Fresh Orange Cookies

I made these the other day for a housewarming party I'm no longer having.  They are soooooo good.  I didn't have any walnuts, but I had a ton of coconut, so I substituted that.  Pure win!  The recipe came from The Cookie Bible.

Fresh Orange Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 unpeeled orange (seedless, of course), finely chopped, either in a blender or food processor
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or shredded coconut

Orange Glaze

1 cup icing sugar
1 - 2 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tbsp butter, softened
zest of one orange
- mix all this together in a bowl until smooth

1. Beat butter & sugars until light & fluffy.  Add egg and orange and beat well.  Gradually blend in dry ingredients, then stir in nuts or coconut.  Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour.  Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets and bake at 375F for 10 - 12 minutes, or until lightly golden.  Spread with glaze.

Awesome!  And a great way to use up oranges you have kicking around that might be past it slightly.

Lemon "Brownies"

I have been back on Pinterest - that's how bored I am!  What a time-sucker it is.  But it's irresistible at the same time.  I have posted a few recipes I've found there on here, but then they marked this blog as spam and I was pissy about it, sent an email, which was never responded to, and then I promptly left the site for over a year and a half.  Now I am back...and once more addicted.

There is so much food on Pinterest it's ridiculous.  I found this recipe for Lemon Brownies the other day and was immediately intrigued.  I love a good lemon square, but this was a different kind of bar, so I wanted to try it.  There is a bit of risk with Pinterest recipes; some of them don't turn out and you never really know if they're as tried and true as they claim to be.  But this worked out wonderfully, despite the fact that there is no leavening agent in it.  I was worried about that small detail; I thought perhaps the cake part of the brownie would turn out like a chunk of cement.  I needn't have worried.  Though I slightly over baked it, the cakey part was just great.

I took them to a dinner for dessert and they were a big hit!  I will definitely make these again!

The recipe is here.

Enjoy!

Grapefruit Scones

I have a confession: I love Cobs - love it.  And I live within walking distance of one, which is both a blessing and a curse!  They have great baking and great breads.  I love their cinnamon buns and I really love their scones.  I was walking by there the other day while running errands at the mall and of course I had to go and stare longingly at their products...but on a budget, I couldn't justify purchasing any scones, but I knew I had scone ingredients at home, so when I got home I got busy.

I have a great recipe for scones that has garnered me a lot of compliments over the years.  It's a lemon scone recipe that I've changed up to become orange scones, orange & blueberry scones, and probably some others.  Since I love baking with citrus, I decided to go with that theme again and make...grapefruit scones.  I did, after all, have a bunch of very nice, large ruby reds on hand.

Here is the scone recipe.  I have no idea where it originated, but I've had it for ages.

Lemon/Orange/Grapefruit/Citrus Scones

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold butter, cubed
2 eggs
1/3 cup 10% cream
1 tbsp finely grated citrus zest
1/4 cup citrus juice

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in butter and sablé with fingers until mixture is crumbly.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, zest, and citrus juice.  Pour over dry ingredients and gently incorporate until you get a sticky dough.

Turn out onto a well-floured surface.  With floured hands, form into a ball and knead gently 8 times.  Place on parchment-lined baking sheet.  Pat into a circle 3/4" circle, then cut into 8 wedges.  Do not separate.

Glaze options: brush with citrus juice & sprinkle with sugar, or as I did, brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with citrus-flavoured sugar.

Bake at 350F until golden.

For the citrus sugar, I had 2 grapefruits zested.  I used half of the zest in the scones and shook the other half in a container with about 1/2 - 3/4 cups of sugar until well-combined (I credit my friend Jodi for giving me this idea).

These turned out great, though the scone itself could have used more grapefruit zest.  But they were a hit with my roommates!  The grapefruit sugar topping was awesome.  These scones are not the texture of Cobs' scones, which are more doughy.  I'm not sure which I prefer, but you can never beat homemade scones right out of the oven, that's for sure.

Lemon Scented Pull-apart Coffee Cake

Hot on the heels of my pumpkin/cinnamon pull-apart loaf from the other day, I had another pull-apart bread experience, this week in Seattle, that was just as exceptional. My friend Jodi, whom I am visiting, made this lemon pull-apart loaf Thursday. She had some issues with the dough - it needed a lot of flour added to it because it was too sticky - but the results were just great nonetheless.

