Happy January!!! Happy New Year 2023 If the year gives you any lemons just make soufflés!!!!!

  New addition:  Chicken Piccata meatballs:

Who doesn't love chicken piccata?  Lemons and capers?  So yummy.  I thought I would add another recipe to this LEMON post   I subscribe to Giddy.com which is Giada de Laurentis' cooking website.  I found this recipe complete with video.  It takes very little time.  The recipe is perfect but I would double the sauce part....you just have to have plenty of sauce to cover  pasta or sop up with bread. Bueno appetito!

Chicken Piccata meatballs 

 Here we are in a New Year with lots of hope and ideas to look forward too.  Somewhere in every year something "poopy" happens.  Then what?  Make lemonade from your lemons or soufflés or dessert bars or simply a fabulous vinaigrette:

There's always something to harvest in the garden.  This week it's LEMONS!  If I were to have only one food producing plant in my home or garden it would be a lemon tree...even better a Meyer lemon tree and even better two trees.  The first year I moved here (2018) I planted a Meyer lemon tree.  It was small but with a lot of hope.  Last year she gave me 4-5 beautiful sweet fruit.  This year I have about 25.  I am thrilled:

Meyer lemons are a little sweeter than regular California Eureka  lemons.  The skin is a little more orange and thin,  It's zest is so pungent and flavorful in cooking.  It's thought that Meyer's are a cross between a Eureka and a Mandarin orange.

 So now that I have an abundance of lemons in January what do I do with them?  My first urge was to make a lemon soufflé.  So for New Year's Eve I prepared this delightful dessert:

I started counting my eggs - I need 4 eggs plus 2 extra whites. I need the zest of a lemon and 3/4 cups of lemon juice.  Well here's the complete recipe; 

 for lemon soufflé  from the Food Network and Ann Burell.  I also like Julia's recipe found in an earlier post.

OK now I have two extra yolks.....hmm..... Lemon Bars??  Lemon bars are basically a shortbread on the bottom and lemon curd baked on top.  This calls for 4 eggs and 2 extra yolks...hey...I have two extra yolks.  Also the zest of a lemon (Meyer, please) and a full cup of lemon juice

Oh these are pretty, nest pas?  Any other time of the year I would be searching for friends to give my extra farm eggs to but I actually had to buy eggs to supply myself with the 10 eggs for these two desserts and you all know how hard it is to find pasture raised eggs these days and I had to pay for them!!!!  Yikes!!!

I have tried a lot of lemon bar recipes but this one is my best so far.  I actually made the shortbread layer two days before I added the lemon curd layer.  It worked out fine.  Here's my recipe for lemon bars

also from Food Network.

All of my granddaughters are fabulous bakers.  Last week the youngest (almost teenager) Gabriela made lemon bars too:

Oh the curd looks so rich and what a beautiful color.  She used Rose Levy Beranbaum's Ultimate Lemon Butter Bar recipe which is also very reliable and a go to must.  I would highly recommend Rose's Christmas Cookie book for your kitchen library.  Her Cookie Bible is also a great investment.  Well done Gabriela!!!

Well what else to do with my bounty?

I'm going to side step a bit and share a little art quilt project I did a few years ago.  When I had collected enough full size quilts I started looking for a variation art.  I met Jane LaFazio in Oceanside for my first art quilt class.  I love love embroidery, ribbons, buttons and beads so this little post card sized "quilt" was a perfect project.  

OK next lemon recipe:  Simple lemon vinaigrette:  

1/3 cup lemon juice

2/3 cup good olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

plus any seasonings, herbs you want to add

OK  Now that I have my vinaigrette ready time to make a salad.  I had to buy a fennel but all other participants are from the garden....yes even in January

Kale salad mis en place:

4 cups Kale leaves - if the ribs are tough, cut out

radishes - about a cup 

fennel, 1/2 bulb

I like to grow the dinosaur kale with purple ribs....who doesn't want more anthocyanins in their diet?

What's this? you ask.  It's a watermelon radish.  This one is about a 2 1/2" bulb.  Watermelon radish has no bitterness especially freshly picked.  They are easy to grow in cool weather.  You can also get them at good produce markets this time of year.....about $4/lb

Kale salad with fennel and radishes - undressed

Then I dressed it with the lemon vinaigrette and added some freshly grated Parmesan cheese. avocado and some Nicoise olives.  That was my dinner!!!!  I'm having it again tonight.  This salad holds well even when dressed.  It's one of those few salads that you can make ahead and will last almost a week.

