Lemon Orzo Chicken Soup

There's something about fall that drives me to want to eat soup every single day. This Lemon Orzo Chicken Soup was the perfect solution to my soup obsession... it seems like a traditional chicken soup but the addition of lemon really brightens up the dish.

The original recipe called for the use of boxed chicken stock but I had bone-in chicken available so I decided to make my own. If you want to go the boxed stock route, I'd suggest doing a 70/30 split of stock to water so it's not overwhelmingly salty. You can then bring that stock to a boil, add in boneless chicken alongside the aromatics, let it boil until the chicken is cooked, then complete the recipe as is.

However you choose to cook it up, I promise this will be a staple in your recipe box for years to come.

Enjoy :)

Lemon Orzo Chicken Soup


7 quart stock pot filled with 5 quarts water (I used my 7.25 quart Le Creuset dutch oven and eye balled the water).
2 pounds bone-in chicken breasts
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into small pieces
3 medium celery stalk, sliced
1/2 cup finely chopped shallot
1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
3 close of garlic, chopped
1 box frozen spinach
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 cup orzo
Juice of 2 lemons

Bring pot of water to a rapid boil. Add bone-in chicken breasts, carrots, celery, shallot, parsley, and garlic. Boil on medium-high for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Remove chicken from stock pot and allow to cool. Remove meat from the bones and return to the pot of stock. Add spinach and lemon juice and return to a boil.
Add orzo and cook until al dente. Serve with crusty bread.

Zesty Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Summertime to me is the perfect time to use all sorts of delicious and fresh ingredients for tasty desserts. I love anything lemon so I knew that a lemon shortbread cookie would be the perfect addition to Mr. TL's birthday dessert spread. These little gems baked up beautifully - light and airy with a sweet tartness that was incredible. Enjoy!

Zesty Lemon Shortbread Cookies



1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.
In the bowl of a standing mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
With the mixer on low speed, add eggs, one at a time, until blended. Add lemon juice and zest, mixing until blended.
Add salt, baking powder and flour and mix until blended.
Drop by rounded spoonful onto prepared baking sheets and bake until edges are firm with no color, 12 to 15 minutes.
Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks and let cool completely.
Dust with powdered sugar.

Sour Cream Lemon Pound Cake

As long as I'm able to whip up something delicious, I love celebrating any holiday you throw my way :)

If you're anything like me, this time of year it's time to enjoy all things that remind us of good weather. For me, that includes lemon. I love anything flavored with lemon. So much so that I'm certain Mr. TL is already sick of my lemon chicken, lemon pasta, lemon muffins, lemon asparagus... I feel like Bubba Gump!

For Easter, I scoured the internet for the perfect desserts to bring to my Mother in Law's house. I came across a knock off recipe for the Starbucks Lemon Loaf (which is DELICIOUS!) and thought I'd have a winner. But - I made some adaptations and chose not to use any extracts - only fresh, good ingredients. The end result was a dense, rich, and buttery lemon pound cake with just the right balance of sweet (cake) to tart (glaze). The addition of sour cream to the batter gives you a moist cake with an added depth of flavor. To be honest, I was nervous once the batter was complete, as it was super runny but fear not, as long as it bakes for the allotted time, you'll be digging into a delicious pound cake soon enough :)

Enjoy!

Sour Cream Lemon Pound Cake



Cake
4 small lemons
3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, that is completely softened
3 cups sugar that you have pulsed in the food processor for 1 minute (this basically takes your grainy sugar and turns it into superfine sugar - a great way to ensure a smoother batter)
6 eggs, warmed for 10 minutes in hot tap water before using
1 cup full-fat sour cream, at room temperature

Glaze
2 lemons
2 cups powdered-sugar

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a 16-cup tube pan and dust with cake flour; tap out any excess.

Scrub the lemons with hot soapy water. Rinse really well and dry completely. Zest four of the lemons. Juice 4 of the lemons.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar and the lemon zest. Work the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter for 2 minutes at medium speed in the electric mixer. Add half the sugar and mix for 2 more minutes, then add the rest of the sugar and mix again for 4 minutes, stopping once to scrape down the bowl and the beater blade.

Remove the eggs from the warm water and dry them. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just until combined after each addition (about 30 seconds). On the lowest setting, mix in the dry ingredients, then the sour cream. Lastly, gently fold in the lemon juice. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about an hour and a half. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Cut around the cake in the pan, turn out the cake. Carefully turn cake right side up on rack.

