tangy glazed Italian lemon cookies and summer days

Summer is here!  The days are warm and full of birdsong, and down at the pond, the little beach is filled with children splashing and swimming.  I thought this day would never come, but here we are.  How heavenly is that, after a ...um, challenging winter, with way too many days with the thermometer stuck on 15 degrees below zero?

The hemlocks are sending out their several inches of new growth, with light green fingers celebrating Summer.  And I made a fresh fruit salad to toast the new season of sunny, summer weather, as well as a new recipe for the most wonderful lemon cookies I found here.  These are so wonderful to serve along with ice cream, fruit, or a nice little creme brulee or chocolate mousse.  Wish my sister was here to enjoy them - though she really loved chocolate anything:)  

I did change the recipe a bit, but it's easy as pie - no sticking the dough in the fridge for a few hours.  Just whip it up, bake, mix up a quick icing, and you're done.

The dough:
 1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups King Arthur flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
two pinches of kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

Fit two baking sheets with parchment.

Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add eggs, lemon zest, and  lemon juice and mix.
Add flour, baking powder, and salt and mix very briefly, just until mixed.
Using a small ice cream scoop ( I used a 1 1/4 inch scoop) scoop out little balls of dough, (if you want bigger cookies, just add 5 or 6 more minutes if you're using a 2 inch scoop)  onto baking sheet, two inches apart.
Bake 12 minutes in preheated oven.

While the cookies are baking make the icing:

1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup confectioners sugar

Whisk ingredients well, set aside.

When the cookies are done, set onto cooling rack to cool completely, then dip tops of cookies into the icing, letting the icing drip slowly back into the icing bowl.  When it stops dripping, set on a rack to dry.

Let cool completely before storing in a container - if they last that long!

fresh carrot soup with turmeric and ginger

The chilly weather has continued all of this month of May - the last several days have been chilly AND rainy - that joyful May weather we usually get has been non-existant this year.  Still, it's kept the onslaught of black flies to a minimum, for which we are all grateful - and it's extended soup season for a little while.

This is a new version of my carrot and ginger soup, with the addition of turmeric and a shorter cooking time to keep the taste fresh, and the color vibrant.

Carrot soup with ginger and turmeric

1 cup water
1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups peeled and sliced fresh carrots (do not use baby carrots - they are too dry)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 medium peeled and sliced onion
1 heaping tablespoon fresh grated ginger root
1/2 teaspoon turmeric spice

Place the stock, water, onion, thyme, ginger root , turmeric, and carrots in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until the carrots are just barely tender when poked with a fork (about 15 or 20 minutes).

Remove from heat and let cool briefly, then place in a food processor or blender (I use a blender) and puree until smooth.  If it's too thick, add just a little more water.

Taste and correct the seasonings, then sprinkle with sliced scallions just before serving.




Only one more day til JUNE!

saying goodbye

Never in a million years could I have imagined this day, when I held my sister's hand and said goodbye.

A week ago my older sister died of cancer.  She had been shockingly diagnosed a year and a half ago, went on a new medication that seemed to be working, but then, suddenly, stopped being effective.  She went back to her beloved home, surrounded by friends, family, and the very caring Hospice staff just after Easter - only a few weeks ago.  Everything happened so quickly, so quickly.

She is part of my entire life, every nook and cranny, snapshots scattered across the bed, from my first baby pictures to her last week.  And after she died, we went into her garden, her beautiful Spring garden, bursting with beauty and life and color, to try to fathom a life without her phone calls and visits, her grace, and her love.   Blessings to her husband, her three sons and their families, and her two grandchildren.  Until we meet again.

chopped salad with garlicky buttermilk, goat cheese and fresh dill dressing

I am not sure how this dressing evolved, but I do know it's a winner.  When I made a going-away dinner for my daughter a week and a half ago, she asked if I wanted more salad, and then exchanged her plate for the salad bowl.  I've been known to spoon out a little dressing from the jar in the fridge a few times a day. But when a seven and a half year old boy yells "oh, this is so GOOD!" and has a second helping, I know this is a keeper.

