small tomato, seeded and diced



Preheat the oven to 425. Prepare the pie crust. Bake for 5-10 minutes until light golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool and reduce the oven temp to 375.

Place peas, broccoli, asparagus or spinach into the crust. Then sprinkle the cheese on top of the vegetable.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour mixture evenly over the dish. Sprinkle chopped chives and diced tomato on top.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until the eggs have set (knife inserted comes out clean) and it´s lightly browned. Serve hot or at room temperature.

NOTES: I´ve used mushrooms, onions and broccoli as a filler, and it´s yummy. Also used green onions or dried chives in place of fresh chives. Used cheddar, or other cheeses instead of swiss or jarlsberg. It´s kind of a throw whatever in, and it generally turns out really good.

Curried Rice Salad

I found this recipe who knows when in a Country Living magazine. I was going through my plethora of recipes recently, and decided it sounded good enough to try... So I made it for potluck today, and it was well worth it.

Curried Rice Salad
8 servings

1 can (20oz) pineapple tidbits
2 c cooked rice, cooled
2 c cubed cooked chicken
1/2 c chopped celery
1/3 c slivered almonds, toasted
1/3 c raisins
1/4 c chopped green onions
2/3 c mayonnaise
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp salt
Lettuce leaves, optional

Drain pineapple, reserving juice; set aside 1 cup pineapple and 3 tablespoons juice (refrigerate remaining pineapple and juice for another use). In a large bowl, combine the rice, chicken, celery, almonds, raisins, green onions and reserved pineapple.

In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise, mustard, curry powder, salt and reserved juice. Gently stir into rice mixture.



Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve in a lettuce-lined bowl if desired.

NOTES: I used Fri-Chik, two of the small cans. That was more than 2 c chicken, but whatever. I added a bit more mayo, curry powder and pineapple juice. It covered it well. I think one could easily substitute fresh grapes for raisins too.