Lemon Tart

If Joey & I are assigned to bring dessert somewhere, we often try it out ahead of time and then Joey's work gets a treat.

This time, we tested out some lemon tart early as a test for Easter. This tart took a long time to make and created too many dishes. We don't think it's a winner for Easter but it is delicious and I would eat it if served to me.

Joey was disappointed by the hard to use crust that was too wet to really roll out. I thought that the candied lemon peel--while a fancy touch took entirely too long and didn't look as beautiful as we wished it had. Our panel of tasters thought that the tart was a little too tart and could use a little more sugar. Also, several people removed the candied peels assuming they weren't edible. So much for garnish! If you make this, serve it with whipped cream and maybe candy whole slices of lemons for better effect.

Recipe and more pictures here.

Frozen Lemonade

I happened to have a lot of lemons. It was relatively warm outside. What could be more refreshing than a tall glass of frozen lemonade? You've got it, nothing! Unfortunately as you can see in these pictures I was low on tall glasses, but it's still delicious in a bowl. I highly recommend this sweet treat for all the hot days of summer to come. You could probably make it with any citrus. Some people call this granita...I call it frozen lemonade.

This recipe only made two huge bowls for us and about 1/4 cup of lost recipe to the floor. Probably it serves four normally but it is so refreshing its hard to share! You could double the recipe and still have room in your ice cream maker. OR if you have extra time or no ice cream maker (I can't believe there are people who don't have one!) you can just put this in an 8x8 pan and freeze it for 2-3 hours and then slush it up with a fork. OR you can use your slushi maker...I remember that Katie had this cup that turned stuff into slushies and she wouldn't let me use it.

I followed the directions exactly from Pinch My Salt and it worked like a charm. So delicious!

Ingredients:
scant 1 cup sugar
1 1/2 C water
fresh squeezed juice of 2 1/2 lemons

1. Heat water and sugar in a pan over medium heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
2. Juice lemons over a juicer thing to strain out seeds.
3. When sugar syrup is cooled, add lemon juice and chill in the fridge until cold.
4. Pour lemon mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze 20 minutes or until appropriately slushed. Serve immediately in a tall glass.

Lemon Pasta

While I did not taste or even see this dish, I entered the house shortly after it was cooked and it smelled absolutely delicious. Jenny has taken to listening to a particular podcast recently called The Splendid Table. The podcast discusses a variety of food topics but Jenny's favorite part is when the leader of the cast answers questions from people who called in.

Recently, a lady called in about a taste she was craving after a recent trip to Italy. There they had pasta with a Lemon Sauce. The speaker questioned the lady about the sauce and gave her ideas of how to recreate it at home. Jenny is a big fan of Lemon Pasta and decided to make the dish herself after hearing what sounded like a simple recipe. The recipe doesn't have measurements and can easily be adjusted to taste.

And simple it was (and delicious to boot!)

Ingredients:

- Olive Oil

- 1 Lemon

- 3-4 cloves of garlic

- Coarse salt

- Ground pepper

- Fettuccine

Directions:

1. Place a generous amount of olive oil in a skillet, coating the bottom of the pan. Place the zest of an entire lemon in with the oil, along with 3-4 cloves of garlic, cut up in petals. Sauté over medium heat with salt and pepper to taste.

2. Boil fettuccine in heavily salted water. A minute or two before you are to drain the pasta, take 1/2 c. of the pasta water and place in the oil mixture. Stir in and let cook, to thicken oil mixture.

3. Drain pasta. Place in skillet and toss with oil mixture.

4. Remove from heat. Pour in juice from lemon onto pasta. Toss. Garnish with Parmesan cheese.