Food Lush

My Favorite Lemon Bars

Editor's note: For our last week at Food Lush, I've asked the writers to share both a favorite post by another writer, from over the last three years, and a favorite post of their own. You'll see these posts linked to at the top of their new post for the week. Enjoy a stroll down Lush memory lane!

By Julie

I really wanted to do justice to Food Lush in this final post, to leave something at the finish line that not only made me and the lovely editors proud, but something that could make you happy.  I have gotten so much joy from being a part of this site, and I am thankful for every moment, every word, and every one of you out there.

In looking back, the most memorable post for me was Erica's Homemade Childhood Favorites, because, as a mom, I am always on the lookout for foods my kids will want to eat that doesn't come from a box. This one hit me square between the eyes.

And as for my posts, my favorite is probably my recollection of making my daughter's birthday cake, because of the gargantuan effort it took and the enormous number of mistakes I made along the way. But mostly because it was so fun in the end. Just like today!

***

Fun fact: I was named after the character Julie on Days of Our Lives. It should come as no surprise then that one of my guilty pleasures is watching the occasional soap opera (OK, maybe more than occasional, ahem, especially in college, but I digress), and perhaps perusing a magazine on the subject now and again. Today, I share my (minor, totally manageable, slightly embarrassing) addiction for your benefit, because, years ago, I found this fabulous recipe in Soap Opera Digest.

I present the most delicious lemon bars (or squares, depending on the shape you cut), courtesy of Suzanne Rogers, Maggie on Days. I've made these many times for my family and friends, and even some of my fellow Lush writers, and they are always a hit. This is my go-to non-chocolate dessert, a little taste of summer any time of the year.

Lemon Squares

Ingredients the First:

1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 pound salted, softened butter

Mix together and press into a 9 X 13-inch dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. (Depending on your oven, check after 20 minutes.)

Ingredients the Second:

4 eggs
4 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is good, but regular ol' bottled juice works just as well)
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Mix these ingredients while the crust bakes. Remove crust from the oven.  While the crust is still hot, pour the new mixture on top and bake for 25 more minutes. (Again, depending on your oven, check after 20 minutes.) Remove from oven and let cool in dish. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. After it has cooled completely, cut into desired portions.

(Photo Credit: en.wikipedia.org)

Healthy But Still Decadent Pumpkin Bread

By Julie

So, it's winter. Fall is over, Christmas is over, New Year's is over, and we all feel that tug to kick off this young year being virtuous and healthy. Blurgh. I still want tasty, comforting treats and I don't want to feel guilty about that.

I need something sweet and cakey that has something - anything - good going for it. This pumpkin bread fits the bill. It's a recipe I've tweaked over the years, making healthful substitutions wherever I could, and I'm always looking for new ways to bump up the nutritional value. Plus, it's pretty yummy. I hope you like it.

Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cup pumpkin

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 egg whites

1/4 cup applesauce

1/3 cup plain yogurt (or vanilla yogurt – whatever you have on hand)

1 tsp. vanilla (use 1/2 tsp. if you are using flavored yogurt)

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup golden raisins (optional)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Combine sugar and egg whites completely. Add pumpkin, applesauce, yogurt, and vanilla and mix to combine. Add remaining ingredients and mix into batter.

Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes until it can pass the toothpick test.

{Photo Credit: me}

New Kitchen Tools: the HAPIfork

By Julie

I come by my love of gadgets honestly - I get it from my father. And that lucky guy (along with my mom) got to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. Every shiny, new thingamajig thought up and produced was on display, including a nifty little gizmo called the HAPIfork.

The HAPIfork is an upgrade on the utensil you've been using all your life, updated for the 21st century: it tracks data. It can tell you if you've been eating too fast by measuring the time between bites, how much you're eating from the number of bites you take, and how long your meal has taken. Then, it syncs with your computer or smartphone to show you how you eat. It's fascinating. It's a smartfork.

I'm not sure I need to spend $99 on an eating implement I already have in my house just to see how fast I shovel food into my mouth, but I can certainly see its merits if I needed a little help in the food tracking department. Will the HAPIfork take over the culinary and diet worlds? We shall see.

(Photo Credit: hapilabs.com)

Spice Up Your Oven Fries

By Julie

I was grocery shopping the other day, absentmindedly looking for something new and fun to jazz up dinner when I happened upon this:

In the spirit of full disclosure, my oven fries have never been anything special, no matter what I've tried. I have yet to find that perfect crispy-fluffy texture, and the flavor is usually blah. So I picked up a packet and figured with an investment of 89 cents, it wasn't too risky to give this a spin.

