I have tried two Lemon Chiffon Pie recipes in the past week.  One of the recipes I would consider "Quick and Easy", the other is a little more time consuming (or shall we say more gourmet!).

The first recipe I tried last week, and I must say the first pie I made, was not quite lemony tasting so I have adjusted my recipe accordingly when I made the recipe a second time.

Lemon Chiffon Pie - gourmet style!








1               Refrigerated Pie Crust
3 t             unflavored gelatin
2 T            water
3/4 c          granulated sugar, divided
1/2 c          lemon juice
1/2 t           lemon zest
1/4 t           salt
2                eggs, separated
1 c             heavy whipping cream, whipped
1 oz.          semi-sweet chocolate
1 t              butter  

In a mixing bowl; using an electric mixer, whip cream until it becomes thick.

Use an 8 or 9 inch pie pan, a metal/aluminum pan actually works best.  Place crust into pie pan.  Bake pie crust as directed, and allow to cool.  While crust is baking, place water into a saucepan and sprinkle gelatin over water; let stand for 1 minute.  Heat over low heat stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved.  Stir in 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt.  Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat.

Whip egg yolks, then stir a small amount of hot filling into egg yolks; return all to pan, stirring constantly.  Cook and stir over low heat for 3 minutes or until mixture is slightly thickened and a thermometer reaches 160 degrees (DO NOT allow to boil).   Cover and refrigerate for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a small heavy saucepan, combine egg whites and remaining sugar over low heat.  With a wire whisk (or electric mixer) whip/beat mixture briskly/(or low speed if using electric mixer) until mixture reaches 160 degrees.   Remove from heat.  Beat on high until stiff peaks form.  Fold into lemon mixture; gently fold in whipped cream.

In a microwave, melt chocolate and butter; stir until smooth.

Spoon a third of the lemon mixture into a pie shell; drizzle with half of chocolate mixture.  Repeat layers.  Top with remaining lemon mixture.

Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until set.
This recipe will serve 4 to 8, depending on how you like to cut your pies!

Lemon Chiffon Pie - "Quick and Easy" recipe

1 box        Krusteaz Lemon Bar Mix
2 c            heavy whipping cream
1-2 drops  yellow food color (optional)

1.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.   Press full pouch or complete crust firmly into bottom of 8 - 9 inch lightly greased pie pan.
3.   Bake 15 minutes.
4.   Let cool completely.
5.   Place whipping cream, full pouch of filling mix and food color in large bowl.
6.   Using an electric mixer, mix on high speed until mixture is thick.
7.   Spoon mixture into baked pie shell and chill 2-3 hours or overnight.
8.   Optional: garnish with lemon zest and pipe whip topping around the edge of pie, drizzle with chocolate.  Or, pipe whip topping around the edge of pie and place raspberries around whip topping edge and drizzle with chocolate!  So, Licious!!!!
9.   Slice into 4-8 servings; depending on how small/large you like your pie slices.
10. ENJOY!!!

 

In my sidebar each week I am hoping I will have adventured upon a new eating establishment or new menu item, that my taste buds had not previously had the privilege to consider "So Licious".

That being said, we did not eat out or indulge in anything other than what we made at home this week, so my sidebar will stay the same until such time.

However, I did try my hand at making my own version of AJ's Grilled Cheese and Bacon Pizza!!

I had some Amazing Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough left over from my adventures with the campers on Monday afternoon at A1C Camp!  I also had sauce and cheese left over.  In the meat compartment of our refrigerator we also had 8 slices of Oscar Mayer regular cut bacon that needed to be eaten.

What was once left-overs and slim pick'ins on their own would now make a whole meal!  YUMMMM!

Step #1 - Fry Bacon!

Crispy bacon is what you are wanting in order for it to crumble well!

Step #2 - Mix 3 different cheese blends together in a mixing bowl

I used about 2 cups of shredded mozzarella, 

1/2 cup of this Kraft Shredded Parmesan, Romano and Asiago Cheese,

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar.  

