Lemon Squares

I am currently watching an episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Snack Attack" on the Food Network. It is reminding me of this very post that I've had in my head for about a week. I remember Lemon Squares being more of a go-to dessert for me rather than a snack, but seeing how Adam and I have been doing a lot of snacking with this particular item this week, it seems only fair that I share it with all of you.

I love lemon squares. As a kid, there were several dishes my mom made that stood out as favorites. Lemon squares were one of them-this is interesting for me because otherwise, lemons really weren't a huge draw. I don't care much for any sort of lemon pie, and lemon cake, while tasty, is something I never crave. I don't even like lemon in my water, and have to be in a mood for lemonade. But these lemon squares...oh, I could always be in a mood for lemon squares. It's quite possibly the only dessert I liked my mom to make as much as this one. Even now, my mouth waters just to think about it. The middle was slightly gooey and the crust nice and crisp, with some powdered sugar on top to take away a bit of the tartness from the lemon. They were just awesome, plain and simple.

I have no idea where she got the recipe. Even now, with all of the recipes she had in a drawer in our kitchen, I can't figure out where it came from because it's not in there. I've tried other recipes in the past and they didn't quite compare. Sometimes the bar was just too crunchy and dry, and other times it just didn't taste right.

This past weekend, I knew I had a lot of lemons in the drawer that needed to be used, so I hunted for a recipe that I thought might work. After perusing the internet, I found a recipe by Ina Garten that seemed to be okay, and got a lot of good reviews.






Kids, I've found the lemon square from my childhood. It was exactly right, even if it wasn't prepared the way I remember it. It was gooey (admittedly, I think I underbaked it a little), the crust was like a butter cookie-but not too crunchy, and the filling was a perfect blend of sweet and tart. This is a winner recipe, and definitely will go in the arsenal of good ol' standbys.

Lemon Squares (recipe obtained from Ina Garten and the Food Network)
Ingredients

For the crust:
1/2 lb. unsalted butter, at room temperature (I actually melted it instead)
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 c. flour
1/8 tsp. salt

For the filling:
6 eggs at room temperature
3 c. sugar
2 tbsp. grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons-I found I had enough at 4 lemons, even if I planned to do 5)
1 c. lemon juice (if you don't squeeze your own, using bottled is fine, which is what I did)
1 c.flour

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the crust:
Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy using either a stand mixer or a portable electric mixer. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter mixture until just blended. Place the dough in a lined pan and spread out to the edges using your hands or a spatula. Chill for about 10 minutes.

Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let it cool while you prepare the filling (but keep the oven on at 350 degrees!)

For the filling, combine together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Whisk until well blended. Pour over the cooled crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set (Note: This can depend on how hot your oven runs. I had to keep mine in for roughly 45 minutes). Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into bars and dust with confectioners' sugar. If necessary, hide them from people in your household so there's more for you. :)

Chicken Pot Pie

I love Chicken Pot Pie. It's really a shame I don't have it more often. There's a place near me that has Chicken Pies that I absolutely *love*, and bonus, they'll even have it hot and ready for you if you call in advance.

I have been on a mission since then to find the perfect pie that might be suitable to make at home. Someone here isn't a fan of potatoes in pie (I'll forgive him) but I wanted to find something that we both would enjoy and one that would make me not even think about the fact that it didn't contain my favorite starch.

A few months ago, I had an abundance of broccoli, so I decided to look up pies that had broccoli in it, and lo! I found the jackpot. Of course I modified it, using rotisserie chicken and a whole boatload of vegetables, even more than what was in it already, and came up with a winner. You know what I really think the key ingredient here was? Cheese. Weird. But it totally works.







I'll admit that the pictures I took in this post were from a few weeks ago (yup, I've
got an arsenal of pictures for recipes I haven't blogged about yet. There's more fun stuff coming! :) ) but thinking about it makes me wish I hadn't made chicken with rice tonight. It pales completely in comparison. Most everything I eat this week will. It is that good.







