SRC: Coconut Chicken Soup

Well, the Secret Recipe Club is back! After taking the month of January off, I am excited to be back with the group to start our February reveals. This month, my blog assignment was Culinary Adventures with Camilla. Camilla has a fun blog with a ton of different recipes with influences from all over the world. 

Since she has so many different recipes, I wanted to try something that was a little bit out of my typical comfort zone. I looked for awhile at this recipe for kadu bouranee, but as it is winter, I went with my cravings and chose this recipe for coconut chicken soup. In her post, Camilla mentions that this is a recipe that she just put together quickly from the things that she had in her kitchen. I certainly had to buy a couple things as this is actually the first time I have ever actually made anything with swiss chard. 

The recipe here is really more of a guide as Camilla does not list ingredients. I used all the ingredients she suggests, but varied amounts based on what I had and to taste. I'll list my approximate measurements below but feel free to add or vary ingredients as you prefer. For the two of us, there was plenty of soup for dinner and several days of lunch, and as most soups do, this seemed to get better and better after storing it. A hit here, and I certainly have a great new (to me) blog to check out for ethnic dishes! 

(Printable Recipe)

Coconut Chicken Soup
Adapted from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Ingredients: 
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup fennel bulb, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
3 whole carrots, peeled and sliced 
1 pkg. swiss chard, leaves removed from stems and torn
3 cups baby spinach, torn
1 (14.5oz) can light coconut milk
2 cups water
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 - 1 tsp. cardamom
3 Tbsp. lemon juice (or juice from 1 lemon)
2 cups brown rice, cooked
2 Tbsp. soy sauce

Cook the brown rice according to package directions. Fluff and set aside. Boil water in a medium saucepan and add raw chicken. Boil until the chicken is cooked through. Shred with 2 forks or by mixing the hot chicken in the bowl of a stand mixer on low for about a minute. 

Heat the oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add the fennel and garlic and saute until they begin to soften. Add the chicken, carrots, chard, spinach, cooked brown rice, coconut milk, water, and chicken broth. Season with spices, lemon juice, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the greens are wilted and the vegetables are cooked through. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken

I wish I could tell you that I had a great Christmas cookie recipe for you, but I have really yet to think about anything Christmas. Our tree is up, but I have a big fat zero in the gift and baking department. I guess you could say that I've been a little slow getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Hoping to get on that this weekend with a cookie exchange party on Friday and shopping days planned for this up coming weekend :)

While I may be lacking in the Christmas department, I have been trying to keep up cooking and have several recipes that are in the wings waiting to be posted. This chicken dish is a recipe that Jenna posted almost a year ago to the date on Eat, Live, Run. While the recipe title basically sums up the ingredients, the combination of the ingredients here is greater than the sum of it's parts. The caramelization of the sugar in the oven combined with the tartness from the lemon juice = yum! 

Be sure not to skip the pounding step as this really helps your chicken breasts cook evenly thus helping to avoid drying them out. I don't know about you, but I feel that the chicken breasts I have been getting from the store lately are huge. Without this step, I'd probably be baking them for a hour! I continued the lemon theme here by serving these over a lemon pearl couscous. Deliciousness if I do say so myself. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken
Adapted from Eat, Live, Run

Ingredients:
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
juice of 2 large lemons
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
1 cup flour
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1-1/2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Lemon Couscous:
olive oil
1 cup pearl (Israeli) couscous
1/2 lemon, juiced
1-3/4 cup chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a meat mallet, pound the chicken breasts until thin and even. Set aside.

Combine the flour, paprika, and salt in a shallow cake pan or container. Coat each chicken breast with the flour mixture. 

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Drop each chicken breast in and cook until browned on each side, about 4 minutes per side. You do not need to cook the chicken all the way through as it will finish cooking as it bakes. Remove chicken breasts and keep warm in a casserole dish. 

Pour the lemon juice in the pan to deglaze. Cook until just boiling and the brown bits from the chicken are scooped up. Pour over the chicken in the casserole dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar and lemon zest. Bake for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken breasts reach 165 degrees.

Meanwhile, for the couscous, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan. Add couscous and stir fry until the pearls become golden brown. Add the juice of half a lemon and stir to coat the couscous. Add the chicken broth to the pan, place a lid on top and cook until all the liquid has been absorbed and the couscous is tender.

