Melanie W.'s Lemon Pasta

I hadn't made a creamy pasta dish is a long time, so this was a treat! I do love pasta, and this was good. I'm not one who loves lemon things, so I don't think I would make this very often, but it was a nice springtime dish. The lemon garlic chicken was yummy! I only marinated the chicken for a few hours, but I cut smaller pieces so I think it worked ok. I also found I needed to add more half and half than called for. This could be because I used the full 16oz pasta, but I probably would still have added more even if I used less pasta. Guess I like my pasta more saucy. I originally planned on putting the asparagus in with the pasta but then chose to eat it on the side.

Cami's Lemon Pasta

Sorry, no picture. My camera batteries are charging as I type.

I am definitely a saucy pasta girl and I loved this recipe. It is so fast and easy. There wasn't a lot of chopping or prep. I didn't marinade the chicken last night so I just threw all the ingredients in the pan. It worked but I will try marinating next time. I think this would taste just as good without chicken or with tofu.

I used whole wheat pasta and added the whole box. I think it was 13oz or so. It was perfect.

My husband is not generally a pasta fan but he really liked this. I will be making this again for sure!

Danielle's Lemon Pasta

We had kind of a late night last night, so no pictures.

We both thought this recipe tasted good, but it wasn't a favorite for either of us. I think mainly it's because we're not really big on Italian-style pasta dishes. But it was easy to make, and I can see this being a go-to recipe for people who like creamy pasta dishes.

I just cut my chicken up into cubes and sauteed it. I also liked the idea of having it with asparagus, so I cut some up into bite-sized pieces and sauteed it too. I combined the chicken and asparagus with the sauce and then topped the pasta with it. I liked it all combined, but I didn't make enough sauce to cover the pasta, chicken, and asparagus and still be saucy. I should have added more half and half to make the sauce go farther. It was definitely flavorful enough to stand up to some extra liquid.

One caveat, though -- I had the sauce on low on the stove for awhile while I waited for for Max to get home. So I ended up reducing the sauce longer than I intended to, and that probably factored into the sauce not going far enough.

Danielle's Lemon Drop Cake

*Sorry, no pictures of the inside of the cake since the pieces I cut fell apart.

Isn't it cute? I love 6" cakes!

Today is Max's birthday, so this is Max's birthday cake. (Such a mean wife... he didn't even get to pick the flavor.) But lucky for me, he also really likes lemon flavored things. And we both thought this was such a delicious cake!

My experience with this recipe may not be all that helpful for the rest of you because the only part I followed out of the recipe was the cake layers. I made more of a traditional buttercream frosting because that is Max's favorite. And as I said before, I wanted to use up the curd I had leftover. However, the recipe I used for my lemon curd is very similar to the one in the book, and the curd I used made a delicious filling.

The cake itself was my favorite part. The only thing I changed was the ratio of butter to shortening. Instead of 50/50, I used a 75/25 ratio (more butter, less shortening). The cake was perfectly moist and light and had a great flavor. I'm interested in trying this recipe to make cupcakes sometime.

For anyone else who tries this, let me know how you like the frosting. I'd like to try it with the Baked frosting next time if it's good.

One thing I wanted to do was crush up a bunch of lemon heads and press them into the sides of the cake, but I went to two stores and couldn't find any! Do people not sell lemon heads anymore? Sad.

Cami's Lemon Drop Cupcakes

I think this is one of my favorite Baked recipes we've done so far. I mean, it is right up there with the German Chocolate Cake. So, as you can tell, I made cupcakes instead of the cake. They are easier to divide up and share than a cake. Not that you need to share these.

As you can see I put the curd inside. After they were cooled I cut a circle in the top and emptied out a little bit of the center of the cupcake. I put about 1 1/2 teaspoons in each cupcake. I could have put a little more I think but I was worried about getting too close to the bottom of the cupcake. I then popped the top back on and frosted them. You would never know I cut the hole. I love the little surprise in the center. I think I am going to try it with different flavored cupcakes and filling.

The flavor is so good! It is very lemony but I like it that way. The curd is delicious. I didn't put mine through a sieve. I'll be honest, I was lazy. I actually like the texture of it. The cakes turned out very fluffy and just right I think. I baked mine for 23 minutes. The frosting is good. Not too sweet but just right. This frosting would be great for piping if you so desired. To sum it up, I loved them. The Young Women I work with loved them and my husband's coworkers loved them.

Lemon Drop Cake -- pg. 63

Happy New Year! I'm excited to be kicking off the next round of tasty new recipes!

So first off, some news... I'm pregnant! Cami mentioned that "several" of us are pregnant, and yep, that includes me! I'm super excited. I'm due July 24. (You know you're from Utah if your first thought was, "Hey, that's Pioneer Day!" I'm not, but I have been notified of the holiday coincidence a number of times.)

Anyway, my only real pregnancy craving so far has been lemons. That's right, actual lemons. As in, I have a strange urge to suck on lemons after I've squeezed the juice out of them (be a shame to waste any of it). And it actually tastes pretty good to me.