The beauty about this pie is the ability to put whatever you want in it. I kept the carrots and broccoli the same, but I added peas once. Another time, I put in cream of chicken and mushroom soup. I love sauteed onions and celery in here. It uses a double crust, which is really the only way to eat pie. Also, the recipe says to use two cooked chicken breasts. Thumb your nose at that one and use shredded rotisserie chicken. It could be the best decision you've ever made.



Chicken Pot Pie (recipe adapted from allrecipes.com)
1 box of ready made pie crusts (Pillsbury makes them, and so do most store brands. Make sure you get a package that contains at least two pie crusts)
1 carrot, chopped (I've used a handful of carrot shreds, or several chopped baby carrots, or some pre-chopped carrots. Whatever floats your boat)
1 head fresh broccoli, chopped
2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and chopped (or take a fresh rotisserie chicken and shred the breasts, removing the skin first)
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup or cream of chicken and mushroom soup, whichever you choose
2/3 cup milk
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

other vegetables to add (pick and choose or put them all in):
one chopped onion, sauteed
several celery stalks, chopped and sauteed
a handful of mushrooms, chopped
a cup of frozen peas (added frozen, they'll cook in the pie)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Steam carrots and broccoli in a covered pot for 3 minutes. They will still be slightly firm, and that's okay. If you don't have a steam insert for a pot, ball up several pieces of tin foil and line the pot with it. Then put in some water and make sure it won't touch the vegetables when you put them in, so maybe enough to have about an inch of water.

In a large bowl, mix together carrots, broccoli, chicken, soup, milk, cheese, salt and pepper, and any of the vegetables you choose. Put mixture into an already pastry lined pie pan and cover it with the top crust. Crimp edges together to form a seal and cut steam vents in top.

Brush the top crust with an egg wash: one egg beaten with one tablespoon of water.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Sweet Potato Tater Tots

A few weeks back, I was perusing Facebook, as I often do, and I saw a notice for a new burger place on the South Shore opening up. The restaurant, called Wahlburgers, is owned by the Wahlberg brothers, Mark and Donnie, and their chef brother (I think his name is Paul...anyway). I looked at their menu online, and their burgers looked awesome, but the thing that caught my eye was sweet potato tater tots. I told Adam later that day that we needed to take a field trip down there to try a burger, and to have those tater tots (Five Guys has already been in our regular rotation, as there is a location about fifteen minutes away from us, and I thought, why not try something new?). Adam, in a stroke of genius (and because he knows I'll try almost anything), told me, "well, why don't you try to make your own?"

Genius. Of course. Why not, I have the grater and the deep fryer, and all I needed were the raw materials and the time.

As kids, we loved tater tots. I remember us calling them "trash cans", and it makes a little bit of sense-they kind of look like trash cans, right? It's weird for me to call them tater tots, or even just plain tots, as made famous by Napoleon Dynamite. So, tater tots is the actual recipe, but I don't think I'll be able to think of them without calling them trash cans.

But back to the sweet potato. As Guy Fieri might say, these things were money. (Apologies. I can't believe that actually came out of my mouth. But that's exactly what these things are). They weren't terribly difficult to do, but it did force me to exercise a little bit of patience. Waiting for the potatoes to cool after boiling was particularly difficult. I waited for twenty minutes and then dug in to grate and peel them, ignoring the fact that the hot steam was essentially burning my fingers.







I'd like to think that it was like a facial for my hands. Whatever that's referred to, anyway.





Once that was done, add in the other ingredients, mix together, form into logs, and drop into the deep fryer for four minutes. My taste tester ate four straight from the fryer. He's a pretty fair judge when it comes to my cooking, and when I had to swat his hand away, I knew I had a winner. Paired with a homemade cheeseburger on Portuguese bread and the Patriots/Giants game, it's a perfect evening.





My four-legged sous chef, on the other hand, looked on and sulked. I think he wanted one too. Next time, buddy.


