Easter Candy Ideas

Easter is coming and I'm starting to get ready. The first order of business... CANDY! Since we eat so much citrus around here I decided to put our garden waste to some use. The easter bunny will be bringning candied citrus peel this year. I'm starting to notice a theme in my posts: citrus. The time of year solicits the vibrancy of such sunny fruits. I imagine that when fall comes around everything will be squashes and potatoes again. Until then let's enjoy my recent rash of lemons and oranges.


I candied lemons and tangerines for this batch. I'll keep up this effort for a couple of weeks until I have enough peel to satisfy friends and family.

How does one candy peel?

CANDIES PEEL:

Peel your citrus with a peeler or a knife. Use a fillet knife to cut away the pith (White meaty stuff). Once you have a bunch of peel put on a pot of water to boil. When the water is boiling Blanch all of your peel in the water for 1 minute. Remove. Dump out blanching water then in the pot add 2 cups fresh water and 2 cups of sugar. Bring to a boil. Add blanched peel and boil in sugar syrup for 30-40 minutes. Remove and place on a plate that has been dusted with granulated sugar (Prevents sticking to plate). Roll further in sugar and set to dry for 3-4 hours. Store in an airtight container for up to a month.

Dear love.. I made cookies.

It's almost Valentine's day. Valentine's day is a holiday especially made for making sweets for the sweet. In celebration Albie and I made cookies with heart themes. We had a blast looking for the recipes and found MANY possibilities on the world wide web. It seems the world loves heart shaped things. These simple sweets are at once delicate and endearing as they are both dusted with the lacey confectioners sugar. What better way to say happy Valentine's day than with a such a sugary-sweet gesture?

Pecan Linzer Cookies with raspberry filling (recipe from Martha Stewart.com

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup raspberry jam, strained
Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl; set aside. Pulse pecans, confectioners' sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor until finely ground (but not wet); transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Add butter and granulated sugar; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in vanilla and egg. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until combined. Halve dough; shape into disks. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thick. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Cut out squares with a 2-inch fluted cutter. Cut out centers of half the squares with a 1/2-inch heart cutter; reroll scraps. Space 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake squares and hearts until pale golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool.
Meanwhile, heat jam in a small saucepan over medium heat until reduced and thickened, about 7 minutes; let cool.
Sprinkle cutout cookies with confectioners' sugar. Spread jam onto uncut squares; top with cutout ones. Store in an airtight container up to 2 days.

Heart shaped lemon bars:
For the lemon bars we used the recipe we have already posted in another blog post. I'll put it up again just in case someone wants it RIGHT NOW! After making the recipe of lemon bars I used a cookie cutter and cut out the heart-shaped treats. Yum.

lemon bars (as seen previously):

2 sticks (8 ounces) butter

2 cups flour

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

4 beaten eggs

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

sifted confectioners' sugar

Heat oven to 325°. Blend butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar. Pat into ungreased 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. For filling, blend together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, and lemon peel.Pour over first layer. Return to oven and bake at 325° for 20 minutes. Loosen around edges, cut into bars and sift confectioners' sugar over the top while warm.

What a cute Valentine baker Albie is!! I believe he wears more confectioner's sugar on his clothing than on the cookies he made.

Salmon Cakes

My mother in law has given me many excellent recipes that my husband and I like and my son will actually eat! I believe her mother, a 90 year old firecracker of a Polish woman, passed this to her. I don't know where Grandma got it but I know we like it! This is a "fish cake". You can use Salmon from a can or a packet, smoked salmon or even tuna. Any minced or flaked fish will do. It's traditionally done with Salmon so that is how I'll write it up.

Salmon Cakes

1 1/2 c flaked canned salmon (no bones or bits
1-2 eggs
1 small white onion, diced
bread or cracker crumbs
salt and pepper to taste

Peanut oil for frying.

Mix salmon, egg, onion and salt and pepper together. Add as much crumb as needed to make it stick together and form patties well. Form patties and fry in skillet with about 1/8" of medium-high heat peanut oil. Flip and fry after cooking side turns golden brown.

Serve with your favorite sauces. Here are a few suggestions:

Dill and Lemon Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard

2 tablespoons minced fresh dill weed

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a small bowl mix together mayonnaise, sour cream, parsley, Dijon mustard, dill weed, lemon juice, salt, and pepper; cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Tartar Sauce (any is great!)

