Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies

Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, it caught my eye and I checked it out over on Joy the Baker. As I was reading about them, it said they were a great light cookie to sit down and have a cup of tea with, and it suggested making them with lemon or orange, and I thought why not lime? I had bought a bottle of lime extract a while back and hadn't really come across a recipe that called for it, so I was really happy at the thought of finally using it. I was sure my hubby would like them too, because he likes anything with lime in it, so, I started in. The recipe called for vanilla extract, the citrus extract and the corresponding citrus zest. The recipe was very easy and they were in the oven very fast. They smelled really good as they were baking and I was convinced that we had found a new favorite cookie.

After the first tray had a chance to cool, I handed my hubby one to try. He said that it was good, lots of lime flavor, etc. Well, I'm glad that I broke a piece off of one and tried it before I started passing them out to my friends and neighbors! That's the problem when your hubby thinks that everything you make is perfect, the best, amazing! I took a bite and tried to spit it out in my hand but it wouldn't, because it was stuck to my tongue, the roof of my mouth and coating my teeth! They were so dry and floury, I have never had anything quite like that before. Something was wrong. I looked back over the recipe and I had not left anything out and had followed the directions to the letter.


I put the second tray in the oven and took five minutes off of the 20 minutes on the recipe, hoping that maybe the first batch was overdone. After that tray had cooled, we split a cookie and it was still exactly the same. It was frustrating, but this recipe has the potential to be a great recipe, so I'm not going to give up on it yet. From the texture, I'm thinking that there was too much flour, powdered sugar and cornstarch for one cube of butter. The original recipe comes from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, so I know it is from a good source. I'm going to give you the recipe in case you want to check it out. Maybe you will have better luck than me. I think it is important to show the failures, because everything doesn't always come out perfect, at least not in this kitchen. Oops! Maybe I better change the name of this blog.

 Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cornstarch

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon or orange extract

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon or orange zest

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Combine the butter and confectioners sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed with the paddle until well mixed. Increase the speed to medium and continue beating until light, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Batter may look broken and curdled. Beat in the extracts and zest.

Decrease the speed to low and beat in the flour. Remove the bowl from the mixer and give the dough a few good turns wit your spatula to bring it all together.

Arrange rounded teaspoons of the dough on a pan lined with parchment paper. Space the balls about 2-inches apart. After all the cookies have been placed on the pan, flour a fork and press a crisscross design into the top of each mound of dough. Bake the cookies until they spread and become golden, about 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Makes 48 tiny cookies.

One last thing I should have noticed at the time, my dear sweet hubby had the milk carton out and was trying to wash that cookie down! I didn't put two and two together!

Vanilla, Cherries, Berries and Almond Granola

I guess that I have been in a granola rut. I have been buying the same granola for over 10 years. We have been buying it at our Farmers Market from The Sconeage Bakery and we love it and usually have a spare because it is that good. I have even made several emergency trips to the Farmer's Market for out of town company that has loved it so much, they wanted some to take home with them. 

We didn't make it to the Farmer's Market for a couple of weeks in a row and we ran out, so I decided to make my own. This recipe has everything that I like in a granola, oats, cherries and almonds, and the great taste of vanilla. I made a couple of changes to the original recipe. Instead of just dried cherries, I used Peterson Farms Cherry Berry Blend. This is a blend of Montmorency Tart Cherries, Cranberries and Blueberries. Thinking about the grandsons, I chopped them up just a little so there were some smaller pieces of fruit.  I also added more vanilla so that it had a bolder vanilla flavor.

It took me about 15 minutes to get the ingredients together and mixed together. I poured the mixture out onto a large cookie sheet, making sure that the mixture was evenly distributed. I put it in the oven and I set the timer for 10 minutes to make sure that I stirred it. I did this until four times until the 40 minutes was up. I let it cool and WOW, it is just as good as I was hoping it would be. I didn't want the molasses to be the overpowering and it wasn't. To change it a bit, I think next time I might make it will all honey and no molasses. The molasses does give it a richer color than they honey will. I'm glad it passed the Hubby test and the Wiley test! They said "Yummy"!

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Penne with Ham and Four Cheeses

We provided the ham at our Easter celebration and I have to say, it was very tasty. My hubby worked his meat magic and I hardly realized that it was ham. My hubby divided the ham between the three families, but we still had a lot of ham left. What to do with the left over ham? Hmm... I'm just not that big on ham, once a year for Easter is enough for me, so I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I thought about scalloped potatoes and ham, but that sounded like a lot of work and really starchy with all the potatoes. I finally decided to make a baked dish that we could eat on for two meals and freeze the rest. I'm all about cooking once and eating at least twice!

