Currently...

I'm still trying to get back in a blogging mood, so I thought I'd borrow something from my friend Anandi.  Back at the beginning of last week, she posted a list of things currently going on in her life.  The idea originally comes from Kristin, who decided to do this as a series on her blog this year.  I figured it would be worth a try, to give me prompts to write about.  So here goes...

Watching:  HOCKEY!!!  I'm so happy that hockey is finally back.  We really need to make plans to attend another live Texas Stars game, too.  We got a bit of "divorce hockey" today.  My husband's Flyers played my Sabres.  I need to get more familiar with the players again--I kind of wish I was playing fantasy hockey this year, since that forces me to pay more attention.

Reading:  Assorted things, including the new cookbooks I got for Christmas.  Today it was the one pictured up top, Cook Illustrated's The Science of Good Cooking.  Many of the recipes are familiar from the other CI volumes that I own as well as the website.  One of the things that I love most about CI is their explanation of their testing methods and the science behind the recipes they come up with, so this book is right up my alley.

Listening:  Another Christmas gift, Maroon 5's Overexposed.  Yes, it's been out for months, but I didn't buy it because I've been trying to leave stuff on my wish-list for J to buy. =)  He said he would have gotten it for me sooner but he had to order the non-explicit version since he knew the girls would want to listen to it in the car with me.

Making:  Lots of stuff, the past couple of days!  Which is a refreshing change, since I've been feeling kind of stuck with baking as well as blogging lately.  Today's dessert was chocolate mousse, again pictured up top.  I also made an impulse buy at Central Market this morning and picked up a carton of blood orange juice.  I've already made David Lebovitz's orange caramel sauce with it, and will have to see what else I can use it in.  I've also mixed up the starter to make these Asiago Bagels from KAF tomorrow.

Feeling:  Pretty good.  The main thing that I'm focused on right now is the Cultivating Courage course that started last week.  When I took it back in October, it was every day for 30 days, including weekends, and I liked the continuity of that.  This time, it appears to be just Monday through Friday.  I was initially disappointed by that, but having a break from new activities over the weekend allowed me to catch up on reading what others in the class have been up to.  And I can still do new brave moves on my own if I want.

Planning:  Cake, cupcakes and the meal for Brianna's birthday on Friday.  She's going to be 10--how is that possible?!  I'm glad that we have the day off tomorrow (me from work and the girls from school).  That will give me some more time to prep things so the end of the week won't be quite so crazy.  For school, she's requested chocolate cupcakes topped with swirled chocolate and vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  For the cake at home, she wants chocolate mousse cake.  I made one for Christmas that was chocolate sponge cake layered with chocolate mousse and coated with poured ganache.  She liked it so much that she asked me to make another one.  I wasn't thrilled with the mousse I made last time, so today's dessert was due to me test-driving an different recipe.

Loving:  This great necklace that I ordered from Anandi with my One Little Word for this year.  There's still a post coming with my reasons for picking that word and how I hope it will shape my year.  After last year's focus cake, I want to make another baked good to feature this word.  I'm still trying to decide what to make.

Okay, that's my list for right now.  I'm not sure if this will become a weekly activity or if it will be less often, but I think it will be a good way to help me work through some of my blogger's block. =)

Citrus Sunday - Triple Citrus Bars

I've mentioned before that I love cooking magazines.  It was such a revelation the first time I ever read one (thanks to my wonderful husband who thought it would give me something to do while I was wiped out by the flu 13 years ago).  There are so many enticing new recipes in every issue!  Lots are seasonally appropriate, so sometimes I'm inspired to drop what I'm doing and make a new recipe right away.  That happened with the July/August 2006 issue of Cook's Illustrated.  Amazing that I remember that almost 6 years ago, isn't it?  The recipe that grabbed my attention was for Key Lime Bars.  I immediately made a double batch to take to a 4th of July potluck.  They were a huge hit and several people asked for the recipe.  I made the bars several times shortly after that, but as often happens, I got sidetracked by new recipes after that and have only made them maybe once or twice since then.

When I was trying to come up with a good citrus recipe for my blog event, I considered several ideas.  I even made an orange & vanilla bundt cake that turned out pretty good, but just wasn't quite what I was looking for.  I'm always short on time and frequently indecisive as well, so it really isn't surprising that I was sitting here yesterday (yay for a Saturday off!) still trying to decide what to make.  I turned to Eat Your Books to see what I could find on my bookshelves.  I bought some limes when we were shopping Friday night (to add to the lemons, tangerines & tangelos already in the fridge), so I started off searching that.  Nothing jumped out and grabbed me, so I thought to try searching for "citrus" instead.  Bingo!

Triple Citrus Bars came up a couple times in the list--they're a variation on the Key Lime Bars, and can be found in the magazine (online) as well as in the new Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.  Instead of just lime juice and zest (you can use either key limes or regular Persian limes), you use lemon and orange juice and zest as well.  The zests are used in equal amounts (1 1/2 teaspoons of each), but most of the juice is lime, with just a tablespoon each of lemon and orange.  I actually used tangelo zest and juice instead of orange, since that's what I had.

