All posts tagged lemon

lemon almond cake. (flourless)

by shannon on May 3, 2013 in desserts with 26 Comments

lemon almond cake.

Admittedly, this is not my best photo. Simple cakes get a raw deal in that they are so elegant and beautiful in real life, but often difficult (for me) to capture on film. I promise you, it is gorgeous in real life. 

In my quest to learn more about Jewish holidays and the foods associated with them, I committed myself to making something for each (major? I’m a non-Jewish person, so I don’t know how to classify these) holiday. Since I am new to this, all of my offerings have been after the actual holiday has occurred. First, there was the great hamantaschen experiment for Purim; I got so caught up in oil-based versus butter-based hamantaschen and homemade jam fillings that those didn’t show up until the week after Purim. Now, here we are at my contribution for Passover, which has come and gone, and evidently we’re just days away from the holiday which falls 7 weeks after Passover, so it’s safe to say that I’m tardy in posting this one too. Please forgive me: I’ve decided to expand my Jewish food exploration to two years in the hopes that next year I’ll be ahead of schedule. Continue reading →

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monday bites: mini lemon tarts.

by shannon on February 11, 2013 in desserts with 20 Comments

mini lemon tarts.

So I spent the last 4 days on muscle relaxers. On accident. Here’s my story, and then we’ll bake something, I promise.

I had an appointment to discuss a resurgence of headaches with my doctor, and as luck would have it, I happened upon a sinus infection just before my scheduled visit. Went in Thursday, had to wait an hour and a half due to some sort of random emergency earlier in the day, and found out that my doctor’s office was having one of those comedic “everything is going wrong” sort of days.

Warning: this is not a good time to discuss multiple events with your doctor, because neither of you are 100% functional. I ended up finally seeing her during what was to be her lunch hour, and you know how people get when they haven’t eaten anything. Moving on. Continue reading →

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monday bites: raspberry lemon buttermilk muffins.

by shannon on January 21, 2013 in breakfast, brunch with 34 Comments

raspberry lemon buttermilk muffins.

I’ve switched obsessions; raspberry is my thing this week, it seems. Call it a mixed berry slump; I feel like I haven’t had decent berries around in forever, and I miss them. Summer berries are my favorite, and although you can find berries in the store right now, they leave a lot to be desired. Thankfully, frozen raspberries are a great substitute, especially when you feel a deep urge to swirl some through ice cream (which you’ll see later this week) or bake them into muffins. Continue reading →

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lemon ginger fizzballs.

by shannon on January 3, 2013 in drinks with 17 Comments

lemon ginger fizzballs.

So far, in 2013, I have:

  1. Cleaned my house
  2. Re-cleaned my house
  3. Stared at the open fridge for an innumerable amount of hours
  4. Stared at my laptop for an innumerable amount of hours
  5. Eaten a few lemon bars
  6. Ordered new yoga pants and raided J. Crew (sales, people; sales)
  7. Wandered around aimlessly
  8. Downloaded some new music for my “to-the-death!” workouts, which begin next week
  9. Joined Twitter/become fascinated by Twitter in the way that cats are fascinated by those laser pointer things
  10. Attempted to write approximately 15 different posts
  11. Successfully written zero posts.

That’s right, everyone; the holidays have done me in (temporarily.) It’s almost comical how much I can’t form a complete sentence. My photos look like they were taken by a drunken sea turtle. I blame my OCD-ish need for a schedule; my mom and my sister came in for Thanksgiving, then left, then came back again for Christmas and New Years. Between visits, I ran around finishing up decorating, present-obtaining, and wrapping. That’s like a whole month without my routine intact. Do you know what that does to a person who likes to do the same exact things every day? Continue reading →

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lemon poppyseed ginger biscotti.

by shannon on December 21, 2012 in breakfast, brunch, desserts with 6 Comments

‘Tis the season for giving, right? I mean, I gave away my votes to the Wee One yesterday during Ginger 2012, and today I gave Dana over at Whisks & Words a guest post (my very first one, ever); she’s doing a 12 Days of Cookies series, and I am honored to be day nine. What’s more, it’s a recipe I have only because Movita Beaucoup gave me my first-ever copy of Canadian Living Magazine this year; a tradition I hope we continue, because it is filled to the brim with fantastic holiday baking ideas, including these little biscotti treats.

I’ve successfully completed all my cookie deadlines, and am now focusing on appetizers for various weekend parties I’m invited to. I’ll be sharing some of these with you in a few days, but in the meantime, you should relax. Kick back. Do a little pre-holiday chilling. Maybe even make my pre-holiday chill-worthy Lemon Poppyseed Ginger Biscotti. That’s what I made for Dana, and the post is right here.

To those of you who voted for me or my sweet Wee One’s ginger house yesterday, you’re wonderful; even though she didn’t win, we had the best time watching all day to see how well she was doing (for much of the day, she was in second place, and that’s pretty big considering she has a tiny house covered in cereal.) So I thank you; it made my day and hers.

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earl grey tea + lemon bars.

by shannon on July 13, 2012 in desserts with 20 Comments

Summer vacation (for me) is almost over for me. I’m okay with that. I think of vacation as a time to relax, regroup, and reorganize for the coming (rest of the) year. Every year when I come home from vacation, I’m totally psyched for fall. Fall is my season; I love – rather, am in love – with the weather, the scent, the crispness, the mindset, the everything of autumn. I love the chill the air takes in the afternoon. I see kids back in school and I wish I were there also (nerd alert). As much as I enjoy summer for what it is, I find myself getting restless for cooler temperatures. The only drawback I can think of about the return of fall is this: I cease to make things from lemons. Continue reading →

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farmers’ market monday: summer lemon-vegetable risotto.

by shannon on June 25, 2012 in mains with 6 Comments

People, I’m getting ready for my summer vacation. In fact, I leave tomorrow. Today will be spent cleaning, packing, unpacking and re-packing, but mostly, it’s going to be spent trying to make sure I don’t forget anything. This is a pipe dream; I will forget something. It may be big, it may be small, but it will happen. However, it happens less when I spend time actually thinking about what I’m doing, which is why I made you risotto this week. Continue reading →

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lemon drop cakes.

by shannon on March 28, 2012 in brunch, desserts with 30 Comments

I woke up this weekend to a cloudy sky and a little bit of a headache. Nothing major, but one of those ones that’s just irritating enough to make you feel like taking it easy would be a good move versus, say, deep-cleaning your closets. And I love cloudy days for doing things at a good, steady, unhurried pace. There’s so much pressure on sunny days, don’t you think? Sunny days make me feel like a loser for staying inside. Sunny days make me feel like I should cast aside any thought of watching reality TV and instead leap into a full mountain-frolic like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music’s opening credits. Sun demands you not waste its time. Clouds? Way more easygoing.  Continue reading →

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lemon buttermilk cookies.

by shannon on March 16, 2012 in desserts with 4 Comments

You may say to yourself “my my! aren’t those some jaunty little asterisks! I wonder who makes punctuation cookie cutters?” Answer: no one. This is a shamrock cookie cutter, circa (like almost every kitchen purchase I make) 1950′s and was in a box with other “holiday” cutters made to span the whole year. And this, my friends, is a little extra St. Patrick’s Day cheer for you. The irish coffee blondies were sophisticated; these, quite obviously, are not. But they are a happy little cookie, and today they’re serving as vehicle for a little royal icing tutorial. Continue reading →

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