I got nothing. Here are the recipes from the blog for tonight’s recipe exchange:
Been a busy week in my kitchen. I put together three pots of soup and made a couple of desserts for company. I knew I was going to have a busy work week, so on Sunday I put together the soups so I could reheat them for lunches. Lemons were on sale and that inspired tonight’s featured dessert recipe.
I was craving Grilled Cheese this week and made my favorite (full dinner menu, recipe and shopping list are here).
The potatoes in my pantry were getting a little old, so I decided it was time for Potato Soup, you can pick your style from our variety of recipes – five pages worth – here. I also made Oven Potato Wedges to finish up (recipe here).
A friend gave me a sample of a soup she made from a soup mix bag she picked up at the farmer’s market a while back. It was good, so I recreated it: Cranberry Bean and Turkey Soup, pictured at top and recipe here
Featured recipe and bonus puppies below the fold.
These are two foster pups that Bixby spent the day with, included in this week’s Bixby update for the pet lovers. He’s doing great as the foster whisperer, giving confidence to some pretty timid pups the last couple of months.
What’s on your plate this weekend? Cookin’ something tasty? Share your thoughts and recipes, I’m always looking for a new idea.
Tonight’s featured recipe is sweet and tart:
Lemons were on sale this week so I picked up a bag and I had this recipe hanging around so I decided to try it. I made two small loaves. I changed up a few things from the original recipe. First of all, I made a strawberry glaze that was much too sweet. I used it on the first cake, on the second cake I made sweetened pureed strawberries, which was much, much better.
I also doubled the amount of lemon juice and omitted the heavy cream and I think it could still use more lemon zest if you’re into super lemony flavor.
I would do it again, it’s quick and easy. But I think I prefer my Sour Cream Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake (recipe here)
Strawberry Lemonade Cake
- 1 stick butter, slightly softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 1/2 cup unbleached flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp buttermilk powder
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
Glaze:
- 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, thawed
- 1 tbsp sugar
3 bowls, loaf pan, mixer
Pre-heat oven to 350.
Butter and flour one 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan and set aside. (I actually use to two 4″ x 3″ loaf pans)
Cream butter and sugar in the bowl with mixer on medium speed for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then mix in the lemon zest.
In a another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk powder. With the mixer on medium, add the flour and lemon juice alternately to the batter, starting and ending with flour mixture. Pour into the loaf pan, smooth, and bake for about 45 minutes or until browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs but no batter.
Let cake cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
Glaze: In a blender or food processor, blend strawberries and sugar until smooth. Drizzle over cake and serve.
That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend – TaMara
rikyrah
That cake looks delicious.
steverinoCT
Bixby Update linky
TaMara (BHF)
@steverinoCT: That was weird, but fix’d now. Thanks for the heads up
ThresherK (GPad)
I may have some strawberries in the freezer in nice enough shape to pull that off.
JPL
The soup looks yummy. Even though we are expecting an early spring, I’m going to make it. Thanks, as always.
Scamp Dog
I’ve been goofing around with the slow cooker I got for Christmas, using recipes from another Christmas present, Slow Cooker Revolution. This afternoon I made the Chicken Pomodoro, I’ll see how it is when I get home.
I’ll have to give your grilled cheese sandwich a try, I haven’t made those in some time.
Mike J
The grocery had plemons this week. Plum+lemon hybrids. Haven’t eaten one yet, but they’re in the pantry.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mike J:
“Hybrids”? Mutants, more like. And they’re inside the house? Run! Run for your life!
benw
@Mike J: Have you ever had pluots? Plum/apricot hybrid. Delicious.
Mike J
@benw: That’s why I took a chance on the plemons.
benw
@Mike J: then good luck, brave soul! Report back your findings, if you survive!
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (phone): “Polly shouldn’t be.”
NotMax
Getting so chilly (relatively speaking) at night that shall be liberating the bone next time someone prepares ham at our regular dinner gathering in order to make a big pot of sweet ‘n’ sour cabbage soup.