Sweet Potato Tater Tots (adapted from Cook With Tom)
3-4 medium size sweet potatoes (enough to get 3 cups of shreds. I wound up with way too much shredded sweet potatoes, so I'd bump this down to 2. Of course, if you have too much, save it and use it for something else, like sweet potato latkes!)
1/4 c flour
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
1 Tsp alt
1 tsp pepper (not in original recipe, but necessary-it gave it the extra spice it needed!)
Canola oil

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the sweet potatoes and boil for 20 minutes (do not peel them beforehand!). Let it cool on a plate before peeling them, either with a knife or a peeler.

Shred the sweet potatoes to have three cups' worth. Wring them out in paper towels or a cheesecloth to remove the extra moisture.

Combine sweet potatoes with flour, cheese, pepper and salt. Mix well to combine. When in doubt, add just a little more cheese.

Using a 1 Tbs measuring spoon, portion out tater tots, and form into small tater logs.

Fry in a deep fryer or a deep pot filled halfway with oil, at 350 degrees, for 3-5 minutes, until brown (we found that four minutes was perfect, but it may depend on whether you're frying with a cover or not.).

These tater tots are perfect without any sauce, but feel free to use your favorite. If I have to pick one, it'd be honey mustard, but to each their own.

"Peanutella"

If you don't know my favorite candy, you may not know me all that well.

...

...

still thinking?

I'm a gigantic sucker for the chocolate peanut butter combination, so your guess of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups is spot on.
(I'm actually eating one now.)

On Halloween, I've gone trick-or treating with my nieces and my sister since they've been old enough to go. One year, quite awhile ago, I told my nieces this little secret of my favorite candy. Ever since, every year, they'll help me in my quest for peanut butter-chocolate euphoria.

"Auntie!" They'll shout, from the lucky houses. "They had Peanut Butter Cups! I got one for you!"

At Halloween, my pockets are stuffed with peanut butter cups and a few wrappers, from those I ate while I walked. I clean up at Halloween.

Today seemed like a perfect day to make this spread: Woburn had it's official Halloween parade this afternoon, we had an unusual freak nor'easter that produced several inches of snow, and I'm procrastinating from doing paperwork at home. I'm also trying to avoid breaking into the bag of peanut butter cups I bought for trick-or-treaters tomorrow. See? Win-win.







This was one of the weirder recipes I've ever made. Put toasted peanuts in the food processor and grind until it looks like peanut butter. Weird. Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar and salt and oil and blend until it looks like a spread. Too easy. Spread it on a piece of toasted challah bread shipped to you from your favorite island bakery. So very right.





Chocolate-Peanut Spread (recipe from Smitten Kitchen)
2 c. shelled and skinned peanuts (the recipe calls for raw; all I could find were salted and roasted. Those are fine too)
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 c. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt (if you find unsalted peanuts, you may need more)
2-3 tablespoons peanut oil

Turn the oven to 400 degrees. Spread the peanuts evenly over a cookie sheet and roast for about 10 minutes, or 5 if they are already roasted.
Transfer the peanuts to a food processor (I'm fairly certain this wouldnt work with a blender, sadly, but if you try let me know how you make out) and grind them for about 5 minutes. It will first look really grainy, then it will have more of a peanut butter look. Leave it alone until it looks like peanut butter and then grind it for another minute or so, just to be sure.

Add the cocoa, sugar, salt and two tablespoons of the oil to the food processor and continue to blend together for about 1 minute.

Refrigerate until ready to use.

Goulash

I know that this recipe is not completely authentic. I am well aware that goulash is a Hungarian dish (right? Someone back me up on this) and I'm fairly certain that the real version does not contain Velveeta. In fact, I'm not sure that goulash contains cheese at all, but I digress. This is the name of the dish I know, and that's what sticks. It's like fat pie. Or oreo balls. You don't try to fix what isn't broken.

I grew up on goulash. My dad made it quite often on the weekends, and I'm not sure if it was because it was a) filling, b)fast, c) extremely tasty, or d) all of the above. At any rate, every time I eat it, I'm reminded of eating this on blue plastic plates, with a little bit of toasted french bread on the side. Sometimes a salad too, because, well, it made us all feel like we were eating somewhat healthy. This is something that very much reminds me of my childhood.

