Food Lush

Lemon Pudding Cake and Cute Ramekins - Be Still My Summer-Loving Heart

By Dani

Over the weekend, my honey and I went on a camping/kayaking adventure out in the wild. It was 80 degrees in the California desert (a welcome change from the foggy gray we've been enduring here on the coast) and it inspired me to fully embrace the hope of sunshine.

Basically, I've packed up my meatloaf and stew recipes and I'm breaking out the chicken, shrimp, fish and grilling ideas in hopes that if I eat summer-y foods, summer will arrive. It's a tenuous theory at best, but I am sticking to it. (Everyone who lives somewhere with real winter and/or genuinely hot summers can cue laughter, now. I know, I know, my wussiness knows no bounds, but I want to go to the beeeeeeach.</whine>)

As I told you last week, I'm being swarmed by lemons this spring, and nothing says sunshine and tan toes and baby birds like individual lemon desserts, amirite?

Thanks to my yet-uncured magazine obsession, I found this awesome recipe in Real Simple and it is absolute perfection. Easy enough for a weeknight, cute enough for entertaining.

Plus it gave me an excuse to buy these adorable (and affordable! bonus!) ramekins from Target:

Two in turquoise, two in yellow.

Mmmmmm... looks (and tastes) like summer already.

Meyer Lemon Marmalade

By Jessica

 

Maybe you have experience making jam. Maybe you love anything lemon flavored. Maybe you have a lot of Meyer Lemons and you want to use them before they go bad. Maybe you are like me and 2 of those 3 things apply. I'll give you a hint, it's not the first one. 

So...not being one to shy away from things I have no idea how to do but might scald me with boiling hot sugar, I dove in anyway and with mixed results. I chose not one but two recipes, because if you don't know what you are doing, you might as well REALLY not know what you are doing, right? Ha! Moving on, I went with one "straight" recipe for Meyer Lemon Marmalade and one not so traditional for Meyer Lemon Vanilla Bean Marmalade. During the ensuing mayhem, I tweeted my speculation about how things would turn out in the end and well I couldn't have been more wrong. My "straight" recipe turned out! It jelled properly (save for the jar I dropped and um, one inexplicible non jelled jar) even though I only used the saved seeds for pectin as instructed. The non-traditional recipe however is currently some very well canned, very tasty syrup. 

I will be putting that batch all back into a pot and cooking it down some more to see if I can get it to actually jell this time...we'll see. In reading the comments on the blog, it looks like I am not the only one that experienced problems with the recipe following only the exact timing and not doing the plate test too. I guess that is where my inexperience with jelly making showed through as I followed the recipe EXACTLY but didn't know enough to go off recipe and TEST IT first. 

If you decide to try the vanilla bean recipe, do yourself a favor and test some of your mixture on a cold plate BEFORE you can it to ensure it's going to set up once it cools down, unless of course you just want some really tasty syrup and I do mean REALLY tasty. I was drinking the excess right off the ladle over the warm pot.

King Cake: My Favorite Mardi Gras Tradition

by Jen L.

I grew up just outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana and until I was in graduate school, thought Mardi Gras was a national holiday.  My family was never big on going to the parades,but my dad always brought me some beads and dubloons home from his office party and we ALWAYS got King Cakes.  The best ones come from Gambino's Bakery.  If you've never had one, it's like a big cinnamon roll, but with much more meaning.

Baked only between Twelfth Night (January 6) and Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday), king cakes signify the gifts of the Magi to baby Jesus.  Each cake is baked into a circle (like a crown) and covered with frosting and colored sugar. The colors each have special meaning:

Purple = Justice

Green = Faith

Gold = Power

Each cake also contains a plastic baby, representing the baby Jesus.  In Louisiana, you eat a LOT of king cake.  When I was in college, we got one every week for our Friday theatre majors' meeting.  It is traditional for whomever receives (translated: bites down onto) the baby in his/her piece of cake buys the next one.  Most families or workplaces have one per week from Twelfth Night to Mardi Gras.

