Lemon Poppyseed and Snowstorms

A food blog, good call R1. This combines my two top passions: reading and eating, how lovely. In an effort to add some colour to the blog I am including a picture of the lemon loaf I made yesterday. I made this loaf to accompany the nachos and meatballs served during the Flames game yesterday evening. I needed to find a sweet treat to make without chocolate.. this is rare for me but one of the fans in attendance at the Campbell-dome last night does not like chocolate (I know strange and suspect..however, we will leave my thoughts about non-chocolate-likers for another time.). I adapted this from a recipe I found after a google search and then fiddled with for my own liking. At this point I realize that fellow Reems' are aghast, wondering why I didn't first consult our dessert recipe guru Rose Reisman? Well be reassured that I have in fact made Rose's lemon poppyseed loaf in the past, and while tasty, it requires cream cheese, something I did not have on-hand.

While non-food related, you will see from the picture of the littlest grublet, taken an hour ago, (on APRIL 18th !!!) why I am suddenly becoming more at peace with the idea of moving back to BC...OK, enough rambling, here she is:

Lemon Tea Cake with Honey Glaze

First combine:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup veg oil OR melted butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup milk plus a dollop of yogurt - with all the lemon juice in the recipe you could skip the yogurt. I added slightly more than 1 cup of milk because I decreased the fat content slightly from the original recipe)

Next add:
21/2 cup flour (I used white although the original recipe calls for whole wheat)
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp poppy seeds (optional, not in original recipe but I like the look)

Mix and then bake at 350 degrees for aprox 50 min in a reg size loaf pan. While still warm pierce with a wooden skewer or toothpick and top with glaze.

Glaze
Combine and microwave for aprox one minute:
1/4 cup lemon juice (I used up my one lemon for the loaf portion of the recipe, I substituted lemon from a bottle and it still tasted good).
2 T honey
1 T sugar (I will probably skip the sugar next time and just use honey).

Before signing off I must pay homage to an amazing "koek" baker who is turning 86 years old today. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Enjoy!

A Vision of Beans

Let us begin with a toast. Raise your cup of tea or diluted cranberry juice (Reems drinks of choice) and join me in toasting the success of this blog, our recipes, our future meals, our extraordinary capacity for savouring the pleasures of food. "To Reems Eats!"

Recently, R2 confessed that she was struggling to increase the bean intake on Lampson Street. Brent wanted more legumes and less cans. What followed was a very unbeanerific experience, involving dried beans and an inadaquate soak. I'm fuzzy on the story but R2 can supply the details. Anyhow, it is with the Lampson Crew in mind that I provide this recipe for Bean Cookies, modified from Julie Von Rosendaal's Grazing Cookbook.

Bean Cookies
2 cup oats
-- Mulch in a food processor

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 salt
--Add to oats and whiz in processor. Transfer to a large bowl.

1 14oz can white kidney, navy, or cannellini beans rinsed and drained
--Pulse in food processor.

1/4 cup butter or margarine softened
--Add to beans. Pulse.

3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
--Add to bean mixture and pulse on. Pour bean mixture and stir by hand until just combined. Do not over mix!

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4-1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
Add some variation of the above goodies to the batter and stir until JUST blended.

When you drop the cookies, be sure to flatten them a bit with your hand as they are a hearty cookie and won't spread on their own.

Bake at 325 for 14-16 minute. They should be set around the edges but still soft in the middle when you take them out.

I'm thinking of trying to cut the sugar to 1/2 a cup and then adding 2 TBsp corn syrup to the wet once it comes out of the food processor. A lot of Rosendaal's other recipes use corn syrup and it seems to moisten up the cookies and make them chewier.