This and that

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cheesecake Bars

Last week I decided to do some baking for Easter. I had some Meyer Lemons and I had wanted to make some Lemon Shortbread cookies. If any of you follow my blog or facebook page on a regular basis, you know that I don't always read recipes and just pick what I want out of a recipe and make up the rest.

Well, to make a long story short this is what my dough looked like:

Not really the dough I had in mind when I was starting out my cookies.

I did finally get my cookies made and the recipe is here,

but my dilemma was 'What was I going to do with all the crumbs?'

So I did what any sane person would do.... I went to facebook and asked my followers...

Here are some of the suggestions I got:

Pie crust with added coconut oil... yum I am going to try that

Topping for a fruit crisp dessert... Yes, for sure with the lemon in the dough...

Using for a crustless quiche

and lastly CHEESECAKE..

SHORTBREAD, LEMON FILLING, CHEESECAKE!

Sounds like a winning combination for me and it was...

So YUMMY!

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cheesecake Bars

adapted Cheesecake Lemon Bars

Bottom Layer Shortbread Crust:

I used my Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookie recipe with only 1/2 cup margarine. This made close to 3 times the amount you really would need.

You could use any shortbread crust recipe.

Lemon Filling (Middle Layer):

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tbsp lemon zest

1/2 cup lemon juice

Cream Cheese Layer (Top Layer):

2 - 8oz cream cheese

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs (beaten)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In 9 x 13 pan press shortbread crust on bottom and sides of pan. Bake for approx 10 - 15 minutes until lightly brown. Set aside to cool.

In mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, white sugar, flour, lemon juice and zest. Pour this mixture over crust.

Mix cream cheese and sugar until well mixed. Add beaten eggs. Pour over lemon mixture. Bake for 40-50 minutes until filling is set.

***These mixtures will separate once baked. I was surprised that they did.

***I used a water bath to make mine. I placed a pan filled half full of water on the rack below the bars.

*** next time I would add just a small amount more of shortbread crust. I added about 2 cups of the mixture I had, so would probably increase it to 3.

Enjoy ~ I added some canned cherry pie filling on top.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links: Swap and Share, Thursday's Treasure, Food Holiday Link Party

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies

At the end of last year I was participating in a Foodie Penpal program. I loved that program and need to start doing it again. Anyways, one month, my penpal sent me some lemon cookies that tasted like a lemon shortbread. For Easter I wanted to make something similar that I could cut into shapes.

I had found some Meyer Lemons at our local Walmart Superstore. I had never tried Meyer Lemons but as everyone was making recipes with them, I thought they must be great. I decided that I would combine a shortbread recipe with lemon juice and use cookie cutters to make them look Eastery (is that a word, it is today!).

I found a recipe for Lavender Shortbread Cookies from Allrecipes, that I thought would work perfect with a few minor changes. It was a perfect recipe once I got it right. I had to make the dough three times before I got them to work out. Mainly because I don't always read recipes. My first two batches ended up being just crumbs as when I finally read the recipe, I realized that I didn't put in enough butter. But I did use some of the crumbs for another recipe that I will share in the next day or two.

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies

adapted from Lavender Shortbread Cookies

1 1/2 cup softened butter

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)

2 tsp lemon zest ( zest of one Meyer lemon)

1 tbsp Meyer Lemon juice

1/4 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup corn starch

In bowl, cream together sugars and butter until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla and mix well. In separate bowl combine flour and corn starch. Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture slowly until well combined. Divide dough into two balls and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Flatten the balls slightly and refrigerate for about an hour ~ until firm. (I put mine in the freezer for about 1/2 hour until firm).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut cookies with a cookie cutter (I used a flower and egg shape). Place on cookie sheet.

Bake for approximately 16-20 minutes until edges just start turning brown. Cool for a few minutes on baking sheet and then transfer to wire rack to continue cooling. Enjoy!

These cookies were delicious, very close to the cookies that my foodie penpal sent me. The only thing I think I will do different is put a little more lemon in them. The cookies that were sent had a very distinct lemon flavour to them. Maybe I will use lemons and Meyer lemons next time. That is if I have any Meyer lemons left. We loved the Meyer Lemons and my husband ate one by it self.

These cookies are great with coffee or tea..

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)

`.¸.✻✿.¸.✻ Enjoy your day....`.¸.✻✿.¸.✻

Links: Tasty Thursdays, Weekend Re-treat, I love my post, Marvelous Mondays

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

African Beignets

My husband was just in Louisiana and loved it. When he got home he told me about an appetizer that he had eaten that reminded him of some of the food that he ate in Togo. We made them a few days after he got home and had to go back to the drawing board. We made them again on Sunday and they turned out great. The second batch we add plantains to them and as I love plantains this was just perfect. My next goal is to see how the taste when they are baked instead of fried.

