Lemon pudding cookies

Lightly sweetened lemon cookies with a drizzle of very lemony glaze are a perfect cookie for summer picnics and potlucks.

Lemon-glazed strawberry poppy seed bread

Fresh strawberries and poppy seeds come together in this quick bread topped with a lemon glaze for a delicious spring or summer treat.

Rhubarb lemonade

Rhubarb lemonade is a sweet, tart, refreshing drink for a hot day! It's lovely for sipping outside on the patio on a summer day or evening or having with an outdoor meal.

Lemon zucchini bread

A bright a lemony zucchini bread makes for a delicious change-up to the traditional summer zucchini bread. Packed with lemon zest, a little lemon juice, and then drizzled with a lemon glaze, it's full of lemon flavor and the inside is speckled with green zucchini. 

Lemon dandelion muffins

Bright and sunny muffins full of yellow lemon zest and yellow dandelion petals are sure to brighten your day and your taste buds! These muffins are a fun and delicious breakfast or snack to make this spring and summer.

Smoky lemon maple glazed sweet potatoes

Smoky, sweet, and a little tangy, these sweet potatoes make a delicious family side dish for anytime of the year. The glaze makes them sticky and extra flavorful. 

Winter grape & citrus upside down cake

A fluffy cake filled with winter citrus zest topped with sweet and juicy grapes and brown sugar is a unique and delicious dessert to add to your holiday desserts or any time this winter. 

Parsley and sage walnut pesto

Fresh summer herbs make for a delicious pesto that you can use on pasta dishes, meats, pizzas, vegetables, and more. This pesto is bright and vibrant and perfect for using up some garden herbs.

Lemon raspberry buckle

This summer cake is filled with seasonal raspberries and lemon zest and topped with a buttery streusel topping for a delicious breakfast or snack anytime of the day!

Lemon garlic scape white bean dip

A creamy and bold dip full of lemon, garlic scapes, fresh parsley, and white beans for a creamy base. It's perfect for all your fresh summer vegetable dipping!

Beet lemonade

Sweet, tart, and a little earthy, beet lemonade is a delicious, colorful, and different drink for a hot summer day! 

Salmon burgers with lemon-chipotle mayo

I love to make salmon patties with canned salmon. I think they are delicious and salmon is so healthy for you (and canned salmon is an economical seafood choice). I was inspired by those patties to make them into something like a burger. 

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Also, I'm so very excited to report that both of my kids ate them (I put ranch on theirs instead of the chipotle mayo). I made the burgers mild because we were feeding two toddlers as well, but otherwise I would have added more chiptole to the burgers themselves (feel free to add a pepper if you like). 

Making burgers from canned salmon is also a time-saver! They salmon is already cooked and there are no bones - all you need to do is add flavor, form the patties, and give them a quick fry in a skillet. 

This recipe will make four burgers. I topped ours with lettuce and tomato and served them on a kaiser roll with a side of sliced pickles and roasted local asparagus.

Salmon patties with lemon-dill sauce

Some people hear the words "salmon patties" and immediately cringe, but I promise, these salmon patties are light, flavorful, and very tasty! 

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I really love these little patties. Just throw together a salad for the side and you have a really nice and easy summer dinner or lunch. You can change-up the flavorings, but I like the lemon and dill the best. It really compliments the fish and also the sauce doubles and a dressing for your salad.

Lemon buttermilk pie

In this household, we love pie. As a kid, I much preferred cake, but now I'll take a slice of homemade pie over most other desserts - I especially like custard and cream pies.

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This lemon buttermilk pie was inspired by a post at The Merry Gourmet - it was one of those pies that as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make (and eat) it. 

This time of year I find myself often feeling rather uninspired when it comes to cooking. There's no fresh seasonal foods available yet, and I have used up most of my winter stash. Plus the weather varies from warm to cold almost every day, making it difficult to plan meals that fit the season. 

While not really local, you can still find good citrus this time of year, so I was feeling pretty excited about this lemony pie (lemon is one of my most favorite dessert flavors). Plus we had a bunch of farm fresh eggs, which make up a lot of the filling.

My little pie making helper (though she's a little blurry - I had to be quick!)

Chicken with preserved lemons, olives, and saffron couscous

You may remember that early last month I made salted preserved lemons. Well they are now ready to eat! This is the first dish that I have used them in. I tasted a small piece of one on its own and it was really different -- the lemon and salt flavors were there, but mellowed. 

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The rind had become soft and almost silky. They added a nice, bright flavor to this dish and I'm looking forward to using them more. I think that they will go really nicely in other stews and with vegetables like broccoli. This dish combines a lot of Moroccan flavors and turned out to be quite delicious. It will serve about four people.