In order to harness that craving into actual tasty treats, I made lemon cookies the other day and a ton of lemon curd. I didn't know what I was going to do with the rest of my lemon curd till I came across this recipe that calls for lemon curd filling.

So this week's recipe is the Lemon Drop Cake on page 63. I haven't made it yet (because I forgot I was picking this week... oops), but I'm going to try to make it and post about it on Tuesday.

Side Note:
My new strategy with desserts is to always halve the recipe so we don't end up eating fattening desserts all week long. With cakes that seems a little difficult, but I'm going to pick up some 6-inch cake pans and halve all the ingredients. So that's my plan for this recipe. I'll let you know how it works out.

Melanie W.'s Sour Lemon Scones

I know this recipe is from a long time ago, but I finally made them last week and I thought they were so good, so I wanted to write about them!

They turned out perfect for me- not too dry and just the right amount of lemon flavor. I used all the butter it called for, though like Danielle had said it's gross how much butter is required! When I formed the dough I thought it was super sticky and I thought about adding more flour, but I resisted and glad I did or else they would have ended up too dry. I made the candied lemon peal and I think it really added to the lemon flavor. It wasn't hard to make, just more tedious than anything. The lemon syrup was more watery than I liked, so I added a little powdered sugar to thicken it up some, then it turned into more of a glaze.

I ate mine with some strawberry preserves which complemented the lemon flavor really well! They were also a huge hit with my current houseguests and they wanted the recipe. I'd love to make these again sometime!

Cami's Lemon Scones

This was a really easy and tasty recipe. I have only made scones once before and am still surprised how easy they are. It is probably the easiest Baked recipe we've tried so far.

I feel like these could use a little more lemon flavor. I even used about 1/2 cup of zest. I agree with LuAnn that a lemon glaze would be nice. I've been eating mine with raspberry jam since they turned out ever so slightly dry. They would be fine alone, but hey, why not heap on a few more calories to make them exceptional. I am curious how the candied lemons would taste. It looked like a lot of work and I only had 4 lemons.

During baking some of my scones expanded and needed to be cut apart. It didn't really bother me but if I were serving them at a fancy brunch I would use two pans instead of one to make sure they stay independent. All in all, I will make these again.

Danielle's Sour Lemon Scones

Yum! I really like how these came out!

At first I was kind of grossed out that it calls for three sticks of butter (for only 12 - 18 scones!). I try to minimize my butter usage whenever possible, and I figured I'd could probably just use less. I asked LuAnn if she thought I could get away with using less and she said they'd likely be too crumbly (she said they were pretty crumbly as it was).

Based on that, I decided to try to substitute sour cream for some of the butter. And it worked out great! I cut out one of the sticks of butter and put in about 1/4 cup of light sour cream. The scones weren't really very crumbly at all, although they still maintained a scone-like texture. I think they came out perfect.

Also, LuAnn and Cami both recommended I try making the candied lemon peels to add more lemon flavor. I almost didn't because it looked like too much work, but I decided to go ahead so at least one of us could give an opinion about it. I like having the candied lemon peel in the scones, but it really was kind of a pain. I'm not sure if it was worth it. But if I do make the candied peels again, I think I'll cut the water and sugar in half (way too much syrup) and I won't boil it so many times (four times seems pretty excessive). I feel like it boiled too much of the zippy lemon flavor out.

Overall, I really liked these, and I would definitely make them again. It's kind of funny that my two most successful recipes out of this book have been lemony goodies.

Sour Lemon Scones

Yum. I like scones. But this was the first time I had ever made them. I do wish they were more lemony. I like that they aren't too sweet because breakfast items often tend to be too sweet for me. However, when you sprinkle sugar on top before you bake them I would really pile it on because I think it adds just enough sweetness. I didn't do the optional candied lemon peel because I was working from a photo copy and I didn't have the instructions for it. I encourage someone to try it. It might make them sweeter. Also...just in case you don't have buttermilk you can put a tablespoon of lemon juice into 1 cup of milk and make your own. That's what I did...it's all the same.

Changes I'll make next time...try to get more lemon flavor in there and I'd like to try a sugary lemon glaze on top.


Baking background: I baked bread and cookies with my mom as a kid. But she didn't do anything fancy and was always trying to make things healthy...but she was a high school Home Economics teacher before I was born. I've often felt like I didn't know how to cook, but I'm realizing that I have a decent knowledge base. And really...with google...anyone can do anything anymore.

Kitchen tool: My favorite kitchen tool was my Cuisinart mini food processor, but now it is the Magic Bullet (which I am borrowing from my mom until I'm done making baby food). Aside from making baby food I use this several times per week.

Spices...uh I don't really know one spice from another honestly. I've heard of these tests you can take to see if you are a super taster and I know I am not one of them. Although I know when I use fresh Italian spices rather than dried everything tastes better.

