Meyer Lemon Bars

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I am happy that we have an early Spring this year ! But one part of me is worried that it didn't snow much this year in Colorado, and that might induce a lot of wild fires and drought in some parts of the state. But for time being, I am keeping those worries aside and enjoying the beautiful days.

Pineapple Crunch Cake With Lemon Glaze

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Hope everything is going great with you. Summer is really a busy time for all of us, isn’t it? It surely is for me! I was super busy juggling too many things, and decided to forget about blogging for a few days.

While I was away from blogging and talking to you guys a few good things happened on the personal side. I finally got hold of some long due documents including my driver's license, and did our first camping of the season. Some of you might already know that I also won the giveaway Vijitha was hosting. Beginning last Sunday, I have been on a roll with only great things happening to me, and the upbeat mood continues.

Meanwhile lil M turned 3, but that doesn't stop him from being more naughty and silly. During a play his sister poked into his eyes accidentally, and he exclaimed rubbing his eyes "Oh, I got to buy some new eyes !" I wish things were as simple as he thinks :-)

Coming to the topic of the day, the Pineapple crunch cake, the story goes like this: During our last trip to the local grocery store, we tasted a Pineapple crunch cake and we loved it! You will know if you are a blogger that once we taste something interesting we feel this urge to replicate it in our own kitchen. I am no different! I decided that I should make this myself, and started searching for recipes. I could't find anything that satisfied me, so I ended up twisting a recipe to add more flavor. Result : A better tasting cake with less sugar than we tasted from the shop. This is a huge hit with my folks, and we will be making it again soon!

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 2 cups
Baking Soda- 2 tsp
Chopped Walnuts(Optional)- 1 cup
Eggs- 2 large
Granulated Sugar- 1 1/2 cup
Light Brown Sugar- 1/4 cup, packed
Pure Vanilla Extract- 2 tsp
Lemon Juice- 1 Tbsp
Lemon Zest- a pinch/more
Pineapple Crushed with juice- 1 big can(20oz)

For the Lemon Glaze:

Confectioner's sugar- 1/2 cup
Lemon juice- 2 Tbsp/ little more


Method:

1.Preheat the oven at 350 degree F.Grease a 9 by 13 inch pan.
2.Whisk together the flour, baking soda and nuts.
3.In a mixing bowl beat together the eggs and sugars.
4.Add the vanilla and lemon juice and zest. Mix well.
5.Open the crushed pineapple can and pour in everything including the juice and mix again.
6.Mix in the flour mixture until everything is mixed.
7.Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35- 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.(It took me 37 minutes)
8.Cool on a wire rack.
9.Prepare the glaze by mixing everything together and pour over the cool cake.
10.Let the glaze set. Cut into squares and serve.

Notes:

1. You don't have to make the glaze if you want the cake to be less sweet.
2.You could also dust the cake with some powdered sugar if you are not making a glaze.
3.This is just perfectly sweet for us.If you want your cake to be really sweet, use more sugar.
4.As you can see from the ingredient list, this is a butter-less cake. But it is not dry, though a little dense


Recipe Adapted from : here

Cilantro Lemon Rice

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Hope our friends in U.S enjoyed the long weekend. I did. We visited friends and even hit the malls to check the Memorial Day sale. By the crowd in the malls, I could see most people were making good use of the discount sales. I did not find anything I wanted so came back empty handed but had fun nevertheless being out and about.

I made some cilantro rice on Friday and had it with chicken curry. I always enjoy the Chipotle burrito, especially the rice they pack in it. To have a change from the usual white rice, I decided to try my hand at cilantro rice and what do you know, it was pretty good! When you have guests over and have too many things to cook, this rice will make be easy enough to put together, and yet keep the festivity alive because this rice has the zing of lemon and a burst of cilantro flavor.

I have seen recipes which calls for lemon zest and I say go ahead and do that if you like. I have not used it in the recipe below but I can see it will be fun to add some lemon zest to add more punch. You can play with the amount of lemon juice to make it suite your palette. Lemon and cilantro cannot go wrong in the coming summer months. Don't you agree?

The possibility of mixing this rice in your salads and wraps is endless. It's also great with chicken or any other curry.


Ingredients:
Basmati Rice – 2 C
Tejpatta/Indian Bay Leaf – 1
Salt – to taste
Lemon juice – 2 Tbspn
Soya sauce - 1 Tbspn (optional)
Cilantro - 1/2 C
Canola Oil - 1 Tbspn

Method:
1. Wash and soak rice for about ½ hour
2. Bring about 10 cups of water to a boil. Strain the water from the soaked rice and slip it into the boiling water along with bay leaves, and enough salt. Taste the water to make sure there is enough salt. Cook the rice al dente.
3.Chop the cilantro fine and mix it with lemon juice, soya sauce, and oil in a serving bowl which will hold all the cooked rice. Add a couple of spoons of rice and mix with the cilantro-lemon mix. Add the remaining rice on top and using a fork fluff the rice until well mixed with cilantro and lemon.

Notes:

1. If the cooked rice is not salted well enough, add more along with the lemon juice - preferably, dissolved in the lemon juice to have it evenly mix in the rice.
2. If you like the rice to be white in color avoid the soya sauce and replace it with lemon juice.

Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake

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Spring is around the corner, its official! Though Coloradans expect a few more snow showers, it's almost pleasant in some parts of the country.  The winter was quite dry this year in Colorado, which is unusual.    The wiles of nature seem to have confused the plants and trees so much, that some of them flowered before time!  You can see proof of these strange happenings in the exhibit below-of the yellow darlings.  These beauties were in my back yard looking perky and pretty until a little busy body in my family decided to change things around a wee bit.

As soon as I spotted these flowers, it reminded me how the weather is unpredictable, and it may start snowing the next day.  Which meant the doom of these flowers was pretty close!  I didn’t know how soon.  Before I could engage in such thoughts of the future of these flower, my lil imp had decided their fate.  He had followed me while I photographed them, and when I finished taking the picture, plucked them, and gave it to me.   What a sweet thing to do right? I know! It is one of those moments when you are not sure if your child should be punished or appreciated.  Anyways, I decided to make the most of the situation.  I took pictures of this wonderful pound cake and made the hand-picked flowers a prop.  That is the story of the cruel end of the flowers.  As for the lemon pound cake, their fate ended inside four big tummies. 

I loved the texture and mild lemon flavor in this cake

Ingredients:

For a 9 by 5 inch loaf:

All purpose flour- 1 1/2 cup
Baking soda- 1/4 tsp
Baking powder- 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Butter- 1/2 cup
Vegetable Shortening- 1/4 cup
Granulated white sugar- 1 cup
Eggs- 2
Buttermilk- 1/2 cup
Pure Vanilla Extract- 1 tsp
Zest and juice from one Lemon

For Glaze:

Confectioner's sugar- 1/2 cup
Lemon juice

Method:

1.Preheat the oven at 350 degree F. Grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
2.Cream the butter and shortening together.
3.Add sugar,a little at a time and beat well till its creamy.
4.Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.
5.Now add the vanilla extract and lemon juice and lemon zest and mix well.
6.Whisk together the dry ingredients in another bowl.
7.Add the dry mixture into the wet mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Starting and ending with the flour and mixing everything well.
8.Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a tester inserted comes out clean.
9.Cool on wire rack.
10. Make the glazing by mixing together the lemon juice into the sugar, until you get the required consistency.
11.Pour over the cooled cake and wait for some time till it sets.

Sending this and Almond cookies to Vaishali's event Spring


Notes:

1.You could make a bundt cake if you double the recipe.
2.If you cut down the butter or shortening your cake will be dry.
3.Deeba has made her cake in a 8 inch round pan, so could you if you want a round cake. :-)

Contributor: Namitha
Recipe Adapted from : Deebas blog ,Food network and All recipes

Lemon cake with Lemon Frosting

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  Now that September is here and everyone is feeling the 'pressure of Fall' I have chosen some fall colors to say it's not so bad.  You say you don't feel the pressure? Well, I did. Especially when Colorado experienced a sudden drop in temperature yesterday.  I decided it was here to foil all weekend plans. Yes, I know, I can check 'weather.com' and find out for sure if things will clear up but as all things go anxiety overrules commonsense.  Regardless my spirits are quite high.  I am celebrating my success with the Lemon Cake.  The zesty, rich, utterly scrumptious cake and what a perfect day to share this recipe with you.

 September hold a dear place in my heart for many reasons.  One is that some of the dearest people in my life celebrate their birthdays. I will unfold who over the coming days.  Secondly, I got married some gazillion years ago.  Ah..ha! Now you will agree I have enough reasons to be merry.

Talking about birthdays, today one of our dearest friends both Sunitha and mine, celebrates her birthday.  R, wish you a very happy birthday.  Today's recipe and flowers are a collaborative way of saying we love you dear friend.

  And as for you, have a great weekend we love you too.



Ingredients:

For Cake:

Flour- 2 3/4 cup
Baking powder- 1 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
Plain yogurt- 1 cup
Grated Lemon zest- 1 1/2 Tbsp
Fresh Lemon Juice- 1/4 cup
Pure Vanilla Extract- 1 tsp
Unsalted Butter- 1 cup
Sugar- 1 3/4 cup
Eggs- 4

For Frosting:

Confectioner's sugar- 1 cup
Lemon Juice- 2 Tbsp




Method:

1.Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl and keep aside.
2.Preheat the oven at 350 degree f (180 degree C)and prepare a 9 1/2 inch bundt pan /tube pan by greasing and dusting with flour.
3.Whisk the yogurt, zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract together in a small bowl.
4.Beat the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl.Add eggs one at a time and beat to mix in.
5.Add the yogurt mixture and baking soda ithis and mix well.
6.Finally add the flour baking powder mix and beat everything together to mix well.
7.Spoon out into the prepared pan and bake for 45- 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
8.Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before inverting the pan.
9.Prepare the frosting after the cake cools well, by mixing the sugar and lemon juice well.
10.Spoon it over the cake. It should have a flowing consistency, but not too thin.



Notes:

1.This recipe serves 12-15.
2.You could use cake flour for this as in the original recipe.
3.Also you could use low fat yogurt if you wish, but I used the regular yogurt

Recipe adapted from :Woman's day

Sending this cake to Champa's (Versatile Vegetarian kitchen)Bake off event
And EFM-Cakes and bakes in Srilekha's Me and My Kitchen





Also sending this Pista Kulfi to Priti's "Festive Foods- Rakhi" and BSI-Milk hosted by Sanyukta.





Contributor: Namitha