It's an herby, creamy sauce with just a hint of garlic, which goes beautifully with a cold, crunchy lettuce like romaine or iceberg, and I'm thinking it would make a nice potato salad as well.  And as a sauce for roasted chicken, or spread on a roast beef sandwich.  At this point, I'm thinking it goes with pretty much anything, except fruit.

Garlicky buttermilk, goat cheese, and fresh dill salad dressing:


Place in blender (mine is an ancient one, but it still works):

1/2 clove peeled garlic, sliced
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
4 tablespoons mayonnaise  (I use Hellmann's olive oil mayo)
1 tablespoon sour cream
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh dill, stems removed, loosely packed
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons fresh goat cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons sliced scallions

Puree and serve in a pitcher or small bowl.

Serve with a big bowl of chopped romaine lettuce and a fresh loaf of good bread for sopping up the dressing.  Store leftover dressing in the fridge in a glass jar.

How's Spring in your neck of the woods?  My sorrel is up, violets are blooming, the lilacs are budding, and my chives made it through the very cold winter.  The lemon balm also made it through, but lost the tarragon and thyme.  All the more reason to visit the local garden center!

juicy turkey burgers with salmoriglio sauce

I have had this scrap of paper taped to the side of the fridge for at least a year.  I think I was in a doctor's office when it caught my eye in one of the magazines in the waiting room.  You'd be proud of me - I did NOT slide the magazine into my bag, but I neglected to write down where it was from.  This recipe seems to come close when I googled it today.  It's really a sauce for fish, but as I was cooking up fresh ground turkey burgers this morning, it flashed into my sleepy morning brain that a sauce of fresh parsley, a little garlic, lemon zest and juice, and oregano just might be the perfect topping for those somewhat bland but juicy burgers.  And oh, so it was.

I usually would stir everything together in a big bowl, as I do for turkey meatballs, but this time I spooned the pan juices over the burgers, then added a teaspoon of the salmoriglio sauce on top.  It is a very bright but pungent sauce, so a teaspoon seemed just right.  I can see this sauce in so many other dishes besides fish and turkey:  pasta for sure, whether hot or cold pasta salads or sides.  It's perfect with avocado, ramping up the buttery avocado with a little excitement.  How about stuffed broiled mushrooms?  Absolutely.  And a spoonful stirred in to any number of soups would had a zing.   I know the name is somewhat of a mouthful, but I haven't found any Italian to English translation, so we're stuck with it.


Salmoriglio Sauce

1 fat clove of garlic, peeled
about 1 cup roughly chopped Italian parsley, not packed down

2 heaping teaspoons grated lemon zest
a few pinches of kosher salt
freshly cracked pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried oregano ( I had no fresh)
3 tablespoons good olive oil

Place the garlic and parsley in a food processor and whizz until fairly fine.
Stop the processor and add in the lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and oregano .  Process briefly and scrape into a bowl, then drizzle on the olive oil and stir.

Taste test to see if it needs more salt, then use sparingly in desired dishes - a little goes a long way.  If you plan to use this on fish or meats, chicken or turkey, just use your clean fingers to coat before baking.


Spring is coming here in New Hampshire- I planted my Italian parsley seedlings yesterday!

creamy broccoli soup in the middle of upheaval

Here is one thing I've learned late in life ;  when life throws a curve ball, go into the kitchen.  Which is why I was making biscotti at midnight Thursday night and this chunky cream of broccoli soup at 10 last night.  I'm sure there were others, but I've forgotten when I made what, and not all came out perfectly.