Lemon Coconut Macaroons

It's December, so that must mean it is cookie time! How about some macaroons? The ones with 2 o's :)

Macarons have been on my list of things to make for some time, but I have never mustered up the guts to try them. It is my understanding that they have quite the reputation for being temperamental. I have a feeling that this kind, with coconut and 2 o's in the name, are a little simpler to make.

The recipe for these comes from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.  I was a member of the Sweet Melissa Sundays baking club, however the ladies made this recipe before I joined. I made these on a whim one day while looking for a way to use up a partial bag of coconut, and I haven't regretted it. With a short ingredient list, the recipe couldn't be easier, and as long as you like coconut and lemon, I am confident you will enjoy these. I am thinking you could even pass them off as "snowballs" on a Christmas cookie plate. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Lemon Coconut Macaroons
From The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

Ingredients:
1 (14oz) bag sweetened coconut
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 cup sugar
2 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (these will tend to stick if you skip this step).

In a large bowl, combine the coconut, lemon juice, and lemon zest and rub together with your hands. Stir in the sugar and mix to combine. Add the egg whites. Use your hands to mix until everything is coated and the egg whites are distributed evenly. 

Form the mixture into approximately 1-ounce balls with your hands or a cookie scoop. Place on the prepared cookie sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. 

The cookie base will keep up to 1 week if you want to make the 'dough' ahead of time. The finished cookies will keep well in a container at room temperature for 3 days. For longer storage, place them in the refrigerator.

Grilled Lemon Chicken with Sweet Corn and Tomatoes

This is a meal that almost did not make it to completion. It was no fault of the recipe itself which comes from Kristin at Iowa Girl Eats. In fact, I really think it is a genius way to showcase some of summer's best produce, and ended up being a great meal in the end!

The fail in this recipe was entirely user error in cooking the rice. See, I have this great microwavable rice cooker from Pampered Chef that I always use to cook my brown rice. If you even cook brown rice, you know that you have to plan ahead a little bit because it is not a quick cooking process, even in the microwave. Well, I measured the rice, measured the water, started it and continued on with cooking the rest of the recipe. When it was time to add the rice, I pulled it out of the microwave only to discover that it was dry. Like dark brown, overcooked, crusty dry. I still have no idea what went wrong. I hate it when something you always do goes wrong and you have no idea why!

Luckily, I save dinner in a with some pearl couscous from the pantry so that we didn't have to wait forever for more rice to cook. The meal was great. Fresh and light. The flavors were spot on. In retrospect, I think it would have been a little better with the rice as the larger pieces of couscous seemed to compete with the corn and tomatoes, but hey, what can you do? Next time, I will cook the rice correctly, and this meal will be that much more delicious. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Grilled Lemon Chicken with Sweet Corn and Tomatoes
Adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:
Lemon Dressing:
2 lemons, juiced
6 Tbsp. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste

2 chicken breasts, pounded thin
1/2 cup brown basmati rice, prepared according to package directions
1 cup sweet corn, cut off the cob
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1 cup cherry/grape tomatoes, halved or quartered

Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk until combined. Marinate the chicken in about 6 tablespoons of the dressing for about 15-20 minutes. Set extra dressing aside. Grill the chicken on medium-high heat until cooked through and then set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the lemon dressing in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute corn and red onion for 3-4 minutes, or until onion is soft. Mix in cooked rice and remaining lemon dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir cherry tomatoes into corn and rice mixture, plate, the top with grilled chicken. 

Yield: 2 servings

Pork Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce

Grilling. It has to be synonymous with summer, and the smell of dinner cooking away outside has to be one of my favorite smells in the world. When you combine grilling with one of our favorite cuisines (Greek), I am game. Thus, as soon as I saw this recipe for grilled pork souvlaki on The Blest Nest, I knew we would be making them soon! 

Greek and other Mediterranean dishes aren't foods that either of us grew up eating, but they are something that we have come to love since we first tried them in pharmacy school. Lemon, oregano, garlic, chickpeas, olive oil. What's not to love? Not only is it GOOD, but it can be pretty healthy for you too. Double win :)

While we have made a couple other Greek meals at home, this pork souvlaki has to be the best one yet. It is really simple to make. No more complicated than your standard skewers in that you marinate the meat for several hours and then throw it on the grill. My only change was to grill the pork and vegetables on separate skewers to account for different cook times. Sometimes the veggies will finish cooking before the meat is done, and if they are on different skewers, you can simply take them off the grill. I made my own whole wheat pitas for this, but you could easily use some from the store to make this doable for a weeknight meal. Done and done. Enjoy! 

