I was so excited when I was walking through Costco and found these!
I’ve been waiting for Meyer lemons for months so I didn’t just want to make any old recipe with them. I wanted to try to make something I’ve never seen before. If I didn’t accomplish that, I may have at least decided upon the world’s longest cookie title ever… poppy seed thumbprint cookies with Meyer lemon frosting filling
Cream together 3/4 cup of butter & 3/4 cup of sugar
Add in 1 & 1/2 t. of almond extract, 1/2 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. salt, 1 egg and 2 cups of flour.
Oh, yes, and then 1 tablespoon of cute little poppy seeds!
This picture makes me happy. I got so lucky with the focus.
Scoop out a small ball of dough – cookie scoop works great.
Makes me happy.
I got so unlucky with the focus in this picture.
Using something very small, press the “thumbprint” in the middle of each cookie. Make sure there are no open sides that your filling will be able to drip out of. You can just press suspicious cracks closed with your fingers before baking.
Makes me even happier.
Bake in pre-heated 300 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are light golden brown.
While the cookies bake, let’s make the filling! Place 3 cups of powdered sugar into a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice, a little Meyer lemon zest, 2 tablespoons of water and a teensy tiny bit of yellow food coloring – you know, to bring out the lemon flavor. Regular lemons will work fine too. You can adjust the liquid to the thickness you desire by adding more or less. You will want your icing pretty thick for these cookies.
I love the sunshiney feelings that the color yellow gives me inside, especially in the winter.
That’s one Meyer lemon used, just 11 more to think of something to do with.
Okay, happiest ever!
Using two small spoons, scoop some icing into one then control the amount you need to fill each thumbprint with the other spoon.
I hope you enjoy these sunshiney, tasty treats and my feeble attempt at a professional final picture. I’m trying to learn more about lighting and the homemade light tent did not to scuttlebutt for my humble picture. Good thing I’ve got addictive cookies to eat to keep me from cussing. Feel free to leave your photography ideas for great lighting – that is , after your oooooo’s and ahhhh’s over my poppy seed thumbprint cookies with Meyer lemon frosting filling. Please and thank you! xo!
Easy to prepare dinners are a must for this innkeeper, blogger, wife & mom of two teenagers. Sometimes I am so busy with food blogging that my family makes dinner – go figure. If you can relate to a busy life, please read on. I think you will enjoy this very, very easy and yummy baked cod recipe!
I started with a large package of cod but any amount is just fine. If you’re cooking for two you can, of course, use 6-7 ounces instead.
Cut into about 3-4 inch pieces.
Dip (or bathe) pieces one by one in an ocean of melted butter.
Place 1-2 cups of your favorite croutons into a food processor (depending on how much cod you need to cover). Then dip buttered pieces of cod into the the crumbled croutons. Press breading on to get the best coating.
Place into a baking pan (one with sides) and drizzle remaining butter over cod and then sprinkle remaining crouton crumbs over cod. Bake fish about 25 minutes or until it’s obviously deliciously flakey.
Serve with a tasty side dish and you can’t go wrong! These are at least a little healthier than fried and you can tell fish stories about how long and difficult of a process it was for you to make them.
What to do with a brick of cream cheese the size of Rhode Island?
Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesecake!
What to do to make it extra special?
Mint Oreooooooooooooooooos! No, your eyes are not deceiving you. The package was opened before I took the picture. My son just had to try them. Nothing is sacred in my pantry anymore with a teenage boy in our house.
Let’s start with a sight that makes me extremely happy – cookies ready to be anialated by the food processor. Place one whole package of mint Oreos (minus a few that your teenage son stole) into the food processor and process until…
… they look like this!
Add one stick of melted butter (it may take a little less). When you are done, the texture should be such that you could build Oreo castles out of it.
Not that you would, but you could… if you wanted to.
Remember our block of cream cheese? It’s baaaaack! Place 2 freakin’ pounds of room temperature cream cheese in your mixer!
Add 1 cup of sugar.
Mix in four golden delicious eggs at room temperature.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Add in about a teaspoon of lemon juice
Finally add 3-4 teaspoons of peppermint extract.
Mix until beautifully creamy. If you are going to have this for St Patrick’s Day, then add a little green food coloring for fun. Add it a little bit at a time until you reach the shade of green you would like. Get it too green and your friends might just eat it to be polite rather than because it looks amazing!
Next, spray non-stick baking spray into a spring form pan.
Set one cup of the Oreo crumbs aside for the filling and use the rest to form a crust by pressing them into the spring form pan.
Place the remaining cup of Oreo crumbs into the cream cheese mixture and gently fold into it.