African Beignets

1 cup white corn meal *

1/8 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp oil ( I used olive oil)

3/8 cup water

1 ripe plantain (optional)

oil for frying

Mix all ingredients except plantains together. I mixed them together with my hand but you could use a beater. Let sit for approx 10 minutes. Add plantain and mix thoroughly. Roll into approx 1 inch balls.

Heat oil in pan ( you want enough oil so that at least 3/4 of the balls are covered). Place balls into oil and fry until a golden brown colour. Enjoy.

These will have a crisp outer coating with a soft middle. Try not eat just one. I dare you.

We did notice that they stuck slightly to the bottom but floated after you loosened them.

* these would also work with corn flour.

Enjoy!

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links: Top Recipe Showcase, In and Out of the Kitchen, Tried and True Recipes , Tasty Thursdays

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Easter Art

I have created a couple of pictures for you to download for Easter.

Easter Art

To download go HERE

You are welcome to use any of these for your own personal use.

You are not to use them for profit.

If you do use them I would love to see how you used them ~ links are welcome in the comments.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)

`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Coconut Rice and Shrimp with Peach Salsa

I found this recipe from last week's Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party and knew that I had to try it out. We had some coconut milk at home and I knew that there was some shrimp left over. The only problem is that I forgot to buy some pineapple when I went shopping so had to change the recipe some, so made it with peaches instead of pineapple.

The recipe came from Amelia's Dessert. Amelia has a wonderful blog. She has a lot of information on her posts. The recipe that she had made was Coconut Rice with grilled pineapple with shrimp. I don't have a rice cooker or steamer, so made my coconut rice on the stove. The rice was very flavourful, although I did add some water as I felt it just didn't have enough fluids. This decreased the coconut flavour. So the next time I will just add more coconut milk. We will be making this recipe again.

Coconut Rice and Shrimp with Peach Salsa

Coconut Rice

1 cup Jasmine rice

1 cup coconut milk

2/3 cup water ( next time I will just use more coconut milk and no water)

1 1/2 tsp butter

1/3 cup onions

2 garlic cloves minced

1 in ginger sliced thinly

3 cloves

In saucepan, melt butter. Add onions, cloves, ginger and cloves and saute until onions are translucent about 4 -5 minutes. Add rice and cook another couple of minutes until lightly toasted about 2 -3 minutes. Add coconut milk and rice. Bring to boil. Turn down heat to low and cook for 20-25 minutes.

Coconut Rice

Shrimp with Peach Salsa

3/4 pound shrimp, deveined and peeled

oil to fry shrimp

1 cup bread crumbs

2 tsp garlic powder

1 cup onions

3/4 of can of tomatoes ( I used Red Gold)

1 can peaches diced ( I used sugarless peaches in water)

2-3 mini sweet peppers sliced in rounds

1/2 tsp dried basil

hot pepper to taste

1/4 tsp salt

Cook onions in small amount of oil (approx 1 tsp) until translucent. Add tomatoes, peaches and basil and cook for 2 -3 minutes. Add sweet pepper, hot pepper and salt and cook for another 2 -3 minutes. If you don't want to fry your shrimp you could add them now and cook for another couple of minutes until the shrimp is pink.

To fry the shrimp- In pan pour in oil, enough to cover shrimp and heat over medium high heat. Combine bread crumbs and garlic. Dredge shrimp through the bread crumb mixture. Place shrimp in hot oil fry until shrimp are nice brown colour.

I wasn't planning on frying the shrimp but hubby came home and told me he didn't like shrimp unless they were crunchy, so to fry them. These meal was very flavourful with a hint of hot.

Enjoy.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Thursday, March 21, 2013

#FoodieFriendsFriday and an Easter Brunch

It is once again Thursday and time for our

Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party

Next week is Easter so we are going to have an Easter Brunch and I can't wait to see what you all bring to the party... I haven't even thought of what I will be making. I am hoping to get some ideas from all of you.

Before we head into our party, let's check and see

Which Recipes Caught our Attention at last week's Party

Head over to the Daily Dish Magazine to check out the host favorites.

For your chance of being featured you must have a link back of your recipe to either
Foodie Friends Friday

or the the host blog that you linked up with.

Maybe next week your recipe will be here.

Welcome to Foodie Friends Friday!

Please take a moment to read through the rules before getting started, Thank You!

*By linking up you agree that you read these rules and all photos/recipes are original and belong to you. You agree to allow Foodie Friends Friday and any of it's affiliated websites or publications (Social Girls Media, LLC) to use photos, links, and recipes for reprint and/or republishing and distribution without monetary compensation to you. If photos & recipes are used, proper link backs to you will be included.

Adding Links back to Foodie Friends Friday and our Button is our only form of advertising to bring in more people to see YOUR recipes.

Please remember to do this. It benefits you! To thank you, we will continue to feature those with links throughout the year on various outlets.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com/" title="Foodie Friends Friday" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj628/busyvegetarianmom/FFFDDButtonNEW150Darker_zpse238f637.jpg" alt="Foodie Friends Friday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Meet our Co-Hosts at Foodie Friends Friday:

Now Let's meet our sponsor this week!

