Time: Approximately 30 minutes of active time; 2.5 hours from start to finish.

Serves: 4-6 as a side dish

Inspired by: My love for Mediterranean flavors. I don’t even remember having Tabouli as a child with any of my Armenian relatives, but I have had it made by Lebanese friends. There are so many different variations on this dish. I prefer a nearly equal ratio of parsley to bulgur (many recipes are mainly bulgur and just a little parsley). This is the recipe I’ve refined and ended up with after trying various versions over the years – I love some of the subtle flavor nuances. I also usually add cucumber to give it a bit of crunch.

Ingredients – Salad:

• 1/2 cup dry bulgur wheat
• 1 1/2 cups minced parsley (or just use one large bunch of parsley)
• 1/4 cup minced mint leaves
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup diced persian cucumber (optional)
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion (optional)

Ingredients – Dressing:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (kosher if you have it)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation:

• Boil 3-4 cups of water. When it reaches a boil, add the bulgur, remove from heat, and let stand for 45 minutes. Once bulgur is soft, drain excess water and cool to room temperature.
• Toss bulgur with parsley, mint, tomatoes and optional cucumber and green onions.
• Separately, whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, cinnamon and crushed garlic.
• Pour the dressing over the salad and toss until well coated. If you plan to refrigerate before serving, hold off on putting the tomato in until serving as tomatoes lose flavor in the refrigerator.

Time: 10-15 minutes to make; 1 hour to cool.

Serves: 8-12

Inspired by: My mom made this for me as a kid and I loved it. I never forgot it! I have no idea where she got the recipe. These flavors are very December “holiday-ish”.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons espresso (or, the original recipe called for 1 teaspoon instant coffee)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup Kahlua
• 1 quart of your favorite vanilla bean or french vanilla ice cream

Preparation: Boil sugar and water  for 5-10 minutes until it begins to thicken. Add spices and espresso and continue boiling for about 5 minutes. Take off heat and stir in Kahlua. If you prefer the alcohol to burn off or want it to thicken a bit more, you can continue to boil it for another minute or two. Let cool to room temperature and serve over ice cream.

Time: 40-45 minutes

Serves: 8-12

Inspired by: I’ve always loved creamy mushroom soup and have thought about trying to make it, but prefer not to eat soups with a lot of cream. Once I tried my version of a healthy creamy zucchini soup that turned out well, I thought I’d use a similar approach to a mushroom soup – creamy without the cream! This turned out even better than I had thought it would. Wow! Yum! It’s amazing how much creamy texture yellow potatoes can add!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon salted butter
• 1 large white onion
• 2 small to medium yellow potatoes
• 2 pounds cremini mushrooms
• 2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth (don’t use low fat or low salt – get the ones with all the flavor or make your own)
• Approximately 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Approximately 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 2-4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley for garnish

Preparation:

• Wash the mushrooms and let them drain in a colander.
• Wash, peel and dice the potato.
• Pour the chicken broth into a medium sized soup pot and add the diced potatoes (the broth should cover the potato). Simmer for about 15 minutes until potato is soft.
• While potato is cooking, slice the onion and sauté it on medium heat with 1 tablespoon olive oil until it’s well cooked and translucent.
• Once the onion is cooked, add it to the chicken broth and potato.
• Slice and dice the mushrooms. In the same pan, sauté the mushrooms on medium heat with 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper until cooked through – about 5 minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed.
• Remove 2 cups of the sautéed mushrooms and place in a bowl. Add the rest to the soup pot and cook for 1 more minute.
• Using a cup or ladle, take about half the mixture from the soup pot, put it in a blender and puree – about 1 minute. Taste and add salt if needed and then pour into a large serving bowl. Repeat this with the rest of the mixture in the soup pot until it has all been pureed and salted to your liking. Add half of the reserved mushrooms to the soup and stir in.
• Chop some fresh parsley.
• Serve the soup into bowls, garnishing each with fresh parsley and the rest of the reserved sautéed mushroom slices.

Wine Suggestions: This would be fabulous with a Red Burgundy. Mushrooms and an earthy Pinot Noir are awesome! We drank this with a yummy older earthy Bordeaux last night and it was also a fantastic combination.

Time: approximately 2 hours start to finish. 30 minutes to prepare batter and distribute into cake pans; 30-40 minutes to bake and make icing; 20 – 30 minutes to cool; 10 – 20 minutes to frost.