Here is the original recipe.

Jodi made a marscapone glaze for this loaf instead of the glaze in the rec

ipe. It was very good. She didn't think it was that great, or that it went with the bread that well, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Here are some photos. Enjoy!

The Loaf Failure

Something must be in the air in this God-forsaken place! Spring is soooooooo slow in arriving, I'm cranky as hell, and today I had a very frustrating kitchen failure that didn't do anything to help my mood.

I was inspired to make lemon loaf today after seeing my friend Pierce's success with this recipe this morning. I have a thing to go to tomorrow afternoon, and I thought I'd pack a dessert with me, and since lemons were on sale this week at LOGS, I thought a lemon loaf would be perfect. Plus, it's spring-like! And God knows, I need more springlike things in my life right now!

Tina had great success with her loaf. But mine was a disaster. Granted, I didn't use the food processor as directed in the original recipe, but I don't think that's the explanation for this loaf that A) overflowed from the side of the pan during baking (luckily, I baked it on a baking sheet), B) had a texture that was a bizarre mixture of coarse sponginess with a bit of rubber thrown in, C) didn't rise, and D) it seemed like all the butter sunk to the bottom of the loaf during baking because the bottom was full of grease, and E) it wasn't very lemony. Perhaps my lemons were lemons.

BY NO MEANS AM I DISSING TINA'S RECIPE OR TINA! Tina's looks lovely and according to her, tasted great, too. I obviously messed up big time somewhere along the line, I just don't where. Sometimes things just don't work out. Like I said, there is something in the air up here... I will freeze the loaf and use it for trifle down the line somewhere. I certainly am not letting it go to waste.

Magazine Monday #70: Lemon Loaves!

OK, I got a great deal on lemons from the States recently (yes, you can bring certain types of fresh produce across the border, but stop off at Canada Customs on the way down to find out what you can & cannot bring home; tropical fruits are OK) - something like 2lbs for $3.50. This is an unreal deal since lemons are ridiculously expensive up here and if I'm lucky, I might be able to find a 2/99¢ sale, but I guarantee you the lemons will be crappy.

So, I brought all these lemons home and proceeded to not really know what to do with them. I'm a single person who lives alone; I was tempted to make a lemon pie, this one or a meringue, but seriously, I didn't want to eat it all myself. So, I made stuff I could freeze and pull out if I have company (which doesn't happen often).

The first thing I made was this lemon poppy seed loaf from Canadian Living. The original recipe has them as mini bundt cakes, but there is a variation in the recipe saying you can make it into a loaf, too. What issue is a mystery to me; the date was clipped off when I took the recipe from the magazine and the web site doesn't mention the date, either. Delicious! But a warning: there is too much batter for the specified loaf pan. I wound up getting a really ugly-looking, flat-topped loaf because the batter came right up to the rim of the loaf pan. But the texture and richness was lovely.

On a lemon roll, a couple of days later, I decided to make another Canadian Living recipe, this time the Lemon Yogurt Loaf from the September 2010 issue of the magazine. I had a bit of a disaster, though: my oven element began sparking away most alarmingly, and caught some piece of debris on fire. The loaves were almost done, but not quite, so I had to stick them in the toaster oven to finish baking. Disaster averted, but now I'm ovenless until the element can be replaced, and since the whole appliance is a total dinosaur, I'm worried they don't make the part anymore. (Check out The Dino here.) Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of these loaves before I wrapped them up tightly and put them in the freezer!

Oh, I also made a roast chicken with lemon, but that is a post for another time!

Magazine Monday #62: Roasted Lemon Cake

I rarely go to the liquor store, but other people I know go regularly, and one of those someones brought back a recent copy of Taste Magazine, which is put out by the BC Liquor Stores. This is the first time I've made a recipe from the magazine, and the occasion was Father's Day. Lemons, as it happened, were on sale at the time! The original recipe involved a lavender syrup, but as I didn't have any access to lavender, I skipped it altogether.

Roasted Lemon Cake, adapted Taste Magazine Spring 2010, page 129

4 large lemons, washed well & dried
6 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup ground almonds
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 375C. Grease sides of a 9" round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment.

2. Slice lemons thinly & remove seeds. Place them in a layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper & sprinkle with the 6tbsp of sugar. Roast for about 15 minutes or until lightly caramelized on the edges. Let cool.