(Not so reticent about simmering it long and low now that there exists Febreze!)
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
:)
“Polly wants a
crackerherring.”Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Herring on a cracker?
BD of MN
We were shopping at a natural foods market (Mississippi Market’s new east 7th St in St. Paul) a couple of weeks ago and we saw Mushroom Stock on the shelf. Went “that might work”, and tried it with the electric pressure cooker Mrs BD got me for xmas. Make a pot roast. Browned up the roast, added two onions (quartered) and a half a dozen whole cloves of garlic with 1.5 cups of mushroom stock, 0.5 cups of red wine, high pressure for an hour. quick released the pressure, added potatoes and carrots until the pot was full, high pressure for another 15 minutes, and then let sit for 10 min to slow release the pressure… best effort so far with the pressure cooker and best pot roast that I can recall…
Omnes Omnibus
@BD of MN: Seems low on wine. And I have a hereditary terror of pressure cookers.
BruceFromOhio
Big pot of chicken soup made the house smell wonderful while we ate leftovers. Plan is for soup tomorrow, with some fresh bread from the market, though I may ask MrsFromOhio to postpone to Sunday so we can grill some salmon…its 54 blooming degrees, and the banshees are in the wind tonight.
Mnemosyne
Totally non-food related, but I found out today that, not only is there a specific subgenre of romance novels that feature triads instead of couples, but you can choose between MMF romances (where the dudes are gettin’ it on with each other while pleasing the heroine) or MFM romances (where the guys only make physical contact as needed to, um, facilitate the goings-on). I guess there’s a Rule 34 for every creative endeavor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: No MFF, FMF, FFM?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ve been thinking about rolling the dice on one of the new electric, computerized ones.
I, too, remember my mom’s old-school hissing beast with terror. She made great brisket in that thing, though.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m sure they’re out there, but frankly most straight women would rather read about two guys together since guys are what we’re more interested in. It’s really well-known in the fan fiction world that a lot of the M/M slash fiction is written by straight women, not gay men.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s for guys and it’s called pr0n.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: I know. ‘Twas me point.
Omnes Omnibus
Until November 11, 2018, I’ll continue to post this song on occasion. This centennial is not getting the the attention it deserves. Just a reminder.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I actually have an answer for the pron vs romance question now: a romance novel has to be centered on an emotional relationship, and it has to have an optimistic ending (IOW, a wedding is not required, but some kind of happily ever after for the characters is). So there may actually be some pron out there that would qualify as romance, but I’m guessing there ain’t much.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Is that the same melody as And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda?
If you’ve not seen it, Digging the Trenches is an excellent documentary on WW I:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STlK-7YnVMY
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Couples pr0n.
(Leave it to someone from Pr0n Valley to turn a post on food to pr0n, next thing ya know we’ll have food pr0n!)
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: To be fair, none of the FMM or FFM romance novels are in my buying range.
normal liberal
@Steeplejack (phone):
I acquired such a thing at Christmas – it also functions as a slow cooker, which I have yet to try. It’s kind of large, for my inconvenient kitchen, but it works. In my first attempt it produced the best pot roast I’ve ever made.
I have one of the old-school ones, inherited, which I’ve never had the nerve to use. It’s getting donated elsewhere.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Not really, but it is the same songwriter. I am gobsmacked by the lack of recognition of that war.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Romance novels are 55 percent of the paperback market. They outsell mysteries and science fiction combined. And yet they get no respect.
Though I do sometimes wonder if all of the Ronald Moore fanboys watching “Outlander” realize that it’s pretty much a straight-up romance series. Gaboldon’s books are romance novel classics now, almost on a par with “Jane Eyre” or “Pride and Prejudice.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Okay.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m tone deaf, so the few commonalities sounded similar enough to me that it sounds pretty close to the same melody. Being its the same songwriter it makes sense it sounds similar. As for lack of recognition: I don’t think you can order a ribbon magnet for your car, so…
We call Korea the Forgotten War, but I think a lot of this is that there are so few veterans and survivors left. And there’s also the cottage industry in the US of completely demonizing Woodrow Wilson and his presidency. So anything he was involved with can’t be good.