(Printable Recipe)

Pork Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce
Adapted from The Blest Nest

Ingredients:
Pork Souvlaki:
1 large lemon, juiced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs. pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 medium yellow onions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 green or red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup feta cheese
whole wheat pitas

Tzatziki Sauce:
1 cup lowfat Greek yogurt
1 large cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. dried dill (or 1 Tbsp. fresh if you have it)
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

For the meat, in a ziptop bag, combine the lemon juice, oil, soy sauce, oregano, and garlic. Swish to combine. Add pork cubes and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours (can be made in the morning for that evening). If using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for at least 30 minutes prior to grilling. If using metal skewers, the soaking step is not necessary.

For the tzatziki sauce, squeeze as much water from the cucumber as possible using a clean dish towel or paper towels. Combine with the yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, dill and salt. Let the flavors marry in the refrigerator while the skewers are cooking.

Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Remove the pork from the marinade and set aside. Boil the marinade for 5 minutes to kill any bacteria because you want to use it to baste the skewers. Thread pork and pepper and onions onto separate skewers. Cook for 10-15 minutes or to desired tenderness. Baste the meat occasionally and turn skewers frequently for even cooking. The vegetables will not take this long to cook. Remove them when the vegetables are tender and begin to brown around the edges. 

Serve the pork, vegetables, and tzatziki over whole wheat pitas. Top with cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. Enjoy!

Roasted Asparagus with Browned Butter

While I definitely have more strawberry recipes to share with you, I wanted to interrupt the berry goodness with an easy side dish recipe in case any of you were still looking for something to go along with your Easter dinner. I never really remember eating asparagus prior to starting this blog, but since then, it's become one of my favorite vegetables to prepare. It is great prepared a lot of ways and also cooks relatively quickly. Speaking of asparagus, a couple weeks ago I saw a great tip about how to find where the woody portion ends. Take a spear and bend it towards the bottom. The place where it snaps is the end of the woody portion. You can then use it to roughly measure the other pieces so that you don't end up cutting off too much of the vegetable. I used this when I was trimming some asparagus last week, and it worked great!

This recipe is one that I found in Cooking Light in their section about Meyer lemons. I actually cheated and used a normal lemon, but I'm sure that Meyers would make it that much better. It's pretty simple in that you roast asparagus and then combine it with browned butter (what doesn't get better with the addition of a little bit of browned butter?). Easy. Simple. Delicious.

On a side note, I'm not sure this is "food blog appropriate," but has anyone else ever noticed that asparagus makes a certain liquid that leaves your body smell a little funny? It actually contains a sulfur-like compound that is broken down in your digestive system. Only about half of us actually have the enzyme that creates the smell. So, take a poll and impress your friends with your knowledge - I'm just joking about the poll :)

Jokes aside, this is a side dish that I'm going to keep in my files. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Roasted Asparagus with Browned Butter
From Cooking Light March 2011

Ingredients:
1 lb. asparagus spears, trimmed
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt (or scant 1/4 tsp. table salt)
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. fresh Meyer lemon juice (or normal lemon juice)
1-1/2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
1 tsp. grated Meyer lemon rind (or normal lemon rind)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place asparagus in a foil-lined roasting pan; drizzle with oil. Sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Bake for 8 minutes or until crisp-tender.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat; cook 3 minutes or until lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in juice. Drizzle butter mixture over asparagus; toss well to coat. Sprinkle thyme and rind over asparagus. 

Yield: 4 servings

Spaghetti al Limone

It has been a little while since I made this dish, but I feel like it is right in line with the spring flavors right now. For me, this was actually a recipe that came about to use several things that I hanging around the kitchen. While I was home over my Christmas break, I had some family friends gift us several bags of local (ie. grown in their backyard) lemons, tangelos, and grapefruit. We devoured the other fruit plain, but I really wanted to find a couple recipes to showcase the fresh lemons. One of the recipes that I settled on was these muffins. This is the other.

