Meyer Lemon Ice Cream

I have been enjoying a long winter of citrus fruits. Every January, I get a little burst of lemon fever, and it carries me right into the springtime. Here we are, on the very first day of spring, and I have a bit of sweet citrusy heaven to share: Meyer lemon ice cream.

This was my first time ever buying a bag of Meyer lemons. I was mostly surprised by how orange in color they were. I kept reaching into my little bowl of lemons thinking I was going to grab a tangerine. While Meyer lemons are not quite as sour as regular lemons, you could easily substitute regular lemons into this recipe.

I adapted my favorite ice cream recipe to come up with this. It is a custard-based recipe, so it takes a little extra time but the creaminess is so worth it. This ice cream is lemony, but it isn't too tart. The perfect balance of flavors.

Meyer Lemon Ice Cream

• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
• zest from two Meyer lemons
• 2 tbs sugar
• pinch of salt

Whisk the egg yolks briefly in a small bowl. Set a strainer over a heat-proof bowl. Heat the half-and-half and 1/2 cup sugar in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, until sugar dissolves. When hot whisk a little of the hot half-and-half into the egg yolks and then whisk warm yolks into the hot mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not let it boil. Remove from the heat and quickly strain. Add the heavy cream. Cover the mixture and chill.
Once chilled, stir in the lemon juice, zest, and the 2 tbs of sugar. Add salt. Freeze according to your ice-cream maker's instructions. 

Iced Sugar Cookies

This is the essential Christmas cookie. Simple buttery sugar cookies decorated with colorful icing, and just perfect for those festive cookie cutters that you have waiting patiently in the drawer 364 days out of the year.

I am not really one of those people who gets excited about things like Christmas cookies year after year. I mean, of course I want to eat them. But as far as making them, and cutting out cookie upon cookie into reindeers and trees and santas... well, it took having a kid to really see the fun in that. And now I have that kid, all aglow with the magic of Christmas. Thank goodness. It is wonderful to be able to channel her excitement.

 
 For this kind of classic recipe, I find myself turning to my ol' trustworthy Joy of Cooking. I just want something tried and true, that people turn to year after year. And here it is: the steadfast holiday sugar cookie.

 Iced Sugar Cookies

• 3 1/4 all-purpose flour

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 1/2 sticks (20 tbs) unsalted butter, softened

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 tb milk

• 1 tb vanilla

• 1/4 tsp lemon zest

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until well blended. Add egg, milk, vanilla, and zest and beat until mixed.

3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, and stir until smooth. Divide the dough in half, and place each half between two large sheets of wax paper. Roll out to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Keeping the wax paper in place layer the dough onto a baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 375 and grease your cookie sheets. Peel away the top layer of wax paper. Cut out your cookies using your festive cutter of choice. With a spatula, transfer to the cookie sheets, spacing about 1 1/2 inches apart. Roll up the scraps and continue cutting out shapes until all dough is used. (You can refrigerate the dough if it becomes to soft to handle.)

5. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, just until the cookies are lightly golden on top, 6-9 minutes. Remove the cookie sheet to a rack and let stand until cookies firm slightly. Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen cookies depending on cookie cutter size.

Quick Cookie Icing

• 4 cups powdered sugar

• 3-4 tbs water

Stir sugar and water together until smooth, adding more water or sugar as needed for the desired consistency. Add food coloring as you like.  Makes 1 cup.

Popsicles with Roasted Strawberry & Coconut Milk

In search of something creamy and cool, with a seasonal fruit thrown in the mix, we came up with these popsicles.  With only three ingredients – coconut milk, roasted strawberries, and a spoonful of agave for sweetness - these are simple to make and easy to substitute in any seasonal fruit you’ve got on hand.  Not bad in terms of a reasonably healthy treat that makes toddlers literally squeal (loudly) with excitement!

We decided to see what would happen if we attempted to concentrate fresh strawberry flavors from fresh and light to rich and intense.  We love fresh strawberries, but their flavor sometimes seems too muted when you start using them as an ingredient (rather than eating them straight out of hand).  We did it simply by roasting the strawberries for 20 minutes. Sprinkled with a tablespoon of sugar, they develop bubbly brown edges and deep flavors.  Perfect for blending with coconut milk to create a creamy popsicle with lots of strawberry flavor.