3. Arrange 3/4 of the lemon slices on the bottom of the cake pan. Chop the remaining lemons & set aside. Sift flour & baking powder into a bowl & stir in almonds. In a separate bowl, beat butter & sugar together until light & fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well mixed. Fold in flour mixture, and add chopped lemons & accumulated juices. Spread batter over roasted lemons. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until done in the centre. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes at least before turning out of the pan. Serve with whipped cream.


This was a hit with my family. The cake was so moist it was pretty much pudding-like. The lemony flavour was over the top. Unfortunately, the cake was so moist that it was hard to serve nicely because it kept breaking up. Also, the lemons I got were particularly thick-skinned, which was kind of annoying: more skin than fruit really, and it got pretty chewy at times. Still, a really worthwhile and adaptable recipe that I can see going well with other citrus fruits like oranges or even grapefruit.

Enjoy!

Ambrosia Salad for a Crowd

This is one of those dishes you find at church potlucks, in delis, and at my work! And, to be honest, I kinda like ambrosia. I mean, marshmallows, coconut, and mandarin oranges? That is a pretty delicious combination! This recipe makes a huge amount and will provide dessert for about 25 - 30 people, though I'm not sure this is an "authentic" ambrosia like you'd find at the deli, because mandarin segments in a can are pricier than fruit cocktail, but when I make it, I often just use the mandarin oranges anyway because I think it's better that way. But even with the fruit cocktail, it's good stuff, and the diabetics at work like it because they can have it, too.

Ambrosia for a Crowd

6 cups mixed fruit or fruit cocktail
3 cups mandarin orange slices
3 cups pineapple tidbits
3 cups miniature marshmallows
1 bag coconut
4 1/2 cups sour cream (we use light)

It's as easy as this: drain all the fruit very well. Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl, mixing lightly. Chill thoroughly. Serve.

Magazine Monday #61: Chocolate-Orange Brownines

For once, a non-Canadian Living recipe!

We have having some serious renovations done around here and I have baked a few things for the contractors, who appear to all have sweet tooths. This works for me! I get to bake and not have to have any sweet stuff hanging around my place tempting me, and they get to have nice treats after a day's hard work.

This recipe for Chocolate-Orange Brownies comes from the March 2010 issue of Bon Appetit. Apparently, the recipe originated at Homepage Cafe in Bozeman, Montana, and it was included in the RSVP section of the magazine, where readers write in asking for recipes from restaurants and other eateries - hence it's not included in the recipe database on Epicurious.com. Gr!!!

Anyway, here it is.

Chocolate-Orange Brownies

non-stick vegetable spray
1/2 cup boiling water
6 tbsp natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup pecans, chopped
2 large eggs
10 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks...God I hate how US recipes do this! This is 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp for you Canadians out there!) butter, melted & cooled
1 tbsp grated orange zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 9x9x2" metal baking pan with spray. Whisk 1/2 cup boiling water with cocoa powder in a small bowl to blend. Whisk sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Stir in pecans. Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Add butter, vanilla, and orange zest. Whisk cocoa mixture into egg mixture. Add flour mixture, stir just to blend. Transfer to prepared pan.

2. Bake until tester inserted into the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on rack. Cut & serve.

These were a huge hit with both the contractors (we took them out on a big platter & my SIL provided them with cold beer!) and with my family. They were perfectly-textured and delicious! Definitely a keeper recipe!

Magazine Monday #59: Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake

Oh, where has the Coyote been?

Busy!

I spent about a week painting my new place, and the fruits of my labours can be viewed here.

I have been cooking, but not so much into blogging about it. But last week, oysters were on sale at LOGS, so I decided to make oyster burgers for dinner. In order to do this, I needed buttermilk, because I soak the oysters in this before breading them. I had a whole bunch of buttermilk left over, and happened across a recipe for Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake in the November 2009 issue of...wait for it...you'll never guess...Canadian Living!

Here is the recipe.

This was really easy to make and so incredibly luscious...It was tart and tasted quite a lot like a lemon meringue pie without the crust. It puffed up like a souffle in the oven, and was light and fluffy when served. I didn't bother with the water bath, as specified in the recipe, and it worked out just fine. Definitely a keeper recipe!