Serves: 14-20 (or batter can be distributed into 24 cupcakes)

Inspired by: My friends really seemed to enjoy the Meyer lemon cupcakes I made this past Monday and I still have quite a few lemons from Arnie and Alice so thought I’d try a cake. I’ve only made a cake once in my life! Last night I hosted a wine tasting event and I told the group I’d make dessert so this was it. I think the icing was the best part of the cupcakes so that part I kept the same. For the cake, I could have used the exact same recipe and baked it a bit longer, but I thought it would be interesting to try another similar, yet different, recipe to see if I learn something about the different ingredients used and the end product. This cake turned out just a bit heavier than the cupcakes – just as good – just different.  This is the basic cake recipe from the Alice Waters cookbook “The Art of Simple Food”. I just added lemon juice and lemon zest into the cake mix. This cake rocked. I won’t change a thing next time – well, maybe I’ll do three layers instead of two so there is an extra layer of icing!

Ingredients for the batter:

• 1 cup unsalted butter – softened (2 sticks)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs (yolks separated from the whites)
• 3-5 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 3 cups cake flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 1 half cup unsalted butter – softened (1 stick)
• 4 cups confectioners sugar (1 16 oz box)
• 4-5 tablespoons juice of the Meyer lemons
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Preparation:

• Get milk, butter and eggs ready to use and let them sit out and get to room temperature (approximately 30 minutes). I didn’t know this, but apparently using ingredients that are too cold can cause the batter to shrink and deflate will make the cake turn out denser instead of light and fluffy.
• You can pre-heat the oven now too and ensure it is staying at a constant 350 degrees. It needs to start out that hot or the cake will not rise and stabilize properly.
• Grate the outside of the skins of the Meyer lemons until you have enough zest (approximately 6 teaspoons – only grate the yellow skin, not the white part under that as it can be bitter).
• Juice the lemons in a small bowl until you have enough juice (6-7 tablespoons).
• In a large mixing bowl; mix the butter and sugar until very creamy (5-10 minutes is ideal).
• Beat in the egg yolks – one at a time.
• Add the lemon peel, lemon juice and vanilla extract. (When the lemons peel has a nice flavor use more, if it’s too bitter use less).
• In a separate bowl – combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt.
• Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the sugar and eggs, and mix lightly. Alternate adding the milk and flour mixture, ending with the last 1/3 of the flour mixture – mix only enough to incorporate all together – don’t over mix or that will toughen the cake.
• In a separate bowl, white the egg whites into stiff but moist peaks. Then stir one third of the whites into the batter to loosen it, and gently fold in the rest.
• Butter the bottom and sides of two or three 8 or 9″ flat cake pans, then add a layer of parchment or wax paper on the bottom of each, butter that, and then coat well with flour – tapping out any excess flour. This will keep the cakes from sticking to the pan after it is cooled.
• Pour the batter into the pans – distribute equally between each. They should not be more than 2/3 full so there is room for the cake to rise.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 -40 minutes in the center of the oven – or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes.
• You can make the frosting while the cake is cooling —
• Combine the butter and confectioners sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl.
• Add the vanilla, half of the lemon juice (reserve half), and beat until smooth and creamy. Keep adding additional lemon juice until you get your desired frosting consistency and flavor. (I like a lot of lemon juice for a very lemony frosting, but if add too much the frosting will be runny. If it does get runny, add additional confectioners sugar to thicken.)
• Once the cakes are cool, just turn them upside down and the cakes should slide right out. If they get a bit stuck, insert a knife around the edges to loosen the cake and then turn upside down to remove the cake.
• If you’d like to use a knife to cut off the excess cake to flatten it you can. I just did this for the bottom later. A sharp serrated knife works best.
• Put one cake layer on your cake plate and frost the top of it. Add the next layer and frost the top of it. If you have a third layer, add that one and frost the top and then frost all of the sides of the cake.
• Sprinkle the cake with the grated lemon peel.

Time: only 10 minutes to prepare plus 5 minutes to make the whipped cream; chill for 50 minutes or longer.

Serves: 10 very small espresso cups or 6 larger servings per above picture.