As adults, my dad will still make this dish for us on rare occasions. I wonder if it's because his wife won't let him have it on his own, but I'm glad he'll wait for me to come up there to make it. Awhile back I asked him how he did it. He replied, "I just brown meat, saute an onion, add some velveeta and sauce, a pound of pasta, and frozen peas."







(my father is the king of simplicity when it comes to food. Remember these?)

I made him write it down, since I didn't want to leave room for error the first time I tried it for myself, but it really is as easy as it sounds. It's pure comfort in a bowl. It's great in the wintertime, but I'll eat it any time of year. Like tonight, when it's pouring rain out.



These days, it's gotten several requests. We have switched it up a bit, substituting ground chicken or seasoned ground turkey, whole wheat pasta, and most recently we added red peppers and mushrooms. This is a fun dish to play with.


You really ought to try this. Especially if you're short on time. It's awesome. Everyone who's tried it has given this dish it's due. Go on. You won't be sorry.

Goulash (recipe courtesy of my dad)
1 lb. meat (I grew up on ground chuck. Nowadays, I'll try turkey or chicken-dare I say it tastes almost better than ground beef?)
1 onion, finely diced
1 lb. pasta (the recipe calls for angel hair-I've also made it with fettucini and it's just as good)
a small spoonful of minced garlic
1 jar of Ragu sauce (pick whatever variety you prefer most)
1 box of frozen peas
1/3 block of Velveeta cheese (we use almost a half block these days, because we like more cheese. I once totally forgot and used an entire block. Not only did it just make it totally uncooperative to mix together, it was really unappealing for leftovers. Use judgement, but if you prefer more cheese, stick with measurements closer to a half block.

Saute the onions in a pot for several minutes over medium to medium high heat. Add the meat and brown all over. Drain the liquid well, then return the pot to the stove.

In the meantime, cook a pound of pasta according to the directions on the box. Drain well, then add to the meat mixture.

Put the entire jar of sauce into the pot. Put the frozen peas in the mixture at this point as well. While the goulash is heating through (continue to mix well) add the Velveeta in small chunks so it melts easier and faster. Mix until fully incorporated together, then serve it in bowls. Or hell, just take a fork to the pot. You may save some dish washing that way.

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

I decided to make these pancakes this morning for a lazy Saturday breakfast (well, it was almost lunch when we finally ate them. Ah well.). Adam took one bite of these, declared them "so good you don't need syrup" and then suggested to me that I should post these on the blog.

Ask, and ye shall receive.







I've spoken before about lemon pancakes. How I kind of felt them to be a little too tart for my taste. I tried making meyer lemon pancakes and found them to be much better, much more subtle. And then there were the lemon blueberry pancakes. I'm still not sure why lemons and blueberries match so well together, but yet, there they were, a perfect pair. Another thing that was great about it was that the blueberries were directly in the batter, something I've admittedly never tried. I've always put the blueberries in as they bake on the griddle. Never again.

This recipe calls for evaporated milk, and like an idiot, when I went to the store I bought sweetened condensed milk instead. Figuring that this might make the pancakes overly sweet, I decided to ditch the condensed milk and use up some leftover buttermilk I had in the fridge. It worked like a charm. We decided that they seemed crepe-like...but maybe a touch thicker. Next time I try these, I'd like to mix it up and try different things: evaporated milk, sour cream, maybe even yogurt!





I thought that maple syrup might overpower these pancakes and that it might make them too sweet. I thought that I might need my raspberry syrup to continue with the fruit theme. I don't know, maple syrup and lemon seemed weird to me. But it worked. I loved it. Let's be honest anyway: Maple syrup (REAL maple syrup, not that fake Aunt Jemima stuff) is the best thing known to man. Of course it would make these pancakes even more awesome.



