Lemon Meringue Dip with Pie Crust Dippers

What's not to love about heart shaped "pie crust dippers" dipped in a lemon meringue dip? If you answered "NOTHING" than you are 100% correct. I have not had any sugar in my diet now for almost 5 months, so I can't honestly give you my opinion of this, as I am not having any. But I can tell you that my hubby loved it and I think I gained 5 lbs just smelling it and looking at it. I'm hoping that all the family that will be together tomorrow will also love it!

*Original recipe found here: Lemon Meringue Pie Dip

14 oz	can sweetened condensed milk
3 lg	eggs, separated
1/2 c	fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp	light corn syrup
a pinch	cream of tartar

1. Whisk egg yolks and juice over medium heat in small saucepan, heat and stir until custard like. This will take about 5 minutes.
Place this mixture in the refrigerator to chill. 

2. In a mixer bowl whisk egg whites, corn syrup, and cream of tartar on high until stiff peak form. Set this aside to use later.

3. Remove yolk mixture from fridge and whisk in the sweetened condensed milk. Blend well. Pour into a pie dish.

4. Using a spoon, pile and spread meringue on top of lemon sauce.Use the back of your spoon to pull up some of the ends of the peaks to make it pretty. 

5.Turn your broiler onto high. Place in oven and broil 1 to 2 minutes until meringue is slightly browned. Refrigerate to chill.

7 Up Pie Crust Dippers:

*Original recipe found here: Pie Crust Dippers

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 Tbsp salt
1/2 cup Ccrisco
5 Tbsp ice cold 7-up

1.Stir together flour and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 

2. Add the ice cold 7 up, gradually to the flour mixture, then blend together until moist.
Place pastry in plastic wrap, flatten slightly. Chill 30 minutes.

3. Remove from fridge and roll out like you are making pie crust on a flour dusted surface or between 2 pieces of waxed paper to about 1/8 inch thickness. Using your favorite small cookie cutter, cut out the shapes. (Or you can cut into circles or strips)

4. Spray cookie sheet with Pam or use parchment paper and place the cut out dough pieces. Brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for bout 6-12 minutes or until golden. (This really varies from oven to oven. The original recipe said 5 minutes, mine took almost 12)
Cool completely before using so that they are crisp.

Lemon Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze

I think I have found my favorite zucchini bread recipe in the world. Since I am growing copious amounts of zucchini in my garden, I am always on the lookout for new ways to cook it or incorporate it into my meals. So when Pinterest brought this lemon zucchini bread to my attention, I couldn't help but want to try it. I found it at a site called nancycreative.com
(If you get a chance to check out her blog, she has quite a few great ideas and recipes on there.)
I'm not sure who Nancy is, but I am so thankful that she is creative, because  I will forever be thankful for this recipe!! It's got just the right amount of sweet, just the right amount of tart, and it turns out moist each time I make it. Next time, I might even try making it with lime, since my lime tree is beginning to show some signs of life. Now begins the prayers that the 200° summer days we are having don't burn up the limes. If they survive, then i will definitely try it with lime next time. Sounds yummy to me.  Ok, ok so I exaggerated just a wee bit with the 200° ....but 103° today was pretty bad and to me anything over 70 is just WAY too hot. I still haven't figured out why I live in So Cal when these hot summers hit! 

The original recipe is found here:
http://nancycreative.com/2012/03/25/lemon-zucchini-loaf-with-lemon-glaze/

Bread:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

Juice of 1 lemon (or 2 Tablespoons lemon juice)

Zest of 1 lemon

1 cup grated zucchini (no need to peel it first)

Glaze:
1 cup sifted powdered sugar

Juice of 1 lemon (or 2 Tablespoons lemon juice)

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9×5 loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, blend flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat 2 eggs, then add vegetable oil and sugar. Blend well. Add the buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon zest and blend well. Fold in zucchini and stir until evenly distributed.
Add the zucchini mixture to the dry ingredients in the large bowl and blend everything together, but don’t overmix.
Pour the batter into the 9×5 loaf pan and bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 45 minutes to an hour and then remove the bread from the pan onto a wire rack and cool completely.