New Den & Marmalade Cake

OK, so this has been a time of great transition for me: re-entering the workforce after a 3.5 year illness/recovery period and moving to a place of my own. I have not lived on my own for 13 years! If you want the full tour of my new den, you can see the whole sha-bang here. But in order to keep things relevant to a food blog, let me tell you about my new kitchen & oven.


Yes, it's spacious. It's sunny. It has nice laminate flooring. It's a little short on counter space and cupboards, but I can live with that, especially as there is a lovely pantry tucked in under the stairwell. As you can see, the oven & range aren't exactly new. In fact, I couldn't tell you how old this clunker is, but I suspect we're looking at somewhere in the 60s or 70s. I am pleased to report, however, that the elements run like snot. As in, they are fast, efficient, and freaking HOT. The surface of the range is also coated with something pretty nifty, too, as it's extremely easy to clean.

But my main concerns were about the oven. I am acquainted with the previous tenants (she is my hairdresser and a Mormon who bakes like there is no tomorrow) and when I had my hair done the last time, before I even knew I was moving in here, I asked about how the oven worked since the door doesn't close properly. She said it worked awesome and that her breads all came out fabulously. She had tried using some velcro to secure the door, but I don't think that worked well. Even so, and oven that doesn't close properly is bound to be far less efficient and not something in which I'd want to bake something like a cake. Fortunately enough, my brother & SIL, who own the building & live in the other half of the duplex, are currently hosting another previous tenant for a few weeks as he prepares to move to another province, and this guy happens to be a chef. He thought this stove/oven was totally wicked and that it was one of the best he'd ever worked with. Last night, I asked him about the oven door, and he said he solved the problem by propping the door closed with a stick.

Well, this was a brilliant idea. And I happened to have a bunch of metal pieces of a closet organizer I won't be needing since I am blessed with an abundance of closets with shelving built in or organizers already in place. One of the pieces is an adjustable leg, and today I rigged the nice little set-up you see in the first picture. The bar rests in the drawer of the stove and under the handle, supported by the wall, keeping the door firmly shut.

It worked like a charm. According to my oven thermometer, the oven is about 25F colder than the dial setting, but that is just fine. And this afternoon I baked a cake!

I found a recipe in the latest Food Network Magazine for Marmalade Cake, and it so happens that I have this jar of marmalade kicking around from the Sangria Chicken I made some time ago. I'm not too fond of marmalade on its own, but I thought it would be great in a cake.

The recipe is here.

The oven kept its temperature and the cake baked evenly, which is the main thing. I didn't perceive there to be any hot spots, at least where this pan was situated.

Regarding the recipe, it calls for a 8" square pan and I don't have one. I do have a 9" square pan, though, and when I put the batter in it, it was too small. So I decided to bake the cake in a 9" springform cake pan, and that was the perfect size. I didn't make the syrup, but opted instead for a citrus-flavoured cream cheese icing. I didn't have any citrus-y decor stuff on hand, so I used almonds as there is almond in the cake.

The result: OK. Texture was a bit odd due to the semolina flour, but it was a nice moist cake. It could have used more sugar, too, especially because marmalade can be bitter. Combined with a cream cheese icing (I used some of the orange oil from the trio of citrus oils Jodi sent me in the magnificent parcel I received from her in December) this was passable.

Well, my brother loved it. The chef staying next door and his girlfriend loved it. So, I guess I'm the one in the minority here. I would probably make this again, but I'd make some adjustments: less semolina flour, for one thing, and a tad more sugar.

Heaven on a Plate

Yeah, baby! This dish rocked my world - and I totally whipped it out of my ass after being inspired by this dish made my MonicaJane of Yes, We Cook, and sort of by Nigella's so-so pasta dish I made a while back. This was so easy to make it wasn't funny, and it made a ton of left-overs so I didn't have to cook for a few nights. And it was spectacular - SPECTACULAR, I tell you!

Penne with Chicken, Mushrooms, Thyme, Lemon, and Goat's Cheese

500g penne (1lb package)
140g package goat's cheese (not feta; soft, unripened goat's cheese)
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp dried thyme
zest of 1 lemon + juice of 1/2 lemon
3 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
salt & pepper

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. While the pasta cooks, saute the chicken until cooked through. Remove from pan, leaving any accumulated juices. Add mushrooms & thyme & saute until mushrooms have cooked down. Return chicken to pan, add garlic, and stir. Keep warm until pasta is cooked.

