Lemon Kind of Day - Updated

Well I am sad to see the last of the fresh lemons go....but they were so wonderful to cure a bit of the winter blues while they lasted!  We were able to make lots and lots of fresh lemonade, even raspberry lemonade one day with frozen raspberries.  I used fresh squeezed juice on chicken and in salad dressing, zest on veggies, lemon bread and lemon coconut bars and now I have just finished putting the lemon rinds in a large 2 quart jar filled with vinegar and I have checked on my preserved lemons everyday.

You would think that one might get a little sick of lemons...but we haven't, in fact we all laid around last night and lamented on  how we should call the sweet aunt and run down and get some more....you know...run down as in a state away.....doubly good, I little out of town jaunt and bring home fresh lemons....


But I guess we will have to make ourselves happy with the preserved lemons and that fresh lemony smell when we spray the cleaning vinegar on our cleaning surfaces after sitting and steeping for the next four weeks....and it looks so pretty on my counter that I started a bottle of orange peels soaking in vinegar!  Fresh smelling and natural cleaning supplies that won't joke us to death when you spray them. You can visit My Old Kentucky Homestead where I got the idea from.  Love the internet!!!

I also researched and studied how to preserve lemons since my hubs had been in Afghanistan and had enjoyed a recipe that called for preserved lemons and he wanted to make it at home or us. So off to the one and only Arabic store we could find in the big city....we learned quite a bit there....and enjoyed some melt in your mouth roasted lamb kabob...

mmm.....getting hungry....

we ended up not getting any of the preserved lemons at the time because 1) they were a little expensive and 2) I didn't know how to use them except or that one recipe. Now, I know not only how to use them, but to make them. It if you can cut a lemon, you can make preserved lemons, or limes if you prefer! 

I don't know why I hadn't heard of these before because when I researched it......preserving citrus fruit has been going on for centuries in practically every country that had access to citrus fruits, including the United States!  This just made me realize how much I don't know about the world, and my own little world!!  The US tended to pack them in Vinegar while the Middle Eastern and North African countries tend to pack them in salt, which is what I did. The preserved lemons can be used in sushi (which I have been experimenting with the last couple of months), fish and chicken, ceviche, ice cream and venison...Yes, venison!! Which will be good, as it is time to put in for our deer tags and we are all hoping to draw out to fill our freezer once again!



...and now....I can't find my pictures..that for once...I took...how maddening! FOUND them....thanks to my #3!

But I can tell you it was a success because all you do is lay kosher salt on the bottom of the glass jar after gently scrubbing the lemons.  Cut of the blossom end (and the little knubs if you are using Eureka lemons).

The cut length wise into the lemon making an x, but not cutting all the way through. You basically have a quarted lemon that you now put 1 tablespoon of kosher salt in, covering all over.

Layer in the glass jar, tamping down as you go to release the juices. Keep layering until about an inch from the top. At this point I was really pushed hard on the lemons to get the juice covering the lemons and to put more in there, as I was only going to do one jar to see how it went.

Cover with another tablespoon of salt, and add fresh squeezed lemon juice if there isn't enough.

Then cover and let sit at room temperature for a few days, after which you can store them in the fridge where the should last for a year or longer.  Leave them be for 3 - 4 weeks and then use to your hearts content! You could also water bath them or ten minutes if you would like them to sit in your pantry.

I can't wait to use them in this Moroccan Chicken with Lemons and Olives recipe. I drool every time I see this recipe!

You ca also visit this site or more ideas on preserving lemons.

Now if you'll excuse me...I am going to go enjoy a lemon coconut bar..

Lemon Coconut Bars

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup cold butter or margarine
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup flaked coconut

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a 9 x 13 x 2 inch pan with coconut o
2. In a bowl, combine flour and confectioners’ sugar; cut in the butter until crumbly 

3. Press into the bottom of a lightly greased. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
4. Then, in a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and baking powder until well mixed. Pour over crust; sprinkle coconut evenly over the top.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars....if you can wait that long! 

photo credit 

Sunshine in the Winter...and other things I learned this week: Tasting Heaven

Have you ever thought back on your youth....and hoped that no one will remember what you said or did?

Oh good, it's not only me that feels like I am still growing up or waiting for someone to tell me that I am a grown up!  I also hope that the ignorance of my youth (and yesterday) will be forgiven and forgotten.

However, I am amazed everyday at the things I still learn and wonder if I couldn't have learned so much more...if I had been open to it....and didn't think I knew it all......or at least pretended like I did.....

Sooooo...just to show you that I don't think I know it all...though my mister sometimes insists that I act like it....

Ahem......I do not.

But here is what I have learned just this week....

I cannot possibly ever get enough kisses from my baby baby, or enough hugs from my almost 18 year old....or hear my kiddos laugh.

That there is human hair in some commercial made bread...l-cysteine.....I don't think I want to buy bread anymore...

...and that your two year old cyclone can pummel your rising bread in 2 seconds flat...or at least the portion nearest the counter edge.....while you blog.......aaahhhhh....deep breath.

back to the hair in our bread.....GROSS......

18 year olds can and will eat anything.....including cellulose and l-cysteine....they just don't think about what it is as my oldest stated.

That the more I ask the above little cyclone to quit beating the drums with the cymbals......she'll just to it louder and harder.

That the said oldest will open up every cabinet, the fridge, freezer and pantry...and then declare there is nothing to eat in the house.

Teenagers do not think they need to wear coats in the dead of winter.....(this isn't new....it was just re-affirmed)

Homemade Hawaiian BBQ chicken pizza is the very best pizza there is...unless is Thai Chicken Pizza.

That you can put carrots in you bottled pickles in the place of Alum.....because Alum is not good for you.....but, um.....I won't be throwing out those bottles that contain Alum in them......that is blood, sweat and tears...okay...okay ..it wasn't that hard!

My oldest baby girl is the bomb at basketball....and life guarding and will jump in fully clothed without hesitation when she needs to save a dad and his little girl.

That mashed french bread will bounce back in the oven and only I will know what happened.

Cleaning dog poo off of shoes makes me gag...and not just a little.....I can deal with horse poop, cow poop. chicken poop, baby and twinner poop...but not dog poop.....time to change the dog food.

But most importantly, fresh lemonade tastes like sunshine in the winter.....

And thanks to the hub's sweet great uncle who brought some up from his great aunt in Arizona...we have been in Heaven...or at least tasting it.

It makes me crave warmer weather and a lemon tree in my back yard......the kids have wanted a pitcher of it every day....I had to hide some so that I can try and make some preserved lemons like they do in the middle east.

I am sure that I have learned a lot more this week, but I have already forgotten in my old age....so I will leave you with the best old fashioned lemonade recipe there is. Can be used or limeade as well, thank you Betty Crocker......my go to to book.....

2 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cup sugar
finely shredded lemon or lime peel
1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh squeezed lemon/lime juice

Make the simple syrup base by heating the sugar and water to almost a boil and then cool. When cool (or stick it in the freezer like I do, because we aren't very patient). Add to lemon juice and zest and then add equal parts water.

If you were all fancy and proper, you could add a rim of lemon sugar and a lemon wedge......

I also squeeze and freeze the juice of the lemons if we aren;t using them fast enough...but that usually isn't the case....


Happy Heaven tasting...love to all....