Mix together until well blended.

Step #3 - Roll out already made Amazing Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough

               (This recipe can be found under the Blog Archive, which is in the right-top side bar.

                   click on 2008, then click on June, then click on The Frazzled Female.  

                   The pizza sauce recipe can be found in this blog post as well!)

Roll out onto pizza pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Roll out so that dough hangs over the edge of the pizza pan.

Note: dough thickness can be as thin or thick as is preferred by your family.

Once dough is completely rolled out and hanging over the edge on all sides,

gently roll dough back up onto pizza pan (just to the edge) 

so that it creates a lip to hold your sauce onto the crust.

So it should look something like this!

Allow crust to sit for 15 minutes if you like a thicker crust,

if not add bacon and cheese immediately.

Step #4 - Spread pizza sauce on to uncooked crust

Start with a "blop" of sauce

 (Yes, that is the technical cooking term I am going to use).

Next, start spreading your "blop" out in a circular pattern adding more "blops" of sauce as needed.

Remember, the more sauce you use the soggier your crust will turn out.

I use the "less is best" rule since we like thin and crispy crust!

Step #5 - Add just a handful or two of cheese mixture, spread evenly over the sauce,

                   before placing your bacon on top of the sauce.  

                   Note: This is a good technique to use for any type of pizza.  

                   This will allow the toppings to stick to the crust.

Step #6 - Add bacon, crumbling the pieces as you put them on top of the sauce.

                  (I used 8 strips of fried, crispy bacon.  You may use as much or less as you prefer.)

Step #7 - Spread remaining cheese mixture evenly over the dough, sauce and bacon.

Step #8 - Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 16-20 minutes, checking at the minimum time,

                  pizza should be golden on top.

Allow to cool for about 5-7 minutes.

Slice and enjoy!!

I have a really dear friend that is hosting her annual A1C Camp next week.  She has 30 campers that will be in attendance, ranging in age from about 5 to 18.  She was needing a little help with an activity for Monday.  I checked my calendar, saw I would be available to help, then asked myself how I could help my friend and her 30 campers.

After a little pondering whether I would do a craft or what exactly, with the 30 campers, I thought about some recipes that I have come up with in the past.  Recipes that have been liked by not only my own family but others we have invited over to share a meal, or that I have made at one of our summer Bible studies.  A recipe would be the activity I decided.  Now, what would be inexpensive, fun, and a healthy snack alternative for these campers?  A healthy snack alternative packed with more protein and fiber than carbs?  Also a healthy before ball practice, after school or summer snack that could be pre-cooked, placed in the freezer and then taken out and popped in the microwave.   The gears were turning!  How about my Amazing Greek Pizza with homemade pizza sauce and my whole wheat pizza crust?!?!?  Yeah!  That's it!

Then I had another idea, DING!  My friend had talked about having someone come later in the week to  teach the campers how to juggle.  They were going to give the students a set of their very own juggling balls to take home with them that day.  What could I have for the campers to take home?  I know!
I usually put sun-dried tomatoes on my Amazing Greek Pizza.  How about if I tried my hand at sun-drying some tomatoes and we use those on our pizzas, then have a tomato plant for each camper to take home?!?!?  The goal: for the campers to invest time and energy into growing their own tomatoes, and in turn take an interest, and learn how to enjoy the different flavors of vegetables!

Extra bonus too, let me tell you about this!  We refinished our wood floors this month.  This prompted me to clean out any extra things in closets, the house, my two areas in the garage, etc.  Or as another friend of mine said today, "purge" these areas that we need to reclaim as open areas not to be refilled by "stuff"!  I liked the use of her word, "purge".  Webster's defines purge - to rid of something that is unwanted.  I must say some of those things I "purged" from our home weren't necessarily unwanted they were just items needing to be gotten rid of.  As I was in the garage purging my area of items, I kept noticing that my husband had acquired a large quantity of 5 gallon and 1 gallon buckets.  I decided we needed to "purge" some of these from our garage.  I will use the word "purge" for these because they were "unwanted" by me.  I would give each camper there very own tomato plant to plant in their very own 5 gallon bucket!!!  Yes, believe it or not, there were enough 5 gallon buckets for 30 campers, and then some!!!  Can I get a "hoarders" from anyone!!!!