Place cream cheese mixture into the crust. Wrap the spring form pan with foil and place in a larger pan to bake with a water bath. Fill with water to about half way up the side of the spring form pan. The water bath will help prevent cracks in your cheesecake. Bake in 350 degree oven for about an hour. Do not over bake.
I repeat. Do not overbake… like I did. Oh well, there’s always whipped cream that can help cover that mistake.
For even more amazing results, chill cheesecake before serving and add a dollops whipped cream on top and a (low-fat) Peppermint Patty… and a sprig of fresh mint. Okay I digress.
Thank goodness for an extra large brick of cream cheese lying around! Good things come in big packages. Please tell me that I didn’t just say that.
There are few things in life as beautiful as a ginormous, glorious sugar topped muffin. You can tell when a muffin is going to be an experience. It has a look about it that is inviting. Have you ever eaten a tiny biscuit-like muffin only to ask yourself why you wasted the calories? I have. I have also learned that to make a great (not good but great) muffin which will not leave its audience in regret, you must require a few things from your recipe.
- It must be tasty. If not, why bother?
- It must not be the perfect texture… not too soggy, spongy or dry.
- It must be ginormous or if its a mini muffin it must at least appear ginormous.
- It must have a glorious heaping amount of streusel or another fun to drool over topper.
Easy as that, right? Nope! A muffin requires love to make. Love requires patience, care and attention to details. A love muffin isn’t the kind of girl you can just take out once and than ditch. She is worth every bit of effort required of you. She is an investment.
That said, let’s get started!
To make the fruit for this muffin, we are making a mango jelly which will be very flavorful. Another benefit is that the pieces of mangos will not become soggy as they might of you just dropped them into your muffin dough.
Peel one ripe mango, chop into medium size pieces and add to sauce pan. Using a potato masher, press mango into even smaller little pieces.
Mix in one cup of sugar and about two teaspoons of lemon juice. Allow jelly to boil for almost 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then allow to cook on low heat for another 10 minutes.
When done, you will have this lovely mango jelly. We could stop there since this would be delicious in danish or on toast but today we are focusing on the glorious muffin so savor this moment as long as you like & then when you’re ready, feel free to scroll down for more goodness.
Cream together 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) of butter, 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Mix in 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of baking powder.
Drop in one egg, 1 cup of Odwalla Mango Tango juice (hey, I did say this was a commitment) and 2 cups of flour
The perfect addition to these muffins? Our lovely mango jelly! Mix’er up! Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Although I made my streusel in a regular bowl today, I highly recommend using a food processor instead.
Here are the streusel ingredients:
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 1/2 cup of flour
- 2/3 cup of powdered sugar
- dash of salt
- 1 egg
Mix until crumbly.
Only fitting that these love muffins were placed into my very well-loved pan. This is a large muffin pan with room for 6 muffins at a time (just enough for this recipe) or you can make 12 regular muffins. Fill muffin tins about 1/2 way full.
Wait! Stop the presses! Time to break it down with some struesel! “But we’re only half way through?” you ask? Yes, but these aren’t just any muffins. These are glorious muffins! We must have struesel in the middle. It’s a way of bringing some of the beautiful muffin top into the mid-muffin experience.
Okay, at ease. You can now place the last dollops of muffin mix on top of the streusel… but wait. It gets even better. There’s more XOXOXO coming your way.
Oh how sweet it is! A topper of more streusel and then a dose of sugar over the top with some to spare. Bake for about 30 minutes or until fork comes out clean.
You know the muffin… the special one. She is so sweet, tasty and buttery that you aren’t even sure if you need butter. This is her. Her name is Love Muffin. I’ll leave you two alone so you can get to know one another.
A pretty little scone for all the girls out there to make up for the hefty Mexican chimichunga recipe we made last time. Mixing flour and flowers can produce beautiful results!
Blend 1/4 cup of butter with 2/3 cup of sugar.
Add one tablespoon of vanilla…
3/4 cup of heavy cream…
… and two eggs. Straight from my hens (AKA The Dixie Chicks) these are! Thank you, ladies!
Mix in 1 teaspoon of salt.
Add 1 tablespoon of baking powder.
Top off with 3 cups of flour!
Lastly, cut 1/4 cup of additional butter into tiny pieces and mix into the dough.
(It should remain in small pieces and not blend entirely into the dough).
Finally, the pretty part! Gently mix in about 1/2 cup of organic rose petals that have been cut into small pieces.
On a floured surface, form dough into two disk shapes. Please dismiss my over zealous amounts of flour here.
Cut disks in half and in half again. Place each quarter onto a baking sheet coated with baking spray.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (until light golden and you hear the hallelujah chorus come out of your oven).
While the scones bake, get ready to make your vanilla rose icing by getting your pink bowl. Why a pink bowl? Cuz you are baking with me and I am quite matchy matchy!