A lot of flavors exist now, but the traditional cinnamon king cake will always be my favorite.

Have you ever had King Cake?  What's your favorite kind? 

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Image credit:  Gambinos.com

Yorkshire Pudding: Fancy! Easy! Delicious!

By Jonniker

In my family, every big meal is accompanied by Yorkshire pudding. Now, it's not really a pudding in the traditional sense. Or any sense. I don't know why it's called pudding, really, because it's more like a popover, but no matter what you call it, it's delicious. 

{Photo credit: Martha Stewart}

Traditionally, it's made with beef drippings, but frankly, I find that to be really gross. No thank you, in other words. Beef drippings make it bitter and a little . . . just ick. 

Martha's recipe says to use beef drippings, vegetable shortening or lard. Which, you know what I think? No. 

Butter. You want to make it with butter. That way, it can be both savory or sweet, depending on what you top it with (butter! jam! gravy!). Plus, the butter just makes it very rich and delicious-tasting, without being BEEFY. Beefy bread! No one wants beefy bread!

And honestly, it's so easy to do that one of my culinary resolutions is to make it more often in the new year. There are a thousand recipes out there, just substitute butter (salted or unsalted) for the fat involved and go to town until you find one that speaks to you. For the record, I find that making it in a glass baking dish vs. individual muffin pans is MUCH more foolproof. 

Sweet Christmas: Panettone

By Julie

Disclaimer: I am not Italian. Not even a little bit. Didn’t marry into an Italian family. But my newest favorite Christmastime treat is, and to that I say Mamma Mia! Christmas cookies are wonderful, but what I really want is panettone.

Panettone is a light and airy sweet bread (not to be confused with sweetbreads) shaped like a giant cupcake and dotted with candied orange, raisins, and sometimes currants. You can also find a version laced with chocolate chips that is equally fabulous, but I tend toward the traditional. It’s sold in a bell shaped box, which just amplifies the cuteness. The bread just melts in your mouth. It seems to stay fresh a really long time (Christmas magic perhaps?), but if it does start to go stale, it make excellent French toast.

Panettone usually shows up in stores just after Halloween, and I find my best supply at places like Marshalls, Ross, Sams, and Costco. I even stock up so I can enjoy the yumminess well into the new year. I highly recommend getting your hands on some this season. You won’t regret it.

{Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org}

See's Candies: Lollypops

By Jessica

Did you know that See's did more than chocolate? I didn't. I mean, I should, given that the name is See's Candies, not See's Chocolates, but for some reason I always just associated them with the chocolate sampler boxes and nothing more. Recently, my sister gave me one of their chocolate lollipops to try and I promptly put it in my purse and forgot about it. So this weekend when we were in the mall together and she was frantically stocking up on lollipops, I didn't really get it, until they handed me a sample of the cinnamon lollypops.

These things are amazing it's the perfect combination of butter, sugar and cinnamon cooked into a hard candy and onto a stick. Let me say that again: BUTTER, SUGAR AND CINNAMON CANDY. Really, really amazing and perfect.

If cinnamon isn't your thing, you could try the sampler box, which has chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch and cafe latte flavors.

Or even their Christmas mint flavor

But, I definitely will be going back to my local mall kiosk and grabbing a few boxes of the cinnamon, for myself.

If you happen to have a mall kiosk near you (for the holiday season) they have the lollypops loose and you can custom design your own mix of flavors in a bag, perfect for stocking stuffers!

{Photo credit: See's Candies}

Party Recipes 4 Dummies

by Jen L.

Faced with a recent bout of writers' block, I put out a feeler on Twitter to see what people would like to hear about this week. My tweet read: 

@jennelsonlane Help me out, Twitter. What would YOU like to hear about in my @foodlush post this week? Inspire me.

