Sunday, April 25, 2010

Lemons!


When I was little my Mom and I were in London England and we went to this beautiful little basement restaurant and had an amazing meal, I do not remember what we had for dinner, but I will never forget the dessert.  Lemon Crepes.  They were heaven and I will spend the rest of my life trying to recreate them.

This morning I woke up and had a craving for lemon crepes and found Martha's Lemon Crepes Recipe, it required a little prep but by far looks more daunting than it really is.
They turned out fantastic, not quite as amazing as my crepes from London but delish!


I made a small shortcut with the order of things. Below are my slightly modified versions, click here to see  Martha's way.


First I made the candied lemon slices  I should have let them simmer much much longer, I only let them simmer for 40 minutes, should have been an hour but I was impatient, and had nothing to do after cleaning the entire kitchen and living room. The rind and peel should be translucent.

Candied Lemon Slices

Ingredients

Makes 1/2 dozen
  • 1 large lemon
  • 1 cup sugar

Directions

  1. Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Using a mandoline or sharp knife, cut lemon into 12 paper-thin slices; discard seeds and ends of rind.
  2. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, and add lemon slices; stir until softened, about 1 minute. Drain, and immediately plunge slices into ice-water bath. Drain.
  3. Bring sugar and 1 cup water to a boil in a medium skillet, swirling to dissolve sugar. When liquid is clear and bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low. Add lemon slices, arranging them in one layer with tongs. Simmer (do not let boil) until rinds are translucent, about 1 hour. 4. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Let stand until ready to serve.


I used the reserved sugar water for the caramel sauce.

Martha's Lemon Caramel Sauce 

My Lemon Caramel Sauce

Ingredients

Makes about 1 cup
  • 1/2 cup reserved liquid from your candied lemon slices
  • 3 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:


 Let syrup boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until dark amber.
 

Remove from heat and add butter.


I let the caramel sauce simmer while I made the Lemon Crepes.
The rule with crepes is the first one is always crap but you can always eat your mistakes!



Ingredients for Crepes

  • 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus about 1 tablespoon, melted, for pan
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cup milk, (not skim)
  • 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3 large eggs
  • Lemon-Caramel Sauce
  • Candied Lemon Slices

Directions

  1. Bring 2 tablespoons water to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat; add 6 tablespoons butter, a little at a time, whisking until butter is completely melted.
  2. Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, vanilla, and eggs. Gradually add milk mixture to flour mixture, whisking until smooth. Whisk in butter mixture. Pour batter through a fine sieve into a bowl; discard lumps. Transfer batter to an airtight container; refrigerate at least 2 hours (or overnight).
  3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Lightly coat a 6-to 7-inch crepe pan or nonstick skillet with melted butter. Heat over medium heat until just starting to smoke. Remove pan from heat; pour 2 to 3 tablespoons batter (depending on size of pan) in center. Swirl to cover bottom. Reduce heat to medium-low; return pan to heat. Cook until edges of crepe turn golden and center is dry, about 45 seconds. Flip crepe; cook until underside is brown in spots, about 45 seconds more.
  4. Slide crepe onto an ovenproof plate; cover with foil, and transfer to oven. Repeat process with remaining batter, coating pan with more butter as needed.
  5. Fold each crepe into quarters to form a triangle. Arrange 3 crepes on each plate; drizzle with lemon-caramel sauce and garnish with candied lemon slices 
 

Friday, April 16, 2010

Presto, it's Pesto!

We love Pesto in this house! Today we were out of our favorite jar when I went to make Ella some tortellini for lunch.  I rummaged through the fridge and found some fresh basil, and grated Parmesan.  Besides that I knew there were pine nuts, but I do not have any pine nuts!  So I checked out The Martha Site and found this recipe for Fettuccine with parsley pesto and walnuts and was stoked!  Now, granted I did not have a lot of time, as I had a hungry 18 month old waiting for lunch so I adapted it just a bit for the items I had on hand.

 Tortellini with Walnut Almond Pesto 

Ingredients

Serves 4
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 3/4 pound meat tortellini
  • 2 cups packed Basil
  • 1/4 cup walnuts 1/4 cup almonds
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Directions

  1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook tortellini pasta until al dente. 
  2. In a food processor, puree basil, walnuts,almonds, Parmesan, garlic, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water until a paste forms. With machine running, add oil in a thin stream; process until very smooth, about 1 minute. Season pesto with salt and pepper.
  3. Serve with tortellini and garnish with basil leaves.





Verdict:  This was so delicious I will never again buy expensive jars of pesto! Soo yummy i can not wait to add it to my home made pizzas tomorrow!  Ella ate the whole plate and then seconds!  2 baby thumbs up!
 

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Lots of Rum!


