Category Archives: Recipe

Lemon Curd. One of my favorite things.

Tart. Tart. Tart. After chocolate, lemon is my favorite flavor and I love to make lemon curd. I wish we had more free time to make it more often at work, but we only have our small hot plate stove top and it takes a long time to prepare the amount we need for cupcakes. Sadly, we don’t make it as often as I’d like.

   Lemon Curd

5 egg yolks

zest and juice of 3 or 4 large lemons

 1 cup of sugar

1 stick of cold butter

This is super easy, but you have to be patient so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs! I use a large stainless bowl that sits on top of a pot of simmering (not rolling) water  and use it like a double boiler. I put all of the ingredients in the bowl together and whisk, the acid and sugar help reduce my chances of creepy egg curdles. This recipe is done in 6 or 7 minutes- you can tell it’s done when it sticks and coats a wooden spoon. Chop up the cold stick of butter and stir it in until dissolved. I then strain the mixture to remove all of the pulp or seeds that may have snuck into the bowl. Pour the strained curd into a stainless bowl, cover tightly with film and cool in the refrigerator.

Wa la!

The following pictures are a cupcake shop batch- so that’s 30 egg yolks!

Nothing smells better than that bowl of zest. I don’t measure this because I’ll strain it out later anyway.

juice- make sure the lemons gave you at least 1/3 of a cup or you’ll want to juice another lemon until you get there.

lots and lots of eggs for the cupcake shop.

whisk the juice, zest, sugar and eggs.

heat ‘em up. Slow and steady. Once it’s thick and creamy, take it off the heat, chop up the butter and stir it all in.

Strain, then wrap, then chill for a few hours. We usually make this a day in advance.

Deliciousness.

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Livestrong app and Pork.

I really love the Livestrong food app for my iphone. It’s been easier to keep track of my calories and my exercise while using it, I think every single thing I’ve eaten (good or not…including a box of Mike n’ Ike’s in a weak moment) has been searchable on it. Even if it isn’t, you can manually key it in.

Two weeks since the diet started, I’ve dropped enough pounds to get me motivated to get back to my pre-bakery weight. (that means 7lbs to go. Then that 7 extra that was hanging on from the babies…)

I’m trying SO HARD to be good, so I’m still eating well (enough) and trying to stay interested. Exercise wise my sciatica is killing me in both of my legs again. Every time I start to work out again, that stupid pain comes back, radiating from my ass through my legs. Brutal.

But back to food, my real nemesis…This dinner was so easy it’s embarrassing that I didn’t think to do it more before. I took a plain pork tenderloin, salt/pepper/a little olive oil and threw it on the grill. I chopped up a head of cabbage, a bag of baby carrots, and a red onion and threw it on a cookie sheet on 400 for 20-25 minutes. In a half an hour we had a kick butt low carb dinner. Stupid easy, and that’s exactly what I need right now. I need it to be so easy, and so filling, I don’t feel deprived. I just hope 2 weeks from now I’m STILL feeling this way.

 

 

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Spinach & Goat Cheese Egg White Frittata

Let’s be honest, my house isn’t the most delicious place to be when we’re on a diet and we’ve been doing the juicing thing. But I’m trying to get myself re-motivated in the kitchen and Bob might be making me just a little.

I found this low carb recipe, but I wanted to make it lower in fat (yolkless) and needed to adjust what I had (or didn’t have) in my house.

Spinach & Goat Cheese Egg White Frittata

  • 12 egg whites
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1 lb fresh spinach
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 clove minced fresh garlic
  • 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
  • 4 oz goat cheese
  • salt & pepper

Preheat to 400. I cooked down the spinach with a little water (no oil), but not to the point of soggy. Whisk the eggs, salt, pepper, garlic and milk with a fork. Throw everything else in the bowl with the egg, make sure to break up the goat cheese into tiny pieces. Spray a medium size casserole dish with cooking spray, dump everything in and bake for 25-30 minutes (check at 25 but mine took 30). Make sure the eggs are done, they’ll get a little browning on the top. The fresh cooked spinach will be somewhat moist, just make sure it’s not raw egg.

It’s delicious, and happens to be awesome slathered in salsa.

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Lemon Bars

Last year, my girlfriend Heather posted a recipe for lemon bars and when she came to visit me last summer, guess what she made for me? Yep, little heavenly lemon bars. Tomorrow is the elementary school’s teacher appreciation day, so guess what I made?

Crust:

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
2 C flour
2 Sticks of butter

Sift powdered sugar and flour together. Cut in 2 sticks of butter. Press into lightly greased pan(9×13). Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

My inspiration…

I make so many lemon recipes that my mom bought me this , I was still using an old fashion glass juicer.

 

Lemon Filling

4 Eggs
2 Cups Sugar
1/3 Cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 Cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
and some more powdered sugar for the topping

Beat eggs, sugar and lemon juice together very well. Stir in flour and baking powder. Pour over baked crust and bake another 25 minutes. Sift powdered sugar on top.

Thanks, Heather!

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South African Lemon Meringue Pie.

This was a new recipe I tried per a neighbor (that happens to be from South Africa) that I’m making fondant cake toppers for. It uses sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar. The recipe only has a few ingredients, and I changed a few things. First, I used pie crust and the recipe asked for Marie Biscuits. Second, I baked the filling before covering with meringue so that I’d be sure it would cook through.

Filling

  •  1 can condensed milk
  • 2 eggs separated (yolk filling, white meringue)
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp lemon zest
  • 3 tbsp confectioners sugar

Beat the condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon zest and the egg yolk together and pour this mixture over baked crust. Bake at 350 for about 15-20 min.

  1. Meringue: beat the egg whites until stiff and foamy while gradually adding 3 tablespoons of sugar, pour the beaten egg white mixture over the filling and bake at 350 till golden brown (about 7 minutes).

Serve chilled.

The texture of the filling is different, and the pie is quite tart so if you enjoy a good wince, this is the pie for you!

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