Making Freshly Squeezed Lemonade With Leftover Baking Lemons

I adore lemons so I use them frequently for cooking and baking but inevitably end up with 3/4's of a perfectly good lemon that desperately needs a purpose.  Intro music...freshly squeezed lemonade.

Here is what a typical "used" lemon looks like for me.  No zest (poor thing) and barely any juice to speak of; its perfect!

How To:

1. Slice a few slices of lemon for garnish.
2. Squeeze juice out of lemon being careful to remove the pits.
3. Do not discard outer casing but throw them into the pitcher.
4. Make a separate mixture of sugar water (here I used 1 teaspoon sugar for every 1 cup water).  Usually I use Splenda but its currently on my shopping list.
5. Add sugar water to pitcher and top with ice and one garnish.  This top garnish makes the pitcher a little more eye pleasing as opposed to the destroyed lemon halves.

I like to put a lemon flower into the bottom of the glasses before serving.  To do this you make one slit in the slice and pull the ends together one on top of the other as if you were making a swirl.  Wedge it into the bottom of the glass.

Play with the concentration of the sugar until you find your desired sweetness...the above is my personal preference (not too sweet but not terribly tangy).

I hope you enjoy and never discard a 3/4 lemon again!

xox

Dish

Finally A Great Pound Cake Recipe; Thanks Martha

Now I'm a huge Martha fan but I will admit that she doesn't always nail it...but with this recipe she has knocked it out of the park!  I love love freshly baked warm pound cake with a scoop of ice cream and perhaps a side of berries.  In fact if I am really on the ball when we have dinner guests I pop this into the oven just as we sit to eat and then serve after its rested.  You know you have done well when there is silence as people enjoy their food.  

I found this treasure in the Everyday Food (Martha Stewart Magazine) issue May 2011. 

As we've discussed in the past the creaming of the sugar and butter is critical here so let that mixer run at full speed for as long as it takes you to get everything else prepared.  The mixture should be light and fluffy before you move on in the recipe. 

Now I always play around with flavouring this recipe but more often than not I am adding lemon and I promise you it does not disappoint!  I add 2 teaspoons of lemon zest and 1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice when I add the vanilla. 

Martha also suggests a brown sugar and pecan cake, berry-cornmeal cake and double chocolate cake to jazz up this old faithful but if you prefer plain Jane you'll still love it.

Give it a roll, go ahead and wow them!

See you Monday.
xox
Dish

Valentine Cranberry & Lemon Scones

I love baking and there is nothing more perfect than waking the family to the smell of freshly baked goodies.  This recipe I got from Martha Stewart but as usual I made changes based on what flavours we preferred over the original. 

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup flour                                                         
1/4 cup granulated sugar             
1 tbsp baking powder                                            
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy milk (I used homo milk)                      
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice (from 2 lemons)                          
1 lg egg yolk                            
3/4 cup dried cranberries                                        
Coarse sanding sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and move the racks so they are as far as possible away from the bottom element.  Mix dry ingredients together then cut in butter with a knife and fork stopping when there are a few pea sized pieces of butter.  Photo 1. Add milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, yolk and stir until just combined (photo 2).  Photo 3. Put dough onto parchment paper and flatten with your hands until it is ~1 inch thick.  Use a cookie cutter to shape the scones but don't cut through the cranberries, simple remove or push them farther into the scone.  4.  Sprinkle with coarse sugar and bake for 13-15 minutes  Rotate pans half-way. 

Valentine gift idea....wrap these up (above box from Creative Bag) with a tea bag and give to those you care about. 

Hope you enjoy,
Dish