Ketchup (I know... YUCK! But this is way my husband grew up eating it and he swears by it)

Grandma Great turns 94!!!

Today is my Great Grandmother's 94th birthday! My grandmother, Anita, had all of the local family over for a wonderful brunch. She made waffles and Spanish chorizos in eggs. Yum! My family has a strong Spanish heritage and as far as I know we have always eaten these Basque chorizos. My great-grandmother is not Basque herself, but Castillion. Her father carried the title "De Van Espre". Now that Spain has no noted royalty none of this matters, but the love of the chorizos lives on through generational cooking.

There isn't much I could add to such a wonderful meal but I asked if I might bring a cake. I have really been liking making cakes lately, since Christy's birthday was so nice. To make a cake for a woman of 94 who has eaten many, many wonderful things is a little nerve-racking, but hey, it's the thought that counts!

I didn't have the ingredients for my signature yellow pound cake so I tried a Martha Stewart "moist yellow cake" recipe. I followed it to the T, but still it was NOT moist. The lemon curd, however, was perfect (also thanks to Martha's web-site) and added the moisture needed to save the cake. I won't use the cake recipe again and I won't offer it here either.

I used a brown sugar meringue buttercream frosting and had a ball decorating the cake. My great grandmother is named Flora (meaning "flower/plant"). She is an amazing gardener with many awards to her reputation as well as a private garden plot at her home-away-from-home senior residence. I tried to deck the cake with flowers and vines in her honor. So fun!! She loved the flowers and had a little help blowing out the candles from my son, Albie.

Brown-Sugar-Meringue Buttercream
Makes 6 cups
1 1/4 cups lightly packed light-brown sugar
5 large egg whites
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. In the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer, combine light-brown sugar and egg whites. Place the bowl over a pot of gently simmering water; whisk until mixture becomes hot to the touch, about 5 minutes.
2. Return bowl to mixer stand. Whip mixture with the whisk attachment until cooled, about 12 minutes. Switch to paddle attachment; add butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir in vanilla. If not using immediately, transfer to an airtight container, and store at room temperature up to 8 hours.

LEMON CURD
Makes 1 1/2 cups
3 large egg yolks
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, (2 lemons)
6 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.
Remove saucepan from heat. Add the butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth.
Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour. Store, refrigerated in an airtight container, up to 2 days

Lemons!

Have you ever seen a lemon flower? When rambling down the cliffs of an Italian village I once had a lemon fall from the rocks outcropping above and roll to rest at my feet. It was sweet and beautiful and the smell was amazing. It grew from a scraggly tree forcing it's sparse foliage out from the rock. I believe that the lemon tree may have endured the harsh environment all of it's little life for the joy of being washed by the Mediterranean mist . And surely it's fruit spoke of that joy.

So today let's celebrate the sunny sweetness that is the lemon. As I sit surrounded by a snowy January I can think of nothing better than to make up a quart of lemonade and spike it with some lemoncella. Maybe even crank up the heat and chance the bill being high.

Lemons and the recipes that they grace:

Lemon Bars ( the perfect mid-winter snack. A lemon bar brings with it a memory of the bright heat of summer fun, but carries the weight and texture of a December snowstorm.)

2 sticks (8 ounces) butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
4 beaten eggs
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
sifted confectioners' sugar
Heat oven to 325°. Blend butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar. Pat into ungreased 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. For filling, blend together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, and lemon peel.
Pour over first layer. Return to oven and bake at 325° for 20 minutes. Loosen around edges, cut into bars and sift confectioners' sugar over the top while warm.



Lemonade (my own concoction goes something like this... it's not perfect but I wing it every time)

Equal parts
Water
Raw Sugar
Freshly squeezed lemon juice (I retain the lemons to toss into the pitcher for extra lemon-goodness)

Bring to a simmer in a saucepan the water and raw sugar. Simmer until sugar is dissolved completely. Raw sugar will leave the syrup lightly off-color, a brown tint. This is just the caramelly/ molassesy goodness of using a raw sugar! Pour the simple syrup into a jar and refrigerate until cool. Pour chilled syrup and lemon juice into a large pitcher and add chilled water to taste. I usually add about equal the amount of water as the concoction... doubling the amount of liquid in the pitcher. Throw in your squished lemons and serve her up on ice! Yum. The flavor grows as it sits.