3. Drain pasta & return to pot. Add chicken & mushrooms, lemon zest & juice, and add the package of goats cheese. Stir together; the cheese will get all melty and create a "sauce". Season with salt & pepper to taste.I can't tell you how good this was! I am really enjoying cooking with chicken thighs, too; I didn't think I would, but I am rethinking my opinion of them. They certainly are WAY more affordable than breasts, I can tell you that. I would like to have used more exotic mushrooms (MonicaJane's recipe uses shiitake, which would have been great) but I only had a choice between regular white mushrooms, brown mushrooms, and portobellos, but the portobellos were way too expensive for my budget. So, I used white mushrooms (the browns weren't very fresh-looking).

A great meal! Thanks for the inspiration, MonicaJane!

Magazine Monday #48 & 101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #18: Lemon Basil Chicken

At the beginning of the summer, my good friend Pierce of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor fame sent me & Juno some goodies and part of the packing material was the Feb/March 2009 issue of Taste of Home. My grandmother actually used to send me a subsciption to this magazine way back in the day, and I see it's improved considerably since then. There are quite a few recipes from this issue I intend on trying out.

This Monday, however, I present you with Lemon Basil Chicken. As you all know, I do love roasting chickens, which is why this post also qualifies as part of my 101 Uses for a Roast Chicken series in addition to being my weekly Magazine Monday contribution. Since I have some jaundiced basil languishing in my garden, I thought this was the perfect time to put some of it out of its misery (and mine - basil does not like me or my garden for some weird reason).

Lemon Basil Chicken

1 lemon

2 garlic cloves, divided (OK, I used way more than this)

1/4 cup minced fresh basil, divided

1 broiler/fryer chicken

2 tbsp butter, melted

salt & pepper

1. Zest whole lemon. Cut lemon in half and juice one half. Set aside the other half.

2. Slice one garlic clove. Place sliced garlic, 2 tbsp basil, and remaining lemon half in the chicken cavity.

3. Place chicken, breast side up, in roasting pan. Rub with reserved lemon juice. Mince remaining garlic & combine with butter & reserved lemon peel. Brush mixture over chicken. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, & remaining basil.

4. Roast until done. Let stand for 15 minutes before carving.

OK. Butter on top of a chicken? Um, this doesn't work for me - even though I was willing to give it a sporting chance. All it did was drip off into the drippings. It added nothing to the taste or texture or look of the chicken. So, I won't do that again. Otherwise, this was a nice easy dish and I love lemon, basil, and garlic together. This would have been just as nice without the butter part. So, a bit of a disappointing recipe, but a good learning experience.

Joining me this week with their magazine experiments:

Tia of Buttercream Barbie made this luscious Cinnamon Chocolate Twist bread from Canadian Living.

Kylie of Thin Crust, Deep Dish made Peanut Sesame Noodles and a Cucumber Salad from a couple of Gourmet back issues.

Pierce of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made yummy chicken marsala from an issue of Family Circle.

Cranberry Orange Muffins for a Crowd

The muffin of the month for April at work is Cranberry Orange. These turn out great and are probably my favourite muffin so far. Be aware that they have a different method than the usual muffin directions, and when I make these I get about 2 1/2 dozen commercial-sized muffins.

Cranberry Orange Muffins

10 cups flour
5 cups sugar
7 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
5 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups shortening
3 3/4 cups orange juice
7 tbsp orange extract
5 cups cranberries (fresh, not dried)
5 eggs

1. Combine dry ingredients well in a large bowl.

2. Cut in the shortening, like you would do if making pastry, until the mixture is mealy.

3. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, orange juice, and orange extract. Add to the flour mixture with the cranberries until well combined.

4. Scoop and bake @ 350F until done.

Lemon & Dried Blueberry Hot Cross Buns

I couldn't be bothered making Easter cookies, even though I have to donate some baking to the SPCA bake sale on Saturday, but luckily I came across a new food blog, Living in the Kitchen with Puppies, that had the perfect solution: Hot Cross Buns.

I'm ho-hum on Hot Cross Buns. My mom loves them, but I'm not a fan of the dried fruit that goes into them. Natashya had a great recipe up for Magazine Mondays that caught my eye and really appealed to me, Lemon Currant Hot Cross Buns. Except I'm not huge on currants.