Okay, back to my homemade sun-dried tomatoes.  I found a recipe on the internet that I will share with you: http://litu.dlife.com/diabetes/diabetic-recipes/recipeDetailPrint.html?id=7855 and I made my very own oven-dried tomatoes!  I have to tell you though, this process took way longer than the recipe said, probably because I changed things just a little.  I had a little over 2 lbs. worth of Roma Tomatoes, I added olive oil in the bottom of my baking dish, and I roasted them in my roaster oven so I had added water to the bottom of it.  Took almost 10 hours to get these to the dried perfection I wanted.

Here are some pictures and the steps involved:

Step 1:  Wash tomatoes.

2 lbs. of Roma Tomatoes or your choice of tomato variety.

Step 2:  Remove tomato stem. 

Step 3: Slice tomatoes in half, length-wise.

Step 4: Sprinkle with sea salt and place on paper towels skin side up.

Step 5:  Press or chop, finely 2 cloves of garlic.

Step 6: Place a thin layer of olive oil in  the bottom of a cookie sheet or   9x13 baking pan.
(do not use a cooking stone)

Pressed Garlic

Step 7: Place tomatoes on cookie sheet or baking pan
 that has a thin coat of olive oil in the bottom, skin side down.

Step 8: Sprinkle sea salt generously onto tomato halves.
 Next, using a spoon place pressed garlic on the top of each tomato half.

Step 9:  Bake in oven or roaster oven.
 (I cooked mine in this roaster oven on our patio.)

Cook in oven/roaster oven, on 300 degrees, for 6 hours.

Beginning of cooking time.

Step 10:  Finished Product!
Store in air tight container in the refrigerator up to 1 week.
Store in air tight container in freezer up to 3 months.
Use in any recipe that calls for tomatoes!

Musician and I have been busy getting her demonstration speech on video and emailed to her instructor!! Technology is great when it works!!!

I was able to borrow this really cool little video camera from the school, the camera isn't any bigger than an actual small digital camera that takes pictures. That was just a big challenging because I didn't think to bring the manual home with me and we were having trouble with the card lock being on and not being able to turn it off. Musician had a fabulous idea, sometimes she can be such a great problem solver. She got to thinking that the picture card in her own digital camera was about the same size, so she got it out and looked, and sure enough!!! So then she put her card in the video camera, and no problem! We were able to video!!

Next step was me filming her as she was doing her demonstration speech. However, then after we were done, we weren't really sure we got it on video, even though the camera told me it was recording. And, because she was doing a food demo and she had already mixed everything together, we were just really praying it was indeed on the card and at some point in time I would press the right button and we could watch what I had just recorded. Sure enough, I finally found the right button!!! Whahooo!!!

Next up, was loading on to the YouTube sight. That was amazing in itself as well. No wonder there is so many silly, and informative things on YouTube, it really is fairly easy.

Lastly, she just had to copy and paste the video link from YouTube to her instructor in an email, and that my friends is how college students in the year 2011 can take a speech class and receive full college credit, without having to stand in front of a huge group of students and be scared out of your whits. WOW! Wish I could have taken my speech class like this!!!

Okay, so now I am going to share this video with you of Musician making her famous Goolash!!

Last week was VBS (vacation bible school), I didn't get a whole lot of cooking done last week, after we moved the stove and fridge back into the kitchen. Two nights I did cook, but the rest of the time we ate out again. It wasn't until Monday that I started cooking, for real, again.