Another side step:  This art quilt is about 8" by 8" 

With all of my favorite notions: fabric, beands, embroidery and ribbons.  Don't you just love pink grapefruit?

So what's better than one lemon tree?  Two!!  I live on my grandparents property.  My grandmother loved lemon trees too.  She had one in the front yard for many years.  My brother, Dan, tells me for some reason it was moved to the back of the property where my orchard is now.  A month before I moved in almost all of the trees on the property along with all of the overgrowth was cut to the ground.  Last year on the side of an unidentified trunk up came little stocks with leaves on them that looked like citrus leaves....lemon leaves.  So I nurtured it, fertilized it, pruned it and had about 3 lemons last year.  Well look at it this year! Eureka!!!  I love my job as a farmer.

And a footnote.  As I walked the property this evening I can see my next bounty ripening:  Key Limes

Happy January friends!!

Caesar kale, radish and fennel salad

Caesar kale, radish and fennel salad, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

This salad was inspired by our fabulous chefs at Mabel Dodge Luhan House where I stayed last week. I promised my fellow art retreaters as well as my teachers I would figure this salad out and post it. This is one of the FRESHEST salads I have had in a while and it uses some fabulous vegetable. I am posting this with an authentic Caesar dressing but in a pinch use a bottle of dressing or a good garlic lemon vinaigrette. I can't believe I just wrote that.

Caesar kale, radish and fennel salad:

Good wooden salad bowl

5 cups finely chopped kale..demo on how to remove the rib follows
6-8 radishes, thinly sliced...I used amethyst
1/2 bulb fennel..also thinly sliced
pinch of salt
1 lemon, zest and juice (3 TBS)
1/4 cup olive oil
Toss and put aside

In your wooden salad bowl place

pinch of course salt
1 garlic clove, cut and rubbed into the bowl letting the salt break up the garlic
anchovy paste, about 1/4-1/2 tsp
1 egg yolk...Henny Penny donated to the cause....I'll have the white with breakfast tomorrow
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp agave or honey
Whisk the contents of the bowl, then add the kale salad,
Toss well
Serve on plate
Parmesan cheese, grated over top.

If you are not going to make this dressing this way just toss an alternative dressing over the kale, radishes and fennel. I wouldn't forget the fresh Parm on top

Use fresh vegetables

kale, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

There are many varieties of kale. Any of them will make a great salad. Better yet find some dirt in the garden, throw some seeds in, water and you will have kale that will thrive for many months...even in Denver

kale, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

lay the leaf flat with the back facing up. Use a knife to cut out the rib.

kale, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

or cut out the rib by folding in half and using kitchen scissors

kale, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

kale chopped fine--5 cups

Quinoa and kale salad

quinoa and kale salad, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

A super food salad perfect for a spring day meal.
Have you used quinoa in the kitchen yet? You should. It is a tiny grain (really a seed) originating from South America in Andes cooking. It is very low in the glycemic index unlike rice and wheat and very high in fiber and antioxidants. It doesn't taste like too much alone but mix it with other flavorful foods and your good.
Add kale-another super food. I love kale. I had plenty in my garden last year through Christmas and now my new kale is starting to grow. Use full size kale, ribbed and chopped fine for this salad or simply use baby kale from the salad section in the markets.
Cranberries- enough said, another super food. I use the cranberries dried in apple juice (instead of sugar) from Whole Foods.
Walnuts-I'm tempted to try pistachios but love the combination of walnuts, cranberries and citrus. Yes they are super too.
Tangerines (who doesn't love Cuties?), orange zest and orange juice

Here's the recipe:
quinoa-1 cup cooked in 2 cups water-yields about 4 cups cooked
kale-4 cups chopped or baby kale
cranberries, dried, about 3/4 cups
walnuts, chopped about 3/4 cups
tangerines, 5-6 peeled and cut up
orange zest- from one orange

vinaigrette:
juice of one orange
olive oil
balsalmic vinegar to taste

Toss all together and enjoy your super salad
Bon Appetit!

Kale, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

Kale, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

lots of Kale