Enter the dried blueberry, which I happened upon by accident recently at my local overpriced grocery store. I thought this recipe would be the perfect opportunity to try them out. Man, 1 1/2 cups cost me nearly $6.00! I nearly choked at the cashier. But I decided to buy them anyways, and when I got them home and tasted them, I found I liked them better than fresh blueberries. I substituted them for the currants in the Hot Cross Bun recipe and it worked out brilliantly.

The dough, as it rose, smelled completely amazing, and as they baked, my roommate said she could smell them outside as she hacked away at our snowbank in the front yard. I did make the mistake of not decreasing my oven temperature for the glass pan, so my buns were a little overbaked, but the end result was marvelous. These are the best Hot Cross Buns ever!

I didn't pipe on the white icing, but rather drizzled it on in a cross-like pattern, letting the icing drip where it may. I took the pan for dinner at my dad's last night and these were a huge hit.

Thanks Natashya!

Cellophane Noodle Salad

I had a lot of left overs from the Hot Sour Salty Sweet meal, and I hate stuff withering to waste in my fridge. I had a bunch of cellophane noodles (AKA bean threads) left over from the salad rolls I made as well as a whole bunch of herbs from the herb and salad plate; I also had a lot of lime wedges left over, and I had a decent amount of the Must Have Table Sauce (nuoc cham) sitting in the fridge, too. As I was wondering what to do with this all, I happened upon a recipe in HSSS for Cellophane Noodle Salad with Oyster Mushrooms (p. 144). In reading it through, I got the idea to use up my leftovers in a similar salad.

Cellophane Noodle Salad with Chicken & Herbs

1 chicken breast, cooked, cooled and diced
1 bunch cellophane noodles/bean threads, cooked according to package directions, cooled & snipped into manageable lengths
1 cup chopped mixed herbs: I used mint, cilantro, and basil
2 sliced green onions
juice of half a lime
1/3 recipe nuoc cham (recipe to follow)

Toss everything together gently in a large bowl.

This was fantastic! The flavours were so bright and fresh! My tongue practically danced!

Now, for the nuoc cham, or Vietnamese Must Have Table Sauce (p. 28 HSSS), adapted by me

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp sugar
1 clove garlic, grated or minced

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Enjoy!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Another installment of my work products, this time lemon poppy seed muffins - commercial style. This recipe makes 36 commercial-sized muffins. I was skeptical about the lemon pie filling, but in the end the muffins were super moist and cakey and delish! I'm not sure what you'd use in the home kitchen, however; the pie filling we use comes from our supplier in a big bucket that we keep in the fridge. I might have to experiment with some pie fillings at home one of these days.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

12 cups flour
6 tbsp baking powder
3 tsp salt
12 eggs
5 cups lemon pie filling
1 1/2 cups poppy seeds
4 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups vegetable oil
6 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients, excluding the sugar, in a big bowl. Combine wet ingredients and sugar in mixer, or whisk together by hand. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet. Combine well. Scoop & bake @ 350F.

The batter is very, very thick and gets hard to mix, necessitating the use of hands (oh, how we would love one of those big commercial mixers! Alas, not in the budget...). They fluff up really nicely, though, and have a great texture.

Enjoy!

Frosted Citrus Drops

You may have figured out by now that I love Canadian Living Magazine and that I frequently use their recipes. Since my Christmas baking this year has been a bit chocolate-heavy (not that there's anything wrong with that) I was looking for something different to add to my selection this year, and this recipe came at just the right time, specifically from the January 2009 issue. Now, the original recipe uses oranges and is called Frosted Orange Drops, but because I had a whole bunch of grapefruit on hand that needed using up, and because I don't think there are nearly enough recipes utilizing grapefruit out there, I decided to make that substitution when I embarked upon making these cookies.

Frosted Grapefruit Drops, adapted from Canadian Living by yours truly

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp finely grated grapefruit rind
2 cups all purpose flour

Icing:
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp grapefruit juice
1/2 tsp finely grated grapefruit rind

1. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy; bean in orange rind. Stir in flour, 1 cup at a time. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. Shape by 1 tbsp into balls (I used my trusty #70 cookie scoop). Place 1" apart on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake at 300F until bottoms are lightly browned, about 20 - 25 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.
4. For the icing: In a bowl, beat everything together until smooth. Spread icing on top of cookies. Let stand until firm, about 1 hour.

