Sundae Sunday.....Cherry Lime

I love Cherry and Lime together. Sonic does it right - they made a mean Cherry Limeade....but I don't get there often enough (which is probably a good thing!). I think it is a great combination.






So today when I was thinking about what to make to go with my TWD Vanilla Ice Cream, I looked in the fridge and found a lot of limes and some dark cherries. So when the fridge gives you limes, what do you do? You make Lime Curd! And I thought about mixing it directly into the vanilla ice cream but I wanted to keep it pure. And then with the cherries I decided to just chop them up and cook them into a sauce with some sugar and water....it is so dark and rich. I hope I please my Twitter friends who said they would like to see something with fruit!





When I served it up I decided to just pour the warmed cherries over the ice cream and dolloped the lime curd on the side. Delish. I have already posted Dorie's recipe for Lemon Curd, and just changed the juice to lime....you can find it here.

And you will not be getting the recipe for the Vanilla Ice Cream - though I know you want it! I mean, LOOK AT THOSE VANILLA SPECKS! It's for Tuesdays with Dorie this week and I will be sure to link you to the host with the recipe.

Take care,
Tania
Love Big, Bake Often

Put the Lime Curd in the Cupcake!

Instead of "put the lime in the coconut"....get it? I try to be funny... is it working?

I don't know where this lime obsession is coming from the past couple of days, but I am lovin' it! The lime curd I made yesterday turned out luscious....that's right....LUSCIOUS. I wanted a cupcake to go along with it that would hold up to this fantastic lime curd. So I asked my friend CB, from I Heart Cuppycakes to send me a link to her best go to vanilla cupcake recipe....and this is what she sent...you can find her version here. (Thank you for responding to me so quickly - gotta love twitter!)

Lime Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes about 12

1-1/4 cups AP flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

Zest from one lime

6 tbsp butter, room temperature

1 large egg + 1 egg white, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Zest lime and with fingers rub the sugar with the lime zest. In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat the lime sugar and butter until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating on low.

Then add vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture.

Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

6 oz Cream Cheese

1 1/2 Sticks Softened Butter

2 tsp Lemon Extract

1 Tbsp Half and Half

Approx 6 - 7 cups of Icing Sugar

Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add in Half and Half and Lemon Extract. Add Icing Sugar until you reach the consitency you are looking for....I like to have it spreadable but stiff enough to hold the swirls and peaks!

I used the simple "cone" method to fill these cupcakes. I took a sharp knife, coned out a piece of the cupcake, cut off the bottom of the cone, put in the lime curd, and put the top of the cupcake back on. Just like this......

Then I frosted them with the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting. Lemon Lime Vanilla Cupcakes. They were a hit at the meeting and I actually was able to sneak a couple to bring back home for Jason and I to enjoy. They are delicious. Oh, and luscious. What a great word!

This is my last posting for NaBloPoMo......whew....it was tough to make sure to post everyday. But a very fun experiment. I may chose to do it for another month....guess I have to decide tomorrow..... thoughts?

That's it for tonight all....hope you had a good April!

Take Care,
Tania

Love Big, Bake Often

my day in the kitchen....bliss

I have been in the kitchen almost all day...and loving it. It is so great that the boys are at the age now that they can entertain themselves, with little supervision. I love it. I have been waiting for this age....when they get along so well, and they do. There are times when they fight and hit and bite, but those are not the norm these days. It's all about the brotherly love these days. It gives me Mama Time to do some projects, clean the house, and of course be in the kitchen doing my thing!


This morning I was not interested in anything in the cupboards or fridge. But I was hungry and I wanted something to eat. So I made myself some popovers. Popovers are really simple eggy thingys that puff up when baking and gets nice and crusty on the outside and a little eggy on the inside. I am sure there is a much more coherent definition....but that's just not me!! LOL!

I found the recipe on Allrecipes...and divided it to make just enough for me (the boys had eaten, I promise!)

Here it is.....
This makes three pretty good size popovers - You can make them in a muffin tin or in little custard dishes like I did.

Ingredients:
1/3 c flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg
1/3 c milk (I used whole!)
1 tsp melted butter
2 tsp butter - cut into three pieces and put one piece in each cup/tin you are using.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Spray pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place pan on center rack of oven and preheat for 2 minutes.
Blend flour, salt, eggs, milk, and melted butter until it looks like heavy cream, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Cut chilled butter into 3 even pieces. Place 1 piece of butter in each cup and place pan back in oven until butter is bubbly (about 1 minute).
Fill each cup half full with batter and bake 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes.



Then they look like that....I drizzled some honey over them and enjoyed them with yet another cup of coffee.


Then it was time to put the pork into the Crock Pot to start cooking for the day. I had told Jason that we were having BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches for dinner....YUM! So I mixed it all up, put it in the crock pot, made note of the time....and let it go. I have to say that it was delicious. I bought some fresh kaisers, some sweet pickles, and put together a simple green salad to go with it. So BBQ Pork sandwiches it was....I didn't have some of the ingredients that were in the amazing recipe that Jen sent me, so I tweaked it with what I had. But promise that I am going to make them Jen's way again very soon. This was so simple to make, and to not have to turn on anything that makes heat? Come'on....it's perfect. The Crock Pot is my new best friend.


BBQ Pulled Pork

1 2-3 lb pork shoulder - trimmed of any excess fat (trying to be SB conscious)
1 large onion - diced
4 cloves of garlic - minced
2 chipotle chilis canned in adobo - seeded deveined and chopped 1 Tbsp adobo from the canned chilis
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp paprika
salt & pepper


Put Pork into the Crock Pot. Mix all other ingredients together and pour over pork. Close up Crock pot, put on low....and take off for 8 hours! Then take out cooked pork, shred with two forks, put pork back into crock pot to soak up all the good juices, then pile onto fresh kaiser buns and enjoy!


Check this out...



Then just before dinner I decided what I want to make tomorrow for our FRG (Family Readiness Group - it's an Army thing) meeting......Lime Filled Cuppies with Coconut Cream Frosting. So I had to make some Lime Curd to use as the filling, right? I used Dorie's recipe for Lemon Curd, but switched out limes for lemons. Simple, easy, and I want to eat it right out of the pot!




Dorie's Lemon Curd

1 egg
6 egg yolks (I saved the whites to make some macarons)
1 1/4 c sugar
6 TBSP of unsalted butter - cut into 6 pieces
Juice of 4 lemons - I used 8 Limes


Put all the ingredients in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, and stir with a heatproof spatula to moisten the sugar. Put the pan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring without stopping, until the butter melts and the mixture thickens like custard, 4 to 6 minutes. Keep your eyes on the pan, because the curd can curdle quickly. It is cooked enough when you can run your finger along the spatula and the curd doesn't run into the track you've created. Don't worry if the curd looks thin at this point - it will thicken more as it cools. Remove the pan from the heat and scrape the curd into a heatproof jar or a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the curd to create an airtight seal and cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge.

Recipe courtesy of Dorie Greenspan, Baking from My Home to Yours.....GO BUY IT! Here!

So that was my day! But don't worry....I mixed in playing with the boys, a trip to the grocery store, and some fresh air outside with the boys.

Hope you get a chance to try these awesome recipes. Thank you to Jen, from Piccante Dolce for sharing her BBQ Pork recipe.

Take care,
Tania
Love Big, Bake Often