While loaf is cooling, make the glaze by mixing the sifted powdered sugar and the lemon juice. Stir until thoroughly combined. Spoon the glaze over the completely cooled loaf  of bread. Let it drizzle down the sides. Let glaze set and firm up. Glaze will set in about 15 minutes. Serve.

Lemon Raspberry Cookies

You just have to love a cookie that is so easy to make, looks great and tastes great. I'm pretty sure the people at church that these are for, are going to love me. Wait...they love me anyway. Maybe I'll get extra loving. :) Can't beat that!
I decided to make these cookies this afternoon, after hiking for 5 miles with my hubby, daughter and some great friends. I didn't want to be on my feet for very long as they were pretty darn tired. So this was the perfect recipe. The only thing time consuming was piping out the dough onto the cookie sheet, but once I got going and found my rhythm it wasn't too bad. If you like citrus and fruit taste in your cookies, you will enjoy these!

The original recipe can be found at: http://www.grandmaskitchen.com/recipes/keepsake-cookies/lemon-heart-cookies/

*The only change I made to this recipe is that I added 2 tsp of lemon juice to the dough

1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter (2 cubes)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp zested lemon peel

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

dash of salt

2 1/4 cups flour

lemon curd

fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 400°. Using your electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, butter, sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, salt and beat until it's creamy, 2-3 minutes.  

Add the flour and mix until a dough is formed. Place half of the dough into a pastry bag with a tip of your choice. Pipe circles and fill in the center with dough. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until very lightly browned.  Cool on wire racks. When the cookies are cool, pipe lemon curd or spoon lemon curd into the center of each cookie. Top with a whole raspberry or a slice of a raspberry.

Lemony Hearts of Palm Salad

Who would think that you could take an inner core of a growing bud off certain palm trees and come up with a great addition to salad? I often think to myself, "who is the guy that thought...hey I'll just hack into this tree and see if I can eat the inside." To whoever did think of it, thank you!

I don't buy this often because it's actually quite expensive, but it sure tastes good on a salad once in awhile.

Hearts of palm is considered a delicacy in Costa Rica. They also call it "burglars thigh or swamp cabbage". I thought if I titled this post "burglars thigh salad or swamp cabbage salad" that some of you may never come back here again to read or make any of these recipes. So I just stuck to the old "lemon hearts of palm salad." I really hope you will try this salad. It's so light and so refreshing.

This recipe is from: http://www.foodnetwork.com

Soak 1/4 cup sliced red onion in cold water, 10 minutes; drain. Toss with 2 cups sliced hearts of palm, 1 cup sliced celery and some chopped parsley. Add 3 tablespoons each lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over arugula drizzled with olive oil.

Coconut and Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi with a Lemon/Lime Butter Sauce

All this dinner needed was a swaying palm tree, a pina colada and some hula dancers to make me feel like I was in Hawaii. The neighbor's lawn mower, his dog barking and the motorcycle going up and down the street definitely did not lend itself to a Hawaiian ambiance. So I closed my eyes and pictured it all in my head. Oh wait....I definitely do NOT want the picture of me in a bikini in my head. *sigh*
Way to ruin a perfectly good dream!
Now, back to the reason I am writing. This dinner was so scrumptious. It was light, all the flavors worked so well together and the hubby and I loved it! This will positively be made again at our house. This just might be one of my most favorite seafood recipes. So for those of you who like coconut, lemon, macadamia nuts and fish...this ones for you!!

This recipe is for two pieces of Mahi Mahi:

For the fish:

10 saltine crackers, crushed finely
1/4 cup macadamia nuts (chopped finely)
1/6 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut (make sure it's unsweetened)
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
Olive oil for cooking fish

For the Sauce:

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
2 tsp Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Peel from one medium lemon, zested
Peel from one lime, zested
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
Juice from one lemon
Juice from one lime

To prepare the fish: Place the crushed saltine crackers, the chopped nuts and the coconut together in a bowl. Mix together well. Place the flour in a separate bowl. Place the beaten egg in another bowl. Rinse your fish and pat it dry with a paper towel. First dip the fish into the flour and coat on all sides. Then dip the coated fish into the egg and then into the cracker mixture. Make sure to coat it on all sides.
Heat oil in a  cooking pan until it is hot. Cook the breaded fish in the oil until it is cooked through. Serve with sauce. Place the sauce under the fish and on top of the fish, so every bite has sauce!