Inspired By: This is a Rachel Ray recipe. I was watching a show once that had her on at the end and she whipped these up in less than 5 minutes. I love easy so I had to try it. She calls these “Chocolate Cups with Whipped Cream”. I think they are very chocolate mouse-like although perhaps a bit denser/richer. One of these days I’m going to try this with white chocolate or even butterscotch chips – I’d probably use a bit of amaretto when I do that.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup semi sweet chips
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons booze; amaretto, Kahlua, dark rum, hazelnut liqueur or whatever sounds good – I prefer Kahlua
• 2/3 cup boiling milk
• Whipping cream (plus a little sugar and vanilla to add in when whipping it)
• Four mint leaves

Preparation:

• Put your milk in a small pan on the stovetop and heat to a boil.
• Put first five ingredients into a blender. Blend well – about 1 minute. Then stream in the boiling milk and blend until smooth – about 1 minute. The hot milk will cook the egg.
• Pour into cappuccino or espresso cups and refrigerate for 50 minutes (or more – you can make these hours ahead, or even a day ahead).
• Whip the cream with some sugar and vanilla (usually only 2-3 minutes).
• Chill for 50 minutes. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and mint sprig.

Notes: These are very rich so I think they are even better with strawberries. Dip the strawberries into the chocolate – yum!!

Wine Suggestions: I would skip the wine – these are so rich, but I’ll add the same notes here I included with the chewy cherry brownies. I often hear people say they like red wine and chocolate. I can see how this might work in some unique cases of overripe, almost sweet wines, but I prefer my wine to be a bit sweeter than my dessert. I think a late harvest zinfandel or a tawny port could be awesome with chocolate, and fortified fruity wines like Banyules and Ruby Ports typically have cocoa or chocolate in the nose, as well as other berry fruits like cherry and raspberry and are classic companions to chocolate.

Time: approximately 1.5 hours start to finish; 30 minutes to prepare batter and distribute into cups; 25 minutes to bake and make icing; 20 minutes to cool; 10-15 minutes to frost

Serves: 24-30 cupcakes

Inspired by: Arnie and Alice gave us a whole basket of beautiful Meyer lemons last night. Thank you Arnie and Alice! It’s Shannon’s birthday gathering tonight in a couple of different places so I decided to get started using a few of the lemons for cupcakes. I’ve always loved anything super lemony and the icing on these accomplishes that. This is a mishmash of a lot of different recipes I’ve noted over the years for lemon cake and icing with my various tweaks. This recipe will use 2-5 Meyer lemons depending on the size and amount of juice. I used three small lemons that were pretty juicy when I made this today. There are of course many things you can do to make these look very pretty, but I prefer to keep them very imperfect and very “homemade” in appearance.

Ingredients for the batter:

• 1 cup unsalted butter – softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3-5 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or cake flour might make them even lighter)
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream (1 small 8 oz container)
• 1 cup plain yogurt (1 small 8 oz container)

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 1 half cup unsalted butter – softened (1 stick)
• 4 cups confectioners sugar (1 16 oz box)
• 4-5 tablespoons juice of the Meyer lemons
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Preparation:

• Start by grating the outside of the skins of the Meyer lemons until you have enough zest (approximately 6 teaspoons – only grate the yellow skin, not the white part under that as it can be bitter).
• Then juice the lemons in a small bowl until you have enough juice (approximately 5 tablespoons).
• In a large mixing bowl; mix the butter and sugar until creamy.
• Beat in the eggs.
• Add the lemon peel and vanilla extract. (When the lemons peel has a nice flavor use more, if it’s too bitter use less).
• In a separate bowl – combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
• Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix well. Batter will be thick.
• Add the sour cream and yogurt and mix well.
• Fill paper-lined muffin cups with 1/3 – 1/4 cup of batter (depending on whether you want 24 or 30).
• Bake at 350 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes – until they are barely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes.
• You can make the frosting while the cupcakes are cooling —
• Combine the butter and confectioners sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl.
• Add the vanilla, half of the lemon juice (reserve half), 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon peel (reserve the other 1/2 teaspoon) and beat until smooth and creamy. Keep adding additional lemon juice until you get your desired frosting consistency and flavor. (I like a lot of lemon juice for a very lemony frosting, but if add too much the frosting will be runny. If it does get runny, add additional confectioners sugar to thicken.)
• Once they are cool, frost the cupcakes and sprinkle each one with just a few tiny pieces of grated lemon peel.
  

  Meyer Lemon Cupcakes Pre-Baked