We ate all of the pancakes in one sitting. Clearly a win-situation for us, and a first when it comes to pancakes. Though I might need to go outside for a run after doing that. :)

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes (recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman)
1-½ c. cake flour, plus one additional TBSP
¼ tsp. salt
1 T. baking powder
3 T. Sugar
1-½ cup Evaporated Milk (I didn't have it, so I substituted buttermilk instead)
1 lemon
1 large egg
1-½ tsp vanilla
2 T. melted butter
Zest From 1 lemon
1 heaping c. Blueberries

Heat heavy skillet or grill over medium low heat.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar together. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix evaporated milk, juice of 1 lemon, and lemon zest. Sit aside for five minutes, then add egg, vanilla, and melted butter. Mix to combine.
Pour wet mixture into dry ingredients. Stir gently to combine. Stir in blueberries. Make sure mixture isn’t overly thick. If it is, add more milk, buttermilk, or whatever liquid you might be using.
Melt butter in heated skillet. Flick some water over the top to see if it's ready (water should dance across if it is). When the skillet is ready, ladle batter in 1/3-1/4 c. amounts, and fry for about 3 minutes a side, or until golden brown, whichever comes first. Add butter to the top and douse in copious amounts of maple syrup.

Berry Buttermilk Sherbet

It's now starting to be summer in New England, and summer for me equals ice cream.

There's a place about a mile down the road from us called Breakers. They serve Richardson's ice cream, and I will, without fail, order one of two things there: a black raspberry frozen yogurt with chocolate sprinkles or a chocolate peanut butter ice cream (for those who read this blog and know me very well, not to worry-my favorite ice cream ever, coffee oreo, isn't as good there as it is at JP Licks, so I don't get it.). Their sizes are gigantic-so gigantic that we typically order kiddie sizes, which in the real world are closer to mediums. It's a ton of ice cream for under $4. We love going there, especially in the summer.

A few years ago, I found a refurbished ice cream maker on Amazon for very little money. I was thrilled-I could make ice cream at home! I began making vanilla, chocolate, and yes, even coffee oreo. I made mint chip and an at-home version of Crantucket (vanilla with chocolate covered cranberries that my favorite ice cream place on Nantucket serves). I've done some sorbets and sherbets too-I made a mango sherbet for Adam's birthday this year and a mango-raspberry sorbet a few months ago. I found this recipe for a berry sherbet yesterday, and couldn't wait to try it.





The thing about this sherbet that makes it different for me is that it includes buttermilk-something that makes this dessert be a little more tangy and tart than I'm used to. It also has the option to strain the seeds or not-something I decided to do with it tonight. Though it made the sherbet more creamy, I don't know if I'll do that every time. It does take quite awhile to strain the mixture completely of seeds-I did it in roughly 25 minutes, so if you don't mind, keep it in-you'll get sherbet much faster.







This is a really good sherbet. I loved the tang, I especially loved the colors, and I loved that it was made with fresh berries. It made a really good weekend even better. If you have an ice cream maker, I'd suggest you get on this recipe right away-otherwise, come hang out with me before it disappears :)



Berry Buttermilk Sherbet (recipe obtained from Sass and Veracity)
6 oz. or 1 c. fresh raspberries
6 oz. or 1 c. fresh blackberries
6 oz. or 1 c. fresh blueberries
1/2 c. sugar (the original recipe calls for raw; I had no raw sugar so I used standard granulated sugar-I don't know that it made any difference but feel free to use whatever you'd like)
1-3/4 c. buttermilk
1 T. lime juice
1/2 tsp. cardamom (tip: cardamom is incredibly expensive-like $15 expensive. If you don't have it, substitute for 1/4 tsp. each of cinnamon and nutmeg, which is what I did)

Put all three types of berries into a blender and puree. If you decide to remove the seeds, take the berry mixture and force it through a fine mesh sieve to remove them, then add back to the blender. Add the sugar, buttermilk, lime juice, and cardamom (or cardamom substitute) to the blender and puree until smooth. Pour into the container of an electric ice cream maker and run until frozen, but soft enough to spread into a container to place in the freezer (approximately 25 minutes). Seal well in a freezer safe container and freeze for several hours before serving.