Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie is one of the first recipes I can remember learning how to make.  Growing up my family had a lemon tree in our backyard and my mom would often make lemon meringue pie, one of my favorite childhood desserts!

I came across this recipe in an old notebook of recipes I started keeping in high school.  The notebook was full of old favorites, holiday cookie recipes, and newspaper clippings.  My tastes have changed a lot since then, so I discarded much of the old notebook, but the lemon meringue pie is here to stay.

Bake your pie shell and zest your lemons! It's time to make PIE!

Ingredients for Pie Filling

1 1/2 C sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

3 Tbsp all purpose flour

Dash salt

1 1/2 C hot water

3 slightly beaten egg yolks

2 Tbsp butter or margarine

1/2 tsp grated lemon peel

1/3 C lemon juice

9" baked pastry shell, cooled

In saucepan mix sugar, cornstarch, flour, and salt.  Gradually add hot water, stir constantly.  Cook and stir over medium high heat till mixture boils.  Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Stir a small amout of hot mixture into yolks, then return to hot mixture.  Bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes, stir constantly.  Add butter and lemon peel.

Slowly add lemon juice, mix well. 

Pour into pastry shell.

Now time to make the MERINGUE!!!

Meringue Ingredients

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

6 Tbsp sugar

Beat egg whites with vanilla and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.

Gradually add sugar, beating until stiff and glossy peaks form and all sugar is dissolved.

Spread Meringue over hot filling, sealing to the edge of pastry.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread

My mom makes corned beef and cabbage, but once a year, around the time of St. Patrick's day.  This year I offered to bring the Irish soda bread to accompany the feast.

I used the recipe from this blog:

                       http://www.rotinrice.com/2010/03/irish-soda-bread-and-irish-breakfast-tea/

I have done alot of baking, but have never really made bread before.

Soda bread does not use any yeast and is a very simple recipe!

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp caraway seeds
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp butter
½ cup raisins
1 cup buttermilk

I had high hopes for this recipe since I spent $6.50 on caraway seeds...

It came out perfectly and everyone loved it!

Preheat Oven to 375

In a large bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, caraway seeds, and sugar.

Use two knives to mix butter into dry ingredients until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.

Add raisins.

Then add in buttermilk and combine.  Knead dough just a couple times to form dough.

Place dough on parchment lined baking sheet and pat into an 8" circle. 

Dust with flour and cut a cross in the top about 1/2" deep.

Bake at 370 for 35 minutes.

Place on a wire rack to cool.



Cherry Almond Cookie

Cherry Almond Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie

The basic oatmeal cookie recipe I borrowed from:

http://dreamaboutfood.blogspot.com/2011/01/cherry-white-chocolate-chip-oatmeal.html

I then added, subtracted, and forgot a few ingredients.

This is the list of ingredients I ended up using:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs

1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup dried cherries

1 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

For half of the cookies I just used almonds and cherries.  Then I decided to add the chocolate chips to the second half of the cookie dough.

With an electric mixer combine butter and brown sugar.  Then add eggs one at a time and mix in the almond extract.

Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. 

Then use mixer to blend together dry mixture with egg and sugar mixture.

Then with a spoon fold in the oats, cherries, chopped almonds, and chocolate chips.

Drop Tbps size spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Then cool on a wire rack.

Favorite Breakfast Spot

For a while now Super Cocina has been my favorite breakfast spot.

I always get the chilaquiles

Steve got the lluevos rancheros

These two plates plus two sodas= $11.18

Super Cocina is located at 3627 University Ave.

Sushi How To

Making sushi is a time consuming process with lots of little steps along the way.  There is also alot of different ingredients required.  But when you have the finished product in front of you it is totally worth it!  The following is a step by step guide for making California Rolls...

First step is the rice!  You need short grain sushi rice, regular rice will NOT work!  The short grain rice will become very sticky when it is cooked.

In my opinion a rice cooker is essential and a good solid investment.  I use this bad boy ALL the time!  Just add rice and water and turn it on and the rice cooker does all the work for you.

Steve's sushi rice recipe is 1 Cup rice to 1 1/2 Cups Water

While the rice is cooking you can gather the other supplies you will need and make the wasabi. 

Wasabi comes powdered in a cute little tin.

Avoid eye contact!

Mix powder with water adding as needed until a play-doh like consistency is obtained.

When the rice is done cooking empty it out into another bowl for it to cool.  Cool for about 20-25 minutes.  You can mix it around a little bit while it is cooling, but don't mix it too much or it might get mushy!  When rice is cooled down add 2-3 Tbsp. rice vinegar.

Here's some of the supplies you will need!  From left to right: small dishes for soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame seeds, sushi rolling mats, flat wooden spoon for rice spreading, plastic wrap, sriracha sauce, soy sauce

For California Rolls you need: cucumber cut into matchsticks, imitation crab meat, and avacado.

The seaweed aka nori comes in sheets.  To make bite size sushi I use half a sheet.

Fold in half to create a crease and then carefully cut in half

Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap on your sushi mat.  Place sushi shiny side up.

Using wooden spoon carefully spread rice onto seaweed.  The rice will be very sticky so it is helpful to have a bowl of water nearby to dip the spoon into.  When rice is evenly spread in a thin layer sprinkle on the sesame seeds.

Ok. Then you carefully lift up the rice coated seaweed and flip it upside down so the rice is now face on the plastic wrap.  Arrange ingredients in a strip in the center.

Then using the sushi mat, start rolling the sushi up.  This part is the hardest to explain!  It usually takes a few trys before getting it right the first time you attempt this.  Usually you fold it over into itself once, squeeze it, lift mat and plastic wrap and then fold it over again.

Then with the sushi still rolled up in the plastic, use a sharp knife to cut the roll into pieces.

Remove plastic and place sushi on serving plate.

Soon you will have a plate full of delicious, fresh sushi!

Serve with soy sauce, wasabi and sriracha.



Oh so Easy Hummus

I couldn't think of anything simpler.
This recipe was taught to me by my friend Zaki.
Garbanzo beans are also called chickpeas.  Sometimes I think there should be dudepeas to keep the chickpeas company...Anyways, moving right along...

Ingredients

1 can garbanzo beans

1 Tbsp. Tahini

1-2 tsp. garlic

Juice 1 lemon

You will need a food processor or blender.

Blend until smooth!

Serve with pita bread