This recipe turned out really well and held up really well to a couple of substitutions that I made to use up a couple of things in my kitchen. This doesn't really surprise me since it is a CI recipe. The ingredient list and cooking process is actually really simple. You cook the pasta, bring the sauce together in a separate pan, and mix the two together. Quick. Easy. Delicious. My changes were that I added some shredded Rotisserie chicken to our dish since I had some around and used feta cheese rather than Parmesan because that's what we had in the kitchen. Even with my changes, it made for a great meal and definitely showcased my lemons! I would like to try it out again using the actual Parmesan to see how that affects the flavor. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Spaghetti al Limone
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Jan/Feb 2011

Ingredients:
table salt
1 lb. whole wheat spaghetti
1-3/4 cup reserved pasta cooking water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot, minced (about 3 Tbsp)
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
1  lb. cooked, shredded chicken 
1 ounce (1/2 cup) finely grated Parmesan cheese (I used feta)
ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. shredded fresh basil leaves

Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large stockpot or Dutch oven over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon salt and pasta to boiling water; cook, stirring frequently, until al dente. Reserve 1-3/4 cups cooking water, drain pasta into colander, and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in now-empty Dutch oven or large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add shallot and 1/2 teaspoon salt; cook until shallot is softened, about 2 minutes. Whisk 1-1/2 cups of reserved pasta cooking water and cream into pot; bring to simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Remove pot from heat, add pasta and chicken and stir until coated. Stir in remaining 3 tablespoons oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, cheese, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. 

Cover and let pasta stand 2 minutes, tossing frequently and adjusting consistency with remaining 1/4 cup reserved pasta water if necessary. Stir in basil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, drizzling individual portions with oil (if desired), and sprinkling with  more cheese (if desired).

Blueberry Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins

While I was in AZ over the holidays, we had some friends give us grocery bags full of citrus fruits off their trees in the backyard. The grapefruit that were humongous, the tangelos were the sweetest I have ever tasted, and the lemons were tart, yellow, and juicy. This fruit makes me anxious to get our backyard finished and plant our own trees! I ended up juicing the lemons before I left so we could freeze the juice and enjoy it throughout the year. I also tried to save the zest, freezing it in an ice-cube tray with a little bit of lemon juice, so we'll see how that goes. Does anyone know if citrus zest stores well?

With our surplus of citrus fruit, I was looking around the internet for a heartier breakfast recipe that I could make for my parents on the morning of their flight. Personally, I hate trying to find a decent meal in an airport, and I thought they could at least start out their day with a full stomach =)  I ran across this recipe on Two Peas and Their Pod and it fit perfect. I could use my lemons as well as some of the cream cheese that I had sitting in the fridge from Christmas cookies. 

I followed the recipe pretty closely except for adding about 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to the batter and excluding the Turbinado sugar because I didn't have any. My batter was pretty thick, and it was a little hard to make sure that the cream cheese pocket was surrounded by batter. The cream cheese leaked out to the sides of a few of my muffins, but since I had them in paper cups, it wasn't a big deal. My muffins did need to bake longer than the stated, but I think this was due to my stoneware pan. I love using my stoneware, but I've noticed with other recipes (especially cookies) that sometimes they need to bake just a bit longer because the pans need to heat up. Has anyone else that bakes with stoneware noticed this?

You can see the cream cheese on the inner side of this one... 

Overall, the muffins turned out beautifully. My family really enjoyed them, and they must have been a great send-off because there weren't any left. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Blueberry Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
1-1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. sugar
zest of 1 large lemon
1/4 c. canola oil
1 large egg
1/3 c. skim milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 c. blueberries (fresh or frozen, mine were frozen) 

Cream cheese filling:
3 Tbsp. cream cheese
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 Tbsp. sugar 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pan or line with paper liners. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. In a small bowl, add the sugar and lemon zest. Rub sugar and zest together until fragrant. Add to the flour mixture and whisk again.

In a separate bowl, mix the canola oil, egg, milk, and vanilla together. Incorporate the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Add slowly and do not over mix. The batter will be lumpy and thick. Muffin batter is best when there are little bits of flour that just hasn't been quite incorporated. Gently fold in the blueberries. 

In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, lemon zest, and sugar until smooth. Fill each muffin cup slightly under half way with batter. Add about 1 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture to the middle of the batter. Top with the remaining batter, attempting to seal the batter around the outside of the cream cheese pocket. Bake muffins for 17-20 minutes (mine baked for 24 minutes), or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let muffins cool on a cooling rack.

