Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom!

Though we live half the country away from each other, we manage to get together pretty regularly.  And we have had some great adventures!

Last fall we went to London together - had dinner in a pub....

... rode the London Eye...

... actually went to the Klingon Monster Ball at a Star Trek Convention!

We wandered the British Museum...

... and tried to see the Queen at Windsor.

We did see the Crown Jewels at the Tower...

... and visited one of the most recognizable grouping of stones in the world.

We also too a Caribbean cruise together!

And not to leave out my Mother-in-law.   We all vacation together frequently - and we enjoy it!

And when we're luckiest, we get to travel with the newest Mama in the family - my Sis and my little Girly!

I'm lucky to have such great Moms in my life.  I learn from them every day.

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Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Are you looking for something special to serve Mom for dessert on Mother's Day? Do you have strawberries on hand? Or maybe you just want a bright and tasty dessert?

This is the recipe for you!


Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes


Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg white
• Juice and zest of 2 lemons, 1 tablespoon lemon juice reserved
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 2 cups fresh finely diced strawberries
• 1/2 cup lemon curd
• Lemon Buttercream frosting (below)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl combined  flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt, whisk together and set aside.  In a electric mixer on medium high speed, cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy about 3-5 minutes.

Add vanilla and then the eggs one at a time, mixing each egg in with the butter and sugar completely before adding the next egg.

Reduce speed to low and add in the milk, and flour ingredients in 2 batches starting with the flour and alternating with the milk, mix until combined.  Stir in the lemon juice and 1/2 of the lemon zest (reserve the other half of the lemon zest for the frosting).

Fold the diced strawberries into the batter with a spatula.

Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop fill the paper lines 2/3 full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, spread a layer of lemon curd onto each cupcake.

Carefully add frosting to each cupcake.

Serve to someone special!  {Or save them for yourself - I won't judge}

Delicious!  I wish my mom were going to be here for Mother's Day so I could serve these to her.

They are light and moist and flavorful.  I like the balance of the strawberry and lemon flavors - perfect for a special dessert.  Or for breakfast.  Don't ask how I know that.  ;-)





Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 4 teaspoons milk
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions:
Beat butter and vanilla together.  Add sugar slowly and beat until combined.  Scrape down the sides and add milk. Mix until smooth and creamy. 

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Slow Cooker Greek Beef with Tzaziki and Orzo

I've been craving Greek food.

Possibly because we drive by a Greek restaurant every morning on the way to work.  They just started serving breakfast and have a sign guy out there in the morning.

Possibly because I've been giving tips about London to a friend who is planning an upcoming trip.  Our favorite place to eat in London is a small Greek restaurant in Notting Hill.  Great food, great atmosphere, great service.  Makes me want to go on a trip...

However, since I am likely to be on this side of the pond for a bit, I thought I'd make something Greek to tide me over.  As usual, I'm low on time, so it was my Crock Pot to the rescue!


Slow Cooker Greek Beef with Tzaziki and Orzo


Ingredients:

• 3 Pounds London Broil
• 1 Lemon
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Crushed Minced Garlic
• 2 Tablespoons Oregano
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Tzaziki (see recipe below)
• 1 box Orzo (Greek pasta)

Directions:

Mix together juice of the lemon, olive oil, crushed minced garlic and 1 Tbsp oregano. Set aside.

Place the London broil in the crock pot. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Pour the lemon/olive oil mixture over the steak.  I also add the lemon rinds (which I remove before serving) for some additional flavor.  You don't have to do this.

Cook the flank steak on low for ten hours. Shred it.

Prepare the tzatziki below, and cook the orzo per the instructions on the box.


Place shredded London broil on a bed of orzo, and top with the tzatziki.

I loved this.  Though next time I make it, I'll probably add some hot peppers (who would ever expect that?!), I thought the flavors were just fantastic.  The lemon and the oregano blended with the beef perfectly, and the tangy and creamy tzaziki added just the right touch.




Tzaziki


Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced finely
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper
• 1 cup greek yogurt, strained
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh dill

Directions:

Combine olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix until well combined. Using a whisk, blend the yogurt with the sour cream. Add the olive oil mixture to the yogurt mixture and mix well. Finally, add the cucumber and chopped fresh dill. Chill for at least two hours before serving.

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Tuesday's Table for May 7, 2013 - And a *Giveaway*!!

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Time to fill Tuesday's Table!