My recipes this week range from Stromboli to Lodi Apples.

Monday night we had what I call a smorgasbord: beanie-weanies, Stromboli (made by a friend and given to us during our kitchen renovation), home-made salsa, chips and salad. There were five of us eating, and I wasn't sure if I really had enough of one thing to feed us all. I needed to make the salsa because this was made from fresh tomatoes and I needed to get them used up before they went bad. Same thing for the weanies in the beans.

However, Tuesday night and tonight are nights of cooking that I really want to brag about!!! Last night I made lasagna. Okay, you might be saying, "What's so big about making lasagna?" Nothing really, only this lasagna ended up being yummy!!! I used the no boil lasagna noodles, Paul Neuman's spaghetti sauce (never had used it before, sorry I haven't ever tried it before now because it was great), ricotta, plain Greek yogurt, tomato-basil feta cheese, mozzarella, ground turkey, egg-plant, spinach and broccoli. I cut up the egg-plant in small pieces and combines this with the browned ground turkey and spaghetti sauce. Next, in a large bowl I combined 12 oz. of ricotta with about 1 cup plain Greek yogurt, an 8 oz. container of tomato-basil feta, and 1 egg. I mixed this altogether until it was well blended. Next I added chopped fresh spinach and broccoli to this mixture. Then I layered the lasagna with meat, noodle, ricotta mixture and then about a 1/2 cup mozzarella, and then repeat until I was through all the ingredients, making sure the last layer is mozzarella. You bake this covered for approximately
1 hour at 350 degrees. After lasagna is done baking, let stand 5 minutes before serving. Makes a 9 x 13 x 3 pan.

Tonight I made Olive Garden's Chicken and Gnocchi Soup. Sunday we went out to eat at Olive Garden, after church. Catfish'n ordered this for his meal. He liked it so much that he wanted to know if he thought I could make something like that. Those who know me and recipes, know that I immediately looked at it as a challenge!!! Actually, I got right on the computer when I got home and looked up the copy cat website for this recipe, and, low and behold I found it!!! So, I will share this with you all, and share how I changed the recipe.

Olive Garden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

1 cup chicken breasts, cooked and diced (you can use a rotisserie chicken)

4 T. butter

4 T. flour

1 quart half and half

1 - 14 oz. can chicken broth

1/2 c. celery, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 c. carrots, finely shredded

1 c. onion, finely diced

1 c. fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

1/2 t. thyme

1/2 t. parsley

Freshly grated parmesan cheese - optional

1 lb. potato gnocchi - (can buy this in the gourmet section of many supermarkets)

Saute the onion and garlic in the butter, when the onion becomes translucent, add the flour, and make a roux (a roux is a substance that is used to thicken soups), let the butter and flour mixture cook for about a minute before adding 1 quart of half and half. Cook gnocchi according to package directions. Into the roux add in the carrots, celery, and chicken. Once the mixture becomes thick add the chicken broth. Once the mixture thickens again, add the cooked gnocchi, spinach, and seasonings. Let cook for approximately 5 more minutes until heated through and ingredients are well blended. Top with fresh parmesan and enjoy!!!

Comments about this recipe: You can add more chicken if you like. While you could use left over cooked chicken breasts, using rotisserie chicken that can be found in many supermarkets is the best way to get the optimal flavor of this soup. If you want to make the soup lower in calories use milk instead of half and half. Half and half, does taste better, and it also reheats better than milk does.

Sonflower's comments about this recipe: I used chicken breasts. I diced the meat and then cooked them in the extra virgin olive oil on medium heat. The seasoning I put on the meat was garlic salt, paprika and black pepper. I cooked the chicken until it was not pink in the center. I used a 50/50 mixture of flour (half bleached flour and half whole wheat flour). I used 2% milk instead of half and half - decreasing the amount from 1 quart (4 cups) to 3 cups. I omitted the celery, but used minced onion instead of a fresh onion. I purchased whole wheat gnocchi, rather than white flour gnocchi. Catfish'n liked!!! That's all that mattered to me, and he said that my recipe was a keeper!!!

