Old-fashioned Lemon Bread

Old-fashioned Lemon Bread

 

This one's for you Chika!

It's one of my all time favorites and makes a great gift. While it's hot from the oven you poke it all over with a skewer and drizzle with a sweet lemon glaze.

Old-fashioned Lemon Bread

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teas. baking powder

1/2 teas. salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teas. finely grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350º. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl beat eggs, than beat in  milk, oil and lemon peel.  Add liquid mixture to flour and stir just until blended. pour batter into a greased and flour-dusted loaf pan.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a pick inserted comes out clean. (bake at 325º for glass pan)

While baking prepare glaze:

Lemon Glaze

4 1/2 Tbls. lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

In a small pot cook sugar and lemon juice, stirring, until dissolved.

When bread finishes baking and while hot, use a skewer to poke holes all the way to the bottom. Drizzle the hot glaze over the top to soak into the bread.  Let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. 

Corsage time again

I think this is the 4th corsage my son has done since the first one we did together.  He doesn't like help anymore.  He really likes to make them original for his date and puts some thought and time into it.  This moment made me happy so I took a picture.

 

And here's the finished product.

 

Thai Red Curry and Coconut Soup with Chicken

I know it's been forever!  It's just not a priority in my life right now.  But I still try new recipes now and again but I don't do much crafting lately.   Since this recipe was typed up, in my not really firm in my directions way. I figured I would post.  Picture leaves A LOT to be desired.  I shared this soup with some ladies in the neighborhood recently and nobody died.  I really like it.

Thai Red Curry and Coconut Soup with Chicken

• 1lb chicken
• 1-2 green onions chopped, more to taste
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• 1/2 cup milk
• equivalent of about 4 cans chicken broth and water. so maybe about 6-8 cups? (I use home made broth and it might be stronger than canned broth for mine it's about a cup or two of strong broth and the rest water. Maybe start with half and half then add more chicken stock if you need more chickeny)
• 3 Tbls. fish sauce - to taste also
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 Tbls. Thai red curry paste
• 1 Tbls. sugar
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper
• Cilantro - 2Tbls fresh? 1-2 tsp. dried - to taste
• Thai Basil - 2Tbls fresh? 1-2 tsp. dried - to taste
• Salt/pepper to taste
• red pepper or flakes to desired hotness (I just use a dash, I don't make this soup too hot.)

Cook chicken with preferred method. Cube or shred. In soup pot, add chicken and onions, stir till softened. (May use a little oil of your choice)  Add coconut milk, milk, broth/water and fish sauce, and sugar. Simmer gently. Stir lime juice and curry paste together. Add Bell peppers, basil and cilantro and lime/curry mixture. Continue to simmer for flavors to come together, at least 20 min.  

Serve it with rice, ladling the soup over a little or as much as you like rice in the bowl.

 

PTA treats

 

I made treats for PTA meeting today.  I forgot to take pictures of them all set up.  Luckily there were a couple of leftovers, so my kids will be happy.  

Lemon Cream Cheese Mousse 

Chocolate Devil Dog Parfait

Chocolate Chip Cake, Gluten Free

I have posted this cake before, here.  This time I made it for # 3's birthday.  AND I successfully made it gluten free!

It was made to look like a lego brick, but that frosting was hard to smooth and I think the gf made it a little crumblier on the circle parts so it was hard to do.  Also my chocolate started getting cold again before I totally incorporated it so it has little 'chips' in the frosting still.  Maybe if I tempered it more, by adding the cold to the warm chocolate bowl before adding it to the rest.?

Anyway, here is the gf version *(One small change I had to make after I fixed the recipe was that I was out of eggs but had some frozen whites so instead of all the eggs I used 4 eggs and two egg whites.)

CAKE
1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup Sugar
6 Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cups GF Flour mix
1 12 oz. package Little Bits Semi-sweet Chocolate chips, divided

FROSTING
1 cup Little bits semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups Sifted confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla

Cake: Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1" baking pan. Line with parchment or waxed paper. In bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and salt. Mix well.  Gradually add flour. Stir in 1 cup chocolate bits. Spread in prepared pan. bake 350º for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely.

Frosting: Melt over hot (not boiling) water, 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate bits, stir until smooth. Set aside. In bowl, combine butter and confectioners' sugar; beat until creamy. Add melted chocolate and vanilla; blend until smooth.

Loosen sides of cake. Invert and peel of paper. Trim edges if necessary. Cut cake crosswise into 4 sections. Spread frosting on one layer. Top with second cake layer. Repeat layers. Frost entire cake with remaining frosting.

Original version

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Once again I did not have a 15x10 pan so I used a regular larger cookie sheet. this resulted in 5 layers for me. I cut 4 across the pan then cut some off each end to make a 5th layer. Probably for this reason I needed more frosting than the recipe made.