My favorite cook book is my 3 ring binder that has all the recipes I collect from friends and family.

If I could travel anywhere it would be to Europe...haven't been anywhere in Europe.

If I had to change my name?? Ha ha...this is a funny question because I didn't like my name growing up...I wanted to be Jennifer or Rachel or something. But LuAnn is me and me is LuAnn and I've never been able to pick another that would fit me. I mean really...how can you go from being LuAnn to anything else? I like my name now.

I currently live in Chicago and am remembering why I love it now that it is warming up.

Danielle's Lemon Loaf

Yum! I was really impressed with this recipe. I like lemony things, but this was even better than I expected! The cake had such a well-rounded flavor, and I think it just may be the best lemon cake/bread I've ever had.

I also only made a half-batch (one loaf is plenty for the two of us). Based on what Melanie said about the butter, I only used 1.5 sticks instead of the 2 it called for (I generally try to use as little butter as I can get away with) and I thought it was perfect. I think the butter is what gave it the well-rounded flavor, but it didn't have a definite butter taste. I also used a little more lemon juice and zest because I had so much extra.

I was too impatient to wait for it to cool completely, and I'm so glad I didn't. The slightly warm cake was fantastic! I actually kind of wished I hadn't put on the glaze because the warm cake was so good by itself. I'm kind of torn about the syrup and the glaze. While the cake was warm, it would've definitely been better without the syrup and glaze. After the cake sat overnight, it tasted pretty good with the syrup and glaze. I think next time, though, I'll try either a plain sugary glaze (not lemon flavored) or a glaze with only a slight lemon flavor. I really just loved the cake itself, and the syrup and/or glaze are non-essential additions in my opinion.

I will definitely be making this again some time.

Melanie's Lemon Lemon Loaf

I'm glad someone else picked this recipe to make, because I probably wouldn't have picked it myself. It's not that I don't like lemon, I just don't love lemon. So it was fun for me to make something out of my ordinary.

I was surprised to find all the ingredients here! They weren't all the exact same as you'd find in the US...the sour cream was a bit more yellow, the lemons here are green on the outside though yellow inside (I was worried the lemon zest would turn it green but it stayed a nice yellow color) and the butter (all dairy here for that matter) has a strange odor and taste. But I think it turned out fine nonetheless.

I opted to half the recipe because I only have one bread pan, plus Josh is gone this whole week and I didn't think I could eat two whole loaves by myself! I used regular flour and medium eggs instead because that's what I had, I made a few minor measurement modifications due to the high elevation, and I used a blender rather than a food processor. The bottom and sides got a little too dark, but that's what happens when your oven only has temperature settings of low, medium, or high. I used both the lemon syrup and the glaze, but I think I would have preferred to only use the glaze. I thought the syrup was a little too much, but the glaze is definitely a must! I also thought there was a little too much butter for my taste.

I liked it better after it sat overnight probably because it gave the burnt bottom time to soften some, and I've already eaten half the loaf! Even though I like it, I probably won't make it again. I'd rather spend my energy on a different kind of bread.

Cami's Lemon Lemon Loaf

This is very lemony! I love it. I really like the extra umph the glaze provides. I would highly recommend doing the glaze even though the recipe says it is optional. I think this would be good with strawberries on the side. It would make a good breakfast or dessert.

I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of cake flour because that is what I had. I also used my Kitchenaid mixer instead of a food processor. I don't think it really makes a difference. I'm sure you could also do it by hand. Although, when I was folding in the flour mixture by hand, my arm got really tired, so it would probably be a lot of work to do the whole thing by hand.

Lemon Lemon Loaf

This week's recipe is Lemon Lemon Loaf on Page 41 of the 'Baked' cookbook. I chose it because I really love lemon and thought this sounded like something new and different.

It didn't turn out as I had hoped, but that is my fault. I tried to get cake flour, but didn't leave myself enough time. So in the end I had to run downstairs to the Market in the Park only to find bugs crawling all over in the "pastry flour." So I ended up using all-purpose flour only.

From that point on, I was a little preoccupied and forgot to put in the melted butter (oops).

So mine turned out not as soft as I'd have liked, but I loved the tart taste. It wasn't too sweet and I will definitely try it again in the future.

Q&A:

When did you start baking/cooking?

I didn't really start trying anything until I was married and forced to. During college I lived in a sorority house that had someone to make our meals (of course I paid for it, but I kinda miss those days).

What is your favorite kitchen tool?

Just a basic wooden spoon. I find I am always in need of more.

Do you have a favorite spice?

I think it might be pepper or sugar, is that a spice?

What is your favorite book?

I really love The Count of Monte Cristo & The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

Growing up I always wanted to go to Egypt to see the Pyramids. That would still be neat, but if I were going right now, I'd pick Switzerland.

If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to?

Nothing

Where do you currently live?

Chicago

Where are you from?

Farmington, Utah

If you could eat one thing for every meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

STEAK! I am a carnivore.