*Giveaway Disclaimer: Facebook is in no way associated with this website or giveaway and holds no liability for this giveaway. "Liking" facebook pages is optional, not mandatory for entry. Sponsors will be responsible for shipping- if there is a delay or problem with prize, you must communicate directly with sponsor.

This week's giveaway is sponsored by Lori from The Salvage Home
You can find her on Facebook , Etsy, and Pinterest.
Lori has some wonderful things in her store, you need to check her out.

Remember to fill out the rafflecopter for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last week's winners
Sponsor Winner

Voted Top 3

White Chocolate Mint Ice Cream ~ From Calculus to Cupcakes
Banana Bread ~ Bakewell Junction
Coconut Rice and grilled pineapple with shrimp ~ Amelia's Dessert

Most Clicks

Key Lime Cake Pop Pie ~ Pint Size Bakery
Easy as Can Be Coconut Pie ~ A Cozy Place called Home
Ultimate Brownie Pie ~ It Bakes Me Happy

Host Favorite
Foodie Friends Friday

This week's host favorite goes to Amelia's Dessert for her Coconut rice and grilled pineapple with shrimps. Rice is a staple ingredient in our house and making it with coconut milk will be wonderful. I love how she started out this post ~ " Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook. - Chinese proverb". I am not sure if you remember when I posted about my relearning how to make rice once I got married, but now after a few years I have it right... or at least I think I do. I am planning on make this meal or something very similar for dinner tonight. I forgot to buy pineapple so my shrimp is going to have peaches instead but I think it will still taste good with the coconut rice. I will post my picture when I have one, but for now I will post Amelia's picture of this delicious looking meal.

Picture credit: Amelia's Dessert

Just to let you know that there will be no party next weekend as it is Easter weekend and all of us hosts will be busy with our families.

Hope you have a wonderful and blessed Easter.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

March Surprise Recipe Swap - Chai Tea Bread

March Surprise Recipe Swap

Jutta from Hungry Little Girl started this Surprise Recipe Swap.I believe that this is the third month but it is the first month for me. We were given a blog partner at the first of the month, giving us a couple of weeks to go through our partner's blog and find a recipe to make. Then on the 20th you will post the recipe that you made. I love this idea as going through someone else's blog and finding recipes are so much fun. I know this makes me go though the blog as with my busy life I don't always make time to do this, so this way I have to go and read someone else's blog. If you want to participate in this, head over to Hungry Little Girl and read what it entails and the few simple rules that there are.

This month CJ from Morsel of Life is my Surprise Recipe Swap partner. At the beginning of the month I went through her blog, finding many recipes that I wanted to make. I wrote down about 8 recipes and then the next step was to pick one of them. That was the hard part.. which one do I make. After some humming and hawing I decide to make her Chai Tea Bread recipe. I love Chai and I knew that I had wanted to make this already as I had left a comment on this recipe.

As you know I very seldom make a recipe the way it is written.. Mainly because I don't always read the recipe and another reason is that I believe a recipe is a guide and you need to make it to your taste. I also made mine in 2 Welcome Home paper loaf pans as even though we have 10 feet of snow and it is still snowing, today the 20th is the first day of spring and I wanted something that looked springy.

Chai Tea Bread

adapted from Morsels of Life

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups flour ( I used 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat as the recipe stated)

3/4 tsp cardamom (ground)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cloves

1/8 tsp anise (ground)

2 tsp baking powder

Wet Ingredients:

1/4 cup coconut oil (I used Tradition Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil)

1/2 cup honey

2 eggs

3/8 cup milk (I used evaporated milk)

1/2 cup Chai concentrate or Chai tea (I used Chai tea as was to lazy to make some concentrate)

2 tsp vanilla

1/8 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients together in bowl. In mixing bowl combine wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until barely moist. Pour into greased loaf pan or I used 2 paper Welcome Home loaf pans. Sprinkle coconut over top of loaf. Bake for 50 minutes if using one loaf pan or mine took about 35 minutes with the 2 paper loaf pans.

Enjoy

Enjoy with a cup of Chai Tea

I loved the spices in this bread and it is not too sweet. Just perfect to have with a cup of tea. I had a couple of pieces for breakfast this morning. I had planned on putting some ripe banana's into this last night when I made it but thought I would wait... I think bananas would be a perfect addition to this wonderful bread. To find the original recipe, go HERE.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cheesecake Bars

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cheesecake Bars

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)

`.¸.✻✿.¸.✻ Enjoy your day....`.¸.✻✿.¸.✻

Links: Tasty Thursdays, Weekend Re-treat, I love my post, Marvelous Mondays

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

African Beignets

African Beignets

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Easter Art

Easter Art

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Coconut Rice and Shrimp with Peach Salsa