I hope your Christmas was merry and bright! It was at the Hopkins’ house and I have a very good reason for not posting a recipe yesterday… it is pictured above. Santa brought be an iPad for Christmas and I’m having a blast with it! Thankfully it wasn’t opened until AFTER I had gotten Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning breakfast on the table, otherwise people may have gone hungry! Somehow, I did manage to make Christmas dinner, but the day after Christmas… it was all iPad, all day long! And I’m feeling the itch to get back to it right now. Before that happens, here is the potato dish I made for Christmas Eve to accompany pomegranate molasses lamb chops -yummers!

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After putting up the cocktail recipe on Sunday, then posting it on the LPG facebook fan page, I found that my “followers” want and need more cocktail recipes. I am here to serve!

We have a built-in 50 bottle wine refrigerator in the kitchen. It is generally stocked about half full with everyday, drinkable, and reasonably priced bottles. My favorite summer wine is rosé. I find it to be the perfect “cool me down” hot-weather choice. For some unknown reason, my dad figures that if I like rosé, I must love Riesling and Gewürztraminer. I despise both! In fact, I find them so cloyingly sweet that I can not bring myself to serve them to others either. So what to do with the three bottles I have? Yup, that’s right, it took me three weeks to tell my dad, that I do not like these wines – and yes, it hurt his feelings. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to stop receiving bad “gifts”! What I’ve decided to do is make lemonade out of lemons, or in this case, sour up overly sweet wine with a bit of acid.

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It’s been nearly two months since I promised this recipe would be posted here. I can not believe how quickly the summer goes by!  The last week of May we finished the third and final step for homemade limoncello liqueur. Then I gave you a wonderful recipe for lemon-limoncello meringue pie and said another limoncello dessert recipe was forthcoming. It has arrived in the form of these amazingly creamy, yet not too sweet, cheesecake squares. This recipe comes courtesy of the talented and lovely Giada De Laurentiis. Not only am I surprised how long it has taken me to finally make these but I am shocked to realize that this is the first cheesecake recipe posted here. And since it’s not made in a springform pan, it’s not even an actual cheesecake.  Shocking, because I love cheesecake, which is by far one of my favorite desserts. Not only that but I can honestly say that I am a master at making them; The Cheesecake Factory has nothing on me!  I’m not bragging, just stating the facts and I’m going to share with you three of the most important tricks of the trade to making creamy and crack-free cheesecakes of your own.

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Way back in March when I started the limoncello process, I knew I wanted to make this pie. It will be the ending to our Memorial Day dinner. Apple pie may be America’s pie, but this can’t be beat in the summer. It’s pretty, cool, delicious and refreshing… all-American for sure!

I learned an awesome technique for “applying” the meringue to the top of the pie from one of my favorite and most inspirational blogs, Zoe Bakes. Click here to see Zoe’s original step by step instruction with amazing photos. It actually make my mouth drop open when I first saw this gorgeous cake back in January.

I’ve found another amazing recipe using the sweet Italian liqueur – a cheesecake square recipe from the ever beautiful and talented Giada De Laurentiis.  Feel free to go to www.foodnetwork.com and make it yourself, or wait until I post the recipe here, which will  be soon, because I am already craving another limoncello masterpiece.

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The long wait is finally over!  It’s been 80 days! Today is THE day that we can finally finish making our limoncello and reap the rewards of our patience! Once again, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you have missed a post or two.  The first appeared on March 8th when we began the process of making homemade limoncello. The second occurred on April 17th when we completed the second step, so if you haven’t been following along, sorry! But really it’s not too late, you can just go back to those two posts and begin anew, and you too will have your own limoncello…ready to use…. on about…. August 14th!

CLICK HERE for Step 1

CLICK HERE for Step 2

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Proud! That is what I am today! My precious baby girl graduates from the University of Arizona today with a Journalism major and Creative Writing minor. She has been a hard-working dedicated student ever since kindergarten 17 years ago. Heck, since her “mini-threes” days in preschool! So yeah, I am a proud braggart mom, and I will not apologize for that, at least not today!

After the ceremonies, Dave and I are taking Marissa, Alberto (boyfriend), Grandpa Gene (my dad), and Connor (treasured baby brother) out to dinner to J Bar. You may recall that I posted about the amazing nachos we had there earlier this month(May 2). Well Marissa has been craving them ever since reading that post, and whatever she wants, she gets today!

After dinner, we’ll be heading back to her house where she and her four beautiful roomies (see picture below for the proof of said beauty!) are hosting a dessert party for all their families. The girls requested I make a trifle they tasted back in October that was posted here.  I changed it up a bit for the occasion. The lemon curd is now a lemon-cherry curd and there is a fabulous addition – cream cheese filling. Expect more mama boasting and pictures tomorrow!

Marissa, Kaley, Kelsey, Paige, and Petra

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When I went out the garden to pick the mint needed for this recipe, I found this very welcome and sweet little guest, funny how simple joys can just make your day! My goal for the past month or two has been to cook with lemons everyday.  I know you’re probably sick of hearing about how many lemons I have, but believe me, I’m more tired of trying to use/get rid of them!  I took about 50 pounds to cooking class last night and plan to do the same tomorrow night when I begin my 3-week series at Les Gourmettes. Just the thought of all of them is wearing me out… the solution? Tonight, I’m going to fire up the Jacuzzi and make cocktails using up several lemons, that will get me geared up to keep going! This is a great cocktail if you have a little leftover champagne or as in my case, you have a split lying around unused. I’m using Absolute Citron, but any unflavored or citrus flavored vodka is fine. If you’re not lemon-rich, buy lemon sorbet at the grocery store and you’re all set.

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I picked my first artichokes of the season today! Plus another 40 or 50 pounds of lemons! Really, someday, I will have picked that lemon tree clean… but not for awhile. Only two artichokes were ready, so this recipe is for two, it can easily be doubled or tripled, no matter how many more artichokes you add.  But only go up to 1 1/2 cups of water to cook them in and no more than about 5 tablespoons olive oil.  When increasing recipes, know that not all ingredients increase in equal increments.  For instance, even is you double or triple the onion/garlic/thyme/fennel portions, you still will only need about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to sauté them in… make sense?

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Hey, it is time to take your jar with the first stage of limoncello out of the dark cool place you have been hiding it. You don’t know what in the world I’m talking about?  Then you must have missed the March 8th post that gave you the first step to make your own limconcello. Of course, you can still do it, just go back to the beginning, do step one and mark your calendar accordingly. But if you were following along, you are ready to proceed.

CLICK HERE for Step 1

CLICK HERE for Step 3

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Time to gear up for the green! Tomorrow it is finally St. Patrick’s Day, and coincidentally I need to make a couple dozen cookies for a friends, so green it is! These soft cake-like cookies would be perfect for a Tea or Brunch. The “High Tea” theme is popular for wedding and baby showers, and so are these cookies. For a wedding shower you could tint one half of the icing the color of the bridesmaid dresses and leave the other half white. For a baby shower, pink and blue are the obvious choices. No matter what color theme you choose, these cookies will disappear as fast as you put them out!

I tested baking the cookies on both a Silpat lined baking sheet and one that was sprayed with Pam. Although I generally use the Silpat when baking, the cookies turned out a crisper on the unlined pan and in this case, crisper is better. You can see the results for yourself in the pictures below. And thanks to my “cookie tester and model”- Connor, who is home for spring break!

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