I've got to hand it to Concord Foods - this seasoning makes one tasty potato. Bacon is the significant flavor, and even though I got barely a hint of chive, I was OK with that because it highlighted the other flavors perfectly. I couldn't stop eating them.

My eight year old son cleaned his plate, but my four year old daughter wouldn't touch them. In fairness, since she didn't taste anything, her opinion doesn't really count. And my husband ate every wedge that was left. So I'm calling this a win for my family.

Concord also makes dip, soup, and salsa seasoning blends, and I think I will be checking them out in the near future. Such a nice little kick for not a lot of money.

(Photo from Concord Foods)

Cookie Making Quirks

By Julie

In planning (as Nora mentioned, only 4! baking days left until Christmas) the bacchanalia that is Christmas cookie baking, I start by making sure I have the basic ingredients on hand - flour, sugar, eggs, butter. Wait, butter?  Or margarine? But what if the old family recipe calls for oleo, a fairly bizarre name for Crisco (but so much better than lard, which it easily could have been in an old family recipe)? There are decisions to be made here.

It always makes me feel better if I can find a way to lighten up a recipe, so if I can get away with substituting light margarine or even applesauce for butter or oil, I will. Sometimes this fails spectacularly, but most of the time, it works just fine. (Except for cupcakes. If you are making cupcakes in those little paper cups, applesauce will make the cake stick like you super-glued them.) But in a few cases, I have particular preferences. Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies really need to have butter (or light butter if you have that and it shaves a little of the guilt off). Snickerdoodles taste best with butter flavored Crisco. I cannot give you a reason why other than that I have experimented over the years and these have yielded the best results (they also disappeared the fastest).

I wish you all wonderful luck and perfect humidity for all your holiday treat-making endeavors. I also hope you don't make my mistake of mixing up baking soda and baking powder and coming out with flat hockey pucks that will break your teeth. Enjoy!

Do you have any rituals or funky tricks for holiday baking?

If Loving Cinnamon Tea Is Wrong, I Don't Want to Be Right

By Julie

Earlier this year, I talked about Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice tea, and I still love it so much. But it’s a) somewhat pricey for tea, and b) hard to find. Yesterday, I went to the new Trader Joe’s in my area (finally!), and lo and behold, I found this:

 

Cinnamon Tempest tastes almost exactly like my beloved Hot Cinnamon Spice at – get this – half the price. If I had to split hairs, Trader Joe’s version is slightly less sweet straight up, but that’s something you can adjust on your own. It is simply perfect for this time of the year.

A word of warning: this seems to be a seasonal item, so it might disappear after the holidays, but you never know. In any case, if you can get to a Trader Joe’s, get this tea. And some Candy Cane Joe Joes while you’re at it.

(Photo: Trader Joe's)

Maui Eats: Leoda’s Kitchen and Pie Shop

By Julie

While we were planning our trip to Maui, our local paper happened to run a spread on the island, including a list of their favorite places to eat. One of those spots was Leoda’s Kitchen and Pie Shop, which we noticed on our drive to the hotel from the airport, and we made a note to check it out.

Leoda’s is a tiny little restaurant on the side of the road that winds from central Maui to the western side of the island. They have a terrific selection of sandwiches and burgers, but where they really shine is with their pies, both sweet and savory. I tried the mushroom pie for lunch, as I’m in love with anything that contains mushrooms and cheese, and it did not disappoint. The crust was a dense, flaky, buttery wrapping around the flavorful filling, and while it’s billed as a hand held pie, I highly recommend using a fork. My husband would also like to add that his ahi tuna sandwich (a special of the day) was one of the top meals he had the whole week. (I took a bite, and he’s not wrong.)

But if you do nothing else on a visit to Maui, please got to Leoda’s for the macadamia nut chocolate praline pie. I mean, just look at this –

 

It is simply the very best pie I have ever tasted, and pumpkin pie and I have been best buds for a long time. This is so spectacular that I’m going to describe it in detail.  The pie starts with a chocolate cookie crumb crust and is filled with chocolate custard that is both airy and fudgy. The whipped cream topping is dusted with macadamia nut chunks and shaved chocolate. And then there’s the surprise in the middle.  Between the chocolate and the crust is a hidden layer of praline caramel that makes eating this dessert a mind blowing experience. We spent a good portion of the rest of our trip trying to figure out ways to bring home this pie is vast quantities. We failed, but it gives us good reason to go back as soon as possible.