Rather than graham crackers, the crust is made with animal crackers.  They are pulsed in the food processor along with some brown sugar and a bit of salt and then melted butter is added to bind everything together.  This recipe gave me a change to use a new baking pan that I bought myself for my birthday--a Fat Daddio's 8" square baking pan.  (I love my Pyrex baking pans, but they don't work well for everything.)  The crust is baked for 18-20 minutes, which allows enough time to mix up the filling.  The filling consists of cream cheese, the zests, a bit of salt, sweetened condensed milk, an egg yolk, and the citrus juices.  Once the crust is baked and cooled for a few minutes, the filling is added and the bars are baked for another 15-20 minutes.  The bars are allowed to cool to room temperature, then are refrigerated for at least a couple hours.

The verdict?  These aren't quite as tart as the straight lime ones, but I like the flavor that the mix of fruits brings to the bars.  As the test kitchen cooks determined, the addition of the cream cheese and egg yolk helps firm up the filling so that it can be cut into neat bars.  I'm definitely not going to let so much time pass before I make these bars again.

If you'd like to try the recipe, you can find it here on the Cook's Illustrated website, or in the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.  And be sure to check out all the other yummy citrus recipes that my blogging friends have made!  If you'd like to join us in the future, leave a comment or email me at diskitchennotebook at gmail dot com, and I'll add you to my email list.

Citrus Sunday

It's Citrus Sunday!  Meaning that it's time for our next seasonal blog event.  Last summer, I decided that we had so much fun with our Cookie Exchange that I'd like to host blog events more than once a year.  I know that my blogging friends are busy, though, so I didn't want it to be too often.  Seasonally--roughly four times a year plus the holiday cookies--seemed just about right.  For summer, we had ice cream and other frozen treats, then for fall we had loaves of all kinds.  (And of course we had another cookie exchange.)  That brings us to winter.  Now I know that we're just a handful of days away from spring, so I wanted a theme that would be a good transition from one season to the other.  Citrus fruits seemed like the perfect way to do it, since they're in season in winter, but make everyone think of spring.  There are so many great variations to choose from--I can't wait to see what everyone has come up with!

I decided to try something new this time.  My friend Nancy had the great suggestion to add a linky to this main blog event post.  That way everyone can leave their links so we can all check them out (especially since my life is crazy as always and I don't know how soon I'll find time to do a round-up).  I know that not everyone will have his or her blog post done today, so I'm allowing submissions for the next two weeks.  Enjoy!

12 Days of Cookies - Day 2 - Lime Snowballs

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...  Unfortunately, powdered sugar snow is as close as I'm going to get here in central Texas.  It's supposed to get into the 30s tonight (Tuesday) and almost down to freezing tomorrow night (Wednesday), but snow is a rarity.  While we've had a couple of ice storms, the last time we had appreciable snowfall was in early 2004.  I actually remember it quite well--it was a Saturday, Valentine's Day, and Brianna was a little over a year old...

Unfortunately, she was too little to remember it.  But I can show her the photographic evidence.  Gillian, on the other hand, hasn't seen real snow at all.  Who knows, maybe this winter...

So not much chance of snow, but I do have these yummy Lime Snowballs.  They're my second pick for the 12 Days of Cookies.  In appearance they remind me of a family favorite from this time of year.  We call them nut balls, but most people know them as Mexican wedding cookies or Russian tea cakes.  They're my dad's favorite--we'd have to hide them from him so he wouldn't eat them all too quickly.  The favorite hiding place was to stick the cookie tins in the dryer (when it was not in use).  He never thought to look in there.  =)  These cookies have the same powdered sugar exterior, but no nuts.  And they're flavored with a triple dose of lime--zest, juice and oil.

I had to go looking for the lime oil (found this nifty variety pack at Sur la Table), but the rest of the ingredient list is straightforward.  Besides the three lime components, there's only flour, cornstarch, unsalted butter and powdered sugar.  I thought it was a bit odd that there was no salt in the recipe, so I added about 1/4 teaspoon.  Once the dough was mixed, I used my #70 disher to scoop out balls of it and put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  (That scoop was just about right--I ended up with 35 cookies.)  I baked them for 22 minutes, at which point they were browning around the edges.  I let the cookies cool on the pan for a couple minutes, then transferred them to a rack.  The recipe says to just sift powdered sugar over them, but I didn't quite follow those directions.  While the cookies were still warm, I rolled them (gently) in powdered sugar so they were thoroughly coated.  Then once I had coated them all, I dusted powdered sugar over them as well.

The verdict?  Yeah, there's no doubt there's lime in these. =)  I like them a lot.  So does Brianna--yay, another hit!  They have a great buttery, melt in your mouth texture.  I took a bunch to the daycare Tuesday morning so I wouldn't eat them all myself.  I dropped them off at the front office, then took Gillian to her classroom.  By the time I returned to the front of the building, a couple of the teachers had already sampled them and decided they were wonderful.  By the time this 12 days is over, they're either going to love me or hate me.  =)  Might have to find some other places to share cookies.  I'll definitely be making these again, and hey, I can make lemon and orange ones, too, since I have those oils as well.

If you'd like to make a batch for yourself, you can find the recipe here.

And be sure to check out the other bakers participating in the 12 Days of Cookies to see what they've baked up for today!

Andrea of Andrea's Recipes

(honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Michelle of Big Black Dog

RJ of Flamingo Musings

Sandy of At the Baker's Bench

Tiffany of The Nesting Project