The apple pies were made because my folks had 5 extra pounds of Lodi apples they weren't going to use. So, I made 2 apple pies for dessert for tonight!!! Apparently, these are the types of apples my Grandma Virginia used to purchase from Reeses Fruit Farm to make her apple pies and applesauce. Lodi Apples originated in Italy in the 1600s.

I don't know if iced coffee and foaming soap have anything to do with Italy, but I just wanted to share these two things with you also.

A friend of mine had shared some iced coffee she made last week during VBS. It was sooooo good. She used a local coffee companies coffee beans that are hazelnut flavored(she has a brand new coffee maker that grinds the beans and then brews the coffee), and then she puts a cinnamon stick in the brewed coffee. Next, she adds a little milk and some Splenda, and WOW!!! it's almost like having dessert!!! I tried sort of the same thing tonight. I made coffee using a blend that another friend had given me for Christmas or something. It was the Ghirardelli blend Chocolate/Almond/Cinnamon. Oh yeah!!! This was almost as good!!!

This same friend has taught me how to make my own foaming soap too!!! All you need is an empty foaming soup container, your favorite soap in gel form and some distilled water. This is the recipe that my friend gave me:

2/3 c. distilled water

4 T. green tea + aloe (Method hand wash - purchased at HyVee)

warm the distilled water in microwave

(I actually boiled mine on the stove)

Then add the 4 tablespoons of hand soap

Stir gently - you don't want bubbles

Allow to sit for 5 minutes

Next, slowly pour into foaming soap bottle

Use this same recipe for any scent of gel hand soap you want - sweet pea, lavender, mango-peach. You name it, whatever scent of gel soap you can find, it will work!!!

Another little secret I am going to let you in on involves Greek yogurt!!! I remember Musician thinking a fruit selection at a restaurant in Paris was vanilla pudding and fruit, when in reality it was Greek yogurt and fruit. It was an odd flavor to us then, but now I really like it. My friend that brought me the iced coffee, and taught me the little secret with the foaming hand soap, also taught me this little secret. I have a favorite blueberry Greek yogurt that I like and can purchase at Dillons. However, it is a little pricey. My friend suggested that I use the plain Greek yogurt, add some fresh blueberries, and then use sugar free blueberry preserves.

I tried her idea this morning, and it was fabulous!!!

This week, the ladies of the church and their guests had a chance to try their hands at making bierocks and tamales.

Now, this combination at the same time might sound a little odd, but made and eaten at two seperate occassions might not be so bad!!

On Tuesday night Sherry and Ruthi opened up their home and showed us how to make bread dough and bierocks, and Thursday afternoon at Kim's I showed those in attendance how to make tamales.

I really don't know which was enjoyed the most, a great time of sharing food making skills, or, the fellowship!!!

Titus 2:3-5 says, "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

I believe this verse is not only one that our Women's Ministry at church uses as their basis for what and why we do the things we do within our ministry, but one that is actually modeled by the ladies within our church and lived out.

Every other month at church we try to do something different with the ladies - there has been spa night when we did pedicures and manicures, movie night when we have watched a movie on the projector screen in the fellowship hall at church, swimming at someone's house, game night in which we played different board games, the ladies tea, or just meeting at a local coffee house to enjoy some coffee and fellowship. And it's great to get different ladies involved in hosting these events at their homes or even at a local business.

It really is hard to get to know the ladies of the church more, relationally, in the casual passing on Sunday mornings during church, Sunday School and Sunday morning fellowship time. Or even in just a polite handshake and a "good-morning" when the pastor/leadership encourages us to say hello to our neighbors in the pews around us. Attending Women's Fellowship once a month is where the ladies of the church can get to know one another connecting a name with a face.

I love to see God's Word not only read, but lived out on a regular basis!!!