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Lemon Gem Cupcakes

Lemon Gem Cupcakes

So what do you do when you are waiting for your cupcakes to cool?

Apparently I while away the hours filleting lemon peels with a sharp, sharp knife.

What? Why are you looking at me like that?

The recipe calls for a very tasty lemon glaze, but have had trouble in the past making those look good. You can’t go wrong with piped frosting, so I made a batch of the Lemon Buttercream from VCTOtW for these puppies. But then what? I wanted to use the lemon peel, and my crazy brain kept saying, “use the paper punch!”

It was such a bad idea, I had to try it. Of course, the paper punch was made for, you know, punching paper. The lemon peels had to be thinned a bit or else it wasn’t going to happen. So I filleted them.

Pretty huh? I cut the lemon in four quarters, and got four flowers out of each piece. It wasn’t even a large lemon! I’m definitely going to use this technique again, and I think it’ll work equally well for limes and oranges. Ooohh, the just think of the possibilities. I need to buy more paper punches, stat!

*edit*

Oh man, I should have candied the lemon peel flowers! Not only would you be able to eat them, but they’ll keep for 6 months - I could have made a whole batch of them! I realized I should have candied them last night while I was trying to fall asleep, but was reminded again this morning when I saw the cupcakes and my cute little flowers were all shriveled up. So sad!

11 comments December 26th, 2006

Chipotle, Corn, and Black Bean Stew

Chipotle, Corn, and Black Bean Stew

Here’s a modified version of VwaV’s Chipotle, Corn, and Black Bean Stew. We didn’t have potatoes (well, the ones we did were starting a potato farm in the bag) so I subbed some pasta. The shape of the pasta (chiocciole, also called lumache) turned out to be great - beans, corn, and some tomatoes would get stuck inside creating a fun little burst of veggie filled pasta.

I also added a bunch of baby spinach at the end to wilt into the soup once mixed. I think that this not only preserves the nutrients in the spinach since you’re not cooking them directly, but it also looks pretty for serving. We almost always have a package of baby spinach sitting in the fridge, so we throw it into a lot of the things we make.

It’s almost as if we make soups and stews as an excuse to have Jessica’s Brick Oven sourdough round. We discovered this bread at our local food co-op one day, and it’s quickly become our favorite. I’m not exactly sure where else Jessica’s breads are sold, but if you see them, do bring home a loaf. You won’t be disappointed!

I think I’m going to make a sourdough starter and see if I can convert the No Knead Bread recipe to use a sponge instead of commercial rapid rise yeast. As good as Jessica’s is, I’d love to be able to make a loaf of sourdough at home with the ease of the No Knead recipe.

1 comment December 26th, 2006