Lemony Goodness!

Limoncello for all!

Way back in March my friend Kris and I began our limoncello adventure!  Remember when I posted about my abundance of lemons I had?  Click HERE for my other lemon recipes.

Limoncello

The Recipe

20 lemons , well scrubbed  

2 (750 ml) 151 proof Everclear - grain alcohol

5 1/3 cups sugar 

6 2/3 cups bottled water

Wash the lemons with a vegetable brush and hot water to remove any reside of pesticides or wax; pat the lemons dry. Carefully zest the lemons with a zester or vegetable peeler so there is no white pith on the peel.

Zesting the lemons

Step One: 

In a large glass jar (1-gallon jar), add one bottle of Everclear; add the lemon zest as it is zested. Cover the jar and let sit at room temperature for at least (10) ten days and up to (40) days in a cool dark place. The longer it rests, the better the taste will be. (There is no need to stir - all you have to do is wait.) 

As the limoncello sits, the Everclear slowly 

take on the flavor and rich yellow color of 

the lemon zest.

~~~~~~~~

Step Two: (In our case it was 40+ days later) 
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar 

and water; cook until thickened, approximately 

5 to 7 minutes. Let the syrup cool before 

adding it to the Limoncello mixture. 

Add to the Limoncello mixture from Step One . 

Add the additional bottle of Everclear. 

Allow to rest for another 10 to 40 days. 

I suggest 40 days, it really makes a 

HUGE difference.

~~~~~~~~

Step Three : 

After the rest period, strain and bottle: 

discarding the lemon zest. Cheese cloth or 

coffee filters are good methods of straining.

I bought my bottles at 
Specialty Bottles.

Keep it in the freezer until ready to serve.

OR

Add a label and give as a gift

Download for tag/label if 

you want HERE

Wiki:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limoncello

Grapefruit Curd...and a printable Label.

A few weeks back I made some grapefruit curd

I was a little hesitant because, well because... its grapefruit!

I actually liked it better then the lemon curd I made.

I also absolve some of my guilt for letting so many

of our grapefruit go to waste.  I mean really just how

many grapefruit can one eat when you have TWO 

huge grapefruit trees that produce twice a year!!

I followed this recipe HERE

except I did not add the ginger or lemon juice

I did however double my recipe

Above is a picture of it cooking down...

...and here it is brought to a boil.

And here they are all canned and ready to eat!
How about some quick grapefruit breadto go with your curd click HERE tocheck out the recipe!

Here is  printable label for you to download 

print if you decide to make some yourself.

 

Preserved Lemons

I previously posted about my abundance of lemons

and in my search of lemon recipes I discovered

a recipe for preserving lemons HERE.

I had wanted to find some way to have 

lemons year round.

The recipe called for Meyer lemons, butI used regular ole lemons and they worked just fine.
Since making my first batch I have cometo love my preserved lemons, and have made them for friends and familyas well.
I recently made some lemon chicken pasta using my preserved lemons and it was very tasty. I started by pureeing a couple of wedges in the blender with a clove of garlic and a tablespoon of olive oil. After sauteing chicken breasts in the lemon mixture I removed the chicken then added a tablespoon of butter and a little more lemon juice then added some cooked pasta.  The combination of salty and lemon was perfect.
Click HERE for more of my lemon recipes and HERE for my printable recipe cards.

Lemon Marmalade & Free Lable

I feel like the Bubba Gump of Lemons as I find new recipes 

to make things out of all our lemons.  Today's recipe features

Lemon Marmalade...and boy is it tasty! Almost like a tart 

apple flavor.

I found two different lemon marmalade recipes Here,

and ended up using this one  HERE

I'm the type of person that likes to know the WHY of 

things and when the recipe said to wrap up the seeds and 

membranes in cheese cloth and boil it with the cut lemons 

I had to know WHY.  The why of it is that the pectin is in the 

seeds and it helps the jelly set up.

In the recipe they used Meyer lemons I just used regular lemons

I guess they are regular I have no idea what type they are I just

know they're not Meyer.  They have a thick skin on them so

I tried very hard to slice as thinly as possible and cut off any

parts that were too thick near the ends.

I never quite reached the temperature it said, but I

did do the wrinkle test as suggested in the recipe link 

above and it worked just fine.   I also added 1-2 tsps of 

cinnamon while it was cooking down.I tasted it first and 

decided it was missing a little something so add to

your taste.  I also added 3 tsps of vanilla at the end.

The marmalade got a little darker then I was expecting.  

I guess I thought it would stay bright yellow. It didn't help

that I had to step away for a moment and wasn't able to 

stir it constantly (I recommend staying) I noticed no 

change in the flavor so it was none the worse for wear.

Freebie Lemon Marmalade Label

Click the image, right click and save to your computer.

Resize to the desired size you'd like print, punch a hole

and tie a ribbon to it and the jar or use elastic ribbon.

Lemon..Lemon..Yellow..Yellow...

I love lemon flavor....not eating them directly *shudder* but a nice tart lemon flavor is tasty to me.  This year we have an abundance of lemons on our lemon tree, since we pruned the heck out of it last year it went wild and produced a ton of lemons.  Problem is what to do with them all...I'd love to have lemons year round, so I've been searching for different ways to keep the lemons to be able to use them aside from squeezing them and freezing the juice.  In my search I came across a tasty lemon crinkle cookie recipe from Whipperberry.com  that I baked today.  I must tell you they are very easy to make and very delicious. I added extra lemon juice and zest and I traded a cup of regular flour for whole wheat flour after I had doubled the recipe. Unfortunately, they did nothing to put a dent in my bumper crop of lemons.  I did come across some interesting recipes...Preserved lemons anyone? Over at Foodgal.com she tells you all about them which in itself turns out to be somewhat of a science experiment. While there I also discovered Lemon Marmalade (YUM!).  Not sure about the perserved lemons though I am tempted to do at least 1 jar.  I'll be sure to let you know if I do preserve some.

White Lemon Tea Cake Recipe Card

I made a delicious White Lemon Tea Cake 

yesterday for my son and daughter in 

love. I was trying to use what I had in 

the house and this is what I came up 

with and I definitely will make it again.

Click the above printable recipe card

to enlarge, download and print out.

Click HERE to view other 

printable recipe cards.

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