To prepare the sauce: Place the butter in a pan and melt it completely over a low-med fire. Stir in the flour, parsley, salt, pepper, and the peels from the lemon and the lime. Stir together. Mix in the milk and the cream and cook for about a minute until it thickens up. Then stir in the juices from the lemon and the lime. Cook for about another minute or two on low heat. Keep warm until time to serve it over the fish.

Lemon Cheesecake Cheese Ball

Have you ever had one of those days when everything and everyone just "rubs you the wrong way?" This was one of those days for me. As if that wasn't enough, if I continued to eat anymore of this amazing cheese ball, even my thighs would be rubbing me the wrong way....oh wait...they already do! ;)
When I first saw this recipe on Pinterest, I just knew I had to try it. So who better to try it on than co-workers? That way if it didn't taste good, I could make up some lame excuse as to why it went wrong, but my family....they would know better.
As I read the recipe, I saw that the instructions said "mix everything together in a bowl with a spoon". Well....given the fact that this usually takes brute strength like Popeye, and I can't stand spinach, I decided to whip this together in my food processor. Best decision I made all day. I know that's not  saying much, but it's been a strange kind of a day.

The original recipe is from Annie's Eats, but like always I adapted the recipe. I just can't stand to leave recipes as they're supposed to be ;)

10 oz. cream cheese
4 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
Zest of 1 large lemon and one small lemon
4 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
3 graham crackers, crushed

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla in a food processor until smooth. Place the mixture into a piece of plastic wrap. Shape it into a ball, the best you can, and refrigerate it for at least 3 -4 hours. Once it's firm roll the entire ball into crushed graham crackers until evenly coated. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Serve with: Apple slices, graham crackers, animal crackers, vanilla wafers etc.

Lemon Twists with Lemon Marshmallow Dip

Yesterday as I contemplated what I could bring to the pot luck at work today, absolutely nothing came to mind. So thankfully I had some chocolate chip, banana bread in the freezer that I had made last week. So when I suddenly woke up at 4 AM, (unfortunately this happens a lot) I decided I had no excuse to not have time or energy to make something. So the hunt began to find something in the house that I could make for work. Since I don't need coffee to get going in the morning, I dove right in and started looking for ingredients. Thankfully I had some puff pastry in my freezer. Oh and thankfully I have a microwave for defrosting things ;)
So once I had decided to use the puff pastry, I reved up the imagination and started making a concoction that I hoped would taste good. Thankfully it did! In fact, I would make these again. I really liked them. they are light and crispy and it helps that they were very simple to make. Now that it's 4 PM I hope I can remember how I threw these together this morning!

Ingredients for twists:

One sheet puff pastry

4 Tbsp butter, melted

Lemon juice 

Zest of one whole lemon 

1/2 cup sugar 

Ingredients for the Dip:

Approximately 3 cups marshamllows

2 Tbsp corn syrup

1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, softened

For the twists:

Heat oven to 400

Flour a work surface lightly and roll out on sheet of puff pastry with a rolling pin until it's just a little bit thinner than it came in the package. Cut the dough into strips. I made 24 by cutting the dough into strips. I cut twelve strips and then cut across them in the other direction to create 24 strips.

In a bowl, combine 4 Tbsp of melted butter with lemon juice. You can use as much or as little as you like to bring out the lemon flavor. I used almost an entire lemon. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest. Take each strip of pastry and completely cover it with the melted butter/lemon mixture. Next put the buttered pastry strip into the sugar/lemon zest mixture. Make sure you get the mixture onto the entire twist. Twist the pasty and place it on a Pam coated cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for about 7 minutes and then flip them over. Bake for about 7-8 more minutes. If you have extra lemon juice and you want them more "lemony", squeeze some extra juice onto them when you flip them. 

For the Dip:

Melt marshmallows in the microwave with the corn syrup. Stir completely and add in cream cheese. Use a mixer to blend these together thoroughly. Serve soon after making. (My dip got a little "thicker" as the day wore on and it didn't seem to be as creamy later in the day! But it was still YUMMY!!!!