This was one of the few recipes I've come across from Canadian Living that needed a bit of ... help. The dough didn't come together at all, so I needed to add some grapefruit juice to it in order to get all the dry ingredients incorporated. Minor. The cookies were a tad bland on their own, but were perked up considerably with the icing. Just so you know.

If you make them, let me know what you think and what your experience of the recipe was.

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

I have a lot of cookbooks, and recently, when thinning out my general belongings, I decided that the cookbooks I own need to pull their weight or else I might be forced to donate them. Sounds cold, eh? Well, I've moved so many times in the last few years, and I acquire lots of books via my reviewing gig, that I've gotten quite ruthless with not only my books, but all of my possessions.

I've had The Essential Baking Cookbook for quite a while, and it has not been pulling its weight. I actually have a whole bunch of The Essential...series, and to be honest, none of them have been pulling their weight lately. Problem is, they're just so darned nice! Anyway, I took a good hard look at this book last week and it actually has a lot in it that really appealed to me, so I marked off some recipes and on I decided to try out the Orange Poppy Seed Muffins on page 31 right away.

What had I been waiting for? The muffins were awesome!

Now, this is an Australian publication, so self-raising flour is found in most of the recipes, but it is available in these parts (Brodie XXX brand) and I did have some on hand. The measurements are in volume and weight, so if you don't have a good kitchen scale you're not totally hooped. For the purposes of this post, I'll just use volume except with the butter where no volume is given.

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/3 cup sugar
125g/4oz butter
1 cup orange marmalade
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 400F and prepare enough muffin tins for 12 muffins.

2. In a small saucepan, heat the butter and 2/3 cup of the marmalade until the butter is melted and the mixture is combined.

3. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Add this to the well and stir. Add the butter/marmalade mixture. Fold gently and don't overmix. The batter may still be lumpy but don't panic! It'll all work out!

4. Fill muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and a tester inserted in centre comes out clean.

5. Heat the remaining marmalade in saucepan and brush it over the tops of the warm muffins. Remove the muffins to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

A Shortage of Lemons

While cruising the aisles of my local overpriced grocery store the other day, I happened to notice that they were out of lemon juice. Plenty of lime juice, but no lemon. I didn't really think much of it at the time because, let's face it, grocery stores run out of stuff - it happens. I didn't need lemon juice, and usually, if I do need it, I buy a fresh lemon. But, at this particular grocery store, lemons are about 79 cents each, so I really have to want lemons if I'm going to spend that kind of money.

On the way out to the lake last weekend, my SIL was telling me that she and her mother, who run a catering business on top of their day jobs, were having a really hard time finding lemons and lemon juice. At Save-On Foods, they found a few lemons, but they were exorbitantly priced at 99 cents each. Lemon juice was also in short supply and they got the last bottle in the store.

Way back in the mists of time (which in this case was probably a couple of weeks ago), I do recall hearing about a citrus shortage of some kind, but had it in my mind that it had more to do with grapefruit, which I regularly buy on sale, but I have noted that there haven't been any on sale lately.

My roommate, J, works at the local overpriced grocery store part time, and I asked her what she knew of this lemon thing tonight as she baked huckleberry cornmeal muffins. She confirmed that there is a lemon shortage.

Lo and behold, the CBC has an article posted about this very issue.

But...I was in the States last week cross-border shopping. I cannot bring fresh produce over the border (nor, as it turns out, can I bring beef-flavoured cat food into Canada from the USA, but 5kg of beef for human consumption is just dandy) so I don't normally bother to look at the produce on offer. I did this time, though, and saw that lucky Americans can purchase a 2lb bag of lemons for $3.99 - and there were plenty of 2lb bags available! I am lime green with envy! (Limes, it appears, by the way, are not in short supply.)

The facts, as much as I can suss out:

• 25% decrease in global lemon supply causes widespread lemon juice shortage
• Freeze, wind and drought responsible for drastically reduced lemon yields
• Despite shortage, experts claim supply should return to normal in 2009

[source]

The CBC story quotes someone from the Canadian Grocery Council, saying that lemon juice stocks should be replenished by the end of this month, though it does specify "large grocery stores."

Hm. I hope I'm not SOL for long!

In the meantime, A) I wonder why oranges are still readily available to me, B) I guess I should pay more attention to the 100 mile thing, and C) I hope I don't get a lemon craving anytime soon!