So Much Lemony Goodness!

My Meyer lemon tree was abundant this year. 

Lemons from my tree!

We got about a bushel of lemons easily!  But, they ALL ripened at one time.  

 Oh boy.  What to do?

The first priority was to save the juice because we use it for everything, marinades, dressings, baking, soup – you name it.  So I began to squeeze, and squeeze and squeeze. 

Finally the hubby felt sorry for me and helped me out the second night. :-)

For two solid nights.  My kitchen smelled wonderful!

However, I did not have fingerprints for a couple of days.  We got most of the juice into small containers and ice cube trays which we froze for use later in the year.  

The remaining lemons were put to good use for the following yummy recipes.

LEMON DROP SUGAR COOKIES

Original recipe found on Cooks.com find it here

 

Lemon drop cookies - so good!

Cookie Ingredients:

1 c. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar plus additional for sprinkling on cookies
1 lg. egg
1 lg. egg yolk
2-3 tsp. finely grated lemon rind
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. lemon juice

 

Simple syrup Ingredients:

1/3 c. lemon juice

1/3 c. sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Take simple syrup ingredients and put them in a small pot.  Bring to a boil.  When sugar is dissolved, turn off heat.  Let sit and cool.

Take cookie ingredients and cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients except flour and mix well. Add flour and mix just until combined.

Drop onto ungreased baking sheets, using about 1 tablespoon dough for each cookie. Sprinkle with sugar and flatten slightly with bottom of a drinking glass dipped into sugar.

Bake at 350°F until pale gold, 10 to 12 minutes. Brush with simple syrup. Cool on wire racks.

These were so easy to make and they came out delicious!

It’s a basic butter / sugar cookie dough that you drop by the tablespoon onto a cookie sheet and bake.  Like so.

  

The recipe called for you to “pat down” the dough with your hand but I decided to dip the bottom of a drinking glass in sugar.

See how the sugar sticks to the glass?  Nice huh?

 

Then I pressed this on top of the dropped dough to create rustic rounds all ready for baking.  

This worked very well and was easy-peasy to do.

I then sprinkled extra sugar on top and baked. 

After they came out of the oven I brushed the warm cookies with a simple syrup.

Lemon cookie deliciousness!

This created a nice shiny finish and added another layer of lemon yumminess to the cookies.  No need to frost and so easy!!

So now what do do??? I had so many lemons!

Next I made this lemon yogurt cake from Ina Garten. 

Ina's Lemon Yogurt Cake!

Who does not love Ina?  Her recipes are easy and they generally come out as expected.

This cake called for yogurt, but since I did not have any on hand I used sour cream instead of yogurt.  I’ve often used yogurt and sour cream interchangeably in recipes with no ill effects. 

And, this cake was no exception.

The cake baked up beautifully. Once out of the oven I brushed lemon syrup liberally on the warm cake which created a nice coating and barrier that I think will freeze up nicely and will keep the cake moist for use at a later time.   

I will apply the “frosting” glaze after I take the cake out of the freezer.  What a great way to have a nice dessert on hand for an impromptu dinner party. :-)  Love that!!

Lastly, I had a great time making this awesome Lemon ChickenOrzo Soup  from the food network’s Sandwich King, Jeff Mauro.

Lemon chicken orzo soup - Oh sooo good!

I love this soup and my husband loved it too.  It was definitely a great recipe for using up a lot of lemon as it called for 1 cup of juice.  And what a fantastic flavor it created!

Since I did not have uncooked chicken breasts on hand, I made the soup with leftovers from a rotisserie chicken that we had bought the day before.

It worked like a charm.

So whatever bounty your garden provides, I encourage you to get creative with your produce. 

I had a ball learning new recipes and felt good about not wasting all that lemony goodness!

Lemon Bounty!

Cheers,

Janet J.

Make Yourself a Winter (or Summer) Scarf

Here’s a fun little project that I completed last weekend.  It’s a long, warm scarf to hold me through the remaining winter months.  I think it’s a great stash-buster project or up-cycle project.  Definitely a great way to use up bits and pieces of fabric you may have on hand or way to use up old t-shirts or soft sweaters you no longer wear.

I had this nice piece of velvet that my mom had given me some time ago.  I had no idea what to do with it, but I loved the jeweled tones which made it look very rich.

Velvet fabric remnant. Nice colors!

The fabric had lots of cut outs as it was a remnant from some other garment that someone else had done.  I’m sure my mom got it at a garage sale as she loves garage sales. :)

Anyway, I noticed that what was leftover was actually a long piece of fabric - VERY long and narrow. 

Checking length against another scarf I have.

Now that gave me an idea for making it into a scarf.  And if you know me, I love scarves.  All sizes.  All weights.  I use them to dress up my outfits, to keep me warm, and to tie my hair back.

This was going to be a “keep me warm” scarf.

What I did:

I measured another scarf I had in order to come up with a length and width that I like.

I needed about 70 inches in length by 13 inches width for my project.  I was shy about a good 15 inches in length so I pieced my base together to come up with a 70” x 13” piece of fabric.

Then, I squared everything off nicely and if you’ve ever worked with velvet then you know this was not easy as it slips around a lot!  But, I got it done.

Next, I chopped off some fringe from an old shawl that I had, which I never used.  Because, really, fringed shawls are not my thing!  I took the black fringe off of that shawl and cut it down into two 13 inch wide sections. 

I then sewed one set of fringe onto each end of my fabric.

Lastly, I folded my scarf in half lengthwise with right sides of the fabric facing together, and I sewed down the length of the scarf on the raw edge using about a half-inch seam.  This made a very long tube. 

I decided to finish the seams with a zig-zag stitch because I did not want my velvet to shed and unravel.  There’s nothing more annoying than bits and pieces of thread all over you!

Once done, I turned the tube right-side out and there you have it – a long scarf!

My finished scarf is kinda cool looking and is toasty warm. What do you think?  I love it!  It goes great with my black chenille sweater. :-)

I think you could do this with t-shirt fabric, soft cottons, flannel, fleece and/or felted wool.  You can omit the fringe or maybe use pompoms for a cute effect.

I like the idea of re-purposing old t-shirts or sweaters for this.  In the future, I’d probably do something that is pieced and “patch-worky” (is that a word?  I say yes!).  I also think I’m going to make a softer version as an infinity scarf using this same technique.   Once I do, I’ll post for you to see.

Anyway, I’m giddy over the result!  A new scarf and a stash-buster project to boot!

Terrible selfie - great scarf!

What could be better?  I certainly can’t think of anything. 

Cheers,

Janet J.