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: 5 -8 minutes

Serves: 2 – 4

Inspired by: Minimal ingredients in the kitchen and being so hungry that I want to make something yummy in minutes! These are great on salad, pasta and quinoa or just to nibble on their own. Normally I prefer not to cook during a party, but I hosted a party last night and it was so easy to make these while everyone was hanging around the kitchen because it just took minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound shrimp (cleaned and with or without the shells)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1-2 teaspoons Spice it Up …by Karen™

Preparation: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron skillet or saute pan. Once it is hot, add the shrimp. Sprinkle with the spice (any amount to your liking – a small amount goes a pretty long way) and cook for about 2 minutes on each side and serve.

Wine Suggestions: These are yummy with any off-dry white such as a Riesling or possibly a Viongier or Condrieu. They are also nice with a medium-bodied red with some nice fruitiness or spice such as a fairly ripe Spanish Rioja, Southern Rhone or Merlot.

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

Time: approximately 1 hour 40 minutes; 40 minutes to prepare, 50-60 minutes to bake.

Serves: 10-14

Inspired by: Dinner at Joan and Doug Stone’s house. After a fabulous dinner Joan served this crisp for dessert. It was awesome. Perfect with vanilla ice cream! I had forgotten that crisps and cobblers are some of my favorite desserts. My mom must have made this when I was a kid because I remember loving it way back then. I have made these from time to time without any recipe because having fruit, flour, brown sugar, oats and butter in the kitchen is pretty common, the quantities aren’t too important, and it is tastes awesome even without some of nuances in this recipe. I do, however, really like the flavors that the cranberries and orange zest add. Joan told me her recipe was from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook. I googled it after I got home, found someone elses posting of it, and made it as one of our many desserts for Thanksgiving dinner. I’m finally documenting it so I remember to make these now and then. They work well with all kinds of fruit, but this is my favorite. This may not be exactly what the orginal recipe is as I often modify a bit, but it’s close.

Ingredients for the “bottom”:

• 2 pounds ripe pears (4 pairs)
• 2 pounds apples (5-6 apples)
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Ingredients for the “topping”:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal (dry oats)
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, diced

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix the granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl.
• Peel and core the the pears and apples; cut them into 1 inch chunks.
• Place the fruit in a large bowl and toss with the cranberries, zests and juices.
• Add the mixture of  granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg to the fruit and toss well.
• Pour into a 9 x 12 x 2 baking dish – you may have a little bit extra that you can make in a another small baking dish –  be sure to leave enough room to add the topping.
• Next make the topping: combine the flour, sugars, oats and diced cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the mixture is in large crumbles.
• Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit, covering the fruit completely.
• Place the baking dish on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is brown and the fruit is bubbly. Serve warm.

Notes: I think this must be served with vanilla ice cream! This is super easy to make early in the day  and keep refridgerated until you are ready to bake it that evening.