To be honest, these popsicles came together as a result of leftovers. I had some coconut milk waiting in the fridge, and I was itching to use it in a summery dessert. We had leftover roasted strawberries from our latest cocktail over at our Whole Foods column, Locally Mixed.  A little agave for sweetness (chosen for its easy-to-stir-in consistency) and we had ourselves four sweet little popsicles! 

Popsicles with Roasted Strawberries & Coconut Milk

• 1/2 c. coconut milk
• 1/2 c. roasted strawberry puree (recipe below)
• 1 Tbsp. agave

Blend all three ingredients together, pour into popsicles molds, and freeze overnight.  Warning:  This recipe only makes about 4 small popsicles; feel free to double it!

 

Roasted Strawberry Puree

• 2 cups roughly chopped strawberries
• Sprinkled with 1 Tbsp sugar

Yield: 1 cup

Roast at 400 for approx 20 minutes or until edges are browning and the pan contains bubbling & caramelizing strawberry juice.  I highly recommend a rimmed baking sheet for this recipe!  Scoop roasted strawberries into a glass jar for storage and mash them with a fork until they fall apart into a rough “puree”.

If you’re looking for another excuse to make a batch of the Roasted Strawberry Puree, here’s one:  Roasted Strawberry, Gin, & Ginger Cocktail!

Applesauce Spice Cake

Fall baking is in full swing around here, and what better to bake in October than a cake scented with apples, cinnamon, and cardamom!  Don’t worry – this isn’t one of those cakes where you substitute applesauce for butter.  There is plenty of butter in this baby – the applesauce is used for its flavor, and the final result is the perfect blend: a comfort food with grown up spices.

My little guy turned 2 at the beginning of October.  One of his favorite foods is applesauce, so after a little thought and cake-recipe-browsing, I decided that a cake made with applesauce, cardamom, and cloves sounded like the perfect balance between what a 2 year old would enjoy and what his parents and their friends would enjoy, too!

The spices come through strong and true, in a very nice way.  The apple is subtle and delicious.  We dusted the top with powdered sugar and then decorated the cake with a little circle of thin apple slices.  Vanilla whipped cream (recipe coming soon!) was the topper. 

 

Applesauce Spice Cake

• 3 c flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 c packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c honey
• 2 eggs
• 2 c applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

This recipe makes one 9 inch tube pan sized cake, or you can divide it between a 9 inch tart pan (not one with a removable bottom) and a small loaf pan – which is what I did.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and honey until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Gradually add flour mixture; beat just until combined. Beat in applesauce.

Spray desired pans with cooking spray. If using a tart pan, consider cutting out a round of parchment paper to line the bottom with, as well. Spoon batter into pan; smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (but slightly wet):

50-60 minutes for tube pan.

45 minutes for tart pan + loaf pan.

Thank you to Martha Stewart for the recipe inspiration!

 

Carrot Muffins

Let me introduce you to the carrot muffin. It’s like a less-sweet carrot cake. My two year old goes crazy for these and I feel pretty happy about it considering the amount of carrot they contain.

I am a major fan of muffins for breakfast. Dulcie has her eggs & toast ritual…but around these parts we like muffins.

These are tasty enough that my left-over hating self (& family) can happily handle making & eating a double batch. Do you realize what that means? They are extra delicious!

So.  I don’t know what else to say.  Therefore…

Here’s the recipe.  Enjoy!

Carrot Muffins

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Pinch fine salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups (ish) of grated carrots (3-4 medium carrots) Preheat oven to 350
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Whisk oil, eggs, and vanilla together in a medium bowl, then add to dry mixture.  Stir until just combined, then add carrots & stir until incorporated. 
Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups and bake at 350 for 28-30 minutes.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

This pizza sauce is so simple to make. We used fresh oregano for its intense spicy flavor, but dried will work too if it’s the wrong time of year for fresh. There are lots of other herbs, plus garlic, in this baby. It knocks the socks off of store bought pizza sauce (which I always think is too sugary).

Oregano and tomatoes: the two most important ingredients in pizza sauce. Aren’t they fresh and pretty?