During our spring cleaning I found a beautiful bottle of Jamaican Appleton Rum from our last trip to Jamaica.  I also found the October 2008 Martha mag that had this recipe for Roasted Plums and Rum Raisins so I thought I would give it a try.  If you love simple and delicious, this easy 5 ingredient recipe will not let you down!

Ingredients for Roasted Plums and Rum Raisins

Serves 6 to 8
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup dark rum
  • 6 to 8 black plums, peeled, halved, and pitted
  • 1/4 cup light-brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup creme fraiche (or substitute whipped cream or ice cream)
  • 1 package German-style waffle cookies

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Soak raisins in rum until plump, at least 10 minutes.
  2. Place plum halves, cut side up, on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle each with sugar and cinnamon, and top with raisins and rum. Roast until golden and bubbling, 15 to 18 minutes.
  3. Divide among bowls, and top with creme fraiche. ( I ate mine with Haagen Daz Vanilla ) Serve with cookies. 
So easy and delectable!  The only TIP I have though is that the raisins get almost burnt so I replaced mine with the leftover soaking ones. 



I now have a new favorite BBQ season dessert!  These turned out so delicious and I even saved a bunch of the raisins and rum and mixed it with ice cream for a real old school favorite, Rum Raisin ice cream.  I adore rum raisin anything!  Tomorrow night I am going to bust out the rum again and try my hand at Bananas Foster!

Fun Stuff I am trying!

I love creative people and I have found some fab creative ladies that I just had to talk about!  Amy Butler , Patty YoungHeather Bailey .  I am in awe of all the designs from these three ladies  and all of them have fabric, patterns and product lines that are sheer perfection! Modern versions on classic prints and styles.  I find inspiration every time I visit their sites and if I start now I can have Christmas presents ready for all the fabulous ladies in my world!

First up are these amazing patterns I love and can not wait to start sewing:


These amy butler gum drop pillows look so fun for Ella's room.  Pillows are so marvelous and I really do not  think you can never have enough.  I must have been Moroccan in another life because my idea of heaven is a nice cup of tea, a good book and a  fabulous draped fabric room filled with soft luxurious pillows in beautiful colours.  I will visit the fabric store this week to try and find some great patterns for these babies!

I am also loving everything Patty Young is doing right now with her doll clothes line line.


Ella is really into dollies right now and the clothes they sell in the stores are either crap, or crazy expensive, so I plan on trying these patterns with scraps from her clothing projects so she can match with them.  The Emma Dress is the first pattern I bought on Etsy and I found Patty's website on the pattern.  Since then I am hooked!

Heather Bailey has great style and I just ordered some fab fabrics from her Nicey Jane line.  One of my closest girlfriends is having a baby boy in July and I am throwing her a shower next month.  I found this adorable project on Heather's site and tonight I will attempt to make them for shower decor.  I just had to share them because they are adorable and just scream SPRING!


Pinwheels in perfect colours.  You can find cheap plastic pinwheels in stores everywhere this time of year but they are tacky.  Try these yourself with double sided card stock in the colour or pattern of your choice.



I also can not get enough of One-Yard Wonders! I love to shop on Etsy for vintage fabrics and typically when I find a pattern I love they only have one or two yards of it.
Authors Rebecca Yaker and Patrica Hoskins fill the book with 101 sewing projects for you, your kids, and practically every room in your house. The spiral-bound book comes also with a pocket with lots of pattern pieces. Some of my favorite projects are the ones for organization and clothing. I'm still amazed that all of the projects can be made with just one yard. This book gives you a great excuse to splurge on a variety of patterned fabric since all you need is one yard!  My Mom has already made an adorable top for Ella and I can not wait to try some projects out myself.

 Spring Cleaning in my house is about purging out the old bringing in the new and rediscovering things we had that we may have forgotten.  Just look at all the craft supplies I found in various locations around my house.  Now they are all together and are going to get some use!







Friday, April 9, 2010

Book Club Selection


I have been devouring Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts for the last week, and it is phenomenal!  I will be chipping away at these awesome projects for the rest of my life!

Each craft has an overview, the supplies needed, & detailed step by step instructions.Now I don’t know about you but I need the full colour step by step photos and these ones are awesome! The reason I started this journey was because I wanted to learn how to do things like dress making, and quilting, and embroidery.  This book is more than an encyclopedia of Crafts it is my new craft Bible!

Here we go!

April 1st has come and gone and I have yet to start my blog:(  Work has been extremely busy and I did not want to jump into this half assed so I will officially start the projects on Monday.  I have asked a few of my close girlfriends to choose projects from Martha's site and put in their requests, so I ask you out there in the blogesphere to send me your requests as well!  I am getting on this train and we are going full steam ahead!  I am very excited!  See you all on Monday!

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