For Maui, this place is reasonably priced and oh so delicious. I’m sure if we’d gone there earlier in the trip, we would have gone back every day. No matter where you’re staying on the island, this is a place you need to check out.

{Photo Credit: yelp.com}

Maui Eats: Longhi's

By Julie

We ate a lot of fantastic food in Maui, a trip we took to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, but I’d like to start with a restaurant where we began and where we finished: Longhi’s. My parents suggested this place, and I’d read about it, so we knew we’d have to give it a try.

Longhi’s is billed as an Italian restaurant, but we never have Italian food there, so I can’t comment. The food looked delicious though, so I don’t think it would be a poor choice.  However, I can recommend both dessert and breakfast. On our second night (the first lost in a sea of jet lag), we hit Longhi’s for their famed macadamia nut pie.  Beware, the pie alone cost $10.50. At that price, it needed to be spectacular.  And it was.  The pie brought to mind more traditional pecan pie, but with a ton of macadamias in place of the pecans. It was arm and gooey and full of nutty crunch that contrasted beautifully with the vanilla ice cream served on the side. What a great way to kick off our vacation. I just wish I had remembered to take a picture before we devoured it.

Then, on our last morning, we returned, having read that their banana macadamia nut pancakes were some of the best on the island (are you sensing a theme here?), and I made a beeline for this signature dish. This is what arrived at my table:

So pretty. I am not normally one to go for so much banana, but combined with the fluffy flapjacks, snowfall of nuts, and the coconut syrup so good I would bathe in it, the dish was magical. That enormous pile of pancakes? Finished. By me. With only a tiny assist from my husband, who would also like to give a big thumbs up to the chef’s daily quiche offering.

There are two locations in the major tourist areas of Maui, and one in Honolulu, so if you’re headed to the islands, you can definitely find the fine folks at Longhi’s. Seriously, go. Especially for breakfast. That was my favorite.

I’d also like to add that at the time of our trip, Longhi’s was offering 15% off through the Maui Dining App (for iPhone and iPad). Even if you don’t go to Longhi’s there were several other terrific places listing discounts there, so check it out for free.

{Photo Credits: longhis.com and me}

Peppermint-dipped Pretzels

By Julie

I love the holidays, and I love holiday food. Sadly, there aren’t many special Thanksgiving snack items out there, so let’s go straight to Christmas. On one of my recent trips to my beloved Costco, I came upon these:

My kids insisted that I buy them, but who am I kidding? I would have bought them anyway. Salty pretzels covered in essentially peppermint bark? Yes, please.

They are delicious, and if you can manage to keep them around more than ten minutes after opening the bag, quite pretty in a bowl, so this is a multi-purpose food item. See, bang for the buck right there.

If you can’t get away with completely unnecessary snacks any other time, this is it. Just remember to leave some out for Santa.

{Photo Credit: snacks.com}

A New View of Brussels Sprouts

By Julie

Last week, my husband and I took a very long-awaited (years and years of waiting and saving) vacation in Maui. And while I have lots to say about the food in this island paradise, I’m going to tell you about a revelation I had while there. And that revelation came in the form of Brussels sprouts.

Brussels sprouts are one of the quintessential targets of child food hatred. Back in my day, it was simply understood that no self-respecting kid would touch them with a 10 foot fork, and I was no exception. I still remember my utter shock when my mom made them for dinner one day, and just as my brother, sister, and I were ramping up to give her an earful, my dad simply stated that he didn’t like them either and wouldn’t be eating them. Well, since Dad wasn’t eating the little demon vegetables, then we certainly weren’t either. It was a get out of dinner-jail free card!

But one evening, we were at a restaurant where I really wanted to order this incredibly delicious sounding macadamia nut crusted fish dish, except that it came with Brussels sprouts. I hesitated for a moment, but then decided to take the plunge. I’d taste the sprouts like the good sport I am, but if I didn’t like them, they’d get pushed over to the side and dismissed from my diner.

Well, color me surprised. These were not the mushy sprouts of my (admittedly spotty and revisionist) memory. They had been quartered and roasted (or perhaps grilled), with just a hint of char on the sides. They were tender and slightly sweet and just… wonderful. I saved them until the end of my meal so I could savor them.

I can’t wait to try to recreate this at home. Perhaps this version , by Amanda, will be close? I don’t exactly expect my kids to dive wholeheartedly into them, and that’s fine. More for me. Do you like brussels sprouts? What is your favorite preparation for them?

{Photo Credit: thedailygreen.com}