If you’ve been growing oregano you will probably discover that it’s been crawling around down low under every other plant in the garden, secretly attempting to put down little roots.  Almost as bad as mint!


I love when I can report that a homemade ingredient is less expensive (in addition to better tasting) than its store-bought counterpart.  If you’ve got a stockpile of dried herbs in the pantry, the cost to make this sauce is about equal to a 28 oz can of tomatoes.  What’s that…$1.50?  Not bad.

Psst, check out our homemade pizza dough recipe, too!

Homemade Pizza Sauce

Thank you to Annie’s Eats for the recipe inspiration.

• 28 oz can of diced or crushed tomatoes
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1.5 tsp fresh oregano (or 1 tsp dried)
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (or less…1 tsp made this sauce too spicy for the toddlers!)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to achieve a simmer.  Allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until it is no longer watery and instead becomes thick and saucy.  Transfer to a food process and run for 30 seconds to create a smoother (but not totally smooth) sauce.  Store in glass mason jars in the fridge.

If you’re interested in canning this pizza sauce, just add lemon juice to the jars prior to adding the sauce.  More info here, or in Ashley English’s book Canning & Preserving.

Multigrain Crackers

Cooking for toddlers is a frustrating endeavor.  You put in some serious thought, make something you’re sure they’ll love…and they chew it a little bit, then spit it on the floor.  But I think I’ve finally figured out a trick.  Things in cracker form are almost always accepted, and maybe even begged for. 

Remember our whole wheat cheddar crackers?  The ones that made random, unknown toddlers tug on my pants and ask “more? more?”   These multigrain crackers seem to work the same magic!

These are even better, though, because they are easily transformed to an adult snack.  Cheese, a fresh basil leaf, and a quartered cherry tomato creates a perfect summer snack for late afternoon.

These have a lot of texture from the oats and whole wheat flour, then a little crunch from the corn meal.  Make sure you roll the crackers out as THINLY as possible for the most cracker-like experience.  Our thicker crackers tasted a little more like pie crust than crackers.

Multigrain Crackers

• 3/4 whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c finely ground corn meal
• 1/4 c oats
• 1 Tbs. sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. paprika
• 4 Tbs. cold butter, cut into small cubes
• ¼ c. water

Preheat oven to 400.

Start with the oats in a food processor and pulse until the oats are grainy sand textured. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and pulse to combine.  Sprinkle the cold butter cubes, then turn on the processor and drizzle in the water.  The dough should pull together into a ball; add slightly more water if necessary.

Roll out the dough ON a cookie sheet that’s been lined with parchment or foil.  This way you don’t have to move the crackers after they’re cut out. Roll the dough as THINLY as you possibly can.  This is really the trick to the recipe – roll them thinly. I found it was easier to roll the dough in two batches – working with smaller amounts of dough helped me roll it more thinly.  Use a pizza cutter to score the rolled out dough into squares of 1 or 1.5”

Bake at 400 for 5-10 minutes.  After 5 minutes begin checking – the crackers on the outer edges may finish first.  Remove them and return the center crackers to finish baking.  They're done when they turn golden brown on the edges – it happens fast, so watch closely to learn how your oven treats theses crackers.

Thank you to Kitchen Stewardship for the recipe inspiration!

Berry & Cream Striped Popsicles

Behold – beautiful berry and cream popsicles. The bright color and taste of fresh strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries alternating with sweet cream.  And they’re patriotic to boot.  We’ll definitely be whipping these out at our Fourth of July picnic!

We made the berry stripes with fresh strawberries and blueberries, blended and sweetened with just a little vanilla sugar.  The cream layer is delicious full fat Greek yogurt, sweetened with a touch of honey and then thinned to a pourable consistency with cream.  CREAM!  You have to try these. 

The more stripes you manage, the more pretty they become. 

And of course, these are a major hit with the toddler set. All the things they like best, combined in a cool and portable (if a bit messy…) package.

Once they get the hang of how licking is done, they’ll be popsicle fans for life.  We strongly advise outdoor eating.  Seems like this will be critical for at least a few years?