I started search the cupboards to see what I had to work with and I was really glad to see that I had a bag of whole wheat penne in my pantry. My search ended there, and I cooked it al dente, and to that I added a three cheese sauce and about 3 cups of huge chunks of ham. I wanted to add fresh broccoli, but that would have been a trip to the store, and with on-going road construction, it takes about 15 minutes just getting out of our neighborhood. I didn't have that much extra time, so frozen peas from the freezer had to work. I mixed it together and put it in a 9x13 pan and baked it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

Hubby was late, so I turned the oven to 275 and kept it in for another 20+ minutes. I should have just taken it out and covered it with foil and left it on the stove top. Oh well, it was still good. Hubby loved it, because he loves casseroles and I rarely make them, so he was happy! Add a salad and dinner was ready. I'm posting it here so I remember next year what to do with that leftover ham. Sorry Hubby, you will have to wait another year for a casserole, too.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday -- Our yard in bloom

l

 

Strawberry Angel Cake

Here is another recipe that I made for our Easter dinner. I wanted to make something light and fresh so I decided to make an angel food cake. I think that once, years ago I made an angel food cake from scratch, and it isn't hard, but it does take a lot of egg whites. I don't like having all of those egg yolks left over. I very rarely make anything from a box, but angel food cake is definitely one of my exceptions. I have found that the angel food cake mixes work perfect, and they are so easy and quick. I like to  doctor them up and add something extra to the batter. For this cake, I added one teaspoon of coconut extract, and baked the cake according to the box instructions.

After the cake was completely cool, I cut it in half, giving an extra inch on the bottom. I then scooped out the center of the bottom and filled it with a mixture of cream cheese, whip cream and diced strawberries. I then put the top back on and frosted it with the remaining whipped cream. I only add two tablespoons of vanilla sugar. I don't like to sweeten the cream or add too much vanilla, so the vanilla sugar is perfect. The strawberries were so sweet, it was the only sweetness the dessert needed.

The finished product!

Other suggestions on how to doctor up a box of angel food cake.

• Add grated lemon, orange or lime rind, or all three for a great fresh taste
• add any flavor extract; i.e., almond, cherry, peppermint, orange, lemon, lime, praline, caramel
• add 1/4 cup of cocoa and an extra tablespoon of water
• add 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or shaved bittersweet chocolate

Enjoy!

Easter and an Earthquake

Our three day weekend was filled with lots of Easter activities. On Friday, we had lots of fun making Easter egg cupcakes and decorating them. Wiley started out helping us but he soon realized that sticking your fingers in the frosting was even more fun, and, the sprinkles stick on your fingers so much better when they are covered in frosting.

When he was finished, he left a trail of frosting behind.

 

 

Christy and I enjoyed finishing them while Papa kept the boys entertained. They played the tuba, "sailed in the ocean" with the sharks and pincher crabs and talked about animals.

On Sunday afternoon, we all met at our daughters house for the afternoon. The boys provided the entertainment.

 Ivan was crawling...

  and Wiley was on the run!

Ivan and his beautiful Mommy

 

Ivan kept the Gramma's laughing

And Wiley is still running!

Ivan is ready to eat

What a little Sweetheart

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner that included, smoked ham, scalloped potatoes with fennel, sauteed carrots with brown sugar and nutmeg, sugar snap peas with onions, a beautiful salad with grapes, blueberries and lots of other crunchy veggies, Dream Salad and rolls.

After the meal was over, it was time for a visit from the Easter Bunny. By the time boys got out to the back yard, the Easter Bunny was long gone, but the yard was covered with eggs and the hunt began.

Wiley was hoping to find the Easter Bunny!

 Wiley wanted to open every plastic egg before looking for more

 

"Hmm...I wonder what inside?"

 Off to find more

 Grandpas and Daddy enjoying the fun

 Ivan tried to keep up with everyone

 Gramma Barb helped him out!

Time to play

;;

For dessert we had Peanut Butter Birds Nests, Mini Lemon Bites and Strawberry Angel Cake.

When we were planning our Easter menu, Christy thought that Gramma's Dream Salad sounded really good. It was always requested and enjoyed on many holidays but especially on Easter. I realized that I had not posted this recipe, so here it is.

We left out daughter's and drove home after the Easter lunch and Easter Egg hunt.  I had no more than got in the door, and my husband was bring things in from the car when the house started shaking...an earthquake! The fans and lights kept rocking for about five minutes. The biggest impact was on the pool. They water rolled from one end to the other for over 20 minutes, with the water flooding the patio. The first earthquake was 6.7 and their have been several aftershocks. It was 20 miles underground and the epicenter was approx. 175 miles from us. So that's how we spent our weekend!

I hope you had a Happy Easter!