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Whole Lemon Bars

February 20, 2011 by · 3 Comments
Lemon Bars

Do you read David Lebovitz's blog? If not, you should! I made his whole lemon bars last night and they are amazing! Definitely the best lemon bars I've ever had. I got a vegetable mystery box from my CSA on Thursday and picked up a bag of organic lemons they were offering as well. When David Lebovitz  posted the lemon bars recipe the same day, I knew it was fate that I make them. His recipe is perfect as is, I made no adjustments. If you want to make them too, go to David's post for the recipe: Whole Lemon Bars My friend Maura made these at my suggestion and found them to be too bitter after using the whole lemon (pith included). I would just suggest not to use a lemon with too thick of a rind on it. The one I used was fairly thin skinned. The thickness on individual lemons can really vary. If you have a thick one, just use the zest and pulp of the lemon and discard most of the pith. Enjoy! … [Read more...]

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Molten Lava Cakes

January 9, 2011 by · 4 Comments
molten lava cakes

Everyone is asking where I've been. No excuses, it was a busy December and I looking forward to getting back to blogging. I did a LOT of cooking over the holidays and thoroughly enjoyed it. What I did not enjoy however, is that my dishwasher is broken and it's been a royal pain to try to get my apartment management to fix it or get a new one. Thankfully a new one is supposedly "on order"! My gosh dinner parties involve a lot of dishes! I never realized how dependent I was on my dishwasher until it broke before Christmas. It has given my 12 year old a lot of quality time with mom, as the resident dish dryer though, which is all good! I had a dinner party with good friends the other night. It was a fun night of yummy food and great company. To finish it off I made molten lava cakes for dessert. You know, those yummy runny center cakes that you get out at the fancy restaurant? Yes, those cakes, and you can make them too! I think you'll be surprised how easy they are to make. I … [Read more...]

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Pumpkin Pie from scratch

December 3, 2010 by · 1 Comment
pumpkin

If you've never made a pumpkin pie from scratch, you've been missing out. The pumpkin puree in a can just can't compare to the flavor of freshly roasted pumpkin puree. The first time I got a sugar pie pumpkin in my CSA share I was a little unsure of what to do with it. I had never roasted a whole pumpkin before and was a bit intimidated. I just couldn't see the benefit of going to the trouble of roasting a pumpkin when they had those lovely cans of puree all ready for me to use at the grocery store. After roasting my first pumpkin, my opinion changed dramatically. I always start any pumpkin recipe from a freshly roasted pumpkin now. So, how do you go from this: to this: It's really not that hard and it's worth the effort! The place to start is a fresh pumpkin. You can't just start with any jack o lantern pumpkin at the store. You need a cooking pumpkin. My favorites are long island cheese, sugar pie and Rouge Vif d'Etampes. You should be able to find a lot of … [Read more...]

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Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookies

October 24, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Chocolate Orange Cookies

These cookies are easy to make, pretty and delicious! What else could you ask for? I got this recipe from my friend Christine. It uses a melted Terry's Chocolate Orange for the topping, which makes them a good holiday cookie as it's sometimes hard to the find the chocolate oranges year round. I bought a bunch of them last year on clearance after Christmas and hid them away. Apparently I hid them well because I had even forgotten about them and discovered them the other day while cleaning out the pantry. You can use either the milk chocolate or dark chocolate oranges. Both are good. I prefer the dark, my son prefers the milk but they get eaten either way! The original recipe says to roll the dough into a ball and put 1/2 a slice of the orange in the middle and bake, but that's a lot of work. It's much easier and prettier to just bake the cookies and then melt the orange and put it on top. Ingredients: 1 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup powdered sugar 2 cups … [Read more...]

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Peach and Pluot Ice Cream

August 25, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Peach Ice Cream

Oh how I look forward to stone fruit season each year. We love them and most every Sunday you'll find me at the Ft. Mason Farmer's Market here in San Francisco loading up for the week on the fresh fruit of the season. I had planned to make ice cream with just peaches and got all the ingredients from the store. The next day when I went to make it I found my family had eaten too many peaches and I didn't have enough. What to do? I did have some pluots as well so I just made peach & pluot ice cream. Speaking of pluots, have you tried one? Pluots are a hybrid of plum and apricot. They are more similar to a plum than an apricot. If you haven't tried one you should seek them out, they are really amazingly sweet and delicious! To make my ice cream I turned to my favorite ice cream book The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. The peach ice cream recipe was simple and had sour cream in it which sounded like it would add a tangy element to balance out the sweet peaches and plutos. It … [Read more...]

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Berry Cobbler

August 2, 2010 by · 4 Comments
cobbler

I'll admit it I got carried away by all the fresh berries at the farmer's market this weekend. They just looked so fantastic that I kept buying them. First we bought a 3 pack with 2 raspberries and 1 blackberry pint. Then another stand had golden raspberries! So we bought a 3 pack with golden raspberries, red raspberries and olallieberries. Of course we couldn't resist the mountain blueberries or the strawberries we came across later either. The result? A glut of berries to eat in a short amount of time. I took votes from the family on whether to make sorbet, cobbler or jam. Cobbler won out this time. I adapted this recipe from one on David Lebovitz's blog.  It looked quick and easy, just what I was after! If you haven't ever read his blog, I highly recommend it.  For this cobbler I chose a combination of blueberries, red raspberries and olallieberries. The great thing about cobblers are you can make them out of almost any fruit combination you have. I also varied mine by using … [Read more...]

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Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

July 28, 2010 by · 5 Comments
choczucc

A few years ago I was overwhelmed with zucchini and perusing my cookbooks looking for something "different" to do with it. I stumbled upon this recipe in Cooking Light's Annual Recipes 2005 book. Well chocolate zucchini bread is definitely different! I gave it a try and was blown away by how delicious it is with very little fat and a lot of zucchini. You really can't even tell the zucchini is there, it just keeps the bread moist and yummy. It is fun to serve to kids as they gobble it up and try to guess the "secret" ingredient. They hardly ever figure it out as they ask for seconds. I've adapted the recipe over time to add a bit more cocoa than the original recipe and swapped out half of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour. I like to take advantage of any opportunity to get more whole grains into a recipe! Ingredients: 3/4 cup sugar 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil 2 large eggs 1 cup unsweetened applesauce 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat … [Read more...]

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Chocolate Red Devil Beet Cake

July 13, 2010 by · 5 Comments
Red Devil cake photo

When I first started getting my  CSA box a few years ago the one thing I was sure about was: I hate beets! The first few times I got them I gave them away or put them in the trade box because I was sure I didn't like them. A friend suggested trying a Red Devil cake that uses beets instead of red food coloring. I was skeptical but decided to try it. My family was even more skeptical than I was! I based my recipe on a Mariquita farm recipe who borrowed from Mollie Katzen. The result is a moist delicious chocolate cake that you never believe contains 3 medium to large beets in a 9 inch square cake. The beets are truly transformed into a fantastic treat, the whole family loves this cake! For the beets: The first step is to roast the beets. Take 3 medium beets, scrub them well and then wrap individually in foil. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 40-60 minutes until a knife slides in easily. Unwrap carefully and allow to cool. You may want to use some kitchen gloves for this next … [Read more...]

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