Berry & Cream Striped Popsicles

Yield: about 8 popsicles, depending on the size of your molds

Berry Stripes:

• 1 quart (about 4 cups) fresh berries.  3 cups if you use frozen (but thawed) berries.
• 2 Tbsp vanilla sugar or honey

For the berry stripes we simply blended fresh berries with a little vanilla sugar.  We learned a few things over the course of our experimentation:

• The liquid available in the fresh berries made blending occur very easily. 
• If you choose to use frozen berries (which taste just as good), be sure to let them thaw before blending.  There are two reasons for this:  First, you want liquid to be available to aid in the blending process.  Second, you want the blended berries to be thin enough for pouring into the molds.  They’ll be too thick if they’re still frozen.
• Finally, we recommend your reduce the quantity  of frozen berries used (from 4 cups to 3 cups) because they tend to shrivel a bit and lose some of their volume during the freeze/thaw process.

Cream Stripes:

• 1 1/2 cups full fat Greek yogurt
• 3 Tbsp cream; basically just enough to thin the yogurt out to a pouring-consistency
• 3 Tbsp honey

The main thing you’re doing here is sweetening the Greek yogurt, and then thinning it out enough with cream so that you can easily pour it into popsicle molds.  We chose to use Greek yogurt rather than regular to make the cream strips as creamy as possible, rather than icy or grainy.

Assembly Notes:

For assembly, simple pour alternating stripes of berries and cream into your popsicle molds.  Allow each stripe layer to freeze for at least 30 minutes.
When you’re 2/3 of the way done, it’s time to add the popsicle stick.  Add a layer and freeze for only 15 minutes, or until slushy.  Stick the popsicle stick in and freeze completely, then carry on with the layers. I had the best luck inserting the popsicle stick into the cream layer – it’s easier to push into when semi-frozen.
If you’re doing thin stripes (like we did on the blueberry & cream popsicles), it is best to insert the stick when you’re only 1/2 way done rather than waiting till 2/3.  The thinner stripes have more of a tendency to come apart as the popsicle thaws, so it’s nice to have the popsicle stick farther in there to help hold things together.

Homemade French Fries

After we’d successfully made our own ketchup, we knew we had to tackle french fries next. 

Although our toddlers are happy to dip just about anything in ketchup, we can’t say the same for ourselves.  Pretzel sticks and ketchup? Nice work on thinking outside of the box and not being constrained by societal norms, but no thank you.  French fries and ketchup?  Sign me up!

Over the course of our research we learned of a few different methods for creating oven roasted french fries.  You can parboil the fries before roasting. You can soak them in water. Or, you can just cut them up and roast them in oil.
We opted for soaking the raw, cut fries in cold water for 15 minutes, draining the cloudy starchy water, then rinsing the fries very well.  The final product is not quite a deep-fried fry, but they’re also a far cry from plain old roasted potatoes.  I think the thinly cut strips, along with the soaking in cold water to remove starch, are the reasons these work so well.  And of course, the homemade ketchup was just icing on the cake!

Homemade French Fries

• 4 large russet potatoes
  
• 1/4 c. peanut or canola oil (chosen for its high smoke point)
  
• generous sprinkle of salt

Preheat oven to 450. 
Cut the potatoes into 1/4” strips.  We found the thinness did a lot to prevent these from tasting like regular roasted potato chunks.
Toss the cut fries into a bowl of cold water as they are cut.  Let soak for 15 minutes, then drain away the cloudy starchy water.  Rinse very well, then dump the wet fries onto a dish towel and blot them dry.  If you were to roast too-wet fries they’d steam instead of roast, and be mushy in the end. Ew.
Toss the dried fries with the 1/4 c. oil, then spread them in a single layer – we used two large rimmed baking sheets, that we spread thinly with oil.  We’d recommend against using un-rimmed cookie sheets…you don’t want to start a grease fire!  Sprinkle generously with salt.
Roast for 15 minutes, then retrieve the baking sheets and toss the fries around with a spatula.  Return to the oven for another 15 minutes or so (you may need an extra 5 to 10 minutes -- one of our batches required more time, possibly because of the type of cookie sheet), until the fries are golden brown and blistered in spots.

So, does anyone else out there have any hard won french fry making advice?