While the cake is cooling, juice the remaining 2 lemons. In a small bowl, slowly add the powdered sugar to the and stir until smooth. It should look thick, opaque, and should be thin enough to it should be pourable. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it's too thick, add more lemon juice. Poke small holes all over the top of the cake using a fork or toothpick. Carefully pour about 1/2 the glaze over the tops and the sizes of the cake. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours or overnight. Cover the remaining glaze and keep at room temperature. About a half hour before you're ready to serve, pour the remaining glaze over the cake.

Store in a covered container, either in the fridge or at room temperature.

Lemony goodness

Lemon squares are such a time honored dessert that I thought I had a great recipe already. That is until I found this beauty on this fabulous blog, Noble Pig. Although it sounds like a rather peculiar title for a blog, it is a blog that I keep turning to again and again for my beloved food porn (and that's a good thing!).

This past weekend, Mr. M and I celebrated his birthday with the help of our closest friends and family members. Since we were just having a small get together, I decided to just do desserts. I decided upon Lemon Squares because a) Mr. M likes them & b) I like them. Bet you can't guess which reason really made me decide to make them ;)

I'm sort of picky when it comes to my lemon squares. No gelatin, slimy lemon filling will do. I like substance in my squares and this recipe, does just the trick. Per usual, I made a few small adaptations and, if I may say so myself, it only enhanced the beautiful recipe by Ms. Noble Pig :)

Enjoy!

Lemon Squares
(adapted from Noble Pig)



2 cups of flour plus 4 Tablespoons
1/2 cup of powdered sugar plus more for sprinkling
1 cup of butter (melted)
4 eggs
2 cups of sugar
the zest from 2 lemons
the juice from 2 lemons
1 teaspoon baking powder
Dash of salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.

Crust:
Combine 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and butter. Make into a dough and press into a 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 20 minutes until edges are golden brown. Let completely cool.

Filling:
Combine eggs, granulated sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt. Whisk together. Fold in 4 Tablespoons of flour and baking powder until combined. Poor mixture over all ready cooled crust and bake at the same temperature for 25 minutes; make sure it is fully baked before removing from the oven in all spots otherwise it will be runny.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over the baked lemon squares while still hot from the oven. Sprinkle again once the squares have cooled.

When completely cooled, cut into squares.

What's better than strawberry lemonade?

I'll tell you... strawberry lemonade in the form of a dessert bar! I saw this recipe on a fellow foodie blog called Something Sweet and I knew it would be a perfect match for our Memorial Day cookout last weekend!!

This little babies sure pack a punch of lemon and taste so yummy! they were devoured the minute they hit the table! My only gripe - they did not swirl as I expected them to. The only reason I can figure for this is that I had frozen strawberries in the house (instead of fresh as the original recipe called for) so I used those... maybe too watery? Who knows!

It certainly didn't effect the taste and the two layer look was sort of cool as well!

Enjoy :)

Strawberry Lemon Bars
(adapted from Something Sweet)



Ingredients:
Crust:
7/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
Pinch of salt
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Lemon Filling:
2 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1½ Tbsp. flour
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest, from 2 lemons
2 Tbsp milk
Pinch of salt

Strawberry Puree:
1/2 cup chopped frozen strawberries
1–2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, depending on how sweet the berries are

Directions:
Mix the chopped strawberries with sugar and set aside to macerate for about 30 minutes.

Mix flour, confectioners' sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. Add the pieces of butter and, using a pastry blender or your hands, mix until it's a pale yellow and looks like coarse cornmeal. Line an 8x8 baking pan with a sheet of parchment. Press crust mixture into an even ¼-inch thick layer and about ½-inch up the sides. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.

Blend the strawberries in a food processor (for a few seconds) or mash with a fork until there are no large chunks. Cook over medium heat for about 5-10 minutes until thickened. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350F and bake crust for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

For filling: Whisk the eggs, sugar, flour and salt in a bowl until the sugar dissolves. Then whisk in the lemon juice, zest, and milk.

Reduce the oven temp to 325F.

Pour the filling into the crust. Drop spoonfuls of the strawberry mixture on the surface. Use spoon or knife to swirl the strawberries through the filling.

Bake at 325F for about 20-22 minutes, or until the filling feels firm when touched lightly. Cool to room temperature, and dust with confectioners' sugar, if desired.