Yield: 9 regular-sized muffins

Garlic and Lemon Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Sometimes I feel like as food bloggers that we put on a little bit of a front. Not that we aren't really making what we show you, but many of us (myself definitely included) really only post the "winners" of all the things that we make. This doesn't always mean that the recipe went well, but even if the recipe failed us, it is typically still a "good" recipe. For example, my morning microwave oatmeal with applesauce, cinnamon, and a sliced banana when we have nice green ones hasn't yet made the blog (or even earned itself a photo). 

One of the things that I hope to do better in 2011 is to better show you the simpler, healthier recipes we eat on a day-to-day basis. I love a great cookie, but we certainly can't live on cookies alone. Let's face it, we all need a couple recipes that we can turn to when you don't get home from the gym until 7:30 wanted dinner 45 minutes ago =) While I'm definitely looking forward to finally get to permanently move to AZ and having a couple months off, after I get licensed in early summer and start my job, I'm more than likely going to need those simple, healthy recipes too. 

This recipe is one of those simple ones that we've made twice now - for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. In both cases, we were having a smaller meal, and I wanted to keep things on the healthier side. In fact, the recipe comes from Oven Love, and Natalie advertises it as just that, a "healthier alternative to the calorie-laden green bean casserole."  Nevertheless, I'm positive these certainly don't necessitate a fancy meal. With the exception of the brussel sprouts themselves, I bet you already have the rest of the ingredients in your kitchen, and with a shorter roasting time of 25-30 minutes, they'll finish up while you are prepping the rest of the meal. 

P.S. If you are thinking, "Really Tessa, I know it's January and all, but you're actually bringing us brussel sprouts?" then you really have to try these. I promise you that I stay a mile away from the frozen ones that my husband eats out of a bag, and if I can make a believer out of my dad and younger brother, then you just may like them. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Lemon and Garlic
From Natalie at Oven Love

Ingredients:
1 lb. brussel sprouts, rinsed and halved 
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lemon juiced (I used 2 Tbsp. of lemon juice)
salt and fresh cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (or parchment paper if you happen to find out your husband doesn't have any foil in the house) and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, toss the brussel sprouts with olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes, tossing once, until sprouts are soft and brown in spots. Serve immediately.

Lemon Raspberry Bars

You'll have to excuse the pictures for these bars. They really don't do them justice. This was the other recipe that I took to the 4th of July barbecue, and I wasn't able to take pictures of them until we got back home. Luckily, I still had three (LITTLE) pieces left to make somewhat of a photo.

I saw these bars on Two Peas and Their Pod and knew that they would be perfect for summer. Maria has much better pictures on her blog, so head over there if you want to see what the bars really should look like :-) The rest of her blog is also great so check it out!

The crust of these got a little moist sometime through the course of the barbecue. I'm guessing this had to do with coming in and out of the fridge throughout the day? It wasn't a big deal and didn't affect the taste at all. 

Looks aside, these bars were great! My mom occasionally makes this pink lemonade dessert that I love. The ingredients are completely different, but the flavors are similar enough to make these the raspberry lemonade version. Another plus. These bars are simple. Ridiculously simple. The only thing I would change is to use the graham cracker crumble only on the bottom. I had some trouble pressing it up the sides of the pan, and I ended up liking the middle pieces much better anyway. I'll post the recipe below as it was written, so you can choose to change it or not based on your preference.

 
So if you've got an event coming up this weekend or you're just a lemonade lover, try these bars out! I'm in agreement with Maria - you'll be the star of the show =) 

(Printable Recipe)

Lemon Raspberry Bars
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
For the crust:
1-1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/4 c. sugar
zest of 1 lemon

For the filling:
2 large egg yolks
1 (14oz) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
6 oz. fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8x8 inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and lemon zest. Stir until well combined and all the graham cracker crumbs are moist. Press the crumbs into the prepared pan, pressing the mixture one inch up the side of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.

Once the crust is cool, combine the egg yolks and condensed milk until well mixed. Stir in the lemon juice and zest. Stir until the mixture begins to slightly thicken. Gently fold in the raspberries being careful not to break them to avoid pink bars. Pour the lemon raspberry filling evenly over the graham cracker crust. Bake for 15 minutes or until just set. Cool to room temperature, then chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Cut into the bars and serve. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

SMS: Lemon-Orange Blueberry Muffins with Pecan Crumble

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there including mine! We love you all!

