Whoa!! This Has Been a Crazy Week!

Boy my week got away from me fast! But I have been cooking, but no time to post! So here are some short posts from this last week:

My new kitchen toy:

Oh yeah baby!! I have a bigger, traditional ice cream maker that mom gave me long ago, but this is a nice, electric smaller one that makes 1 1/2 quarts- no ice, no salt, perfect for customizing favorite ice cream flavors.

To break in my new kitchen toy I made Lemon Ice Box Pie from Southern Living. As soon as I saw the picture I knew I had to make it. I love lemon! CHOCOLATE always comes FIRST, but LEMON is SECOND! What I loved about the recipe is the simple ingredients and directions. It calls for half and half instead of full cream- I can live with that! It turned out so creamy, with the right amount of lemon zing! I used cinnamon graham crackers for my crunchy bits and ohhhh yummm!! A keeper!

LEMON TIPS: When buying lemons at the grocery store you should always pick the lemon up in your hand and try to see if it feels heavy for it's size. The heavier it is, the juicer it will be - this goes for all your citrus fruits.

The other thing to do is to give the lemon a slight squeeze- what you are trying to feel for is a thin skin, not a thick one- this is a little harder to do. Who wants pay for a thick skin??- we want juice, not skin, juice. This may take some practice. I still don't always get it right myself- look at the lemons below. Hardly any juice in the one on the left, the right was only a little better.

Watch for more  of my favorite lemon recipes to come!

-Lisa