Today we made another attempt (at a different location) to see a snowy owl and I was skunked again! I couldn't believe it. We did see some snow buntings, which were new for me, but that just wasn't as exciting as the snowy. I hope that I'll see one before they start moving back up north again. We did some snow shoeing this weekend as well. I'm trying to enjoy the last of winter as it's going to get up to 50 degrees later this week! I know we'll still have cold and snow for another month or so, but I like to make sure to enjoy each season to its fullest before the next one comes.

Salted preserved lemons

I've declared 2014 the year of fermentation! I've tried my hand at sauerkraut and received The Art of Fermentation for Christmas, so I'm slowly building my knowledge and experience in this technique. Salted preserved lemons are something I have been wanting to try for a while. 

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I have never actually eaten them before, but after learning about them, they stuck in my head. I love Moroccan spices, so I've been imagining the wonderful flavor that these lemons will impart to couscous, tagines, and much more. I'm super excited for them to finish their fermenting and curing process so I can give them a try!

Citrus is in season now, so it's time to get a jar of these going. They will take about 4-6 weeks to be ready to eat, but will last for a year or more in the refrigerator. 

You eat the rind, so you'll want to get organic lemons. I used regular lemons, but many people recommend Meyer lemons. There are tons of "recipes" for preserved lemons out there and as far as I can tell, there's no prescribed amount of salt - it seems to range from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup per quart jar. For this recipe, I used a little under 1/3 cup of sea salt and 7 organic lemons.

Spaghetti squash patties with cilantro-lemon yogurt

I'm back with a recipe for week 8 of the 12 Weeks of Winter Squash. With all the holiday recipes and general craziness of the season, I missed week 7 - hopefully I'll be able to do all the remaining weeks though. 

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It's the time of year when we try to eat from our freezer and pantry a lot, including a big stash of winter squash and all the goodies I canned the past year. We ate these patties with some pork chops and green tomato and apple chutney. All the flavors went together perfectly! 

I spiced these spaghetti squash patties to compliment the chutney, but you could use other spices as well -- spaghetti squash really provides a blank canvas for flavors. The idea for these patties was inspired by a recipe I saw a while back from Sprigs of Rosemary. I thought it would be a delicious way to enjoy some of our spaghetti squash stash and I was correct.

Cumin and lemon roasted cauliflower

I adore roasted veggies. Roasting brings out such great flavor to almost all vegetables. 

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I always tell people who think they don't like certain vegetables (e.g., brussel sprouts, asparagus, beets) - roast them and give them another try. It adds such a nutty flavor while not overcooking them like is often done in boiling. My favorite way to eat cauliflower is definitely roasted. 

While I usually use nothing more than some olive oil, salt, and pepper, sometimes it's fun to add a little more spice and flavor. 

Cauliflower is coming into season here and I'm happy about that. I'm going to try to get back into the habit of creating and posting more side dishes. I really want to encourage people to try vegetables that they may not have eaten since they were a kid because they think they don't like them. Creative side dishes are ways to hopefully get even the pickiest of eaters to give something another try.

Lemony potato and pea salad with mint

I threw this potato and pea salad together one night to enjoy with some lamb burgers (topped with grilled eggplant, feta, and yogurt). 

 

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I wanted something that would compliment the Greek flavors of the burgers and I always love potato salad with burgers, too. I had baby red potatoes on hand and fresh mint growing in my herb garden and after a few minutes of thought, this salad was born. It came together very quickly and easily. 

 

The dressing is pretty light compared to many potato salads and it is very flavorful and tasted of spring. It paired very well with the lamb burgers and was good for a snack the next day as well. I made a relatively small batch of this salad, probably enough to serve about four people as a side dish. You can easily double the recipe to make more. 

Rhubarb bars

Everyone is familiar with lemon bars and maybe even lime bars, but I wanted to use rhubarb to achieve the same dessert. The rhubarb is tart and tangy and I thought it would be a great replacement in this dessert. The only problem was that rhubarb is thicker than lemon or lime juice, so I needed to make sure that the ratio of ingredients would allow the filling to set. I looked all over the net to see if someone had done this already, and I found only one recipe the Quinces and the Pea. 

When I made my bars, they did not turn out a lovely light pink color, as you can see. I think this is a combination of two things: 1) my rhubarb was not super pink in color; and 2) the pastured eggs I had had very orange yolks. Regardless of the color though, the rhubarb flavor shines through and they were really good. I brought these to a picnic and everyone enjoyed them. I slightly modified the original recipe to the one below. I cut down the amount of sugar, and still thought they were a touch on the sweet side. Everyone else seemed to think they were the right amount of sweetness. Give these bars a try before rhubarb season is over.