Wow. It's been quite the crazy 2 week stretch! Yesterday, my husband graduated yesterday with his Pharm.D., so we've had graduation activities for most of the weekend. It's been fun, and I couldn't be more proud of him :-)

Anyway, back to the muffins. This week's SMS was hosted by Chaya at My Sweet and Savory. In the Sweet Melissa Baking Book, Melissa has a basic muffin recipe with a page or two about different add-ins that would be good. The group had already baked a couple different variations before I joined, but I was excited for these because blueberry is one of my favorites. Adding any type of crumble onto that makes it that much more delicious!

In the past when the group made the muffins, there were several comments that the batter ended up heavy and the muffins a little bit dry. Given this, I considered swapping some of the butter for a little bit of unsweetened applesauce. I often do this in muffins and quick breads to decrease fat in recipes, especially when the ingredient list calls for oil. The applesauce also helps the muffins stay moist, although you need to be really careful not to overmix the batter.  Despite the comments, I didn't make the applesauce swap here. I like to try to stay pretty true to recipes when I make them for the first time, so that I don't goof things up too much! That said, the batter was heavy, and I would consider swapping in some applesauce in the future.

  

I did leave in the lemon zest called for in the base recipe. I wasn't for sure if we were suppose to completely swap the lemon zest for the orange zest, so I just added both figuring that it would just contribute some extra citrus flavor. Whether or not we were suppose to do it, the combination of the lemon-orange flavors was great! I also used the skim milk that we have in the fridge rather than whole milk. We don't use that much milk to begin with, and buying even a small container of whole milk would have been a waste. I suppose this may have contributed to the consistency of the batter a little bit. However, other bakers also seemed to have that issue.

My other slight variation from the recipe was that I mixed the batter up the night before, covered it, and baked the muffins right away in the morning. This worked great as we got warm muffins for breakfast that I really didn't have to wake up any earlier to make. All that I had to do was spoon the batter into the muffin cups, add the crumble, and bake. Perfect for rushed mornings :-)

Overall, we really enjoyed the overall flavors of the muffins and the pecan crumble. My husband has already been asking me to put these on the "make again" list. Check out muffins from the other SMS bakers here. I've seen some comments that adding a little bit more cream or even some OJ also helped a bit with the dryness. Enjoy!

July Cookie Carnival: Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

I'm not going to lie. This was NOT the recipe that I had voted for this month's Cookie Carnival. The oatmeal coconut raspberry bars are definately more my style. I never would have picked these cookies out on my own, but I am SO GLAD that they won. They are light and fresh with a perfect balance of sweetness from the glaze, and got rave review from both my husband and my coworkers. The recipe can be found here from Giada De Laurentiis.

Before this recipe, I had never worked with ricotta cheese. I knew that it was occasionally used in lasagna recipes, but I had always used cottage cheese myself. I researched these cookies online a little before I made them. They seem to be on a lot of blogs right now! A couple reviews said that they subbed low-fat ricotta cheese for the full-fat version without any issues, so I decided to do the same.

These cookies came together fairly smoothly. I did not have any problems with the dough or the first couple pans. I ran out of pans after the first two batches of cookies, so I put the dough in the refrigerator while the cookies were cooling. The cookies that I baked after I took it back out of the refrigerator seemed to spread a little more on the pan, but that was my goof.

Next time I make them, I will make a couple of changes to the glaze. First, I had to add a couple more tablespoons of powdered sugar so that the glaze would not entirely run off the cookies. Secondly, I would double the glaze recipe because I ran out before I was able to frost all the cookies. I made a little more with just the powdered sugar and lemon juice but did not have any extra lemons for the zest. Eh... the cookies still got eaten and praised without it so great pick fellow Cookie Carnivalers =-)

April Cookie Carnival - Toasted Almond Lemon Bars

This month's Cookie Carnival cookie is Toasted Almond Lemon Bars and is being guest hosted by Holly of Phemomenon. As soon as I saw the recipe, I knew exactly when I would make them - my parents were planning on visiting us around Easter, and my mother LOVES anything lemon.

The recipe turned out fairly well even though we actually didn't get to share much of it with my parents - inevitably we were full after dinner. The lemon topping was light and sweet. Definatley my favortie part. I don't cook too often with nuts and wasn't sure about the almonds in the crust, however my husband did like the flavor that they added.

Overall, it was a great first go at the Cookie Carnival. I'm excited to see what recipes future months will bring.