A week ago my daughter and I were in Boston, on Easter Day, visiting my sister, her aunt, who was recovering from surgery.  We didn't see many bonnets, but the T trolleys were so jammed, the driver had to ask someone to step out so he could close the door.  I stared at feet:  running shoes, espadrille, sneakers, and even a few high heels.  Two men were holding plastic bags full of paper work, water bottle, a glimpse of numbers.  I wished them well the next day in the Boston marathon and did some thinking about a year ago.

On our way home, we stopped at a Panera :  me for soup, sandwich for my daughter.  I realized I hadn't really eaten all day, so that was the BEST soup  - the kind you dream about.  Of course, trying to replicate it was impossible, without that hunger I had on Sunday.  I tried a copycat recipe, but it called for cornstarch.  I followed the directions, cornstarch and all, but it wasn't the same, of course.

So back to my tried and true, made from scratch, creamy soup recipe.  Sometimes I add cream or half and half, and sometimes I just puree a chicken-stock based soup.  Here I added the half and half, then some grated cheese, but used potato for thickener, rather than cornstarch.  I first tried extra sharp white cheddar, then the yellow sharp cheddar, and liked the yellow cheddar better, actually, because it was a little smoother.

And the grandchildren?  Loving their new home in Minnesota!  I miss them a LOT, but what's important is that they're together and happy.



Creamy Broccoli Soup with cheddar

1 medium onion, sliced
1 peeled garlic clove, sliced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon mild olive oil
1 stalk sliced celery, leaves and all
a baby potato, or 1/2 cup diced red or white potato
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
2-3 cups broccoli, stems and tops, sliced in chunky pieces (I used a large crown of broccoli)
1 cup grated cheddar, white or yellow
1 cup half and half cream/milk
2 pinches ground nutmeg, or several scrapings
2 T. minced fresh dill
freshly cracked pepper

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan, then add the oil garlic, and onion.  Cook on medium heat, stirring, until onion is soft.

Add the potato and chicken stock and water and cook on medium until potato is soft.

Add the broccoli chunks and cook until just soft, then turn down the heat and add the half and half or cream, the nutmeg and dill, and the cheese.  Stir constantly, and do not let it boil at any time.  Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring, then take off heat.   Let sit a few minutes before using an immersion blender, food processor, or blender.

Serve with an additional sprinkle of cheese on top.




Here comes Spring!

Poached salmon with an herby Bercy sauce

Spring is here!  Most of the snow has melted, except for random patches here and there, the brook is racing (but not flooding), and the daffodils are showing buds.

And there was salmon at our local market.  I suddenly thought of a sauce I used to make when I worked in a restaurant long ago, which then became modified over the years:  rice vinegar instead of wine, since I rarely have wine around,  tarragon (no, you don't have to use it if you loathe it), and a creamy shallot and butter sauce to spoon over the poached salmon.  So it's not officially a Bercy sauce, but close enough to be cousins.

And how good?  The salmon was gone in a flash, the new potatoes and wilted spinach took perhaps ten minutes more .

Bercy sauce:

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
1/2 cup rice vinegar or a mild dill or tarragon vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
2 tablespoons roughly chopped Italian parsley
2 pinches kosher salt - about 1/4 teaspoon

Simmer the shallots, lemon juice,  and herbs in the vinegar until the liquid is reduced by half.

Stir in:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Keep stirring over moderate heat until the sauce is creamy and somewhat thick.
Remove from heat.

Poached salmon:

A ten inch stainless steel skillet and lid
1-2 pounds of salmon , mine were medium thickness, with the skin on

Place the salmon in the skillet and pour in enough water to come halfway up the sides of the salmon.

Place on moderate heat until water starts simmering, turn down heat and cover .
Poach for about ten minutes, remove from heat.

Use a spatula to remove individual servings to plates, then top with the sauce and serve. 

My dearest grandchildren are settling in to their new home in Minneapolis,  and there's a great silence and void around here - though yesterday I was able to Skype them , thanks to my computer-literate daughter.  What fun!    I even got a little tour of Izzie, Frankie and Noah's room, and watched them bounce on the beds.

Happy Spring!