I think you’ll enjoy that documentary. I caught it on PBS back when it first came out. And since I’ve spent a fair amount of time in that part of Belgium I was doubly interested.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not a night for literary discussions, I guess.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Not sure you can call Outlander literature.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: It was, as you know, a huge thing in 20th Century events and politics. The last 100 years were sharply affected by that war.
I don’t put bumper stickers on my car, but I plan, if I can, to be at a battlefield in France or Belgium, on 11/11/2018.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I can’t discuss what I have not read.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t put stickers on my car either, but I understand exactly where you’re coming from.
Don’t know if you saw it, but PBS also did a musical history of the 1916 Irish rebellion entitled: The Bloody Irish: Songs of the 1916 Rebellion
http://www.irishcentral.com/Bloody-Irish-1916-musical-PBS-Irish-history.html
Yutsano
My latest discovery. Absolutely delicious. I’m aghast I hadn’t tried it until now.
Anne Laurie
@Adam L Silverman: Same author, Eric Bogle.
PurpleGirl
@Yutsano: I haven’t had kasseri in ages. I first ate it at a Greek restaurant in Greenwich Village during college. I liked it fried with either Greek or Italian sausage and Retsina. Retsina is an acquired taste but one I got to like very much. Maybe I should get some in the morning — both kasseri and Retsina.
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: I see Outlander as romance/time-travel science fiction. I’ve bought the series but I’ve only read the first one — just too many books on the stacks to read.
Calouste
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, the US didn’t get involved until 1917, so maybe next year there will be some attention. There were a lot of things going on in Europe to commemorate the centenary of the start.
Origuy
There was a lot of stuff on the BBC and other British channels. I use Hola to get though the location test. One of the best shows I saw was by David Olusoga, a British-Nigerian historian called The World’s War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire. It was about the Asian and African troops who fought in Europe and elsewhere.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Obligatory food pr0n scene from Tom Jones.
bystander
Meyer lemons are in the grocery now. Might have to try that cake.
When do we get an open thread?
MomSense
@Yutsano:
Breakfast for me many mornings.
ETA My favorite is probably Manouri which is a bit like chèvre but with a kick. Also, too the Aussies do a take on feta that is delicious. It’s softer and the brine is full of spices and peppercorns. It’s spreadable even though it is a solid because of the oil content. Heaven.
Shell
Im making some homemade Scrapple today. Its a food item that does not exist outside the Mid-Atlantic states.
laura
Dinner last night was wonton soup. 1 quart chicken broth and 3/4 quart water, two garlic cloves mashed, 2 inches of peeled ginger mashed, sprinkle of smoked sesame oil, 1/2 dozen baby boc Choi and 1 dozen pork and cabbage dumplings. Not one drop left over and so nice on a rainy night.
Last weekend 100ish dumplings made. Some fried and hoovered up stove-side, and the rest portioned, bagged and frozen for quick soup nights like last night.
A friend brought eureka and Meyer lemons to work, so today, Tamara’s cake and lemoncello.
Cheers!
Feathers
Must confess that this brought to mind one of my seventies babysitting recipes – the Lemonade Pie.
It was – a graham cracker crust, filled with a mixture of frozen lemonade concentrate, sweetened condensed milk, and Cool Whip (1 container of each). You then froze it. It was good for a job where afternoon ran into evening. You could make the pie and then eat it later.
Made it a few years back for my nieces and nephews. My teeth wanted to crawl back up into my gums. The kids loved it, however. Bet it is still popular in some corners.
I’ve been eating rice bowls. Brown rice ready in the cooker when I get home. Meat – mostly precooked – I had some leftover BBQ pork; made some improv curried chicken that lasted a few nights. Veg – nuked frozen vegetable medleys from Star Market. I’ve come to realize that vegetables are vegetables and all the focus on fresh and organic can lead to a perfectionism that ends up with no vegetables. YRMV.