The responses from my followers included suggestions that I write about cinnamon or Denzel Washington. I chose to go with my friend Lisa's suggestion of Party Recipes 4 Dummies. 

You don't have to be a gourmet to present a fun, festive, tasty party offering. Most holiday parties are easy -- you're usually asked to bring either a dessert or an appetizer. There are tons of fun options that won't break the bank or require you to spend all day in the kitchen. For your next holiday gathering, try one of these tasty treats.

CREAM CHEESE WITH PEPPER JELLY

A classic holiday offering, this may be the easiest thing in the world to throw together. For a fun, Christmasy twist, try this serving suggestion, which I found on Pinterest:

A block of cream cheese cut into a triangle, a green onion stem, a green pepper star, a hearty dollop of red pepper jelly poured over the top and Bam! A festive (and very pretty) snack is served!

CHRISTMAS TREE BROWNIES

Bake brownies according to package directions, cool, then use a triangle-shaped cookie cutter to cut out brownies. Stick a peppermint stick in the bottom for the "stem," then use icing and/or candy to decorate your tree. 

FRUIT OR VEGGIE TRAY

When all else fails, go for fresh produce. It will be a welcome refreshment alongside all the chocolate, cheese and other holiday indulgences. If you want to stick with a Christmas color palate, make a tree design out of cut broccoli florets and cherry tomatoes. For a 3-dimensional fruit or veggie offering, buy a cheap styrofoam cone at the craft store, turn it flat-side down so that the point is in the air, stick some tootpicks all over it, then stick pieces of fruit on each toothpick. Voila! A fruit tree. 

Above all, don't stress yourself out so much that you're not able to enjoy your party. Bring something you fnid tasty and put it on the table with confidence!  Happy holidays, y'all.

Image Credit: Betty Crocker Recipes via Flickr

Sweet Potato Casserole: A Thanksgiving Tradition

by Caitlin

We have several orders of business today, so let's get right down to it.

First, maybe you've seen the Official Food Lush Gift Guide? Well, the lovely and awesome Jennie -- Food Lush editor, and my friend -- is hosting a giveaway! Any under-$25 item on the Gift Guide can be yours. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. (Make sure to comment on the post I just linked to, not my original guide.)

(Our sister site Style Lush, the Official Style Lush Gift Guide has a giveaway too!)

Go! Enter! I'll wait to talk about sweet potatoes until you're back.

*jeopardy music*

Aaaand you're back. So, sweet potatoes. I don't recall eating sweet potatoes when I was growing up. While there was always butternut squash and often turnip (gross) at our Thanksgiving table, we never had sweet potatoes. I think I started eating sweet potatoes when I was out of college, and to date they're one of my favorite foods. I most often eat them roasted, baked, or in fry form, but for the last four Thanksgivings I've been drowning them in butter, pecans, sugar, eggs, and milk and making them in a casserole. Specifically, I've been using this recipe from Pioneer Woman.

I've really enjoyed this recipe, and it's been a huge hit every time I've made it. But this year I'm ready for something different (because different is fun), and frankly, something a little more balanced (it's reeeeally sweet, and my husband isn't a huge fan of it because of that). So, time for something new!

This recipe from Epicurious looks like a similar, more well-balanced version: it's got a pecan topping, and milk and eggs to make the sweet potatoes custard-y, but it's got far less sugar and also the addition of some lemon juice to round it out.

If you have a favorite sweet potato casserole recipe I'd love to hear it. It doesn't have to be pecan-topped. I might get crazy and do something totally different (LOOK AT ME, I'M WILD) and I'd love any suggestions you have.

The third order of business: Savory cranberries.

Photo: vegetarian-nutrition.info

Every year I buy fresh cranberries. And almost every year I end up using them to decorate my house or throwing them in my freezer where they languish until I throw them away. Despite this, I can't seem to help myself. Maybe it's my New England roots or something, but I just can't resist the allure of those tart little gems. I find there are usually too many baked goods this time of year, so I don't want to bake with them. I might make a cranberry sauce out of them, but I think it would be great to use them in a savory recipe of some sort.