Place 3 cups of powdered sugar into said pink bowl.
Add one tablespoon of vanilla. Yes, we’re being quite serious about the vanilla part.
Then add about 5-6 tablespoons of water. Stir until you reach the thickness you would like. It’s better to keep it thick if you plan on icing while scones are hot as it will melt down the sides.
For the pretties, add an eensy weensy teeny tiny bit of pink food coloring and about 2 tablespoons of the pre-cut rose petals from earlier in this recipe.
Oh, looky there, the scones are done baking. Don’t ya know!
Ice those little pretties with your pink frosting and you will have yourself a gorgeous scone for brunch or coffee with the girls!
If you’ve never had roses in your food, you might be thinking, “Pretty sure… but what about the taste?”
I was worried too but they taste pretty much like vanilla. Very yummy and beautiful. What a combo!
Many years ago I worked for a bank. I did not fit in. Every night when the tellers went to their adding machines, my skin would crawl as they clicked away. I was not a good balancer. I am detailed about artsy fartsy things and relationships but not so much in others. Lord knows I tried but I just had too good of a time with my customers & made mistakes because of it.
Me in my “big bang” theory days. After trying my hand at being a teller, I moved on and up to a corporate branch where I would send 60 million dollar wires for large companies to the wrong country… but I had fun.
One time I was invited to have lunch with my amazing manager and the company’s vice president. My manager always saw something special in me and favored my personality while I drove our operations manager crazy with my balancing, or I should say, lack of. Anyhow, the lunch our bank’s chef made was delicious and very memorable. I happen to have the recipe & thought I’d share it with you. I did change it up just a little. Good things do come out of those who couldn’t balance a days work if their life depended on it!
Brown a pound of ground beef.
Add a little chopped onion.
After meat is finished cooking, drain a bit & add in 1/2 can of enchilada sauce and one small can of mild green chilis. You can find both in the Mexican food section of your grocery store. You can also add a little bit (tablespoon or so) of taco or salsa seasoning for added flavor.
Mmmm…. saucy!
While meat is swimming in its flavors, butter both sides of 6 large burrito sized flour tortillas.
Place a large spoonful of meat on tortilla.
Top with cheese – but, of course!
Fold right & left sides inward, then fold top downward and then fold bottom upward.
Finish off by flipping chimi over & placing on a baking sheet.
While they bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden brown & deliciously crispy, you can prepare the trimmings that you enjoy! While I was doing this, I heard a bunch of laughing coming from the other room and had to see what was going on. I found my husband covered in silly string. Our kids had attacked him and they were oh so proud of themselves. It was a crazy fun moment with an amazing dinner which balanced out for a perfect evening!
Here’s to all of those who have the gift of balancing their checkbook to the penny. We should do dinner. I’ll cook and you can balance my checkbook…
This recipe was ridiculously good and easy. My only regret is waiting 20 years to make chimis!
I love dinner parties! It’s nice to be the guest at a dinner party but these days I’m usually the one creating the dishes which might even be more fun for a weirdo like me. I thought I would share some pictures from our latest party with you just for fun.
I’d like to introduce you to my new little project that I have been working on (in between family, church, and the B&B!) for the last six months or so. You see I’m not just a goofy little blogger but also a semi-serious pastor when I have to be. If you are interested, I’d like to invite you to my new website for Taste Hope, a Bible study serious that includes thoughts on the Bible, emotional well being and cooking.
Okay, I’m done with my commercial. Thank you for listening! Now onto the out of this world hot chocolate!
You ever have one of those mornings when everything, and I mean everything, goes right? Today was one of those days for me! The quiche was perfect. The little cinnamon maple danishes where adorable and perfectly mapley.
The real topper was this homemade hot chocolate! I promise you will love it or I will take down my blog. Well, no I guess I wouldn’t do that. I love being bloggy but I still promise that you’ll dig it more than this season of The Bachelor…
First power up with a false sense of energy which will fade quickly – choose one right from the center!
Second, The cat got into the B&B! Quick! Find the cat.
Next, place 6 tablespoons of Hershey’s Dark Cocoa powder into a saucepan.
Add 6 tablespoons of sugar and a dash of salt and a few drops of vanilla extract
Pour in 4 1/2 cups of milk
and 1 1/2 cups of water
Stir with a whisk often until hot but not boiling.
Holy cow, this is good! Since I haven’t made homemade marshmallows yet, I’ll let you in on the secret of how I have made my hot chocolates my own….
…a couple, few, four, five little scoops of ice cream! It is the perfect mix of hot and cold in one cup! (It’s also an amazing touch after the cocoa is chilled!) Check out the way it’s melting down the sides. Gorgeous!
Cheers!