Homemade Corn Tortillas with Toddlers {Kid-Friendly Food}

Our friend Diana had the fabulous idea of making tortillas with the toddlers last week. She owns a lovely little tortilla press and I can now see the allure of having one of these bad boys in your kitchen arsenal.

I'm generally opposed to kitchen equipment that is only used for a single purpose, but this tortilla press is neat, compact, and pretty too!

Making tortillas is totally old hat to Diana who whipped them up like it was nothing. "How long do they cook?" I'd ask. "Until they look done," she'd say. I'm a slave to the recipe and timer, but she has natural cook's intuition.

The toddlers loved watching the prepping of the tortillas. What could be more alluring than little balls of dough? And look, now they are being flattened with this neato contraption! Sweet. More than just a little dough was sampled along the way.

Fortunately, their appetites weren't completely spoiled and they had some tortillas post-griddling as well. The rustic and somewhat chewy tortillas were a perfect vehicle for all those toddler faves: avocado, beans, tomato, cheese. This was my girl's first time sampling queso fresco and, no surprise, she loved it.

Homemade Corn Tortillas
-Mix 2 cups of Masa Harina with 1.5 cups of warm water. Salt to taste.
-Knead for a minute or two adding more water if dough seems too dry.
-Roll into 1.5-in balls.
-Place ball into tortilla press (lined with plastic wrap to prevent sticking to press). Press down on press. Tortilla should be about 5 inches in diameter. If you don't have a tortilla press, you can also roll it between sheets of waxed paper with a rolling pin.
-Place on pre-heated griddle or pan for 1-2 minutes each side.

March Toddler Picnic {Kid-Friendly Food}

Over the past few months we’ve been experimenting with throwing little dinner parties for our toddlers.  At first it seemed like a terrifying idea:  you know, herding cat-like toddlers, trying to get them to sit down at the same time, eat their food instead of throwing it at each other, etc, etc. 
The good news is we are well on our way to coming up with some ideas to make a toddler dinner party something that is fun for everyone involved.  I’d actually call it more of a toddler picnic rather than a dinner party because no formal gowns were involved but trucks, dirt, and dogs did find their way into the event…

It was a beautiful perfect sunny spring day in Colorado – 70 degrees!  We knew we had to eat outside & watch the sun set behind the mountains. 

The setting sun only burned our retinas for a few minutes:

In the way of food we had lots of little bowls of finger friendly foods.  Strawberries, cheese cubes, hummus, and clementines are always a hit.  Assemble-your-own deviled eggs were on the menu as well; I made these mostly for the moms but we all shared bites with our toddlers.  Actually that’s not completely true – I tried to share bites with my baby but he craned his neck and looked as far away from me and my egg as possible every time I made an attempt.  So I ate lots of eggs all by myself, and they were delicious.

We made a few more exotic toddler dishes as well.  Such as firm tofu marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, garlic, ginger, and a little honey.  It was so good…and two out of the three toddlers ate it.  I consider that a success!

We also cubed and roasted some winter squash, then drizzled it with a sweet balsamic fig reduction.  The babies seemed to appreciate the small brightly colored squares, and the balsamic reduction was sweet and tangy which lured them in even more. I am currently hoarding the leftovers to use in a salad with french lentils, arugula, goat cheese, and figs. 

Another key to having fun at a toddler picnic was to let them roam around a bit.  Isaac enjoyed perching on this little rock ledge and nibbling cheese cubes.  Then playing with trucks and dirt for a while before returning to load up with more cheese.

Meanwhile, the moms hung out at the picnic table eating, chatting, and keeping an eye on the babies. 

Babies returned to the table frequently to test out their sophisticated manners and sit with us like little adults.

Mmmm, strawberries!

But the sophisticated manners only extend so far…as you can see by the half-eaten strawberry thrown down on the tablecloth.  Which reminds me of another key to our success – we didn’t really use plates or utensils.  We had them available but they didn’t get used.  The finger foods plus roaming while eating made them basically obsolete which worked out well in the end because of its simplicity.

The friendly dog was visited, and possibly slipped some snacks.

And then the three little toddler friends rewarded us by being SO EXTREMELY CUTE our heads almost exploded. 

The picnic was so much fun, we can’t wait to keep this up all summer long!