Would they be too weird in a risotto? Baked brie with a chutney of some sort sounds good, so I started Googling and found this recipe for a Cranberry-Gorgonzola tart on Savory Walnut Shortbread Crust. YES PLEASE! Gorgonzola makes my mouth itch so I'd swap it out for goat cheese or something else. But how great would this be as a Thanksgiving appetizer?

I'd love your recommendation though, if you have a savory cranberry recipe.

Finally, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. First and most obviously, a day that revolves around good food shared with family and friends can never be wrong in my book. I also love that Thanksgiving flies under the radar, chasing Halloween and overshadowed by Christmas, no one's quite figured out how to commercialize the shit out of it yet. My third favorite thing about Thanksgiving is that I appreciate the opportunity to reflect and give thanks for all the good things around me. I've got a lot of really wonderful things in my life and while I'm a big believer in expressing gratitude I do sometimes lose sight of that in the day to day rush of life. In that spirit, I'd like to stop and take a moment to thank you for reading along this year. I love writing here for Food Lush, in large part because of the fun and interesting dialogue it's opened with so many of you (old friends and new) along the way.

See? Food! It brings people together!

I hope you have a delicious, lazy, fat, and very happy Thanksgiving, friends. I really really do.

Do you have a sweet potato casserole recipe to share? Do you have a savory cranberry recipe to share? Did you enter the giveaways yet?!

Fudge-covered Ritz crackers

by Elsha

Last year, while everyone was visiting over Christmas, my mom came home with a single box of fudge covered ritz crackers. To try them. It's sort of an odd concept, after all, a chocolate-covered cracker. After the family devoured the whole box the verdict was in: we loved them. So, the next time she was at the store, my mom looked for more. And that's when we discovered that these little bites of deliciousness are SEASONAL.  

Well, 'tis the season! They're back on shelves, and we've already purchased several boxes. You know, for the next week or so.  

Have you tried these yet? Do you like them?

Autumn Roasted Chicken Recipe

By Dani

Remember when I told you about the best roasted chicken recipe ever?

Well, I have a confession to make. While that is still a fabulous recipe, I might have overused it just a touch. I mean, even something as delicious as fresh-roasted lemon-y chicken can get old if you eat it once several times a week.

So, I needed to change up my roasted chicken habits, and I also obviously needed to honor autumn as well, because I'm obsessed with it, as shown on my Pinterest board and all over my fall-leaf-bedecked house.

Last night a couple of my girlfriends and I took some "covered dishes" to a new mommy friend of ours, (I felt like such a church lady! All I needed was a big flowery hat) and I decided to do an Autumn Roasted Chicken, made of fall love and inspired by Ina Garten's aforementioned recipe.

It was great, and as soon as I made it, I couldn't wait to share with you. (Although I still forgot to take pictures. Lame.)

Ingredients:

• Four boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Two good-sized apples, any variety, sliced thinly
• One small onion, sliced
• Three sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped.
• One teaspoon of thyme
• One third of a cup of olive oil
• One quarter of a cup of chopped walnuts (or more, depending how much crunch you prefer)
• One tablespoon of brown sugar
• Two tablespoons of butter (you can cut this out if you want it to be healthier, but it adds nice flavor)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and then put in a deep baking dish, making sure that the chicken rests on the bottom of the pan and put the goodies on top. Cook for 40 minutes, pull out and cover with foil for at least 10 minutes before serving.

This recipe is SO good, you guys! It tastes like fall without being too sweet or heavy. The walnuts add a great crunch, and the apple and onion carmelize and take on great savory flavors. I might need to make it again tonight... even though I kinda wore out my last great chicken recipe that way, so ... I'm working on my obsessions. (As I make another fall wreath. BABY STEPS, folks.)