Thanks to everyone who linked up last week - we had a fantastic week!  I chose Lori at Lori's Culinary Creations' Grilled Corn on the Cob as my feature this week.  Though our corn is still in the seedling stage, I'm always interested in a great corn on the cob recipe.  Take a look at this one - and while you're there, check out the rest of Lori's site.  She's got fabulous ideas!

Please grab a button  Lori - and thanks so much for sharing!


We also had a giveaway last week.  Picked randomly, the winner is <drumroll>

#37- Jeni from I Got This Martha</drumroll>  Please send me your mailing address and I'll get that out to you right away.

Here's what I'll be giving away this week:

Bamboo Cutting Board Set, 3-Piece

To enter, link up your recipes, crafts and ideas. And for each link you add, you will get one entry. And if you send over a friend who follows me and adds a comment telling me who sent them, you get an extra entry!

Only a few guidelines:

• Please share as many links as you like, but only if you haven't shared them here before.  
• Add a link back to Tuesday's Table (or grab a button above!) so others can join in the fun.  
• Sign up for my email reminder here.

No other requirements, but visit the other links here, and I'd love for you to follow me too!

And now, for this week's link party!

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In the Garden - Week of May 1, 2013

Our garden has grown organically.

I don't necessarily mean that we only grow organic produce, though we do try to where we can. I simply mean that, though we've tried to have a plan over the years, we do seem to grow things we never really set out to grow.

We started with a lemon tree, and stuck with that for a while. Then added herbs. After that, we started adding things kind of randomly. We tried peas, carrots and onions one winter. Lettuce, and radishes and tomatoes one spring. Lots of peppers over the years.

Some things we keep growing - we grow hot peppers really easily. And we like them!

Corn - though it takes a lot of our quite limited space - grows well. And we like that too. We've tried watermelon, pumpkins, potatoes, more onions, blackberries and boysenberries. Strawberries too!

We're trying to be smarter this year. Grow what we like, and grow what grows well. We're keeping the corn. I love corn and the store-bought corn just doesn't match up to the Midwestern farm-fresh corn of my youth. Corn from our garden comes close. These are seedlings for the second wave (first wave is in the ground already). If we grow a couple of waves, we can extend our harvest time. In theory anyway.

We love all things spicy. So we are growing even more hot peppers. These are more ghost and scorpion pepper seedlings. Or they will be once they all get going. These do take forever to germinate.

These are (though you can't see them yet) experimental hot peppers. Does anyone recognize the growing media?

So were keeping the corn and peppers. And the herbs. We'll try one more time for tomatoes. We'll plan more potatoes, but stay away from the less successful watermelon and pumpkins.

Gardening is most definitely a learning experience!

Item	Weight lbs.
Basil	0.25
Broccoli	0.18
Carrots	4.07
Cayenne Peppers	0.23
Ghost Peppers	0.18
Habaneros	0.04
Jalapeno Pepper	0.23
Lemons	5.48
Peas	5.01
Potatoes	7.34
Scorpion Peppers	0.21
Serrano Chiles	0.05
Strawberries	0.46
Sweet Bell Peppers	0.51
Tomatoes	1.38
Grand Total	25.83

Is your garden teaching you anything?   I've linked up with Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday and An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party ... hop on over and see what other folks are learning this week.

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Sour Cream Drop Cookies - A Variation

Apparently I've been feeling nostalgic a lot lately.  I made Grandma's Molasses Cookies last week, and this week I've been craving her Sour Cream Drop Cookies.

I decided I wanted a little bit of a different flavor - so I used brown sugar instead of white, and changed the way I made the glaze to make it taste a bit like caramel.  Here's how it turned out:


Brown Sugar Caramel Sour Cream Drop Cookies

Ingredients:

~ for the cookies~

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

~ for the glaze ~

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• Hot water

Mix together all cookie ingredients; drop on cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

For icing the cookies, cook butter until brown, then add powdered sugar and enough hot water for a smooth consistency.

Dip the cookies in the glaze.  {you can use a knife and frost them if your glaze is thicker}

These were so tasty!  They had the very consistency that my Grandma's recipe had, but a slightly darker, more caramel-y flavor - exactly what I was hoping to attain!

These may be old-fashioned cookies, but they are classics for a reason - they're terrific!  And even the changes I made didn't take away from the basic feel of the cookie.  I think it was a success.

Do you ever try to change recipes?

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